New e-commerce company Bow & Drape uses technology to customize off-the rack clothing. There are six different clothing models that can be customized with trim, fabrics, sleeves, and lengths into a total of 3,000 different combinations. The pieces start at $200, and some designs include sequin trim.

A new video from Cisco's "My Networked Life" YouTube series focuses on Azita Ardakani, the founder of Lovesocial, a social media company that works to "]connect] people with things that matter." In the video, Vancouver-based Ardakani discusses how she believes in "the value of the message, as opposed to the value of the medium," meaning ever-shifting technology. "I feel a responsibility to help bring messages that are worth getting out there to as many people as possible," she says. Watch the whole thing after the jump.

Phone batteries die during the day. Carrying around chargers and cords is a drag. So a Chicago entrepreneur has come up with a solution: a purse that's also a phone charger. The Everpurse charges an iPhone while it’s in your purse.

"There are a growing number of efforts to help women and minorities become entrepreneurs and get funding for their start-ups in Silicon Valley and elsewhere," reports the Wall Street Journal's Deborah Gage, citing San Francisco-based NewME and New York's DigitalunDivide. "All of the efforts come amid a relative dearth of African-American and Latino entrepreneurs and investors, though Asian entrepreneurs are relatively common in Silicon Valley."

Millions of Americans live in food deserts. A full 10% of the country has no access to healthy or fresh food. Many low-income neighborhoods have only a convenience store stocked with junk food, cigs, and booze. Seattle’s Stockbox Neighborhood Grocery wants to solve that problem. This mini-grocery is packed with fresh food and staples as well as meat, dairy, and produce -- sort of a throw back to small-town stores.

The Zip Cup is a collapsible mug that should have been invented 20 years ago -- before Americans started piling 58 billion paper cups int

You can’t really walk around with just a phone and a $20 bill.  But most phone cases don’t let you stash more than that.

by Joanne Wilson

Artists can transform cities. They turn wasted buildings into studios and lofts. Galleries and cafes follow. The neighborhood gentrifies.

Melissa Millan stands out at business conferences.

Most tech gadgets are busting out with features.

You wouldn't think dance would be useful training for an entrepreneur, but former dancer Sara Winter has just launched a tech business in a mostly

Maybe the way to get girls into science is to make it fun. Roominate Toys hopes to do exactly that.

There’s a business at the tip of Alice Ning’s fingers. She just needs funding.

"Most people who want to change the world and make a profit don’t have the money to buy into the growing number of investment funds that focus on social impact. But what if you only need $20 to get involved?," reads a post on the Women 2.0 blog. "That’s the idea behind WIN-WIN, the Women Investing In Women Initiative, which was created by the Calvert Foundation to fund businesses that improve women's lives by targeting women investors." In a few weeks, WIN-WIN has raised more than $300,000 from 64 investors.