Here’s the latest from VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner:entrepreneur-corner

Venture Capital 2009: The year in review â?? Despite the dire headlines, there were some important trends that emerged in 2009. Grotech Ventures general partners Steve Fredrick and Don Rainey run down things many start-up market observers seem to have missed.

Someone stole my startup idea â?? Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank has started several business, but has only seen his ideas stolen twice â?? once very seriously. Learn how he reacted to the realization â?? and what he and his partners did to beat the competitor that was born of their marketing presentation.

How to avoid being blinded by the idea aura â?? Every idea is a world-shifting one when you initially conceive of it. But as you build it in to a company, doubt can set in. Is this part of the creation process or are you working on a dud? Brant Cooper, an independent consultant specializing in marketing and product management, looks at the phenomenon.

The start-up chronicles: Learning to listen to unpleasant truths â?? Asking for help when your business is struggling can be hard, but for many entrepreneurs it’s even harder to listen to the advice they seek. Cost Savings Guy CEO and founder Bruce Judson tells of his own travails in the latest installment in our ongoing series tracking the launch of a bootstrapped start-up.

How to failâ?¦ gloriously â?? Good funding, a good staff and a great product aren’t enough to guarantee success. Serial entrepreneur Eric Ries explains how one of his ventures burned through five years and $40 million in capital and still flopped in this thought leader lecture from Stanford University.