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You should know by now that I’m a huge nerd. One of my prouder nerdy accomplishments was developing the MLS Elo ratings. Since posting those ratings and the pdf file that explains how I formulated everything I’ve received a couple e-mails a month from people asking for advice on how to do something similar or just thanking me for the work I’ve done.

There’s nothing cooler than getting emails like this from people. So if you’re building something, put it out there for people to see. The response you get may surprise you.

The Portland Timbers just put out a 3D design of what PGE Park will look like after the renovations to make it soccer-specific. It’s pretty awesome as you can see below.

That’s not the only awesome part though. They’ve also partnered with io-media to create a really cool application where you can see the view of the field from every seat. And here’s the best part, they put a little easter egg on the scoreboard for Timbers fans at the expense of their biggest rivals, the Seattle Sounders.

It’s little things like this that make me smile when I’m busting away at code all day.

In the past few days I’ve come across two good blog posts about the makeup of a team in a startup company.

The first is Hackers and Hustlers from the Learn to Duck blog by Micah Baldwin. This advice is for the earliest of early stage companies and lays out the two people you need; a Hacker and a Hustler, obviously. I had heard people talk about this same idea before as “you need someone to make the product and someone to sell the product” but I really like Hacker and Hustler a lot more.

A Hacker is more than a code monkey, who can quickly build software and find interesting ways to hack together code. That’s a developer. That’s someone who is definitely an important part of a startup, but not critical to its success. A Hacker is someone who looks the problem, and solves it in a unique and special way.

A Hustler on the other hand is a relationship builder. Someone who can build direct relationships with their customers. They aren’t really promoters, although they do a lot of promotion. They aren’t salespeople, although they do a lot of selling. They are passion people. They have the ability to articulate their passion clearly and in a way that gets other people equally passionate.

There’s a lot more good stuff in that post, so check it out.

The second is The Power of “In Person” – Why Distributed Teams are Less Effective by Mark Suster at Both Sides of the Table. He lists 7 traits he looks for in a startup team that make him believe they have a strong chance of success. The overarching theme being that, despite all of the great conferencing tools out there today, working together in the same space leads to “a certain magic” that helps companies succeed.

1. CEO, VP Products and CTO must all be in the physical location.  If they’re not I won’t fund.  Because the formation of a business is so dependent on “product / market fit” these are the critical roles for me.  Also, founders who pitch me when they themselves live in separate locations don’t get very far with me.  I’ve heard the line a million times, “one of us will move after we’re funded.”  I know, I know.  But if your business is super important to you then have the hard discussion up front and one of you should consider moving.

Bonus third post! Lance tackles this first trait a little further with Three Peas In A Pod over at Force of Good.

I like talking about Hulu for some reason. Maybe it’s because I use the service so much, maybe it’s because I feel like I understand the mind of the average tv watcher, I don’t know.

There was a pretty interesting article on TechDirt last week about why Hulu may be too nice for their own good. The basic gist of the article is that because they are owned by the content creators they are not able to innovate in a way that makes them a viable alternative.

If Hulu were a truly independent business, the main focus of that business would be to flat-out disrupt the monopoly cable TV business. That’s a huge opportunity. But, of course, Hulu’s owners don’t want that, because they’re in this neat symbiotic relationship with the cable companies

It’s a very interesting problem and one I certainly agree isn’t solved yet. Unfortunately I’m starting to realize that we’re further away from it than I originally thought.