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DonorsChoose.org didn't attract 250,000 donors and $30 million dollars to fund 60,000 classroom projects by relying solely on their good will alone. At Fast Company's Innovation Uncensored 2011, founder Charles Best shared how he's partnered with a wide variety of corporations to make Donors Choose as tempting as fatty snacks. Go to Starbucks and log in to the Wi-Fi.

"Oh, great! Another cupcake shop!" I hear these words as soon as I step onto M Street, the posh, townhouse-lined retail thoroughfare in Washington, D.C., and most lately the raging epicenter of the great American cupcake pandemic. I'm standing in front of an outpost of Sprinkles, a California cupcake chain that joined the fray just the week before.

"Oh, great! Another cupcake shop!" I hear these words as soon as I step onto M Street, the posh, townhouse-lined retail thoroughfare in Washington, D.C., and most lately the raging epicenter of the great American cupcake pandemic.

01 / Groupon > > For integrating web and the real-world shopping experience, changing consumer behavior, democratizing small businesses, and spawning an entire new category. The fastest-growing company in Web history, Groupon's flash deal site marries cents-off coupons to a Friday-after-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy. The company broke into the black just seven months after inception; globally, more than 500 copycat sites have already sprung up.

Deepak Chandrasekar gets his eye examined by internist Seema Sangwan (on screen). Nurse Xenia Khesin assists.

Each day, Inc.'s reporters scour the Web for the most important and interesting news to entrepreneurs.

Ramon Ray, journalist and editor at Smallbiztechnology.com , sums it up perfectly: "Small businesses can do BIG things using low-cost technology and readily available expertise." It doesn't matter if you're running a business out of your home, the local Starbucks (free Internet), or an abandoned warehouse, if you have the right tools to reel in a large consumer base, it's not necessarily important how small your business is because it's doing big things.

"What our clients are struggling with is: How big a deal are social media and location-based services, and how much of it is just sound and fury?" says a senior VP of Applied Predictive Technologies, which runs data analytics for Starbucks and Subway. "You've got your Groupon and Living Social , and your Foursquare and Facebook Places," says Jonathan Marek. "What our clients are struggling with is: How big a deal are social media and location-based services, and how much of it is just sound and fury?" That's the question on the mind of most every marketer and retailer--and Marek might finally have an answer

No, you don't have to tell me, because I know what you're about to say: your new product is brilliant. It's a game-changer. Problem is, you need a killer logo.

Each day, Inc.'s reporters scour the Web for the most important and interesting news to entrepreneurs.

The New Consumers are here. They're youthful, wired, educated and mostly female--and they’re just as concerned with practical values like price, quality and convenience as they are with do-gooder values like local, organic and fair trade. These shoppers make up 30% of the U.S

America, they say, is the land of second chances. No one knows this better than our readers, many of whom have started businesses and failed. True entrepreneurs never leave it at that, however

When my wife and I saw the ad for a small, lemon-yellow cottage, we immediately knew we wanted that house. It was in Toronto's Beaches community. Newly married and without kids, we envisioned going for long walks on the beach and then retreating to our cottage abode

When you hear the name Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Jr., the first thing that comes to mind is basketball. Yes Johnson is a former point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers with five NBA championships, three MVP awards and an Olympic gold medal

On March 30, Howard Schultz will be speaking to Inc. magazine's Business Owners Counci l about his new book, "Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul." In this new book, Schultz chronicles his experiences re-invigorating Starbucks after stepping back part-time and seeing the brand take some hits.