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Just in time for the holidays, Instigator Blog has it’s very own line of clothes!

OK, that’s not entirely true…but check out these Instigator Pants a friend of mine, Alistair Croll, found at a store recently. He thought of me, snapped a picture and sent it along:

No surprise, these are top of the line pants…with articulated knees no less! I’m not much of an alpine climber mind you, but I’ve yet to find any pants with a cooler name.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

I want to wish everyone a happy holidays and a great New Year. I may be posting tidbits throughout the holidays, and then ramping it up again in January. 2009 is going to be an absolutely insane year.

Best wishes to you and yours. Have fun, be safe and keep instigating…

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Experienced entrepreneurs (who have “been there, done that”) often ask the question, “So, what keeps you up at night?”

Short answer: My kids. And more specifically, my younger son, Quinn Alexander Yoskovitz, who recently turned 1 year old. He’s been a bit under the weather, teething like a werewolf and grumpy like a seriously-constipated old man (and if you’ve ever met one of those, you know what I’m talking about!) This all translates into a complete lack of sleep. For the past year I’ve lived on about 4-5 hours of sleep per night. Some nights are better. Some are worse. A couple nights ago I got a grand total of 2 hours of sleep! The night ended (and the day started) with me driving Quinn around the city so he’d sleep in the car. A large coffee, bagel, triple shot cappuccino and chocolate biscotti later, I dragged my ass home, exhausted (having driven around for 1.5 hours), with a vicious stomach ache. That was some day!

On a positive note, look how freaking cute he is…

(That’s Quinn’s older brother Sam in the right picture.) But enough about those darn kids…what else keeps me awake at night?

Well, there’s this little thing called Standout Jobs that keeps me fairly occupied during the day. And running a startup will keep the most easygoing of us awake at night.

All of that combined helps explain why I haven’t posted here as much as I’d like. But this isn’t about making excuses, I really do what to get some things off my chest (and hopefully these thoughts prove useful too!) So here are a few other things that keep me awake at night…

4 More Things That Keep Me Awake at Night

1. The Difference Between Quick and Rash Decisions. CEOs and startup founders are forced to make a lot of decisions. It comes with the territory. And if you’re not a veteran entrepreneur you won’t have a lot of past experience to rely on. And you have to make the decisions quickly. Like … right now. Hurry up. Come on! Slow startups fail. You know it, and it means you have to make a ton of critical decisions constantly & very quickly. But are you making rash decisions? Quick and rash go hand-in-hand, but you don’t want to make rash decisions, because they’ll usually be the wrong ones. I don’t have a solid answer at the moment, and I think this is a subject I could explore in a lot more detail later on.
2. Hiring Great People. If you’re not worried about hiring great people and making the right personnel decisions you’re doing something wrong. Seriously. And for a startup like Standout Jobs which is right at the threshold of evolving from a technology company to a sales/marketing company those hiring decisions become even harder. We know how to hire great technical talent…but hiring outside our comfort zone is another story.
3. Puzzles. I think of startups like puzzles – at least the kind that have multiple ways of reaching the same conclusion. There’s no one absolute answer to a successful startup, but there are still a million pieces that all have to fit together properly at some point. A lot of this comes down to managing the day-to-day operations effectively. That’s something I have a good handle on, but as you start to think about longer term strategic initiatives, future product development, sales strategies, etc. … the puzzle keeps my head buzzing.
4. My Health. Startup founders can’t balance everything all the time. It’s impossible. Something has to give. It’s not that you can’t achieve some amount of balance (and truth be told, you have to keep laughing about things otherwise you’re doomed!) but from time to time things will suffer. In my case that’s my eating habits. You’re in a rush, you eat crap. You’re tired, you eat more crap. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

So why do it?

The answer is simple: This is what I love to do. It’s what I was meant to do. No one said it’d be easy, but you don’t ask a professional hockey player why he suffers through all the aches, pains, injuries, ups and downs, etc. to play hockey at the highest level, right? They’re trying to be the best. They’re trying to win. They’re trying to make tons of money. And they love what they do.

The same holds true for startup entrepreneurs. Why go through it all? You better damn well love it…

And on that note, what keeps you awake at night? Please share!

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We all know how vigorous and serious Apple is about their brand. Even when there’s a hiccup. Apple’s mastered the product launch, and gets everyone talking about them constantly.

The biggest lesson from Apple is really how far they’ll go to create a specific image to maintain and enhance their brand.

Apple’s currently planning to open a superstore in Montreal.

Great news for Mac fans.

And now we have news that Apple asked the city to remove 3 parking meters from in front of where the store will be to “simplify the look.” Parking meters are ugly after all – hardly representative of the Apple brand.

Apple was willing to compensate the city for lost revenues over 5 years. And guess what the city said? No.

It could have been a very interesting PR move for the city. They’d be promoting a reduction in traffic downtown (one of their goals), promoting the economy, and be able to climb on the back of Apple even further to promote Montreal as a cosmopolitan, techno-savvy place.

As the article says, “But bureaucrats say no; that’s what they do. ‘We’ve never done it before, so we can’t.’”

It makes me wonder what a city would look like if Apple managed it? What would Apple City look like?

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The weather is beautiful

The people there complain about the fog, but that’s just silliness. Come visit Montreal in February. Then talk to me about fog.

The city is nice

They’ve got the ocean, mountains and a vibrant city. The earthquake thing isn’t great, but get a sturdy a desk to hide under and you should be fine, right?

The startup community is unbeatable

I love the YCombinator system and got a chance to learn a lot about how it all works while I was there. Of course there are a ton of non-YCombinator startups doing incredible work as well…

So are you really moving to the Valley?

No, I’m not. But the thought certainly crossed my mind.

Mostly, this is because of how many people asked me if and when I was moving.

The question came from venture capitalists and entrepreneurs alike. It seemed natural and obvious to them that I should move there, because that’s “where it all happens.” They’re not entirely wrong.

And I’m not the only one thinking about this. Scott Kirsner noted that several of the entrepreneurs recently presenting at YCombinator Demo Day in Boston are planning a move to the Valley.

“The VCs more adventurous. The partnership opportunities more plentiful. The potential for generating buzz better.”

All true. I think cities like Boston (and Montreal) can do a lot to build a great startup ecosystem, but it’s going to take a ton of work. And it won’t be easy.

Meanwhile, I have no immediate plans to move to San Francisco. I absolutely believe that startups can succeed outside of the Valley fishbowl (here’s hoping I prove that true!) Mind you…perpetual Spring weather…hhhmmm…

Photos by lloydi, brandonwardlaw

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Starting a company is tough. Expect plenty of mistakes, and lots of lessons learned. You’ll have moments of sheer panic and other moments of absolute euphoria. It’s a roller coaster ride.

But don’t take things too seriously. Some things are more important than work. It might not feel that way from time to time, and in some instances work will be the one and only priority, but the minute you take things too seriously you’re digging yourself a hole.

Standout Jobs is a crazy startup. Tons of moving pieces, crazy deadlines, high expectations and plenty of stress. But I try to avoid getting overwhelmed…my older son Sam, helps.

I brought him to the office recently (forgot his daycare was closed and couldn’t miss an important meeting) and we had some fun. I introduced him to the team, played some golf and ran around the huge, empty space. We’re squatting at the moment in a 6,600 square foot downtown office, taking up one tiny corner. Lots of room for Sam (and me!) to have some fun.

But everything isn’t fun and games! We’re still looking for great Ruby on Rails developers, so I thought it was time to get Sam on the computer. He’s a fast typist, just not terribly accurate:

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SOBCon 07 is fast approaching, with a great number of outstanding bloggers descending on Chicago for the 2-day event: May 11-12th.

You can still sign-up. It’s only $350. Compared to some of the prices I’ve seen for similar events, it’s a good deal.

Lots of great speakers will be presenting. Andy Sernovitz. Liz Strauss. David Armano. And lots more…

Feel free to check out the full schedule.

Everyone’s giving you lots of reasons to attend. All of them valid. But I thought I’d flip the message around, and ask, Why shouldn’t you attend?

1. You Don’t Like Blogging. It’s true after all: blogging is a fad. Kind of like email. And no good comes out of it either…Bloody waste of time connecting with people, earning a living, having fun. Who wants all of that?
2. You Don’t Like People. I’m with you on this one. Who wants to meet smart, amazing, engaging people who will openly help and guide you? Meeting people sucks. They’re always breathing too close, or shaking your hand, or listening to your stories, or connecting you with others, or becoming clients, mentors and friends. Who needs all of that?
3. Your Blog Is Already Perfect. You have enough traffic. You have enough links back. You’ve got hundreds of thousands of RSS feed subscribers. Six book deals. A movie about your life is in the works. You hit the front page of digg every day and other bloggers worship at your feet. If that’s the case, please don’t come, you’ll only embarrass the rest of us!
4. You Smell. I can’t help you much here. Take a bath and get your butt to Chicago.
5. You Hate Me. For starters, I’m speaking. So if you hate me, you’ll be stuck listening to me ramble about some nonsense, all the time wishing you could throw stuff at me (please don’t!) And secondly, I really don’t want to see you. I mean, you hate me. That’s not very nice.

   Luckily, there’s only a handful of people that hate me, and a few more that find me mildly distasteful…right?

So there you have it. Five reasons not to attend SOBCon 07. Pretty compelling stuff if I do say so myself. And I do, cause I wrote it.

SOBCon 07 is going to be a lot of fun. And I suspect a mind-blowing learning experience.

I can’t wait to meet so many of the people I’m already interacting with online on a regular basis; people that have quickly grown into friends. And so many of the attendees I don’t know at all, which gives me an even bigger opportunity to connect, network and have fun.

We’ll see you in Chicago…

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The folks at Pronet Advertising have just released a Flash-based online game called Search Engine Smackdown.

The game is simple – pick a fighter – Larry or Sergey from Google, Bill or Paul from Microsoft, Jerry or David from Yahoo, and duke it out by answering a number of search engine related questions.

How many people will really pick Bill Gates as their fighter of choice? Come on!

Some of the questions are easy, but others are definitely a bit more challenging. And, most of the questions are quite interesting too. You’ll have some fun and you might just learn something too!

I’ve already asked them to add a Pause button, and I’m sure they’ll make a handful of improvements over time.

Go play Search Engine Smackdown!

This is a great example of buzz marketing at its finest. It’s fun, catchy, and helps Pronet extend and develop its brand and reputation in the markets where it does business. Nice job.

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It seems likely they will. Blogging is already darn close to being mainstream, and with the volume of social networks out there, including those geared to young people, it wouldn’t shock me if every kid on the planet had a blog someday.

My son is no exception. He’s almost two and a half.

At dinner I was talking to my wife about blogging. I said the word “blogger” a few times.

My son repeated me and said, “blogger.” (He’s got an amazing vocabulary for his age, don’t ya know! You should hear him say “humongous.” Anyway…)

He said the word twice, then looked at me and said, “I have a blogger in my nose.”

Yup, all the kids are going to be bloggers. And they’ll still be plagued by boogers.

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Do You Know Where Your Nuts Are?

Um…yes? I think so…I hope so…

[tags]weblogs, blogging, writing headlines, humor, funny blogs[/tags]

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Robyn Tippins and Shawn Hessinger tag teamed me with the “5 things” meme. I’d previously been slammed with the 5 things meme bug by Leah Maclean, and I had a tough enough time with that!

But after days of deliberation I’ve come up with 5 more things you didn’t know about me…until just now (assuming you keep reading; please do…)

1. I once wrote a book. It was called The Buzzword Bingo Book: The Complete, Definitive Guide to the Underground Workplace Game of Doublespeak. Technically it was co-written, but it’s a long story. I had 15 minutes of fame back in 1998 with buzzword bingo (more like 20-25 minutes actually.) Made it into the Wall Street Journal and everything. Before blogging took off (or even existed?)
2. In my senior year of highschool I played football – defensive tackle. I wasn’t particularly good, but the team needed some warm bodies to play. Apparently I was warm enough. More than anything this shows you the vast difference between Canadian and US highschool sports. I don’t think there’s a single highschool in the United States where I would have been big or strong enough to play football.
3. I’ve never smoked in my life. I’ve never even tried it, not once. Not a single puff, drag or taste. Never ever. Smoking just never appealed to me (and the peer pressure wasn’t strong enough I guess.) Having said that I was far from a choir boy…
4. Actually, I was a choir boy. Way back when I sang in the choir until my voice cracked horribly and I sounded like a dying sheep. That was the end of that. But back in those days the Anglican private school I went to (I’m not Anglican if you’re wondering) took choir pretty seriously. We even toured around.
5. I used to listen to Raising Hell by Run DMC nonstop. I’m not much of a rap or hip hop fan these days, but back in Grade 6, 7 and 8 (or thereabouts) Run DMC was it. I still think it’s a great album.

Now that I’ve suitably embarrassed myself I think I’ll leave it at that. This has been a very fun meme but everything has to disappear into the sunset eventually.

I do appreciate Robyn and Shawn thinking about me and tagging me…