Marc continues his “Guide to Startups” series with a post on hiring, managing, promoting, and firing executives.  It’s a good read for people in the midst of such things.  Some things that jumped out at me:

• What’s an executive?  “An executive is a leader …  The manager may ask what the right thing to do is; the executive should know.”
• In a startup, everyone — even executives — need to produce, not just lead producers.
• “Big companies can often tolerate internal rivalries and warfare; startups cannot.”
• Focus on the short-term first.  Hiring for people who will be a perfect fit when you’re 3x your current size will probably prohibit you from getting there.
• Hire from within.  This is a safer route and, when successful, better for the exec and the startup.  Marc estimates that only 50% of your exec hires will work out.
• “If a VC’s ideal investment is a company that will succeed without him, then your ideal executive hire is someone who will succeed without you.”
• “… reference check personality and teamwork, but look first and foremost for a pattern of output.”
• Always hire people who are as strong or stronger than you.  “When hiring the executive to run your former specialty, be careful you don’t hire someone weak on purpose.”
• Founders need to manage — even when the exec has decades more experience — but not micromanage.
• “A great executive never minds when the CEO talks to people in her organization. In fact, she loves it, because it means the CEO just hears more great things about her.  If you have an executive who doesn’t want you to talk to people in her organization, you have a bad executive.”
• When it comes to an exec, there’s no solution to the firing problem — it’s only exacerbated because it takes longer to evaluate their performance and they can do much more damage during that time.

After catching up on my tweet reading, I caught up on my blog reading, and enjoyed Scott’s post about a camera + GPS + purchase history + face recognition auto scrapbook generator product idea.  First, I thought how much I like the trend of people blogging product requests like this.  Second, I thought “does anyone care about privacy anymore?”

The idea of Microsoft / LinkedIn knowing everything about every email I send had privacy on my brain, but the thought of everyone knowing exactly where I am, what I’m doing (or at least buying), who I’m with, and when it’s all happening is just spooky — largely because it’s not far off from reality today.  Sure, you could argue that I could control who has access and it’s all historical data anyway, but access can be abused and if it’s being tracked at all it’s only a matter of time before it’s broadcast real-time.

Twitter is bad enough.  Want to know what I’ve been up to?  I’m a light user, but just look at my tweets from the past week:

• goodbye tiny hybrid, hello giant minivan. i guess we’re all grown up now. about 5 hours ago  
• heading out to a brunch that will feature a high % of small children … trying to remember my ear plugs and extra strong coffee about 15 hours ago   
• mulling over a minivan purchase decision for tomorrow 09:38 PM August 25, 2007   
• just learned a lot about django from djackson … couldn’t resist 01:33 PM August 24, 2007   
• using email to coordinate calls from india to a crappy mobile phone is a bad idea 08:58 AM August 24, 2007   
• meeting in the city near the capitol … brings back memories from my days consulting at FEMA 08:57 AM August 24, 2007   
• coffee good. suits on friday not as much. 05:10 AM August 24, 2007   
• taking a breath between meetings 01:46 PM August 23, 2007   
• looking forward to reuniting with my family in t-minus 30 minutes 01:39 PM August 21, 2007   
• shocked by how smelly trains (both amtrak and metro) can be 01:36 PM August 21, 2007   
• choo choo! chuga-chuga chuga-chuga choo choooooo! 11:07 AM August 21, 2007   
• check that - train is 1 hr late departing. lucky me. thank you amtrak. 05:37 AM August 21, 2007   
• off to bed — train departs in about 5 hours 12:11 AM August 21, 2007   
• wrapping up a day of meeting new folks in durham — lots going on here, and lots more potential too 07:45 PM August 20, 2007

All of the sudden you know a lot about me.  You know I used to drive a hybrid, so I’m probably somewhat eco-friendly (or maybe I just like to drive on 66 by myself during HOV hours).  You know I now drive a minivan, so I probably have several kids.  You know I don’t own an iPhone, and that I have either friends or business in India.  You know that I had a meeting near the Capitol last Friday which required I wear a suit, and that I used to consult for FEMA.  You know that I traveled by train from Durham to DC on Amtrak, departing an hour late around 6:30 am last Monday.

But I wanted you to know all that stuff.  Should I?  I’m not sure yet.  I still might get bored with Twitter.

People have always worried about other people knowing too much about what they’re up to.  It’s a healthy concern to harbor.  It’s clear now, though, that tracking everyone’s every move isn’t technically all that difficult (or at least it won’t be much longer).  I’m not sure anyone predicted that we’d bring the moment-by-moment monitoring so overtly upon ourselves.

It’s all in good fun amongst the techies for now, but I would expect a backlash at some point.  The question is, will anyone announce when they decide to detach from the monitoring machine, or will you just have to figure it out?

Brad’s latest tweet is right.

outlook is my social network. i’m so perplexed that microsoft hasn’t taken advantage of that yet. linkedin / outlook integration is an A.

So why not?  This isn’t a simple “upload my Outlook contacts now and then” idea.  It’s a much tighter integration.  I’m not too keen on Microsoft knowing everything about every communication I have with everyone, but the upside of a tool that tracks (without me doing anything extra) my contacts, correspondence, discussion topics, meetings (through calendar), and more, and then leverages that data to intelligently compare it with similar data from my first, second, third (and so on) degree relationships could be significant.

One hurdle is privacy. Right or wrong, people assume their email is relatively private and secure, where correspondence through LinkedIn, Facebook, etc., is considered more public.  If Microsoft drops a social network onto Outlook, do they hurt that perception of privacy — even if there are clear ways to opt-out — to the long-term detriment of that product? Is it worth the risk?

I think the perception problem is manageable if the technology solution is sound, and the potential value of the right product to end users would be a significant incentive to give it a shot.  I would.

SXSW 2008 is happening next March 7-11 in Austin, Texas.  I went for the first time this past year, and had a blast.  I thought it would be fun to do more than just mingle and enjoy the presentations this year, so we put our heads together over at Viget and came up with a few panel topic ideas.  Now they’re up on the SXSW Panel Picker, where anyone can come and rate them.  I invite you to do so:

• Web Start-Up Mistakes: 10 to Avoid and 5 to Make
• How Traditional Businesses Can Leverage [Stuff Like] Social Media
• Everything a Designer Needs to Know About Rails
• Beyond the iPhone: Embracing the Mobile Context

We tried to pick topics that we know a lot about, we think are particularly relevant, and we would want to attend ourselves.  We’re good sports, so even if our talks don’t get picked you can expect to find some Viget folks there.

And they clearly read my blog.  I just tried to check out the Panel Picker, and got this:

Now that’s an error message.  It takes the blame, is amusing without being cute, and even gives you something to do (email Lindsey).  The only thing I’d add is to say that an alert had already been generated (email, log, whatever) and so emailing Lindsey directly is optional.

Last month I had a chance to talk with the TechStars group in Colorado, and I was impressed with the teams. TechStars in an incubator that selected 10 teams to spend the summer in Boulder building their businesses in a big shared office space with occasional interruptions from mentors who dropped in and shared their [hopefully] sage advice. 

The central theme of my talk was that building a product in 3 months really comes down to focus.  Yesterday they accomplished what they’d set out to do, and all ten teams demo’d their products to a group of about 50 potential investors.

See coverage from Mike Arrington, Brad Feld, Don Dodge, and Anne Zelenka.  Anne’s summer-end wrap-up …

Most impressive presentation of the day goes to the Flatirons, which made an awesome backdrop to the CU Boulder campus where the conference was held. Not surprisingly, some of the TechStars are relocating to Boulder to enjoy more of Colorado’s natural beauty and business opportunities.

… confirms my initial thoughts about TechStars — the most enjoyable part for those guys had to be just spending the summer in Boulder.

Congrats to all the teams for making it to demo day.

There’s a blogonerd fight going on between Nick, Jason, and Mike that Andy ranted about today. Smart, arrogant, opinionated guys with a pulpit, a point, and a cult following tend to be pretty entertaining.

If you can sift through the endless comments (please install Intense Debate already!) there’s actually an interesting discussion going on there about the state of the software industry and what revenue models are most viable (subscriptions vs. ad-supported). 

It’s all changing because ad models are working more and more as web usage soars and the ad industry is waking up to (1) where their customers are, (2) how they can connect with them, and (3) how they can measure (and quickly tune) that connection.  So ad dollars are available that weren’t there even a year ago are shifting online, and it will keep going in that direction.

What’s also changing is that web apps are getting better and more useful.  Underlying technologies and the products being built on them are maturing.  Expectations (from consumers) are increasing, creating a positive pressure.  Product developers are responding by creating better products.

What isn’t stressed enough in the debate is this: people will will pay for good software that fills a need.  People will pay more for great software.  Most of the web apps out there are crap and their failure has little to do with their pricing model.  Yes, you should think about how you’ll make money when you start any business, but that should be a distant second to figuring out how you’ll make a remarkable product.

Think about your users, create a great product for them, and then obsess about how to generate revenue.

James noticed this video.  I had heard that Man vs. Wild was a sham, but this is too funny:

I often talk about adding personality to your app, including turning negatives (like downtime) into semi-positives, as with the Flickr example.  Here’s what Twitter looks like right now:

Maybe it’s because Twitter’s been down a bunch lately, or maybe it’s because I really don’t like cats, but when I saw this I thought “I’m really tired of this little trend.”  I long for the good old days of not trying to be cute when you screw up.  Just say “We’re down.  We’re sorry. We’re working on it.”

Last week Fred asked for something, Dave built something, Fred thanked Dave, and that’s great.  This week Mike bashed Yappd, techcrunchies suggested Tweetr and Radar, and that’s all fine.  But I still have to take the picture.  Here’s what I really want:

1. A really … uh … “cool” holster for my Treo 700 that holds it about in the center of my chest with the camera facing out.  Or maybe a way to strap it to my forehead.
2. A photo taken every [1|5|30|60] minute(s), which is then automatically uploaded to … the next version of Twitter which displays images instead of links to them (in web view, anyway) and sends MMS in addition to SMS (maybe the other services do this already, but come on … I already have 13 followers on Twitter).
3. A blog post auto-generated that shows all of the days photos in rows, or perhaps a rapid-fire animation of the entire sequence.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit much.

But there has to be a video thing happening here.  When I go to answer that ever probing question”what are you doing?” 9 times out of 10 my instinct is to say “why, let me show you!” and then point my camera phone and shoot a 10 second video clip.  Photos help, but let’s just skip to video already.

I think I’ll make it a habit to rhyme in my post titles as much as possible.

There was talk today around the Lab about fielding a team for Rails Rumble, a web app competition happening the weekend of September 8 & 9 with rules that are similar to Startup Weekend.  While Rails Rumble is new, it spawned from Railsday which has been around since ‘05.

After visiting the first Startup Weekend in Boulder, I blogged about how the technology challenges are often the toughest to overcome when building a web business.  Rails Rumble avoids the major problem Startup Weekend faced – debating what technology to use throughout.  The four-person-per-team limit avoids the other major challenge: too many cooks in the kitchen.

We’re helping to organize Startup Weekend DC on October 26, 27, & 28 and while the team-size challenge is still TBD, the tech decision has already been made: Rails it is!

Several of us are planning to head up to NYC for the day on November 8th for the Future of Web Design.  Great line-up of speakers and topics, a fair price, and a painless train-ride away.  If you’ll be there and would like to connect, let me know.

TechCrunch and VentureBeat both posted today about Glam Media trying to raise $200 million in private financing.  Matt from VentureBeat politely mentions their pending Google deal and a rumored valuation of $600 million.

Arrington, though, outright asks “Is Glam A Sham?” and suggests the entire basis of their fundraising efforts is inaccurate and “complete nonsense,” disputing figures from their private placement document and criticising their SEO strategy.  He even makes them pay for distributing that private placement doc “a little too liberally” by embedding it in his post and referencing it as he breaks it down.

Way to go, Mike.

“This is a perfect example of that information being used to mislead the public and potential investors.”

Regardless of whether he’s right or not, this is just the kind of blogging that’s needed to keep things in check these days.  Arrington is shining light on what would be a major deal, and doing some logical (and very public) analysis.  Any potential investor worth their salt should be asking the same questions. 

Now, Glam has an opportunity to very publicly respond and clarify their position.  If they can do that successfully, no harm done.  They’ll proceed with a lot of questions already answered, and their fundraising should go that much more smoothly.  If they can’t, well, then it’s their fault for putting it out in the first place.

This kind of highly-visible discussion and debate wasn’t around 7-8 years ago.  Knowing you might get called out encourages honesty and discourages deception.  Transparency is a good thing. 

If the claims you make about your business were suddenly very publicly called into question, could you defend them?

Kudos to Jackson, Jason, and Justin for putting together a great event.  BarCampDC was a blast.  The participants were engaged and really into sharing their knowledge and opinions — something we’d all like to see more of in the DC area.  There was so much interest that an ad hoc unconference even spilled into the nearby coffee shop for folks who couldn’t get in because of space limitations. 

If anything, I think it was too full — or too short.  There were so many great topics to cover and good people to lead discussions, I felt like we could have filled 3 days.  Andy and I did our best to take notes throughout the day on the Four Labs blog.

In addition to Jackson and Andy, we had Thanny, Rob, Erik, Jim, and Trace from Viget there too.  Trace gave a talk on Google Analytics, Thanny and Rob coordinated a discussion around design process, and Jackson did one on mobile web (in addition to being the MC).  Had the the Ruby Hoedown (also this weekend, also sponsored by Viget) down in North Carolina not attracted most of our development group, they would have been there talking about Rails in a heartbeat.  Check out Ben’s recap of that event.

We’ll be moving into our new space at Viget soon, and we’re excited about hosting similar events there to help keep the community active and connected.

My business partner / brother is here at BarCamp DC and he’s blogging along the way.  Like me he can’t stay all day, so we’ll see if someone else picks it up.  We’re a couple of sessions in, and so far we’re seeing some good discussion.

Update: Andy had to leave, so I picked up where he left off.

Update #2: I had to leave, so we didn’t quite cover the whole day — but it was a blast.  Kudos to Jackson and the gang.  Great job!

Occasionally I like to watch the local news (on my DVR so I can skip the awful local car dealer ads, of course).  Tonight I caught a 5 minute segment on Larry Haubner, a 105 year-old army vet who has outlived his savings and could be kicked out of his assisted living home.  His friends at the home setup savelarry.org to help raise money to keep him there.  

It was a typical feel-good local news story, but what made it interesting was … Larry.  When Larry was born in 1902, Teddy Roosevelt was president.  When he was my age, FDR still hadn’t been elected.  Larry is old.  Real old.  I could write “old” a hundred times and you wouldn’t understand how old he is.  But if you saw the video I saw, you would.

Then, when you saw Larry cracking jokes with the nurses and explaining one way he stays fit — by doing reps of his walker lifted over his head — you’d be inspired.  I often can’t muster the energy to go for a jog, and when Larry was 102 he was still riding a bike.  “My sister would love to see that” I thought.  Certainly I could go to the local news web site (NBC4.com), find the clip, and send it to a few friends, couldn’t I?

It would appear not.  All you can do is read about it which, frankly, is boring.  It’s also a disservice to Larry.

Why, in the age of YouTube, local news stations don’t put every segment neatly into an online clip wrapped in a user experience designed for sharing is beyond me.  Include a little ad, even.  If it’s under 7 seconds, I just might watch it (unless it’s a screaming car salesman).

Ryan Carson runs Carson Systems and Vitamin.  He also puts on some of the best web conferences in the world, specifically Future of Web Apps (FOWA) and Future of Web Design (FOWD).   While I’d love to hit both, FOWA is in London this October, which is a bit of a hike for me.  FOWD is in NYC, though, and a few of us from Viget will be there.

To help promote FOWA, Ryan is mixing 2 of his favorite things: drinking beer and meeting people.  At the recently (and nicely) redesigned FOWA Road Trip page Ryan invites people in 12 European cities to “get away from our laptops and have a good ol’ fashioned night on the town.”  Ryan’s Twittering along the way, and the FOWA crew is documenting the trip.  Looks like they’re having fun so far.

Being the earth-friendly type, Ryan’s also using the Climate Careprogram to offset the CO2 emissions from his trip.

I think this is a great idea — especially for a guy with seemingly endless energy like Ryan — for how to get out and promote a conference while making a real connection with the community he cares about.

I met Ryan at SXSW earlier this year, and invited him to participate in the Web 2.0 for Business conference that I help put together through ExecutiveBiz.   Ryan will be moderating a panel on … what else?  The Future of Web 2.0 for Business.  Looking forward to having him in town — perhaps we’ll invite some folks out for a beer …

I blogged on Viget’s Four Labs tonight about old friends / colleagues / clients John and Leo, co-founders of Incando / Pickle.com.  Their company was just acquired by Scripps Networks, so they’re marching into a new phase of their careers — transitioning from shot-calling entrepreneurs to VPs within an established organization.  There’s a lot of potential for greatness at Scripps, and I think they’re excited about the challenge.

Over dinner and drinks, we talked a lot about the Pickle saga.  We also talked about Viget and our future, and got some candid, insightful advice from guys with an interesting perspective.  John and Leo ran a web consulting firm in the 90’s, where I worked out of school before starting Viget.  They know the consulting side.  Launching Pickle and working with us, they also know the client side.  Having evaluated a number of funding and exit options, they know the market well, and where the needs for services are.  They had suggestions for types of clients to target, deals to go after, and how to best focus our energies in the short- and long-term.

I came away as excited as ever about where Viget is headed over the next several years.  We have an incredibly talented staff, great client experience, and a unique service offering.  We’re growing, and we could go in a number of attractive directions.  As they say, the sky is the limit.

If I had to summarize John’s advice in a word: focus.  Funny, that’s what I always say.

This afternoon Jackson and I did a quick tour of the Fleishman-Hillard space where BarCamp DC will be this coming Saturday.  They were very gracious about hosting the event, and the facilities should be really well suited for what’s planned.

Even though BarCamp is technically “full” everyone is invited to the after party at Cafe Asia  starting at 5:30 pm.  If you’ve signed up but can’t make it, remember to update your status so someone else can jump in.

In the future, perhaps we’ll all be wizards.

Brad discovered the Ambient Umbrella, which glows when rain or snow is in the forecast, reminding you to take it along.  Version 2 will actually levitate as you walk towards the door and groan “doooon’t forget meeee … it’s quite likely to raaaaain …” in a low british accent.  Less than 100 years ago, showing someone a product like this would get your burned at the stake for witchcraft.  Humankind is progressing in so many ways.

Do products like this — which pay attention to things like the weather forecast so that we don’t have to — make us dumber because they do the thinking for us, or make us smarter because our brains aren’t occupied by mundane things like rain falling? 

They certainly make us less prone to planning.  When’s the last time someone with a navigation system looked up directions?  Just get in and go.  Even if the nav system fails, you’ve always got more technology — a mobile phone — to back you up.

Personally, I love technology.  I love tools and gadgets, and I rely on them to maintain a degree of sanity and happiness in life.  I also love to go camping now and then and get away from all of it — in part maybe to prove to myself that I can still survive without any of it.

I’m fearful of two things:

1. Future generations being overly dependent on technology to not just be happy, but be functional and thoughtful (in the basic sense of the word).  Let’s hope the folks at Ambient never have to add a rain detector feature that calls out “Hey, dummy, it’s raining.  Open me.”
2. The degree of that dependence will be underestimated until something happens to the underlying infrastructure and everything stops working.

I hate to drop in a doomsday scenario so early in the days of this blog.  This is far from a prediction, just a little reminder (to myself?) to enjoy the technology but still catch an episode of Survivorman now and then for pointers (or is Man vs. Wild better?  I haven’t decided).

Gotta go close my car windows — my big toe is throbbing, which means it’s going to rain.