Good morning, All,and so much for the peaceful Year of the Hare. Onward and forward.

Congratulations this week to Campbell McKellar (Founder & CEO, Loosecubes)
Loosecubesraised $1.2M funding and launched global network of shared workspaces that makes it easy to find a place to work, and is one of the Women 2.0 Female Founder Successes of 2010 (http://www.women2.org/2010-female-founder-startup-successes/). Campbell was also featured this week on the startuplist: http://startupli.st/post/2625979706/loosecubes. Great way to start the year!

Appy Awards early bird deadline January 14. Final deadline: January 28. The Appy Awards are all about acknowledging extraordinary Applications, whether they be mobile, social, or Web-based Apps living inside another Web site. The Appys do not discriminate by format, platform or device; instead, they focus on honoring the best Apps in a diverse range of categories, from Games and News, to Health & Fitness, Social Networking, Photography and many others. Enter your winning app today, or check out the complete list of categories to learn more about the Appys.(All entries received on or before 1/14/11 will save up to 20%.) http://bit.ly/fYzxpE

NYC BigApps Competition – January 26 is the deadline for entry
The NYC BigApps Competition will reward the developers of the most creative, best implemented, and impactful applications for delivering information from the City of New York’s NYC.gov Data Mine to interested users. Software developers will compete for $20,000 in cash, wide exposure for their work, and a meeting with the Mayor. Submissions may be any kind of software application, be it for the web, a personal computer, a mobile handheld device, SMS, or any software platform broadly available to the public. For more information and to enter: http://nycbigapps.com/challenges/81/

And don’t forget those other January deadlines coming up. Fast:
TechStars #Boston now accepting applications for class of Spring 2011 http://www.TechStars.org/schedule. You have until January 13 for the early application deadline. Deadline for all applications is January 31.

Adweb 3.0 San Francisco takes place on April 11, 2011 at 600 Townsend Ave., but early registration discount ($100 off the $299 rate) ends January 15. This includes all sessions, meals, the Awards and reception. (http://adweb30.com/register.html). Maxim Group Publisher Ben Madden (http://maxim.com) will keynote, as will Scott Kurnit, About.com founder and Chairman, CEO and founder of AdKeeper (http://adkeeper.com). For more information: http://adweb30.com

The Adobe/Motorola Video Contest. Motorola and Adobe are seeking original, inventive ideas to convey the exciting possibilities made possible with full web browsing on new mobile devices like the DROID smartphones by Motorola with Adobe® Flash® Player. There are two contests available with different briefs – one for an ad and another for a short film. So get your creative juices working and get filming. You can enter both contests with as many different videos as you like. Grand Prize: A trip to Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress. There will also be four runners-up prizes, and the deadline for entry is January 31. For more information: http://bit.ly/dLJQbO.

InSITE application deadline – January 21: http://insiteny.org. InSITE provides early stage companies with pro bono consulting services to help raise Seed or Series A financing. InSITE companies have raised over $215 million in venture funding since 2000. Beyond mentoring services, the program also provides networking opportunities, speaker events, and a final pitch event featuring our affiliated VC and Angel partners. More information can be found on the website.

Heads up, cofounder-seekers. For those of you who are looking for business/MBA cofounders, Digital Media MBAs will be getting together January 24 at Solas (232 East 9th) at 6.30. Yes, it is a networking event (as well) and we’ve heard from a number of you that you’re looking for business cofounders, so this promises to be a good opportunity for you and we will make as many personal introductions as time allows. Although it goes until 10pm, so we’ll find time. If possible. It’s free and register here: http://bit.ly/fJnGRN.

For those of you looking for technical cofounders, we haven’t forgotten you: the next Find A Cofounder will be in late February, and we will be inviting the Digital Media MBAs as well, so it promises to be something for everyone! We do try.

Now, a few of the articles we found that might be a good read for you this week:
Management Flubs Made by Rookie Bosses Entrepreneurs tend to start their own businesses in part to escape bad bosses, not to become one. That’s not always the case, according to this article, which shows some of the landmines to watch for. http://on.wsj.com/hUYX5Q

The Perils of Nice. Variations on a theme, this time taking a look at the non-profit sector, where people tend to be nice – but not competent. Lessons to be learned here, too, whether you’re a non-profit or not. http://bit.ly/bV0PmI

How Committed Are Your Investors? We all know how important it is to have the right people/advocates on your team. The super angel phenomenon is great for entrepreneurs as it gives them more choice and plugs them into investors with huge networks and data points because of all the deals they do. And I think it’s great for Limited Partners (the folks that give super angels their capital), because the super angels are building a well diversified portfolio with exposure to many companies, sectors, and in some cases geographies. But, what happens when things go wrong? Who’s got your back – and your bank account? http://bit.ly/hdF2GW

Grow revenues before seeking VC funding, or To VC or not to VC. A lot of good advice here, startups. And just things to keep in mind. http://reut.rs/gnMZ5M

Huh? What Exactly Is A Business Model (http://tcrn.ch/ec8f3D) from entrepreneur turned academic Vivek Wadhwa. Seven good points, although it’s more ‘how to build a model business,’ rather than a business model. Academics! Or is that semantics…Tomato, tomahto.

This site should also be on your radar: http://greatstartups.com/ – a good place to submit your startup and get some proverbial ink.

Just for laughs – and while there was nothing particularly funny in the feeds this past week, we remembered that it was time once again for the Annual Stella Awards. These are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S., named after Stella Liebeck. In1992, Stella, then 79, spilled a cup of McDonald’s coffee onto her lap – while driving – and burning herself. A New Mexico jury awarded her $2.9 million in damages, but that’s not the whole story. More information at stellaawards.com. But here are some top contenders for 2011: http://lumberjocks.com/topics/8344 Huh?

And speaking of people who need some help, yes, happy to report that help is on the way…