Urgent Speed

Top 50 Job Boards for Start-ups

There is nothing more important for a tech start-up than attracting great employees.  As the economy slows, it becomes slightly easier to attract exceptional talent which is great news for start-ups. 

The first dozen hires are usually the most critical because this core group will set the culture for the next 100 hires.  A hiring mistake early on can set your start-up back months (or worst).   When possible this core group should be recruited from existing relationships. Ideally people you have worked with, or have worked directly with people you respect and trust.   The problem with this approach is it limits your choices to a much smaller pool of talent, and does not scale as your company grows.  That’s where job boards can be handy, especially in a shrinking economy.

As a general rule of thumb I find that the best employees are usually already happily employed.  In a growing economy, that means a founder must be super persuasive to get them to join his/her start-up.  But in a shrinking economy, like the one we are experiencing now, even capable talent is hitting the job boards.

2005
First Choice – Candidates I have worked with, or have worked with close associates
Second Choice – Candidates currently happily employed elsewhere
Third Choice – Candidates from Job Boards

2009
First Choice – Candidates I have worked with, or have worked with close associates
Second Choice – Candidates from Job Boards
Third Choice – Candidates currently happily employed elsewhere

I have compiled a list of the top 50 Job Boards, ranked by traffic.  A mix of well written job postings can yield hundreds of resumes and a handful of viable candidates.

1        Craigslist        http://www.craigslist.com    40,500,000
2        Monster        http://www.monster.com    27,000,000
3        CareerBuilder    http://www.careerbuilder.com    12,600,000
4        LinkedIN    http://www.linkedin.com    7,800,000
5        Indeed    http://www.indeed.com    7,000,000
6        Simply Hired    http://www.simplyhired.com    5,100,000
7        Snag a Job    http://www.snagajob.com    3,600,000
8        USAJOBS    http://www.usajobs.gov    2,800,000
9        EmploymentGuide.com    http://www.employmentguide.com   1,200,000
10        The Ladders    http://www.theladders.com    1,000,000
11        Beyond    http://www.beyond.com    982,000
12        Top USA Jobs    http://www.topusajobs.com    867,000
13        Jobs.com    http://jobs.com    864,000
14        Dice.com    http://www.dice.com    848,000
15        JobFox    http://www.jobfox.com/    670,000
16        jobster.com    http://www.jobster.com    630,000
17        thingamajob.com    http://www.thingamajob.com    565,000
18        Vault    http://www.vault.com    556,000
19        JobIrn    http://www.jobirn.com    517,000
20        JobCentral    http://www.jobcentral.com    476,000
21        Yahoo! HotJobs    http://www.hotjobs.com    418,000
22        Job Bank USA    http://www.jobbankusa.com    416,000
23        FlipDog    http://www.flipdog.com    370,000
24        HigherEdJob    http://www.higheredjobs.com    297,000
25        Net-Temps    http://www.net-temps.com    264,000
26        GoJobs.com    http://gojobs.com    263,000
27        NationJob Network    http://www.nationjob.com    231,000
28        JuJu.com    http://www.juju.com    220,000
29        America's Job Bank    http://www.jobbankinfo.org    207,000
30        sologig    http://www.sologig.com   186,000
31        brightfuse.com    http://www.brightfuse.com    163,000
32        Job Target    http://www.jobtarget.com    155,000
33        xing.com - Europe    http://www.xing.com    136,000
34        jobscore.com    http://jobscore.com/corp    130,000
35        Prohire.com    http://jobs.prohire.com    112,000
36        College Recruiter    http://www.collegerecruiter.com    98,000
37        climber.com    http://www.climber.com    93,000
38        Work Tree    http://worktree.com    74,000
39        yotify.com - linkedin alerts    http://yotify.com    73,000
40        6figurejobs.com    http://6figurejobs.com    72,000
41        Employment911.com    http://www.employment911.com    71,000
42        Jobthread    http://www.jobthread.com    71,000
43        CareerSite.com    http://www.careersite.com    65,000
44        Jobs2web.com    http://www.jobs2web.com    62,000
45        Trovix    http://www.trovix.com    62,000
46        smuz.com    http://smuz.com    59,000
47        VisualCV    http://www.visualcv.com    56,000
48        CareerShop.com    http://www.careershop.com    51,000
49        The Interview Exchange    http://www.interviewexchange.com    51,000
50        Real Match    http://www.realmatch.com    50,000

Publisher Monetization Tools – Useful list for Angels

Steve Spalding's article “21 Great Advertising Networks For Publishers” is the best round up of services for publishers to monetize traffic I have seen in a long time.  I linked to the article because I thought it might also be useful for start-ups that need to advertise as well as Angels investors,  looking to better understand the (still growing) on-line advertising market. 

Sales as R&D

After years of talking to start-ups and fellow seed stage investors, I have noticed that the smart ones understand that in a startup environment, the selling process doubles as a research and development process.  In my mind, learning how to sell a new product is one of the defining differences between a technology startup and an established business. 

Great startups not only invent a new product, but also invent a way to sell that specifically benefits their product or service. As Geoffrey Moore points out, most great startups are innovative when it comes to their products and  when it comes to how they market.

I would add that startups can benefit by implementing the same steps for a new sales process as they would for a r&d process.

How do I propose you find the overlap? 

• Like product R&D, don’t invest too much too quickly.  Innovation is an iterative process. Be sure to budget for the time to experiment.
• Like product R&D, don’t put all you eggs in one basket.  You will likely need to experiment with pitching to different market segments, different occupations, and different demographics.  Staff accordingly
• Be ready to commercialize, but don’t commercialize prematurely.  Once you think you have a grasp of your target market and resonating value proposition, scale the sales team.

Many engineers I talk to have the misguided “if we build it, they will come,” approach to sales.  To this I say: Bull.  In 1999, I had the chance pleasure of meeting most of the Google sales team in a hotel bar.  Let me tell you, they weren’t talking about algorithms.  While the PHDs at Google deserve a lot of credit for building a great product, we can’t forget that the innovations of the sales team developed for the company.  They are very responsible for getting Google to where it is today.

"Discovering" how to sell your product is as important as coding your software. No one likes to hear "no i won't buy from your company" any more than they like to that their code won't compile, but both are important vital parts of the development process.

Urgent Career has left the Launch Pad

So today we announced what we have been working on for the last 6 months: Urgent Career.  Our team is attempting to pioneer the use of linguistic technology to match sales professionals with compatible career opportunities.  Basically, we record and transcribe a phone call in which a candidate discusses his or her interests, experience and aspirations.  Then our technology digitally deconstructs the conversation into thousands of data points that are algorithmically measured on 32 key dimensions of sales compatibility.   

We put together a video to better explain the service.

The business model is simple: the service is free to Sales, Business Development and Account Management Professionals; corporate clients pay 20% of the base for each hire.  I wanted to make sure the service was performance based, because I wanted the decision to be a no-brainier for CEOs and Sales Managers.  That way we can get the best companies in the system, and concentrate our efforts on finding great sales talent.  We still have a ton of work to do, but I am proud to say, many of companies that participated in our Alpha release have already hired candidates we identified.

Cogmap the Org Chart Wiki - Better Enterprise Sales/Partnering?

This week I saw Brent Halliburton demo Cogmap at the NY Tech Meetup.  Brent has built a wiki for corporate organization charts.  I wish him luck.  Over the years, I have wasted months trying to figure-out who to sell to (or partner with) in large corporations. 

Wasting time trying to figure out who to deal with in a large corporation can kill a start-up!   

In the early days of Mimeo.com, it took months to find the right contacts at HP, despite the fact that they had already invested millions of dollars in our company.  

There is an obvious need for accurate organizational charts for Entrepreneurs, Recruiters, Sales and Business Development professionals.  Surprisingly, the need for this information inside big companies  themselves. 

It is not uncommon for senior level executives to disagree or even have no idea how their company is organized. I guess not all executives are political animals, but it seems to me an executive trying to build a career would want to understand the lay of the land.

At Microsoft, IBM and UPS I "discovered" entire buildings unknown to most of the organization.  But this problem is not new; my grandfather told me in the 1950s there was a 12 person team at RCA that collected checks for a year before anyone realized they were lost in a reorganization. 

Cogmap will face all the same quality challenges that any wiki face, but if they can get it working it seems like the perfect complement to Zoominfo (API anyone?)

I hope Cogmap works; then maybe Entrepreneurs can better target the right person in large corporations, and corporate executives can spend less time listening to ill targeted pitches.

Unboxing, the Wall Street Journal and Geek Porn

There is an interesting article on the front page of today’s WSJ.  The article points out the growing trend of “unboxing”.  Turns out people are documenting their experience opening the packaging of products and then posting the video on the internet.  I believe the growing trend of unboxing is a positive.  Once again the internet is creating better informed customers, marketers and investors.   

It’s fascinating to see the level of popularity and detail these amateur documentarians can achieve. Sites like unbox.it and unboxing.com are full of examples.

As an Entrepreneur, I believe packaging is one of the most important, and most often overlooked opportunities to strengthen your brand through positive consumer experience.  It is something we have always emphasized at Mimeo.com. (** warning ** shameless plug to follow; I encourage you to try the service next time you need hardcopy document).

Brand conscious companies like Mimeo.com, Google, skiphop.com and Apple use the customer experience as the cornerstone of their brand building effort.  I call this “Experiential  Branding”.. but a quick search of Google shows I am in the minority.

Unboxing, product reviews, testimonials, teardowns, inventory/availability, best pricing…it's all on-line.  Twelve years of heavy Internet use and I am still amazed at the breadth of content on the web… I can’t wait to see what next! 

FYI:

A “Teardown” is a verb: the act of meticulously dissecting a product (usually a new electronic device) and then posting the observations on the internet.  As a noun it the resulting content usually text, images and sometimes video (like this Wii Example video)

103 Venture Capital Blogs (Q4-2006)

Anyone who knows me knows I have a passion for entrepreneurship. No other endeavor has had a greater impact on our continued improvement to our standard of living over the last 300 years, and no other endeavor has the potential for such diverse personal intellectual challenge. You might argue it is the Scientist or the Capitalist that drive innovation, but without the Entrepreneur, you would be left with just a two legged stool.

That said, it is the Capitalist, and specifically the Venture Capitalist are often best positioned to write about the Start-up process.

Below is a list of 103 VC related blogs. Most are current or former VCs, although some just follow the industry;

1. A Little Ludwig Goes A Long Way by John Ludwig
   Founding partner of Ignition Partners

2. A Sack of Seattle by Andy Sack
   About entrepreneurship, Venture Capital, and other topics

3. A VC by Fred Wilson
   Managing Partner of Union Square Ventures

4. A Venture Forth by Dan Grossman
   Discusses ideas regarding VC, technology, investing and policy

5. ABCDVC by Mark Sherman
   Discusses India as the emerging Venture hub

6. Alsop Louie Partners by Stewart Alsop
   Venture Capitalist and former journalist

7. BeyondVC by Ed Sim
   Founding member and Managing Director of Dawntreader Ventures

8. Bill Gurley's Above the Crowd by Bill Gurley
   VC from Benchmark Capital and before Hummer Winblad Venture Partners

9. Breakout Performance by Eric Jackson
   CEO of Jackson Leadership Systems writes about VC and break-out performance

10. Brian Berliner’s Brain by Brian Berliner
    Entrepreneur/Investor blogs about Venture Capital and Technology.

11. Burnham's Beat by Bill Burnham
    NY Venture Capitalist intoInfrastructure Software investments

12. China Venture News by James Borton
    News related to China Venture Capital

13. Christine.net by Christine Herron
    Investor, entrepreneur, and kitchen goddess on technology, society, and best practices, works at Omidyar Network

14. Class V by Sachi Gahan
    Principal with CenterPoint Ventures

15. Cleantech Investing by Rob Day
    Principal with Expansion Capital Partners

16. Deal Flow by Justin Hibbard
    Businessweek's Blog. Provides investing insights and Venture Capital

17. Deep Green Crystals by Martin Tobias
    VC and founder of Loudeye

18. Digital Micro-Markets by Donna Bogatin
    Internet entrepreneur and former international investment banker

19. EarlyStageVC by Peter Rip
    Early-stage Venture Capitalist with Leapfrog Ventures in Silicon Valley

20. Ego Ventures by Andrew Luter
    Co-founder of BaseCamp Capital, a Denver-based private equity incubator

21. Feld Thoughts by Brad Feld
    Managing Director at Mobius Venture Capital

22. Florida Venture Blog by Dan Rua by Dan Rua
    Managing Partner at Inflexion Partners

23. Fred Destin by Fred Destin
    Partner at Atlas technology veteran VC (Europe)

24. From Istanbul To Sand Hill Road by Baris Karadogan
    Partner of ComVenturesHigh-tech

25. From the inside, looking in by Shinichiro Fukushige
    A returnee Venture Capitalist living and working in Tokyo, VC at (Mitsubishi UFJ Capital)

26. Genuine VC by David Beisel
    Principal at Masthead Venture Partners in Cambridge, MA

27. Global Themes by Shantanu Bhagwat
    Partner for Asia for Amadeus writes about Globalization, Venture Capital and related topics

28. GOLB: Is this Israel? by Ed Mlavsky
    Founder and Chairman of Gemini Israel Funds

29. Israel Venture Capital 2.0 by Daniel Cohen
    Partner at Gemini Israel Funds

30. Israeli VC on Sand Hill road by Tali Aben
    First woman partner in an Israeli VC

31. Jason Ball's Techbytes by Jason Ball
    Technology and Venture Capital blog from a fund manager at London Seed Capital

32. Jeff Clavier's Software only by Jeff Clavier
    Musings, rants and thoughts of an angel investor and early stage Venture consultant

33. John Cook's Venture Blog by John Cook
    Reporter explores startups, Venture Capital and life in Seattle's technology community

34. Kauffman eVenturing by Ken Berlack, William H. Payne
    About the Kauffman foundation

35. kiteblog by William Tai
    Journal of a kitesurfing venture capitalist

36. Let the Sparks Fly! by Mark Skapinker, Sophie Forest, Tony Davis
    From a early-stage software Venture fund

37. Life With Alacrity by Christopher Allen
    Founder, Alacrity Ventures

38. McInblog by Ryan McIntyre
    A VC from Mobius Venture Capital

39. Mr Wave Theory by Mr. Wave theory
    Retired Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist turned blogger

40. Nivi blog by Nivi
    Advisor, and a former associate at Atlas Venture

41. Noam Wasserman's Founder Frustrations blog by Noam Wasserman
    Professor in the Entrepreneurial Management unit at Harvard Business School

42. Northwest VC by Steve Hall
    Seattle-based Venture Capitalist with Vulcan Capital (and former New Yorker)

43. Nothing ventured, nothing gained by Jeremy Levine
    VC from Bessemer Venture Partners

44. Now What? by Scott Maxwell
    Boston-based venture capitalist with OpenView Venture Partners

45. Occam's Razor by Marc Goldberg
    VC/Blog focused on building global European IT companies

46. Our Man in Nirvana by Robin Bordoli
    Former Principal at Mobius Venture Capital

47. Oxyfish by Tom Shields
    From the Woodside Fund

48. PascalsView by Pascal Levensohn
    Founder of Levensohn Venture Partners

49. Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed by Paul Kedrosky
    Venture Capitalist, media personality, speaker, and entrepreneur

50. PureVC by Jchen/Senior Advisor to CXO Ventures
    About Venture Capital, private equity, technology, and the markets

51. Redeye VC by Josh Kopelman
    Managing Director of First Round Capital

52. Rodrigo A. Sepúlveda Schulz by Rodrigo Sepúlveda Schulz
    Internet entrepreneur, consultant and Venture Capital professional

53. Sand Hill Slave by Wendy Kroy
    Executive assistant in a VC firm

54. Seeing Both Sides by Jeff Bussgang
    General Partner at IDG Ventures, an early-stage Venture Capital firm in Boston

55. Seriously clueless by Anand Sridharan
    Associate at Bessemer Venture Partners' Mumbai office

56. SF Venture by Keith Benjamin
    Perspectives on Venture and related topics

57. Signum sine tinnitu--by Guy Kawasaki by Guy Kawasaki
    Managing Director at Garage

58. Six Kids and a Full Time Job by Michael Eisenberg
    Partner at Benchmark Capital

59. Soaring on Ridgelift by Stu Phillips
    Managing Director of Ridgelift Ventures

60. Southeast VC by Jason Caplain
    General Partner and co-founder of Southern Capitol Ventures

61. Startup Review Blog - Analyzing Web Success by Nisan Gabbay
    Profiles successful Internet start-ups in a case study format

62. Startups and Angels: Along the way to success by Tim Keane
    Director of the The Golden Angels Network, and entrepreneur-in-residence at The Kohler Center

63. TahoeVC by Robert Goldberg
    About Venture Capital, Business Models and some topics on economic theory

64. Taulli.com by Tom Taulli
    News and analysis of companies on the cutting-edge by author and start-up advisor

65. Tech - Startups - Capital - Ideas by David Feinleib
    Director of Mohr Davidow Ventures

66. Technofile Europe by Max Bleyleben
    European technology deals, entrepreneurship, cool technologies and a bit of culture

67. Texas Startup Blog by Alexander Muse
    Features profiles of Texas startups with a focus on entrepreneurship, venture capital, open source and technology.

68. The Coffee Shops of Mayfair by Paul Fisher
    Associate director of First Capital on European technology, Venture Capital and growth business

69. The Equity Kicker by Nic Brisbourne
    A VC partner (Esprit Capital Partners) view from London on all things Venture Capital

70. The J Curve by Steve Jurvetson
    The J in DFJ

71. The NVA Blog by Ari Newman
    From Newman Venture Advisors, LLC

72. The Perceptions and Reverie of an Investor and Entrepreneur by Bradley Twohig
    Works for Insight Venture Partners

73. The Post Money Value by Rick Segal
    Principal at J.L Albright Venture Partners

74. the vc in me.... by Raj Kapoor
    Managing Director at Silicon Valley Venture Capital firm Mayfield Fund

75. This is going to be BIG! by Charlie O'Donnell
    Previously an analyst for Union Square Ventures

76. Tim Oren's Due Diligence by Tim Oren
    Partner at the Venture Capital firm 'Pacifica Fund'

77. TJ's Weblog by Torsten jacobi
    Start-up entrepreneur onTechnology, Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship

78. Treading the VC waters by Sagi Rubin
    Associate with Gemini Israel Funds, an early stage technology VC

79. Union Square Ventures by Brad Burnham, Fred Wilson, Andrew Parker
    Venture Capital fund located in New York City - Yes, their site is a Blog

80. VC Adventure by Seth Levine
    Principal at Mobius Venture Capital

81. VC Circle by Sahad P.V.
    Assistant editor of Business Today on Indian Venture Capital, Private Equity,

82. VC Confidential by Matt McCall
    Managing Director of DFJ-Portage Venture Partners and Portage Venture Partners

83. VC Ratings: Rating venture capital deals, investors, exits by Joshua Jaffe
    About Venture Capital deals and investors

84. Vcball by Steve Brotman
    Runs Silicon Alley Venture Partners

85. VCMike’s Blog by Mike Hirshland
    General Partner with Polaris Venture Partners in Boston

86. VCMom by Michelle Goldberg
    Principal with Ignition Partners

87. Venture Capital Blogs by Andy Angelos, Ian Cooper
    Blogs from American Venture Magazine

88. Venture Capital Phoenix by Morris Callahan
    Repository of Venture Capital information by a Venture Capitalist and Venture Capital attorney

89. Venture Chronicles by Jeff Nolan
    Former Venture Capitalist for SAP

90. Venture Explorer by Vbuch
    Venture Capitalist based in Menlo Park

91. Venture Intelligence by Arun Natarajan
    Founder of Venture Intelligence, focused on entrepreneurship, Venture Capital and business

92. Venture Law Lines by Suzanne Dingwall Williams
    Fashion forward thoughts of a lawyer and former VC

93. Venture Midwest by Andy Angelos
    American Venture Magazine-Great Lakes Region Editor's blog on technology and Venture Capital

94. Venture Voice by Gregory Galant
    Producer of Venture Voicea podcast that profiles entrepreneurs and Venture Capitalists

95. VentureBeat by Matt Marshall
    Successor to SiliconBeat, founded by a former San Jose News journalist

96. VentureBlog by David Hornik, Andrew Anker, Kevin Laws (Emeritus), Naval Ravikant (Emeritus), Martin Tobias (Emeritus)
    Discusses VC especially on early stage software, infrastructure and Internet related companies

97. VentureInside by Kara Nortman
    Former VC with Battery, now at IAC

98. WayTooEarly by Howard Morgan
    Director of Idealab, and Director of First Round Capital

99. Who Has Time For This? by David Cowan
    Venture Vapital investor at Bessemer Venture Partners

100. Why VC? by Leland Cheung
     Associate at Masthead Venture Partners in Boston, MA

101. Will Price by Will Price
     Partner of Hummer Winblad Venture

102. Yoick – Hightechwire by Randal Leeb-du Toit
     Venture investor and Director of National ICT Australia

103. Ventureblogalist by Rob Finn
     Business Development Associate in a later stage venture firm.

 The list is also posted in Excel or OPML. If you find it useful, you may also like, Andrew Fife’s June post 65 VC & Angel Investor Blogs.

I am sure I missed some, so please let me know if there are any that should be added. If I get enough comments, I’ll post a follow-up list the beginning of the Q1 2007. Enjoy...

Accelerating development by expanding the Development Team – good idea?

I am a huge fan of small high-performance development teams, but in reality, most great start-ups eventually need to grow beyond a small development team.  An entrepreneur/manager needs to do some serious thinking and preparation before expanding the team.  Like many, I am also a fan of Agile/XP development; however I believe many entrepreneurs are challenged with applying Agile/XP approaches to larger teams. A team of less than ten is completely different than a team of 10 or more. 

There are many new complexities introduced by larger team, but I believe the main “friction” is all about communications.  Super smart developers will generally build what they understand as needed, so clear communication is critical.  Possible points of communication grow as the square of team size, so obviously you need to avoid every developer needing to coordinate with everyone else on the team.

So there are three guiding principles that need to be engineered into the development process.  I say this as a former management consultant, second rate developer, and methodology junkie.  In the mid 90s my first start-up pioneered the transformation of client-server methodologies to the then new online web world.   

As a result I have three guiding principles for accelerating development;

1.  Find every opportunity to increase communication efficiency

• Keep the deliverables short term, thus avoiding scope changes – even as the team grows.


• Keep the deliverables short term, thus avoiding “memory drift” (scope changes in the mind of the team)

It’s better to have ten 10 day projects delivering 10 features, rather than a 100 day project delivering 150 features, because the risk of the longer project actually being completed without delay is much, much higher. 

• Use mock code and stubs and example output data, even as the team grows. The length of your specification documents should NOT grow in portion to team headcount. Simple is better! (let the team reverse engineer the solution)

• Always use fake .gif screen shots and html as your specifications (a picture really is worth 1000 words, more pictures less text)

Screen shots will not only improve communications within the development team, the mock-ups will also have a profound impact on communications with managers and other stakeholders. Most users are unwilling or unqualified to inspect functional specification binders, but with screen-shots almost any user can provide meaningful comments. 

• Kick-off your project with a kick-off meeting, and end it with a wrap-up; as team size grows, it is easy to forget to end projects. (projects that never really start, and never really end always have poor communications)

2. Find opportunities for modularization and parallelization

• Break the project into as many pieces as possible, hopefully with each component taking less than 25 man hours to code. (bigger pieces are much more likely to be monolithic and/or overly complex).

Smaller teams are just better! So you must break the components in to logical pieces allowing teams to work as independently as possible from each other. (reducing communications overhead)

• Isolate some teams (aka: encapsulation) - if possible have teams in multiple locations.   

Let’s face it, really great technologist believe everything new is interesting. That is why they are great... but it also means they will want to get involved with other projects.  For example if one team is working on a cutting edge semantic web harvesting approach, and another team is working on a unrelated breakthrough high speed message technology... the teams are going to want to talk... it's fun... it's interesting ... and before you know it, it's “critical” to success that they communicate.. don’t fall for the bullsh*t,  if all teams are interacting with all other teams you will never move your code forward. 

• Don’t isolate teammates within a team; preferably keep everyone in whisper range.   

I think a world class development team should look like a small Wall Street trading desk,  high energy, well compensates, and all sitting very close, yet well connected to the outside resources and surrounded by quiet rooms where a member of the team can be alone.

Of course a development “desk” should be quiet, and trading operations seldom are, but they both should share a commitment to being a high performance meritocracy.

• Organize components so they can be developed in parallel not serially, thus reducing dependencies.

Sooner or later some module will fall behind; don’t have that hold up your entire project.

If a component must be developed in sequence, and has many downstream components dependent on it, consider having two teams develop it in parallel, and use the team that delivers first.

This approach may seem wasteful, but speed is critical to high performance and efficient communications. Sometimes, it is better to pay twice for a component rather than risk holding up an entire project. 

3. Only hire the absolute best Engineers and Developers

Oh where to start?  I will ramble on about recruiting another day … hope this was helpful

Engineering the Quality Assurance Process

I am a big believer in the importance of having a world class QA team, in-house, as core part of any technology start-up. Responsiveness and Rapid Innovation are two of the hallmarks that allow small teams to beat large bureaucracies. The right team, with the right tools can make all the difference.

Over the years, this is what I have found works:

• Hire QA Professionals that view QA as a science and career - not as a stepping stone to something else

• Look for those  experienced with a wide range of testing tools and testing methodologies

• Make sure all QA hires have experience scripting and coding even if it will not be part of their responsibilities

• Hire QA Engineers that have build custom testing tools in the past

• Screen for hires that could get a job as a coder, but instead chose to be a great QA engineer

• Only hire QA Engineers that want to automate testing

• Look for QA Engineers that have a habit of testing early and often

Software Startup Guy, Dharmesh Shah has a great QA post Business Geeks: Automated Software Testing as Competitive Advantage.

Entrepreneur Brian Berliner, the innovator behind the popular Open Source development tool CVS, has some other interesting observations about software quality assurance. If you also are  interested in building great engineering teams you might like his post You Can Pay Me Now, Or…

What is Applied Disruption?

Applied disruption is the act of deploying disruptive technology, usually by means of a startup. It is a deliberate and calculated act, executed with the goal of changing an industry.

Clayton M. Christensen observed in his seminal book The Innovator's Dilemma that disruptive technologies create an environment where startups succeed and large companies have great difficulty competing. Applied Disruption is the creative chaos that start-ups drive to get the advantage.

Although I am a huge fan of Clayton Christiansen, I believe he makes disruptive technology sound passive - as if large companies were caught in the rain… when in actuality … the large companies are being peed on by startups.

Technologies don’t commercialize on their own, entrepreneurs forge them into force through will, intelligence and persistence.

As a serial entrepreneur, I’ve made a career of identifying disruptive technologies and applying them to real problems for real markets and customers. As an avid blog-reader myself, I felt that it was about time that I contributed to the blogosphere, especially with the major technology disruption that is happening right now.  I started this blog to talk about applied disruption; technology evolution, transfer and application; and issues related to creating successful startups.  I apologize in advance for typos, misspellings, etc. and appreciate any comments and advice.