The Hacker News community is a gem among the vast Internet sea. You will always find interesting companies and interesting stories at the YCombinator-owned website. A few days ago, a member asked the community to rate his start up. That start-up is AtomKeep, a very intriguing service that you should be aware of.

AtomKeep has a very simple function - allow you to update your online profiles all at one place. Your Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook profiles can all be adjusted from this website. Your work history, your personal info, your favorite movies, all of it.

I immediately had to try it out.

The first thing to do is to sync your other Internet profiles to AtomKeep. When you first sync accounts, you can immediately import your info from Yelp, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. to fill in your overall AtomKeep profile, another smart timesaver by its creators. Afterwards, you can simply edit your AtomKeep profile and then sync it, thus updating all of your user profiles.

Really I’ve explained everything about the service, so let me simply give you the pros and cons of the service as it stands today.

Pros

• Simple, clean, and fast-loading interface
• Easy to fill in your AtomKeep profile with your Facebook/Linkedin/Yelp Profile
• Confirms that it updated your info and gives you warnings of failures
• Very few clicks to update a profile
• A Time Saver

Cons

• Needs better instructions for new users, especially ones
• Broke my Twitter profile
• Failed to update my Yelp profile
• I’m skeptical about a business model

Overall, it’s an incredible new service that will only continue to improve. One of its founders has stated that compatibility with Digg and Google Profiles are in the works and, even more ambitious, a plan to add any site yourself. That’s a bit ambitious, though. They need to focus on getting the key services compatible before working on such a grand project.

There are many questions and issues that remain - the business model, whether this has any value to people who don’t use 20 different online services like I do, keeping up with the profile changes of these major services - but AtomKeep has certainly caught my attention.

- Ben

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The Hacker News community is a gem among the vast Internet sea. You will always find interesting companies and interesting stories at the YCombinator-owned website. A few days ago, a member asked the community to rate his start up. That start-up is AtomKeep, a very intriguing service that you should be aware of.

AtomKeep has a very simple function - allow you to update your online profiles all at one place. Your Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook profiles can all be adjusted from this website. Your work history, your personal info, your favorite movies, all of it.

I immediately had to try it out.

The first thing to do is to sync your other Internet profiles to AtomKeep. When you first sync accounts, you can immediately import your info from Yelp, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. to fill in your overall AtomKeep profile, another smart timesaver by its creators. Afterwards, you can simply edit your AtomKeep profile and then sync it, thus updating all of your user profiles.

Really I’ve explained everything about the service, so let me simply give you the pros and cons of the service as it stands today.

Pros

• Simple, clean, and fast-loading interface
• Easy to fill in your AtomKeep profile with your Facebook/Linkedin/Yelp Profile
• Confirms that it updated your info and gives you warnings of failures
• Very few clicks to update a profile
• A Time Saver

Cons

• Needs better instructions for new users, especially ones
• Broke my Twitter profile
• Failed to update my Yelp profile
• I’m skeptical about a business model

Overall, it’s an incredible new service that will only continue to improve. One of its founders has stated that compatibility with Digg and Google Profiles are in the works and, even more ambitious, a plan to add any site yourself. That’s a bit ambitious, though. They need to focus on getting the key services compatible before working on such a grand project.

There are many questions and issues that remain - the business model, whether this has any value to people who don’t use 20 different online services like I do, keeping up with the profile changes of these major services - but AtomKeep has certainly caught my attention.

- Ben

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Every so often I do some consulting on internet tools, optimization, and early-stage entrepreneurship. Today, I had the pleasure of sitting down with a beautiful woman, a college entrepreneur, trying to start an internet service. The difficulty for her and her partner? Finding a partner with the programming experience they lack.

It’s tough to enter the internet space without having coding experience. I myself have been learning PHP on the side so I can personally build all of the ideas in my head. However, that lack of experience should not, by any means, stop you from realizing your dreams of building your idea to fruition. While I do suggest learning some code so you at least understand what can and can’t be done with PHP, Ruby on Rails, or whichever language you choose, you’re going to want someone with the experience and skill to get it done. Yes, you could outsource your idea to a firm to build it, but you’re not going to get the same passion and commitment to the project and to the customers as you will have.

I gave her a few resources for finding a non-programming partner, and I wanted to share a few of them with you. Almost all of them are actually links from YCombinator’s Hacker News, but you’re not going to be disappointed with the conversations and advice given in the links below. Also a quick thanks to the Startups Wiki YC Archive for most of the links.

• What should a Striving non-programmer do?
• Can Hackers (aka Coders) and Non-Hackers Cofound?
• Keeping and Recruiting a Hacker as a Non-Hacker
• Finding a Co-founder (out of the three sites he lists, partnerup.com is the best)
• Best sites for finding good web programmers?
• Any suggestions on places to find good freelance developers?
• How to hire a Computer Programmer

And as a bonus (and because I love Ittybiz),

• 32 Must reads for home business success (I don’t care if you are starting a home business or not, all of the rules still apply).

Hope this helps some of you!

- Ben

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Every so often I do some consulting on internet tools, optimization, and early-stage entrepreneurship. Today, I had the pleasure of sitting down with a beautiful woman, a college entrepreneur, trying to start an internet service. The difficulty for her and her partner? Finding a partner with the programming experience they lack.

It’s tough to enter the internet space without having coding experience. I myself have been learning PHP on the side so I can personally build all of the ideas in my head. However, that lack of experience should not, by any means, stop you from realizing your dreams of building your idea to fruition. While I do suggest learning some code so you at least understand what can and can’t be done with PHP, Ruby on Rails, or whichever language you choose, you’re going to want someone with the experience and skill to get it done. Yes, you could outsource your idea to a firm to build it, but you’re not going to get the same passion and commitment to the project and to the customers as you will have.

I gave her a few resources for finding a non-programming partner, and I wanted to share a few of them with you. Almost all of them are actually links from YCombinator’s Hacker News, but you’re not going to be disappointed with the conversations and advice given in the links below. Also a quick thanks to the Startups Wiki YC Archive for most of the links.

• What should a Striving non-programmer do?
• Can Hackers (aka Coders) and Non-Hackers Cofound?
• Keeping and Recruiting a Hacker as a Non-Hacker
• Finding a Co-founder (out of the three sites he lists, partnerup.com is the best)
• Best sites for finding good web programmers?
• Any suggestions on places to find good freelance developers?
• How to hire a Computer Programmer

And as a bonus (and because I love Ittybiz),

• 32 Must reads for home business success (I don’t care if you are starting a home business or not, all of the rules still apply).

Hope this helps some of you!

- Ben

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Yesterday, I was an attendee at the 2008 Chicago TECHCocktail Conference. It was an amazing conference with some amazing speakers (one of which, Gary Vaynerchuk, will be making a guest post soon). But I’m not here to talk about that.

I’m here to talk about business cards.

Most business cards are dull and lack any reason to notice. Most are discarded without thought. You’re at a conference to network. Hell, everywhere is a chance to network. How do you make sure someone remembers you or takes even an extra second to look at your business card?

There are three ways:

• 1) Make beautiful and memorable designs
• 2) Make your card interactive
• 2) Make your card personalized

For #1, I suggest visiting Creative Bits, which has an image library of some amazing card designs. I attached one of my favorites to the right: a lawn company that actually gives away seeds in their cards. I’d always remember a card like that, or at least give it a second glance.

For #2 and #3, I’m going to use my current cards as an example. I decided to individualize my cards. I did this by placing a fortune on every card.

The front tells you to do something. That’s the interactive part. I wrote a different fortune on the back of every single card. That’s the personalized part.

Take a look:

I’m sure I’ll be updating these cards soon with better designs, but the interactivity and personalization will remain. I got great reactions from the cards.

One last thing, I never said “here’s my card.” I always said, “Here’s a Fortune Cookie” Always caught them off guard and piqued interest.

Little things add up.

- Ben

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Yesterday, I was an attendee at the 2008 Chicago TECHCocktail Conference. It was an amazing conference with some amazing speakers (one of which, Gary Vaynerchuk, will be making a guest post soon). But I’m not here to talk about that.

I’m here to talk about business cards.

Most business cards are dull and lack any reason to notice. Most are discarded without thought. You’re at a conference to network. Hell, everywhere is a chance to network. How do you make sure someone remembers you or takes even an extra second to look at your business card?

There are three ways:

• 1) Make beautiful and memorable designs
• 2) Make your card interactive
• 2) Make your card personalized

For #1, I suggest visiting Creative Bits, which has an image library of some amazing card designs. I attached one of my favorites to the right: a lawn company that actually gives away seeds in their cards. I’d always remember a card like that, or at least give it a second glance.

For #2 and #3, I’m going to use my current cards as an example. I decided to individualize my cards. I did this by placing a fortune on every card.

The front tells you to do something. That’s the interactive part. I wrote a different fortune on the back of every single card. That’s the personalized part.

Take a look:

I’m sure I’ll be updating these cards soon with better designs, but the interactivity and personalization will remain. I got great reactions from the cards.

One last thing, I never said “here’s my card.” I always said, “Here’s a Fortune Cookie” Always caught them off guard and piqued interest.

Little things add up.

- Ben

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There are very few entrepreneurial groups on Facebook that don’t offer something you can’t find on another website or are extensions of someone’s blogging. These three, however, peaked my interest because of the resources and discussions occurring in each of them and I highly encourage everyone to join them. Don’t forget to comment if you know of any other groups to add to this list!

• 1) Web 2.0 (Entrepreneurs): This is the FIRST group you should join. Over 40,000 members collaborating on Entrepreneurship in the internet space. Officers of the group include Kevin Rose of Digg, blogger Michael Arrington, Slide and Paypal founder Max Levchin, and the list goes on. But it isn’t the people in it that makes this a useful group. It has links to early-stage funds and incubators, resources for new entrepreneurs, and discussions on Web 2.0 Entrepreneurship on the boards.



• 2) Join a Startup: Now THIS is an interesting way to find and join a start-up company. Postings are up-to-date and relevant, and you have the option to sift through all of the comments and thoughts on most of the companies. If you are seeking someone to join your team, this isn’t a bad place, either, with 5000+ members and growing. Just be respectful. I suggest posting a video explaining your opportunity and introducing your workplace and some of your team.



• 3) Young Entrepreneur’s Network: Argh, grammatical errors, but who cares! This group’s useful! it’s regularly updated and there’s a slew of young entrepreneurs and (hopeful) world changers to meet, connect with, and network. There’s also some interesting threads that will provoke some thought.

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There are very few entrepreneurial groups on Facebook that don’t offer something you can’t find on another website or are extensions of someone’s blogging. These three, however, peaked my interest because of the resources and discussions occurring in each of them and I highly encourage everyone to join them. Don’t forget to comment if you know of any other groups to add to this list!

• 1) Web 2.0 (Entrepreneurs): This is the FIRST group you should join. Over 40,000 members collaborating on Entrepreneurship in the internet space. Officers of the group include Kevin Rose of Digg, blogger Michael Arrington, Slide and Paypal founder Max Levchin, and the list goes on. But it isn’t the people in it that makes this a useful group. It has links to early-stage funds and incubators, resources for new entrepreneurs, and discussions on Web 2.0 Entrepreneurship on the boards.



• 2) Join a Startup: Now THIS is an interesting way to find and join a start-up company. Postings are up-to-date and relevant, and you have the option to sift through all of the comments and thoughts on most of the companies. If you are seeking someone to join your team, this isn’t a bad place, either, with 5000+ members and growing. Just be respectful. I suggest posting a video explaining your opportunity and introducing your workplace and some of your team.



• 3) Young Entrepreneur’s Network: Argh, grammatical errors, but who cares! This group’s useful! it’s regularly updated and there’s a slew of young entrepreneurs and (hopeful) world changers to meet, connect with, and network. There’s also some interesting threads that will provoke some thought.

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An article today in the Mashable Blog had me thinking about Facebook and social networking in general. Before I continue with this article, disclaimer: I have interviewed with Facebook for a position in the past and I am partly responsible for Facebook’s biggest PR disaster, the Students Against Facebook News Feed Controversy.

The article, if you don’t care to read it, is basically reaction to a very surprising Mashable poll where over 75% of respondents were, in some way, fed up or annoyed with Facebook as it currently stands. I’ve heard complaints from people stating that profile pages are too cluttered (though a profile redesign addresses this problem) to applications are useless to restrictions on both users an developers are not adequately balanced.

People in the blogosphere have compared Facebook to the next AOL (they once had a great business model and all the momentum and then poof!) or the next Myspace (spammy and losing usefulness). Though I think a lot of these comparisons are unfair and unfounded, there’s a reason these comparisons are appearing in the first place. Expectations for Facebook are lofty. It has been collecting the best talent of Silicon Valley, including former top Google Engineer Ben Ling, former VP of Online Sales Sheryl Sandberg, and most recently, former Google VP for Public Relations Elliot Schrage, drawing comparisons as “the next Google.”

That’s a lot of damn comparisons.

So I thought I’d go through a brain exercise: If you could dismantle Facebook and rebuild it, what would you do? Yes, I’m basically asking you to envision a new social network, but go from the basis of Facebook’s goal: to create a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers and to facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph (aka the digital mapping of people’s real-world social connections)

Here’s some of my initial thoughts. I’ll write a more complete post with more complete ideas:

• Make it tougher from the start to create “spammy” Facebook applications. There needed to be fewer, higher quality applications or a better way to weed them out. A lot of users are now trained to just click “ignore.” I don’t know how you can untrain people: changing habits is one of the most difficult things to do in business.
• Divide it more into two uses: personal and business. The business social network LinkedIn is on a roll and gaining traction. There’s a ton of opportunity in this area still. Facebook friend lists weren’t enough (though I appreciate it very, very much); there needed to be a business networking system in place (and still needs to be).
• On Friend Lists, I wish I had had the option of separating my friends into “degrees of friends”. Some are far closer than others: I wish I could choose that at the start. That would allow me to organize how I interaction multiple levels. I could only Facebook chat with my First and Second degree contacts, for example.
• True email from the social network. Integrate receiving your gmail or other emails into a well-developed email system until it became more robust. If you could link emails to people, you could know more about your history with them.
• Tracking of your history with an individual. I’d love to know when I became friends with a person, what we have done, and where we may continue to connect. (a Fb application probably already does this, matching interests, but see my first point on what has happened to apps.)

Damn, I need to think about this some more. I sure as hell can’t build a social network (yet: there’s a reason I’m learning PHP programming after all), but I sure as hell can design, promote, and operate one.

Maybe I’ll just do that. Expect another post in a few days. In the meantime, Go visit my new blog on the recession.

- Ben

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An article today in the Mashable Blog had me thinking about Facebook and social networking in general. Before I continue with this article, disclaimer: I have interviewed with Facebook for a position in the past and I am partly responsible for Facebook’s biggest PR disaster, the Students Against Facebook News Feed Controversy.

The article, if you don’t care to read it, is basically reaction to a very surprising Mashable poll where over 75% of respondents were, in some way, fed up or annoyed with Facebook as it currently stands. I’ve heard complaints from people stating that profile pages are too cluttered (though a profile redesign addresses this problem) to applications are useless to restrictions on both users an developers are not adequately balanced.

People in the blogosphere have compared Facebook to the next AOL (they once had a great business model and all the momentum and then poof!) or the next Myspace (spammy and losing usefulness). Though I think a lot of these comparisons are unfair and unfounded, there’s a reason these comparisons are appearing in the first place. Expectations for Facebook are lofty. It has been collecting the best talent of Silicon Valley, including former top Google Engineer Ben Ling, former VP of Online Sales Sheryl Sandberg, and most recently, former Google VP for Public Relations Elliot Schrage, drawing comparisons as “the next Google.”

That’s a lot of damn comparisons.

So I thought I’d go through a brain exercise: If you could dismantle Facebook and rebuild it, what would you do? Yes, I’m basically asking you to envision a new social network, but go from the basis of Facebook’s goal: to create a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers and to facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph (aka the digital mapping of people’s real-world social connections)

Here’s some of my initial thoughts. I’ll write a more complete post with more complete ideas:

• Make it tougher from the start to create “spammy” Facebook applications. There needed to be fewer, higher quality applications or a better way to weed them out. A lot of users are now trained to just click “ignore.” I don’t know how you can untrain people: changing habits is one of the most difficult things to do in business.
• Divide it more into two uses: personal and business. The business social network LinkedIn is on a roll and gaining traction. There’s a ton of opportunity in this area still. Facebook friend lists weren’t enough (though I appreciate it very, very much); there needed to be a business networking system in place (and still needs to be).
• On Friend Lists, I wish I had had the option of separating my friends into “degrees of friends”. Some are far closer than others: I wish I could choose that at the start. That would allow me to organize how I interaction multiple levels. I could only Facebook chat with my First and Second degree contacts, for example.
• True email from the social network. Integrate receiving your gmail or other emails into a well-developed email system until it became more robust. If you could link emails to people, you could know more about your history with them.
• Tracking of your history with an individual. I’d love to know when I became friends with a person, what we have done, and where we may continue to connect. (a Fb application probably already does this, matching interests, but see my first point on what has happened to apps.)

Damn, I need to think about this some more. I sure as hell can’t build a social network (yet: there’s a reason I’m learning PHP programming after all), but I sure as hell can design, promote, and operate one.

Maybe I’ll just do that. Expect another post in a few days. In the meantime, Go visit my new blog on the recession.

- Ben

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At most universities, the different schools (business, law, medical, graduate, undergraduate, etc.) don’t have a great deal of interaction.  One may teach the other, but rarely do they work together on projects.  But why?  Really, why?  The business accumen of a Kellogg MBA can compliment the medical expertise of a Feinberg student and the energy of an undergrad.

The NU Venture Competition, which I am at right now, is part of an attempt to break those barriers.  This competition is a new business idea competition - 3 minute pitches, 3 minutes of questions (more like grillings).  28 teams are presenting ideas - from social networks to medical devices.  What’s interesting about the competition, though, is the composition of the teams.  Because of mixers and socials held for the event in the winter and early spring, many of these teams have members from multiple schools.  Engineers meet MBAs who can help get their inventions mainstream or a law student joins a team to help with the patents.

I’m interested to see what other schools do to encourage this type of collaboration.  I’m betting that the more entrepreneurial a campus, the more likely this type of collaboration occurs.  And I believe this is ideal for the success of new ideas and for changing the world.

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At most universities, the different schools (business, law, medical, graduate, undergraduate, etc.) don’t have a great deal of interaction.  One may teach the other, but rarely do they work together on projects.  But why?  Really, why?  The business accumen of a Kellogg MBA can compliment the medical expertise of a Feinberg student and the energy of an undergrad.

The NU Venture Competition, which I am at right now, is part of an attempt to break those barriers.  This competition is a new business idea competition - 3 minute pitches, 3 minutes of questions (more like grillings).  28 teams are presenting ideas - from social networks to medical devices.  What’s interesting about the competition, though, is the composition of the teams.  Because of mixers and socials held for the event in the winter and early spring, many of these teams have members from multiple schools.  Engineers meet MBAs who can help get their inventions mainstream or a law student joins a team to help with the patents.

I’m interested to see what other schools do to encourage this type of collaboration.  I’m betting that the more entrepreneurial a campus, the more likely this type of collaboration occurs.  And I believe this is ideal for the success of new ideas and for changing the world.

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