So you’ve a great product, you’ve spent time and money, working tirelessly to make sure that it’s got all the bells and whistles that you think people will love. But how do you know? Does it really reflect what your customers need or want? Both new and established businesses fall into the same trap, thinking: We have a great product, people are going to love it, and we are going to rake in the dough. The main focus is on product development with minimal contact with customers. But not focusing on customers’ needs and wants can break a business. It’s putting the cart before the horse, and unlike in Field of Dreams, if you build it, they won’t necessarily come.

Have you ever noticed that girls always seem to travel in groups at night?  Or that smaller guys at the bar always seems to act tougher when “their boys” are around?  Not so much a coincidence.  People are very much a product of their community (or “tribe” as Seth Godin might point out).  In fact this concept of “community” is a very powerful one.  It’s a pretty democratic idea when you think about it.  Community is what empowers petitions and protests to be such powerful tools.  Community is the power of people.
 
In fact, social media and web 2.0 websites have only made this idea of tribes even more powerful.  Why else would there be well over 40 pages of open “Community Manager” Jobs?  Why would I do what I do at Grasshopper Group and Jason do what he does for oneforty?  Because it works…and businesses need to care about their community now more than ever.  Here are a few reasons why if you don’t have a community manger…you need to hire one:

Last semester, I set out to write my senior thesis for American Studies.  I’d been inspired by a song from the Broadway musical Avenue Q, in which snarky puppets sang about the joys of schadenfreude, or “German for happiness at the misfortune of others.”  Avenue Q’s fuzzy characters honed in on everyday examples of schadenfreude, like “football players getting tackled...CEO’s getting shackled.”  When I heard this song, I came to realize that schadenfreude wasn’t just found in such mundane experiences as seeing someone miss the train, but that it was actually a far more widespread cultural phenomenon and a key component within the realm of social media.

Finding someone to start a venture with you is tough business. Being a newlywed and finding many similarities between this and getting married, I always tend to associate seeking a cofounder with dating. So, I've assembled five tips for you that should help set the mood.

 A few terms in the technology industry are frequently misused and misunderstood:
 
 - Web 2.0
 - The cloud
 - Agile
 - NoSQL
 - HTML5
 
I’d like to examine one of those terms, “the cloud”, from the ground, as a web developer who works mostly with Boston startups.

Starting and growing companies that become or have the potential to become huge, is a goal of several initiatives and members of the entrepreneurial community in the Boston area. The reasoning behind this is the premise that huge companies provide a proving ground and talent resource that feeds the local start-up economy.

 So let's do a little research to observe this effect and see the companies that can be traced back to a local behemoth in our area. Since EMC is the 800 pound gorilla in our woods, that should be a great place to start.

As per the title of this post you might guess that I'm not going to pull any punches and I'm not. I am here to tell you flat out, if you are working on an early stage web startup and you have more business types then engineers on your team that you're doing something wrong. That's it, there is nothing more to it.

[Update]: Jason has told me that three sentences does not warrant a guest blog post and as I promised him a post I have to elaborate on my point a bit. So, let me start by providing you with a little history and some background on this point.

All too often I hear people mutter, “It’s just so tough to get funding here,” or “Our startup is doing well, but people just don’t ‘get it’ here,” or “We’re going to have to move to Silicon Valley if we want to ever make it.” Most of the time, they’re wrong. Here is my un-scholarly perspective from my experience after seeing over 400 new startup ventures launched in over 40 cities. 

Start a business while in college! In fact, read Jason’s post for 10 reasons why you should. HOWEVER, be aware of some nasty challenges that are hard to accept and hard to deal with. Here are the four greatest ones I have faced: 
  
1. Time hates you
2. Projects are not startups
3. Mad skills and tract records are limited
4. Opportunities are costly

Start a business while in college! In fact, read Jason’s post for 10 reasons why you should. HOWEVER, be aware of some nasty challenges that are hard to accept and hard to deal with. Here are the four greatest ones I have faced: 
  
1. Time hates you
2. Projects are not startups
3. Mad skills and tract records are limited
4. Opportunities are costly