We had a baby in August of 2010 and it’s been a whirlwind. Here’s a quick post having nothing to do with tech or startups, but if you have have infants or toddlers at home, you may be interested in this. My little one is starting to identify animals, cars and other things and is learning the words. Enjoy!

This quick post shows you how to implement a continuous feedback system using Google Docs Forms and a simple script which I’ve included. What’s Great About This. Incredibly quick to set up (~5 minutes per survey). Realtime emails give you “the pulse&# of your business. It’s free. Example Surveys. How to Set Up. Enjoy.

I’m a mentor for TechStars and am very excited about the next cohort of companies. The competition was fierce this year (way up from last year). As a result the companies and teams look amazing. Obviously this means a lot of great people didn’t make it in. was pinged by two such teams this week. Keep on moving forward on your company.&#.

My friend Sheryl of Greenopedia was just accepted to Startup Chile , which provides office space, a little seed money and an adventure in Chile, without giving up any equity. This seems like an incredible opportunity for any seed stage internet company. Startup Chile. Applications are submitted online, then evaluated by a team of judges. IndieGoGo.

Seattle 2.0. I’ve been nominated for “Best Startup Technologist&# in the Seattle 2.0 Awards for the 3rd year in a row… This proves that there is a very serious bug in the nomination software which has remained unfixed for three years. If you know any good tech people, please refer them to the kind folks of Seattle 2.0 Thank you.

I’ve had the good fortune of working with great engineers and I’ve hired somewhere around 40 to 50 of them in last 5 years. Since I believe that having second-rate people will kill a company, I’ve put a lot of thought and effort into figuring out how to recruit great engineers. The best devs are the ones not looking for jobs!

Working flexible/crazy hours and from various locations is the norm in the startup world, and I’ve been meaning to write a quick post about some of the useful tools I’ve come across for helping collaboration in my startup, MediaPiston. I just saw this tweet by @thinkmaya which inspired me to get the post out. Startups Tech

Perhaps my New Year's Resolution should be to blog more since I haven't posted here since July! This post diverges from the regular tech and startup material (for more of that, see my recent guest post on the 500Startups blog, " The Entrepreneur's Guide to Conflicting Advice "). And so 2010 comes to a close. photo by jamesjustin (flickr).

I often bump into entrepreneurs while they’re in the midst of fundraising. usually ask “why are you raising money?&# and what I often hear is, “because we are running out of money&# or “in order to quit my job and so I can hire 3 people&# or something like that. This seems backwards. Why is the business pulling you in?

Any entrepreneur looking for a quick crash course in how to extract money from online, and who learns through immersion, should attend LeadsCon in New York City on July 26 – 27, 2010. update: see discount links below!) . Whereas at a web 2.0 credit: swanksalot. It is refreshing and useful.  . There is no other conference like it.

The New York Times recently published a list of 50 fancy words that most frequently stump their readership. They are able to measure this data thanks to a nifty in-page lookup mechanism, which you can try here. Try double-clicking the word “epicenter&#. Voila! Just a few hours later, here it is. Enjoy! photo credit: GViciano.

This post is the third of a series on “unexpected lessons&# learned through my experience as co-founder and CEO of Snapvine , a venture-backed mobile social networking service founded in 2005 and acquired by WhitePages in June of 2008. This, I figured, would be an incredible chance to get feedback and input on our ideas and direction.

This post is the second of a series on “unexpected lessons&# learned through my experience as co-founder and CEO of Snapvine , a venture-backed mobile social networking service founded in 2005 and acquired by WhitePages in June of 2008. Valuation is an important aspect of VC deal terms, and a major determinant of your ultimate outcome. 

This post is the first of a series on  “unexpected lessons&# learned through my experience as co-founder and CEO of Snapvine , a venture-backed mobile social networking service founded in 2005 and acquired by WhitePages in June of 2008. Thus, 6 months after graduation when I was contemplating leaving my job, the risks felt enormous. 

Facebook launched their new Social plugins including the new “like&# button, and in case you’re wondering how to add them to your WordPress blog, I found a great post by @ruhanirabin.  Here’s what I did to get it working on my blog. I recommend installing WordPress on Dreamhost or another hosting provider.

I’m helping a startup founder who is outsourcing the development of a project. Tensions are running high on both sides as the project slips. The CEO is getting about two updates a week, mostly just “it’s ready to test now, the bugs are 80% fixed&# and there’s no regular meeting. Do you have access? Cut them out. Bugs too.

1) “try before you buy&# –> enlist contractors that aren’t tied to agencies so you can retain the option to hire full time. 2) “lots of coffees&# –> do the leg work of meeting interesting people even if they aren’t looking. Nothing beats getting the word out and generating excitement. Go DEEP on one.

Last week’s post “ Sell Ice Cream, Not Cream and Ice &# received 30X the traffic that I my blog posts normally receive. Normally I get about 50 to 100 visits per post, but this time my post was voted onto the front page of Hacker News and ended up getting 2,530 visits over a three day period. 574 direct. 50 from twitter.com. Craigslist?

Doing a startup?  Think carefully about the differences between technology , product and business. The startup world is full of incredibly smart people who design new applications that “change the world&# but lack a clear business model (product, but no business).  filter it to determine the intent (a simple web form). FiReGlobal West Notes

I’m heading up to Vancouver tomorrow for the inaugural board meeting of a startup I recently invested in. It will be the entrepreneur’s first ever board meeting. It made me think about what I’ve learned about conducting good board meetings. Donuts by VeganWarrior (Flickr). 1) Bring an informed point of view. What should we do?&#.

In 2006 when we launched Snapvine’s first viral widget and phone app for teens, it went viral overnight. We were overwhelmed with success within 3 weeks: our servers were swamped with signups – 1 million of them within the first 7 weeks. Our solution? Who were they?  Why were they signing up?  What did they want to see next?

Last Wednesday I hosted a video-link at WhitePages to the Crowdsourcing Meetup that Dolores Labs put on in the Bay Area at the Samasource offices.  Check Justin.tv/crowdflower crowdflower for a video of the event (coming soon). Here are my notes… Aaron Koblin is a well known artist who has used crowdsourcing to create works of art.