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New data coming out of New York is showing that the New York’s technology venture capital (VC) scene is growing at rapid rates. As “Tech VC King of the East”, New York still can’t compare to the tech champion that is California – however, its rapid growth in the last two years proves to be a significant item of thought. The image below, courtesy of CBinsights, shows how New York took over Massachusetts’ reign of technology VC in the East and how their numbers compare to California.

So what does this mean for us? Well, if you are looking into starting a tech company and were vying for a Silicon Valley launch, you may want to set your sights to New York as well. Apparently the VCs there are itching for some emerging technologies, and you could get lucky.

This year’s SXSW Convention, a nine day crossroads of music, film, technology and entrepreneurship, provided us with a great amount of information regarding emerging technologies and entrepreneurial knowledge. One great article we read over at Mashable gave a play by play of some great networking tips we thought we would share here at The Startup Garage.

• Research a Plan of Action – when networking, know your audience. This means the who, the whats, and the whys.
• Attend With an Open Mind – although easier to mingle with people of the same interest or industry, take advantage of the fact that an array of individuals attend conferences and can offer you a wealth of knowledge or introductions.
• Research Some Tech Lingo – if you are a new entrepreneur, chances are you haven’t gotten your feet wet with the jargon that comes along with the startup community. Do some research and know your information, or you will be quickly seen as an amateur.
• Set Up in Hot Spots – find out where people are cycling in and out most often and set up your base camp. Don’t be shy, talk to everyone you can!
• Leave Room for Spontaneity – maintain openness and availability when going to networking events. Too much planning could hinder your chances of new experiences and also cause you unnecessary stress.

Read the full article at Mashable.

A visually stunning online poster courtesy of Wrike.com/Tony Keller, breaks down just how much telecommuting affects businesses in the modern age. While working from home isn’t for everyone, it is a smart idea to keep it in mind depending on the needs and wants of your business.

According to recent national survey, the use of Apple iPads have quadrupled in the past year for small business use. With almost 75 percent of small business owners saying they are “somewhat familiar” with the iPad, it is safe to say that the product is one of the fastest developing products since its launch in 2010.

So why the huge surge of iPad use? Godfrey Phillips, VP of research at The Business Journals, says that, “research has shown that for small business owners, productivity and efficiency, which used to be the central benefits of technology, are now declining in importance compared to accessibility.” The accessibility he speaks of is the simple fact that owners can access their business information at any given time with the ease of the iPad.

While the full survey results on how iPad’s affect small businesses won’t be available til March 31, it is safe to say that the launch of the newest iPad 3 this last week  will spark new interest in the product across all target markets.

Read the full article over at TechFlash.

With Salesforce gaining speed and big exposure in the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) world, it is beginning to be met with opposition gearing towards the needs of small business. Created under the need of simplicity, a CRM system focused on small business owners named Stride goes into private beta today.

By eliminating complicated reports, the adding of contracts, and dealing with multiple salespeople, Stride focuses on the basics: deal-tracking and high-level metrics. So what does that mean exactly? Stride, in essence, will easily help you to track variables such as active deal value, average values, number of active deals, etc. It’s simple and visually appealing interface will create pie charts and graphs that will illustrate time and value and compare gains and losses.

With the products pricing beginning at FREE and going up to $7/month of unlimited deals alongside a soon-to-be integration with Quickbooks, Freshbooks, and Rapportive, this simple CRM machine might just become the annoying thumbtack stuck in Salesforce’s foot.

Read the full article over at TechCrunch.