With a holiday weekend here in the US, I find that there is a unique opportunity for our readers to slow down and reflect. So I wanted to share a couple of interesting start-up nuggets I bumped into this past week.

Long-time SMB Nation citizen Chip Reaves is always up to something!

There has been a very interesting conversation in the Brelsford house lately about start-ups. Dad (that’s me) is involved in a Big Data start-up in addition to owning SMB Nation (run day-to-day by the amazing Jenny).

By APC by Schneider Electric, BrandPost

So you’ve been charged with single-handedly building and maintaining the company’s entire IT infrastructure.  And the only thing smaller than your network closet is your budget. Don’t panic.  With a few smart purchases and good decisions, you can maximize resources, minimize costs, and keep IT operations running smoothly. Here’s how to tackle (or dodge) some of the toughest hardware and software challenges that lay ahead

By: Katherine S. Newman and Hella Winston

CANDIDATES from both parties have been talking a lot about the loss of American jobs, declining wages and the skyrocketing cost of college.

By ANITA RAGHAVAN

TenacityBeatsHighTech

A DriveU chauffeur. DriveU, which provides on-demand drivers for people with cars, gives its best full-time chauffeurs health insurance, something that is nearly unheard-of in India. Credit CJ Clarke for The New York Times 

BANGALORE, India — On a hot afternoon in a two-story house here, as dogs barked and auto-rickshaws sputtered outside, a venture capitalist grilled three entrepreneurs.

Hey there, Hi there, Ho there!

We need your support! In order to have a representative data set of the state of SMB compensation and activities, we need more participation. Think of this as Karma Dollars! You contribute your information (confidentially) and you benefit from seeing more rich results (literally). Think of it as crowd sourcing meets the sharing economy.

Harry here and be forewarned. I’m about to go intellectual on you. This is an interesting New York Times article about how entrepreneurial communities do and do no develop in non First World countries. Hint: It has to do with savings and capital.

Laura Doering was at a rest stop in Panama about five years ago, waiting for her bus to refuel, when she saw six vendors