Have your own story of success? What’s the most creative thing you’ve ever done to get a job?

VIENNA, Va., April 25, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – Grotech Ventures, a leading early stage investor in high-potential technology companies with 28 years in the venture industry, announced today that General Partner Steve Fredrick has been awarded the National Venture Capital Association’s (NVCA) ‘Outstanding Service Award’ for his work in founding StartUpHire.com. The award was presented to Steve as part of the NVCA 2012 Annual Meeting today in Santa Clara, CA.

“Steve and the team at StartUpHire looked to solve a fundamental problem at young companies – connecting exceptional talent to innovative young companies to fuel their success,” said Frank Adams, Grotech’s founder and managing general partner. “This effort has benefitted the entire venture industry and is a testament to Steve’s dedication to the startup ecosystem.”

Launched in 2009, StartUpHire is the job search engine dedicated to recruiting exceptional talent to jobs at emerging growth companies. Its mission is to connect talented individuals to exciting career opportunities at startups and to accelerate the team building process for companies and their investors. Fredrick serves as chairman of StartUpHire, which runs today as a self-sufficient company serving the startup ecosystem. Development of the StartUpHire platform was supported through funding from the National Science Foundation. More than 14,000 job openings at thousands of startups in every state are currently listed on www.startuphire.com

“StartUpHire has allowed the industry to better quantify job creation that originates from venture capital investment,” said Mark Heesen, NVCA’s president. “This has helped us promote the value that venture firms bring to the U.S. and global economy and shape a regulatory environment that allows our member firms and their portfolio companies to continue growing and succeeding.”

About Grotech Ventures

Founded in 1984, Grotech Ventures is a leading early investor in high-potential technology companies. Grotech seeks investments across the information technology landscape and initially invests $500,000 to $5 million while continuing to invest through the growth of each enterprise. The firm focuses on the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Rocky Mountain regions while being selective in other geographies. Grotech Ventures has built a reputation for being a collaborative, long-term partner for CEOs and entrepreneurs and has the operational knowledge, personal networks, and industry expertise necessary to accelerate growth. Grotech is currently investing from its seventh fund. For more information, please visit www.grotech.com

The Grotech logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=12528

About NVCA

Venture capitalists are committed to funding America’s most innovative entrepreneurs, working closely with them to transform breakthrough ideas into emerging growth companies that drive U.S. job creation and economic growth. According to a 2011 Global Insight study, venture-backed companies accounted for 12 million jobs and $3.1 trillion in revenue in the United States in 2010. As the voice of the U.S. venture capital community, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) empowers its members and the entrepreneurs they fund by advocating for policies that encourage innovation and reward long-term investment. As the venture community’s preeminent trade association, NVCA serves as the definitive resource for venture capitaldata and unites its more than 400 members through a full range of professional services. For more information about the NVCA, please visit www.nvca.org.

The Capital Connection is one of the nation’s most respected industry conferences. One of the reasons why is that the conference consistently offers access to some of the most thought-provoking speakers . This year is no exception. We just learned that the first keynote speaker has been announced- Gilt Groupe Founder & CEO, Kevin Ryan.

We’ll keep you posted on any other announcements and look forward to seeing you there!

What Does It Take to Work at a Start-up?

 about the author

Lynne Guey is a recent graduate of the University of Florida, who currently lives in New York City working as a digital strategist for entrepreneurs. If you would like to nominate a burgeoning young entrepreneur or program to be featured in this column, please send information to lynneguey@gmail.com or tweet her. More of Lynne’s writings can be found at http://socialynne.com.

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Pivots are everywhere or how I learned from my invalidated assumptions at #LSMDC (and you can too).

By: Karan Jain

Going into the Lean Startup Machine, I didn’t know really what to expect. My knowledge of lean principles was limited to a handful of DC Lean Startup Circle Meetups (highly recommended finding meeting like this for those interested in getting involved in the startup scene) as well as various blog posts, articles, and videos; I hadn’t worked on a startup before, let alone ‘run’ a ‘business’. And I certainly had never really engaged in customer development. That being said, LSM ended up being one of the most thoroughly exciting, educational, and exhausting weekends I can remember.

Though I arrived with a team and idea, that shouldn’t discourage anyone from attending; in fact, most teams formed on Friday night with some of the best ideas, in my opinion, being thought up right on the spot! One of the great things about LSM is that it simplifies, quantifies, and clarifies the entire process of transforming ideas into businesses in just a few days. Broadly speaking, the process works as follows: outline your assumptions, test the riskiest ones, pivot accordingly, and iterate. After just a few iterations of this will give you a clearer vision of the problem you’re trying to solve, the market you’re seeking to serve, and the product that you hope to build. In that way, LSM offers something to everyone, no matter what stage of the entrepreneurial process they are at. In fact, corporations are even adopting lean principles to innovate and grow.

The idea my team worked on was for a crowd sourced lending platform for local businesses, tentatively called Clovest. Therefore, our riskiest assumption to test was businesses’ need for financing. So, we got out of the building early on Saturday and started conducting some problem interviews. All these followed roughly the same lines—what sorts of financing issues do you encounter? What kinds of projects need financing? How are projects funded if you don’t get financing? Through the process, we picked up some really valuable insights. For example, our target market was not who we assumed it would be; additionally, access to financing wasn’t as much of an issue as the high cost and hassle of obtaining it. More than invaliding those assumptions though, the process taught me the value and importance of a key lean strategy: the pivot.

Pivots, I had previously assumed were these large 180-degree shifts in a product or business. As we went through these interviews, however, I realized that we were constantly pivoting. After invalidating our initial assumptions, we altered our approach for the rest of the weekend; the businesses we targeted, the questions we asked, the tone of our pitch— everything was slightly different. By doing so, we improved our findings, connected better with customers, and even signed letters of intent. Through customer development, I discovered that the willingness and ability to pivot is a key driving force of progress. Lean businesses are powerful precisely because they are able to evolve given the changing needs of customers and the market. And while we learned this at a very early point in the startup process, I really do believe it applies to startups of all sizes and at all stages of development. Though we didn’t finish testing all of our assumptions, uncovering the nature and ubiquity of the pivot has really clarified our agenda for our next round of customer development: pivot early and pivot often.

I highly recommend LSM not only to those pursuing their own startup ideas or refining their business models, but to anyone looking to get more involved with startups in their area. After all, lean principles are truly agnostic—they work in every industry, every team within a business, and at every stage of development. And while you think you may be able to read the book and pick it up, there is nothing that compares to practicing customer development yourself. Though we only went home with the “no yuppies” award (that’s another story), we did collect LOIs from three businesses in under 24 hours. If that doesn’t entice you, the two days of unlimited access to a set of seasoned mentors who provide invaluable advice and are genuinely dedicated to helping your team succeed, should. Not to mention, there are crash courses in all things metric, whether it’s how to leverage AdWords or create a launch page and convert users. If for nothing else, the fast pace, great co-working environment, and high caliber of participants made it a truly enjoyable and memorable weekend. Looking forward to future lean events and what comes of all the impressive work put in by the LSM DC teams. Big thanks to all the organizers, mentors, and participants for making a truly memorable and enjoyable weekend.

Karan Jain is a web developer at the Federal Reserve and aspiring entrepreneur in the DC area. You can find him on twitter @niajnarak or email him at kjain87@gmail.com.

By: Jeff Patterson

The idiom says “it takes all types,” and this is certainly true in technical environments.

Some managers are at their best when on the floor with the staff, getting involved with the workflow. Others are more comfortable behind the scenes, prepping procedures and fine-tuning contingency plans. There is a broad spectrum between those two examples, and most technical companies need a variety of types. If you have landed an interview for a management or supervisory position, your goal is to communicate your management style.

One effective way to do this is by illustrating your strategy when things go wrong. Most interviews will include at least one opportunity to recount an episode from your career. You can describe a successful recovery from an error or technical issue, and use the specifics to draw attention to your style. Were you assessing the problem? Delegating tasks and coordinating portions of the workload? Bringing back-up procedures up to speed? If so, you have a penchant for managing the front line.

Did you use the problem as a chance to review procedures? Did you post-mort the specifics of the issue to tweak the practices already in place? If so, you thrive behind the scenes. Conveying these details shows your talents in the face of adversity, and tells the hiring manager where you fall on the spectrum. If you have never held a management position prior to the interview, but were part of a team responsible for recovery, you can give the details of your role under your manager to similar effect. Describing what you learned from your manager as a result of a successful recovery also demonstrates an understanding of the demands of the job.

When I interview candidates, I directly ask them to give an example of a bad day at work, or describe a successful recovery from an error. I am not only trying to determine their style of management, but listening to hear if they took ownership of the problem, instead of getting defensive about working under procedural constraints, or minimizing the impact of the failure. This speaks volumes about where on the spectrum they fall.

Another method for highlighting your style is describing your approach to staff morale. Most candidates will note the need for good morale (although I’ve encountered a few that didn’t), but how you address it matters. If your approach involves regular feedback, active appraisals, and dedicated face time, you’re saying you are comfortable on the floor, engaging in direct interaction. If you stress the importance of regular communication via email or web updates, determining best practices, and providing staff with important information, you do your best work behind the scenes. In broad strokes, out-in-front managers are needed for real-time interaction and decision-making, while behind-the-scenes managers give staff the tools the need to get the job done. But be cautious not to pigeonhole your talents or define your comfort zone too narrowly.

All of the above requires knowing the specifics of the job you are interviewing for, and having an idea of the make-up of the existing team helps as well. Exhibiting your personality and track record are vital, but using them to demonstrate a well-established managerial style helps make you a standout candidate.

About:

Jeff Patterson has conducted over six hundred job interviews as hiring manager. He is a contributor to SF Signal and ASGH.org.

36 percent of all open jobs at startups last year were engineering or technical jobs. However, those two sectors saw only 15 percent of the overall applicant pool trying to fill those positions.  This supports evidence of an ever-tightening market for specific skills out there, and the need to keep developing and attracting qualified talent to young startup companies remains critical.

Software engineers had the largest number of open jobs last year with more than 42,000 jobs posted. Sales jobs were the only other position where applicants trailed openings- every great idea needs an equally great hustler to make it sell! This is another area that also needs focus to attract the best candidates.

Openings for finance, operations, HR and administration saw the opposite problem- combined these positions make up only 9 percent of all openings, but had over 30 percent of the applicants. Marketing positions just about broke even with 10 percent of the openings and 13 percent of the applicants.

Clearly the startup economy is the engine-that-could in these tough economic times. Data from StartUpHire’s more than 14,000 open jobs and 100,000 registered job seekers show an increase in startup job posts by more than 23 percent over the previous year. More than a quarter of those applicants expressed previous startup experience, and the number of executive level postings rose as well. More than 500 executive postings were opened last year alone on StartUpHire.

The top states with open startup positions are California, Massachusetts, New York, and Texas. Eighteen states had job growth increases of more than 100 percent last year.

I think if the country wants to know who holds the best hope for meaningful economic growth, we need look no further than our own home grown, innovative, and passionate startup ecosystem.

The fair is designed for bright, motivated students and recent graduates to connect with exciting and innovative New York-based startup companies. A large number of students and alumni from Columbia, NYU, Princeton, UPenn, Rutgers, etc. have already registered.

Registration is still open, but they are expecting to fill up, so if you’re interested sign up today.

The event details are:

Where: World Trade Center 7 (250 Greenwich St, NYC, NY)

When: Friday, April 20th, 2012

Time: 1:00-2:30 PM Engineers Only, 2:30-5:00 PM Everyone

After you’ve registered be sure to come back and check out all the great NYC startup positions we have open today.

The article is balanced in looking at a decision like this from all angles. In short, there are no guarantees with any employment choice - but if you’re looking for the best place to contribute your talent, passion and ingenuity, then we think that startup companies are worth a serious look.

If you’ve been on the fence about pursuing your own career with a startup, and Alex has shown you the light, be sure to search the thousands of jobs with venture-backed startups that are open today on StartUpHire.com