Can Costa Rica Catch Up with Chile?

Last November, Costa Rica joined the global movement to unleash startups by celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). The response surprised its local champions. Costa Rica´s host, Yo Emprendedor, managed to get strong support from 28 key partners from across the private, public, NGO and education sectors—including the Ministry of the Economy, the largest media group in the country and angel investors.

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Hey, Are You Going to Pay for That?
A growing number of customers have apparently found a way around tighter economic times—pay late or just sometimes not at all. The latest Kauffman Firm Survey shows an alarming increase of young firms who claim their primary business challenge is customers paying late or simply not making payments—jumping from 2 percent in 2008 to 14 percent in 2010. That may not be as big of a problem for larger established firms, but for startups it can mean the difference between failure and survival. [More]

Building Startups in the Developing World
An increasing number of developing economies are turning to new firm formation in their efforts to reduce poverty and generate sustainable wealth. A new partnership between Startup Weekend and global humanitarian agency Mercy Corps will add to those efforts, expanding the access and impact of a proven model for business generation. [More]

This Week in Entrepreneurship Policy
A fairly slow week on Capitol Hill is punctuated by a Joint Economic Committee hearing on "How the Taxation of Labor and Transfer Payments Affect Growth and Employment." [More]

A Look Back at Innovation Daily
Each day, Innovation Daily checks the pulse of global innovation-- courtesy of Innovation America. Here, we take a look at a handful of relevant stories it compiled last week. [More]