Xconomy.com - Seattle: You may not have already heard about the largest angel investment group in the world, but that's all about to chance. Enter stage right: "The Keiretsu Forum is the world’s largest angel community, with 750-plus accredited members across 18 chapters from Barcelona to Bellevue. Since 2000, its members have invested more than $180 million in 200 companies spanning technology, healthcare, consumer products, real estate, and other sectors." The exciting news for more local venture capital-seeking startups is the Seattle chapter of Keiretsu headed up by Todd Dean. Gregory T. Huang takes Dean's pulse of the Pacific Northwest angel/startup funding situation:

"As for his take on investing in the Northwest, Dean says, 'We’ve never lacked entrepreneurs, and never lacked capital. But there’s a huge disconnect between the two.' He points out that Keiretsu has been successful in the Northwest in part 'because of pulling deals from the Bay Area' and working together with other Seattle-area investors. For example, he points to Seattle-based Earth Class Mail, which raised a large Series A round ($13.3 million) in early 2008 from Keiretsu Forum members and Bellevue-based Ignition Partners." Working together doesn't sound all that bad now, does it? Look for a rousing rendition of "Kumbaya" to break out any moment or, if that's not what you had in mind, just read Todd Dean of Keiretsu Forum on Northwest Angel Investing Strategy for the rest of the story.

Heritage Foundation: "Strong intellectual property (IP) protections are especially important to economic recovery and growth--a critical consideration, given the current economic climate. Congress should remember that patents are, at base, property, and that moving intellectual property farther from the real property paradigm endangers American innovation." This from co-authors Honorable Thomas C. Feeney and Andrew M. Grossman in their deep-reaching piece on IP and patents entitled Patent Proposal Puts Property and Innovation at Risk. Feeney and Grossman offer a cogent "state of affairs" look at the current situation of IP/patents and then offer up a short list of points to help guide policy with this introductory statement: "The Senate should take the following steps to maintain the strong property-rights paradigm that underlies the U.S. patent system, encourage innovation, and discourage endless legal maneuvering..." Be sure to click on through and see what this dynamic duo think will get innovation and intellectual property back on track.

The Guardian: Google's Sergey Brin recently shared his thoughts on how and why Google remains on top of the innovation company list even though the company is no longer small and new. From Secrets of a nimble giant by Jemima Kiss, offers this explanation for the search engine's continued success: "It's important for people to realise that you should benefit from the scale - if you're not benefiting then you're doing something wrong, and might as well break up into lots of little things. Instead of having our employees in large buildings, we could have several thousand houses each with a garage - there's nothing stopping us from doing that. But the fact is that as we scale, we should be able to take advantage of that. Look at how many colleagues can you talk about a specific issue with, and how can you take advantage of a piece of infrastructure that the company already has." Not to mention that Google's famous 80/20 innovation program allows its best and brightest to create new ideas and hone them in preparation for presentation and possible adaptation by higher ups. And a final closing quote on Brin's view of the "Eureka!" moment to help guide you in your creative efforts: "...[C]oming up with an idea is the least important part of creating something great. It has to be the right idea and have good taste, but the execution and delivery are what's key."

AP News via Google: President Obama's health care reform plans are growing legs and causing plenty of hand-wringing not only for insurance companies and health-care providers but also for small businesses. From Promises, Promises: Obama's health plan guarantee by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar come further insights into the potential troubles for employees and employers under the proposed changes to America's ailing health care program including what to make of Obama's assurance that "If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what."

MIT's Jonathan Gruber, a leading health economist, said Obama's promise shouldn't be taken as a sign that Americans will be able to keep indefinitely the same coverage they have now.

"With or without reform, that won't be true," said Gruber. "His point is that the government is not going to force you to give up what you have, but that's not to say other circumstances won't make that happen." He predicts only a small share of employers will drop coverage, and they will use the money they would have spent on premiums to give raises to their workers.

Health care reform is a hotly-debated issue and there are many interested parties sending swarms of fat-wallet lobbyists to the hallowed halls of Congress in an attempt to influence the outcome of the reform effort but one thing's for sure: things might get worse before they get better, but at least there's not far to fall should the bottom drop out of the health care system.

Steve Blank: How best to balance startup and family lives? A tricky question, indeed. In his topical post, Epitaph for an Entrepreneur, Steve Blank offers up the plan that he and his wife arrived at after the arrival of their 2 children. From this post, Blank outlines some of the highlights for us:

•This life isn’t practice for the next one. I started to realize that some of the older guys who I had admired as role models at work had feet of clay at home.  They had chose their company over family and had kids who felt abandoned by their dads for work – and some of these kids have turned out less than optimally. I met lots of other dads going through the "could-have, would-have, should-have" regrets and reflections of the tradeoffs they had made between fatherhood and company building.  Their regrets were lessons for me.
•What will your epitaph say? When our kids were babies I was still struggling to try to put the work/life balance in perspective.  Someone gave me a thought that I tried to live my live my life around.  He asked me, when you’re gone would you rather have your gravestone say, "He never missed a meeting." Or one that said, "He was a great father."  Holding my two kids on my lap, it was a pretty easy decision.

What are you doing to balance your separate lives and what will be written on your tombstone after you shuffle off the mortal coil? Worth thinking about, for sure...