Finally getting around to trying the new iPhone app. Pretty slick.

WordPress just rolled out the ability to offer readers an email subscription option. I just added it to this blog. It’s over there on the right. Sign up!

As I have written many times before, answering the vexing question of when founders should remain or be replaced as CEO is probably both the most important and most difficult part of the job for both founders and the VCs who back them.

While the personalities and egos of both founders and VCs often complicate things, even without that, the reality is that determining the “right” answer is really damn hard.  Sure, there are lots of instances where a founder is the perfect person to launch a startup but by his/her own admission clearly lacks some of the competencies necessary to grow it into a successful business.  Even still, the notion of bringing in a CEO can be troublesome.  Will a new CEO be entrepreneurial enough to fit into what is still a very early stage company?  When an entrepreneur ask whether it isn’t risky bringing in a new CEO, the only answer is “yes,” it absolutely is a risk that, despite extensive interviews and referencing, even the best boards make mistakes in hiring startup CEOs. So when is it right to go ahead and take that risk, and when does it make more sense instead to surround a founding team with talent other than a new CEO?

This very question is playing itself out in no fewer than 3 of my portfolio companies right now, with 3 different answers emerging. I am going to share 2 of these outcomes here.

In one scenario, a very young first time founder/CEO appreciates that the company has a ton to gain by the addition of some senior talent on his team, and that what today feels like a really good trajectory could be a really great trajectory with some seasoned help.  But he also worries that hiring the wrong guy would be disastrous if that guy is the CEO. Things are going well — why take that risk? Instead, the founder and the board are leaning toward hiring a strong #2, a President or COO or something like that. Facebook and Twitter did, why can’t we?

In the other scenario, a more experienced founder is doing a brilliant job establishing the company/product vision and establishing both himself and the company as a real thought leader in the space. Not surprisingly, focus and disciplined execution is not this founder’s strong suit, and the company soemtimes suffers from continually having a new strategy and positioning. The founder and I have been going back and forth on this for months. Here is where we’ve landed: for the next 6 – 12 months, the most important objective for the company is validating its solution and vision in the marketplace.  Although full of “buzz,” the market is still early and super dynamic.  Continued innovation and evangelism will be key, and success will look more like a handful of critical partnerships and acceptance of the company as the market leader, than it will a scaled business.  So, we’ve concluded, the best management configuration is to keep the founder as CEO with strong sales and business development execs around him, and a couple board member/advisor types with great operational chops who can help the founder keep his feet on the ground and the company on track to where they need to go.

Stay tuned, we’ll see how things work out.

Every year on November 19 I call my mom to wish her a Happy Anniversary. And she always is so surprised I remember, since my Dad passed away in 2001.

Ask people who know me well, I am NOT the kind of guy who remembers things like birthdays, anniversaries, etc. But for some reason November 19 is etched into my consciousness, much more so than, for example, the date of my Dad’s birthday or death. Part of it, I think, is that my parents had such an incredible love affair that their anniversary was always a source of great happiness and celebration for all of us. And the older I’ve gotten the more I’ve appreciated this.

One of the best gifts parents can give their kids is the model of a wonderful marriage that remains a love affair even after all the struggles and tensions that any marriage endures over the decades.

So here’s to ya, Mom and Dad!

A year ago the venture community scoffed at application startups who were dependent on Facebook. Today, Facebook is not just where you want your app to run, it is also your most important tool (through Connect) for driving traffic to your site.

To my mind, this makes Facebook the new Google.

The power of Google over the web was manifested by the emergence of SEO and SEM as cottage industries in and of themselves.  In the early days, SEO was a dirty little secret that sites like About.com and IGN used to build audiences far bigger audiences than could less insightful competitors.  But then the rest of the world caught on and SEO/SEM became a standard part of web marketing.

Today, understanding how to leverage Facebook is eclipsing the importance of SEO/SEM as the future of web marketing.  Some of our portfolio entrepreneurs are all over this, and those who aren’t are getting an earful from us on this topic.

Gregg Spiridellis, founder and CEO of our portfolio company JibJab, recently posted on Inside Facebook on the dramatic impact Facebook Connect has had on JibJab’s user growth.  JibJab was one of the masters of using email to drive viral marketing. But using Connect dwarfed the power of email. As Gregg wrote:

It took us 8 years to reach 1.5 million registered users in the era of email. It took us only 5 months to acquire the same number of users on Facebook.

We used to get 2 to 3 email recipients for every piece of content shared by a user. Today, we are seeing anywhere from 12 to 20 clicks back to JibJab.com for each post into the stream. Because of this, we have completely subordinated email to Facebook stream publishing in our product experience on JibJab.com.

Another portfolio company of ours, LOLapps, has not only learned the power of the Facebook platform but in fact is building a business out of helping app developers publish on Facebook.  Originally focused on enabling Facebook end users become app developers, LOLapps recently has launched a platform for game developers to build and publish games on Facebook.  While still in its early days, early signs are promising as the first two games launched on the platform were both among the top 10 fastest growing games on Facebook last week.

And yet a third Polaris portfolio company, Sprout, is building a business helping brands build and publish social advertising campaigns on Facebook (and other social networks).

That giant sucking sound you here? It’s Facebook, pulling users, entrepreneurs, brands and web businesses into its grasp.

Polaris portfolio company Modelinia is actively seeking a VP of Digital Marketing to help lead the internet marketing and social media strategy, efforts and success. Full details below:

VP, Digital Marketing

Modelinia, New York or San Francisco, NY (San Francisco, CA)

Modelinia is a multi-platform media brand where supermodels share their fashion, beauty and lifestyle secrets. Modelinia connects women to fashion, beauty and lifestyle through unique access to the world’s top supermodels. Those supermodels reveal their secrets, ordinary and extraordinary, to help our audience gain the “style confidence” to look and feel their best. The result is compelling and unique content that will live on the internet, television, and at live events. Modelinia revenues come from advertising sponsored content, ecommerce and social media applications, such as games.

Modelinia was born from Full Picture, a strategic marketing, production, and public relations firm founded by CEO, Desiree Gruber. Full Picture’s award-winning team lives and works at the crossroads of fashion, design, television and technology, handling public relations for supermodels Heidi Klum, Hilary Rhoda, Brooklyn Decker, and brands such as Victoria’s Secret, Frederic Fekkai, and many more. They were also the creators of Project Runway and the unique viral series for Microsoft’s MSN called Style Studio.

Modelinia’s funding is provided by Polaris Venture Partners, a Waltham, MA – based partnership of experienced private equity investors, operating executives and entrepreneurs. Polaris’ mission is to identify, invest in and partner with seed, early stage, and middle market businesses with exceptional promise and help them grow into market-leading companies. A national private equity firm with offices in Boston and Seattle, Polaris invests in businesses throughout the United States and selectively in Europe and Asia. Polaris has over $3 billion under management, more than 20 investment professionals, and current investments in more than 90 companies.

REPORTING RELATIONSHIPS:
The VP, Digital Marketing will report to the Chief Executive Officer of Modelinia.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
The VP, Digital Marketing will be responsible for:

•Creating and executing a winning user acquisition strategy, including but not limited to paid search, natural search and social media;

•Developing and executing a comprehensive engagement strategy focused on user activity and retention;

•Designing and managing quantitative measurement programs (internet marketing and social media campaigns) that can track, measure, and analyze performance;

•Developing a Modelinia email strategy and campaign that is analytical, exciting and engaging;

•Working effectively with existing and potential partners across strategic, marketing and product opportunities;

•Foster an active / engaged Modelinia community and manage creative, ongoing contests and events;

•Work cross-functionally with the engineering and monetization teams.

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS & EXPERIENCE:
The ideal VP, Digital Marketing candidate has the following characteristics:

•Extensive experience in internet marketing: SEM, SEO and affiliate marketing;

•Deep understanding of social media and community management: both onsite and on sites like Facebook and Twitter;

•Excellent analytical skills and ability to synthesize large amounts of data and information into concise recommendations and action for the company;

•Experience in product management and project management across cross-functional teams and projects;

•Great communication and presentation skills;

•Deep familiarity with web development technologies;

•Comfort and ability to work in fast-paced, agile environment.

Inside Facebook recently posted that

Earlier this year, we speculated on when Facebook would launch APIs for Facebook Ads to allow performance marketers to automate ad management. Well, it appears it’s happening now: recently, Facebook started beta testing its new advertising APIs with just a few agencies around the world.

This is a pretty interesting development for several reasons.

Most directly, it is another sign of the Google-ification of Facebook — that is, Facebook getting serious about being a (if not the) leading platform for performance advertising, as Ad Words is today.  Not a huge surprise here, what with the infiltration of lots of senior Google talent, from Sheryl Sandberg on down.

More interesting to me, though, is the question whether the availability of Facebook’s advertising API presents an opportunity for new startups to build tools for advertisers to optimize their Facebook ad spend, just as players like Efficient Frontier and other SEM companies have for the AdWords platform.

Will we see a new category of marketing tools and services startups — instead of Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Social Network Marketing (SNM) companies?

And, if so, will they be confused with “S&M” companies??

A topic that continually fascinates me, and about which I sometimes blog, is how to construct startup management teams.  A startup is a very different business at the different stages of its evolution, with different challenges and leadership needs, making the task of having the right set of skills/experiences/passions around the table a never-ending challenge.

The “ideal” startup board changes over time as well.

I always prefer small boards to large boards. Small boards actually can get stuff done and allow the entrepreneur to focus on building his/her business. The larger the board gets the more the task of managing the board and extracting decisions becomes a job in and of itself.

This is especially true during the very early stage of a startup’s life, when the team is focused on building/launching a product, or is still in the phase of rapid iteration to find product/market fit.

Some argue that during these stages a startup should not even have a board.  I am tempted to agree but, especially if some capital has been raised, I think this is unrealistic. What I would say is that the board should be *very* small (2 or 3), and should be primarily focused on providing help to the entrepreneur and otherwise staying out of his or her way.  Board members (particularly those of the VC flavor, ahem…) like to see themselves as “adding value,” so the more of them you have and the more of a production board meetings become, the more complicated your life becomes.  That is a hindrance, not a help.

There are some things a board needs to do during these early days, but there is a lot of other stuff board members like to dwell on that, while important later in the startup’s life, really are distractions now.  You want to be maniacally focused on getting your product built and seeing what customers think. And your shareholders want you focused there.  So do everyone a favor by building a small board that appreciates the medical profession’s Hippocratic Oath: First Do No Harm.

Congrats to our portfolio company Emo Labs, which was named Best of DEMO.

Emo makes invisible speakers, which produce sound by vibrating a thin clear film of plastic. So, for example, a flat panel TV’s screen itself can serve as its speakers. Go here to see CEO Jason Carlson explaining how it works.

Lots of great new announcements coming out of Dogpatch Labs today–expanding to Cambridge, MA; growing in SF; a new logo and Facebook and Twitter pages. More details over at DogpatchLabs.com. And, some nice coverage in TechCrunch, Boston.com, and Xconomy.