We realize that some of you may be at the stage of looking for funding. You may have started out self-funded or bootstrapped. You may have asked friends and family to contribute to your venture. But you have have arrived at a place financially where you need more money infused into the business to expand your technology or grow the number of your employees. Angel Investors are a great place to start before going straight to Venture Capitalists.

Let's look at a few options you have, shall we?

• AngelList - Is a platform for startups to connect with angel investors. Here you can browse startups and investors. You can make your venture a profile and network with others. This is a national scale service and is a great place to look for future connections.
• Gust - Gust provides the global platform for the sourcing and management of early-stage investments. Gust enables skilled entrepreneurs to collaborate with the smartest investors by virtually supporting all aspects of the investment relationship, from initial…

I am always on a quest to find interesting articles and stories about startups or that will help startups. I would like to mention two of them today.

• Nibletz - This site is "The Voice of Startups Everywhere Else". They live up to that claim by focusing on startups that only exist outside of the Silicon Valley. If you are looking to hear about startups and ventures that may be inspiration, potential competition or just other interesting ventures, this place is a great bet.
• YFS Magazine - YFS stands for "Young Fabulous & Self-employed". They pitch themselves as "where entrepreneurship and pop culture collide". Based on my time using the site so far, I would say they make good on that claim.

Hopefully you will find these sites to be great resources for inspiration if nothing more. I am always on the hunt for interesting websites about startups and entreprenuers, so watch for more to be posted as I discover them.

We've all heard at some point efficiency is key, and it really is. What is less clear is how to achieve personal or team wide efficiency. I've collected a small handful of web based apps that I have used over the last several years to help me be productive. I am not saying these are the best web apps out there, but based on my previous usage they are robust and useful applications. Most of them are free or have free plans to try out before committing to a service you are unfamiliar with using.

Each app that I will describe below has its own merits and some may have a bit of overlap. Keep in mind, you are the expert when it comes to knowing what works for you and your venture.

• Thought Boxes - Cost: Basic Account - Free / Super Account - $3/month - This application is great for keeping track of your thoughts. You can easily structure to-do lists, checklists, or just keep a running tab on your ideas and inspiration. It can be used for keeping track of a project as well, however, it may not be the most robust…

If you have ever wondered to yourself how limiting a keyboard or a mouse can be, perhaps you should give Makey Makey a chance. It is an input kit that can help make everyone a creator or inventor. You can basically turn any object into part of your controller. The object resembles a regular Nintendo controller (think back to NES).

This is a perfect gift for any of the following: Artist, Developer, Maker or just someone with an imagination that loves retro video games. I recommend checking out their website before you buy one, because you might just want one yourself.

I think this could also be used in conjunction with a Raspberry Pi computer for some really interesting mash-ups. The great thing is both are low cost and yet could create something wonderfully useful, or at the very least inspiring to others.