Great thoughts about team building and the “it” factor enforcing some of the points that I’ve made on my personal blog. Kudos to Sean Cheyney for recognizing the “terminally mediocre team” problem that haunts so many large organizations but more importantly, could be a recipe for failure in any start-up.

Some good points in Jason Cohen’s post today on VentureBeat about the mistakes that entrepreneurs often make when pitching to angel investors.

I like what I read on WSJ Blogs about Facebook and Zappos different views on worker retention. They were once start-ups too. Clearly, both are successful examples but there are definitely models out there that cleverly and effectively combine both approaches. I’m sure that in some way, both companies actually do practice each other’s retention philosophy.

I believe that if you’re a start-up, it all starts with hiring the right people with the right mindset and then encouraging an entrepreneurial and driven work environment. One without the other is completely self-defeating.

Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank does a nice job of breaking down the profiles of start-up people by categorizing them based on when they join (or want to join) the endeavor. I especially like how he highlights the common theme of  ”chaos and uncertainty” as something to be comfortable with. I couldn’t agree more:

Do you have what it takes to be a founder?

I’ve written previously about Personal and Professional Branding. In my universe, the two are closely related. My hobbies are as much about business as my professional career is. Further, I find that my network gets the most value out of my status updates when they relate to interesting business topics rather than random and useless (in my opinion) rants. I enjoy marketing my business’ brand as an extension of my own and vice versa. For those that can relate to this counterintuitive insanity, I offer my preferred time-saving solution…

Read the rest of this post on Max Sobol : Brainwork.

I wanted to point out a couple of interesting articles today.

Chris Dixon talks about the ideal startup career path over on his blog. I agree completely and have been a recent fan of his thoughts and ideas. Further, he discusses and quotes a point that Aaron Cohen makes that “…you shouldn’t think of joining a start-up as just joining a company. You should think of it as joining the start-up career path.”

Will Herman via VentureBeat talks about how auto racing and start-ups aren’t that different. Admittedly, I am not that much of a fan of auto racing but I can appreciate the correlation and think that his points are absolutely valuable. ”It’s often easy to get caught with your head down, focused on near-term problems and opportunities while ignoring the big picture and where the new enterprise should be headed.”

On my personal blog Max Sobol : Brainwork, I put together some thoughts related to building startups.

When building your business, don’t get bogged down with administrative perfection. Instead, just get it done with the best’ish approach to each pressing need.

When building your team, choose wisely and don’t settle for mediocrity. Choose true players that “get it”, celebrate group victories and push onward through group failures.

When building your operation, capitalize on your team dynamic by being a smart employer. Focus on what’s important in an effort to maximize productivity and minimize attrition.