Working at a startup should be a labor of love. The hours can be long and the pay can be modest, but for many people, the culture can’t be beat.

Most startup founders are incredibly passionate and dedicated – and these qualities permeate the entire organization. In fact, startup companies often engender an entrepreneurial culture that lives long after the early days, inspiring employees to spin out and create entirely new companies with what they have learned.

A key challenge for startup executives, though, is filling their staff with competent, motivated employees that share their vision and passion – and not people who want to punch in at nine and punch out at five, with a two-hour lunch in-between.

Contrary to popular belief, youth isn’t a critical factor in the process. For a team to operate at maximum efficiency, there has to be a constructive mix of different experiences, complementary skill-sets, industry relationships, ages and personality types. Every new hire brings a balance of skills, traits, experience and relationships. Finding the right balance (or compromise) is the key, and this needs to be done in the context of both the specific job and the broader organization. (more…)

In the aftermath of the economic meltdown, investment firms are under a more intense level of scrutiny than ever. And the private equity and venture capital sectors are working to efficiently transition out of a deep and widespread crisis through onerous legal and regulatory constraints.

Navigating a labyrinth of SEC laws that date back over 70 years, while pushing venture capital and private equity into the 21st Century requires the flexibility of a yogi, creativity of an artist and attention to detail of a corporate finance attorney.  The combination of talents demanded by firms that will reshape the future of our industry is not unlike the unification of talents that enables portfolio companies to become tomorrow’s game-changers.

As the financial industry attempts to adapt to all this change, it’s worth looking at the future of the investment and how it can be used to optimize existing technologies. Along the way, can it also break down the barriers to solving the world’s most critical issues? (more…)

When Google launches new services, they often gets a lot of hype (see: Wave, Buzz). Unfortunately, they don’t always live up to that hype (see: Wave, Buzz). But one service that Google launched last year definitely has: Google Voice. Sadly, it has only been open to those with invites. But starting today, it is open to all. Google Voice started as GrandCentral, a startup launched in 2006 to revolutionize phone management on the web. Google quickly snapped it up in 2007 for over $50 million. For the next two years, it went through a metamorphosis. During that time, some wondered if it was yet another service that Google bought and let die.

But in 2009, it emerged as the Google Voice butterfly. The “early preview” of Google Voice that Google unveiled last year has since undergone a number of changes. Notably, SMS now works better, a Chrome extension makes it simple to keep on top of everything, and there’s a great mobile web app. (more…)

Five months ago, right around the time that Andrey Ternovskiy was building Chatroulette, no one could have predicted that being “nexted” would become the modern day equivalent to a rite of passage.
But after three days of coding, Ternovskiy introduced his pet project for random video chat to friends, then users of Web forums, and from there things just spiraled.
When the New York Times talked to the 17 year-old Ternovskiy earlier in the month, he confessed that, “Last month I saw 30 million unique visitors come to the Web site and one million new people visit each day. It continues to multiply and I just couldn’t stop it from growing.”
Chatroulette’s astronomical growth, while impressive, tends to be tainted by the prevalence of penises, and other naughty bits, that seem to go unchecked (there is a “Report” button) due to anonymity. But, as is the case when something hits a nerve with the population, Chatroulette has spawned a slew of copycats and one-off apps. Clearly there’s more to this cultural phenomenon than what initially accosts the eye. (more…)

Sounding more like a banned iPhone app than a tablet, the iPed is exactly what you’re probably thinking: a Chinese knockoff. Now available (!!!) in Shenzhen, China, the iPed is an Intel-driven, Android-based copycat packaged like an Apple product and, to be honest… it doesn’t look half bad. An Android device for ¥9,600 ($105)? Yes, please.

However, this device isn’t without its shortcomings. From the looks of this video, it’s mighty, mighty slow. Though allegedly powered by an Intel chip, the device apparently only sports up to 16gigs of space, and runs on 128mb of RAM – in this technological climate, barely enough to power a calculator.

Whatever the case, this is by and large the most impressive ripoff from China I’ve ever seen – much better than, say, the KenSingTon ‘Chintendo Vii’ (which I swear is also a real product) – and proves one thing, if nothing else: they’re getting better (and faster) at this. Give ‘em another decade and Apple may want to consider taking this copycat business a mite more seriously.

Behold, as bewildered Japanese newscasters weigh in on the iPed’s sudden appearance on the Chinese market.