• is the co-founder and lead developer of Pownce
• acquired a Computer Science degree from the University of Minnesota
• created the Teddy Bear Remote Control
• was a Software Engineer at iLoop Mobile, Inc
• was a Host at CNET Networks

Despite her successes, she admits to past failures and even being rejected by Google. But these minor setbacks only proved to be stepping stones to her greatest accomplishments.

[interview]

The Interview

Name: Leah Culver
Location: San Francisco, California
Occupation: Co-founder of Pownce, techie

What challenges did you face in your line of work, and have you ever felt like giving up?::

It’s very difficult to keep a large site running performing well and that is probably my biggest challenge. I really believe in the concept behind Pownce so I’ve never really considered giving up on the project.

The other challenge deals with information overload and management. Lots of email, news to keep up with and so on.

What does your work environment look like?::

Like this:

What do you consider your greatest failure and why?::

I’ve failed at so many things! I never became a supermodel

Actually, my greatest disappointments have probably been not qualifying for National Honor Society in high school and getting extensively interviewed by Google and rejected. It’s funny because instead of National Honor Society, I joined a group for doing weekend volunteer work which was great. And if Google had hired me, Pownce probably wouldn’t exist.

What do you consider your greatest achievement and why?::

Pownce is definitely the best thing I’ve ever built. I’m very proud that Pownce supports open standards and that so many great people are part of the Pownce community.

How have you thrived despite negative comments from others?::

If you do anything interesting, you’ll get criticized. If people aren’t saying anything negative about you or your work, that’s actually a bad sign.

Who (and or what) inspires, motivates you?::

I’m very motivated to be a great developer. I’m certainly not very good now, so there’s plenty of room to grow. I’m inspired by a lot of people who are doing cool things on the internet like the Django developers.

Do you have any favorite quotes, pictures, internet links that you would like to share?::

http://pythong.org

Ping Pong at work:

What are the most important things you have learned in your life so far?::

Bravery, ambition, and resilience matter more than pride.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?::

I’m very bad at answering email in a timely manner. I’m quite good at crossword puzzles.

What are you goals for the future?::

Play around with CouchDB, Erlang, GIT, and Beanstalk… those are on my list of odd projects to check out in the near future. In the long term I’d like to play a small part in changing the way people interact online. Certainly it’s a lofty ambition.

What are some things that people might not know about you?::

I love black licorice.

[sources]

“Leah Culver” – jdlasica on Flickr [Online Image]

[/sources]

[/interview]

• Interview with Noah Kagan – The Amusing Entrepreneur
• Interview with Saul Colt – Marketing Magician
• Interview with Paul Stamatiou – The Passionate Technologist
• Interview with Zack Domes – Disciple of Simplicity
• Interview with Jimmy Wales – The Knowledge Benefactor

His accomplishments include:

• Graduating from UC Berkeley
• Working for Facebook
• Working for Mint Software

If you want to see the rest his credentials, it is displayed here. His latest project is Kickflip Inc. and it is still under construction. But if you’re in anticipation to know what it’s about, he reveals that “it’s a place where you make cool things.” His site Okdork.com provides you with posts ranging from high gas prices, to the creation of social networks. Check out this interview to find out what makes Noah so unique.

[interview]

The Interview

Name: Noah Kagan
Location: San Jose, California
Occupation: Blogger, entrepreneur

What challenges did you face in your line of work, and have you ever felt like giving up?::

The challenges are getting our next project out as soon as possible with realizing it needs to be high quality. I have felt like quitting many times and even took some time off to think about the work I am doing. I think people need to give meaning to their work in whatever way they can.

What does your work environment look like?::

White Macbook located at various free Wifi places across San Francisco.

What do you consider your greatest failure and why?::

Greatest failure. I never think about this, mostly think about the mistakes I have made and what I can learn from them. Now regrets are another story

What do you consider your greatest achievement and why?::

Greatest achievement: Community Next 1, I coordinated relatively large scale things and people didn’t hate it, Kickflip is my first real company with large potential. It’s nice that it can support 3 people and let thousands of people play our games.

How have you thrived despite negative comments from others?::

Almost everything I’ve done people said wouldn’t work. I think if people say it will not work or suck it is generally a good sign.

Who (and or what) inspires, motivates you?::

Don’t really have anyone or thing. It just comes in phases through things I read or people I see doing cool stuff. Most likely Max Levchin for his tenacity, focus, work-ethic and math based decision making.

Do you have any favorite quotes, pictures, internet links that you would like to share?::

Squeaky wheel gets the grease.

What are the most important things you have learned in your life so far?::

Make things meaningful yourself.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?::

Is this a date question? My strength is I do things. My weakness is I don’t think through things enough. I’m working on it.

What are you goals for the future?::

Work on this company, kickflip (kickflipping.com) travel, family, friends, simple.

[/interview]

• Interview with Saul Colt – Marketing Magician
• Interview with Leah Culver – The Social Networker
• Interview with Jimmy Wales – The Knowledge Benefactor
• Interview with Alexis Ohanian – Leader of the Alien Social Revolution
• Interview with Neil Patel – Internet Marketing Guru

1. Started and maintained a successful tech news blog and managed to differentiate himself from the sea of monotony
2. Starred Nike commercial
3. Hosted events for General Motors – he ain’t stammering Stammy
4. Interned at Yahoo!
5. Started his own web company, Skribit – a great original idea which has taken off nicely (look in bottom right hand corner of this page) and most importantly
6. Interviewed by Tivate.com – nice plug huh? .

Stammy is a nice easy-going guy with a positive attitude. The most difficult thing about him is pronouncing his last name (Stam-uh-tee-you), hence the nicky Stammy. In this interview, Paul talks about his accomplishments, shows us his work desk, reflects on his public speaking skills and admires his idol Steve Jobs (with quote!).

[interview]

The Interview

[twitter::Stammy]

Name: Paul Stamatiou (Stam-uh-tee-you) a.k.a Stammy
Age: 21 years old – from Houston, Texas
Occupation: Blogger, entrepreneur, techie, programmer, public speaker

What challenges did you face in your line of work, and have you ever felt like giving up?::

I have three “lines of work” – being a student at Georgia Tech, writing on PaulStamatiou.com and working on Skribit.com. The biggest challenge is time management and just finding the time to get everything done. [pqr]I’ve never felt like giving up but I’ve had to re-prioritize things from time to time to get it all done[/pqr]. In the past few months Skribit has been growing considerably and a lot of my time has gone into developing for it.

The other challenge deals with information overload and management. Lots of email, news to keep up with and so on.

What does your work environment look like?::

I recently moved into an apartment by myself, which is a huge change from living in dorms and in an off-campus house with several roommates. It’s a lot easier to allot time to get work done without being distracted or having the urge to jump in on a game of Mario Kart Wii with my roommates. The best part of my work environment at home is the fiber Internet connection. It has changed the way I do things and I now rely more on online storage.

What do you consider your greatest failure and why?::

Hrm, that’s a hard one. I’d say not having gotten into programming sooner. I didn’t start really tinkering with web development until I started my blog in 2005. Prior to that I only had a bit of Java experience from a high school course and another computer science class during my freshman year in college. I know a few people my age that are just incredible developers and it makes me wonder what could have been if I had gotten into software much younger, instead of teaching myself to solder and build circuits. I spent my first year at Georgia Tech working towards a computer engineering major until I finally decided I was more interested working closely with the Internet.

What do you consider your greatest achievement and why?::

My greatest achievement is by far having maintained and built up my blog for 3 years to the point it’s at now. My blog has helped me meet many interesting people and learn from them. People at Yahoo! found me from my blog and got me my summer internship, Nike found me from my blog and put me in an online Nike commercial, General Motors found me from my blog as well and has flown me out to various car events. The Internet excels at aiding people in finding others with similar interests and my blog has tapped right into that.

How have you thrived despite negative comments from others?::

I take it all as constructive criticism. You gotta make your haters your motivators haha.

Who (and or what) inspires, motivates you?::

It is hard to pinpoint what inspires or motivates me as there are so many sources. I always pay close attention to others in my field to see how they’re doing things and what they’ve done. In the last year or so I have really embraced the startup culture. While I don’t exactly follow it to the letter, I love reading about it and things like Paul Graham’s essays. It has really shaped the direction I take when working on Skribit.

Do you have any favorite quotes, pictures, internet links that you would like to share?::

My favorite quote comes from Steve Jobs. It definitely aligns with the way I feel when working on new projects.

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

One of my favorite pictures is of Steve Jobs at home in 1982. It shows his different style of thinking.

What are the most important things you have learned in your life so far?::

Whenever I start a new project [pqr]my goal is being able to look back on it and say that it was worth doing[/pqr]. Nothing feels better than getting things done and while I don’t live by the whole GTD craze, I enjoy being productive and having something to show for it. My blog is a great example of that and now it’s like a personal portfolio and resume. I only have so much time in my life, barring the long-awaited invention of some eternal youth potion, so I might as well make it count.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?::

I would say that I am good at getting my point across, whatever that may be. I was an editor on my high school’s yearbook staff and now with my blog I seem to have honed my communication skills. Although I will admit I make for a crappy public speaker and I generally talk very fast (see my Nike commercial for reference).

What are you goals for the future?::

My main goal for the near future is leading Skribit to success and being able to work on it full-time upon my graduation. Basically, just having a job I actually enjoy.

[sources]

PaulStamatiou.com – tech news/reviews/guides [Online Blog]

Skribit: Blog Topic Suggestion Application [Creative Venture]

“Paul Stamatious’s Yahoo Internship”- inju on Flickr [Online Image]

“Paul Stamatiou”- Laughing Squid on Flickr [Online Image] (LaughingSquid)

[/sources]

[/interview]

• Interview with Noah Kagan – The Amusing Entrepreneur
• Interview with Saul Colt – Marketing Magician
• Interview with Neil Patel – Internet Marketing Guru
• Interview with Jimmy Wales – The Knowledge Benefactor
• Interview with Rob Malda a.k.a CmdrTaco – Tech News OG

[pqr]Rob gives insight into what’s really his greatest achievement[/pqr], the future of slashdot, why I should read RTFM (or FAQ) and what treasures lie near his workdesk. Enjoy!

[interview]

The Interview

What are your nicknames and why did you receive them?::

My nickname is CmdrTaco and is discussed extensively in the FAQ which you should consider reading before you interview people

Me: Whoops, got me there. Well I knew that his nicky was the CmdrTaco but I just ask because I ask.

What items do you always carry with you?::

iPhone, Gameboy, Car Keys, 1gb usb thumbdrive

What challenges do you face in your line of work, and have you ever felt like giving up?::

Some days it’s very difficult finding news worth sharing. I really want Slashdot to have the best possible content, and some days there just isn’t any news worth sharing. So I feel obligated to shine a turd just to give people something to read. August is the worst.

What does your work environment look like?::

I don’t have any pictures available. It’s fairly clean and neat most of the time, except when co-workers kids come and move all of my stuff. I have a pet snake in a cage (his name is Col. Tubesnake). I have a 23″ flatpanel screen, and old windows machine that hasn’t been on in 2 years, a giant jar of marbles and a shelf of Dungeons & Dragons books and an array of action figures. It’s all very exciting.

What do you consider your greatest failure and why?::

I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.

What do you consider your greatest achievement and why?::

I’m very proud that Slashdot has lasted 10 years and continues to maintain true to the original spirit that made it popular at the dawn of the popular internet. But if I’m honest, [pqr]I think my 9 month old is a bigger achievement[/pqr].

Who (and or what) inspires, motivates you?::

I’m inspired by the news I post. I see people doing innovative and exciting things in their fields of expertise, and I’m motivated to try to take Slashdot to a higher level as well.

What are the most important things you have learned in your life so far?::

Read the fine print. Pay attention to the details. Know your limitations, and hire people to do the things you can’t.

Do you have any favorite quotes, pictures, internet links that you would like to share?::

umm… read www.xkcd.com. It’s genius. Every link I ever find that I like, I post to Slashdot, so its not like I have a special private cache of awesomeness for you.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?::

I’m fairly OCD- whatever I obsess on gets my full attention, usually to the exclusion of almost anything else. Which means I can accomplish a lot, but let stuff slip through the cracks that is not my current obsession.

What are you goals for the future?::

To complete and launch a fully ajax enabled version of Slashdot, and to get the Offtopic Idle section of slashdot (idle.slashdot.org) to a ready state and try to fill it with the best things on the net.

What are some weird things that people might not know about you?::

I have no sense of smell.

[sources]

“Rob Malda – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia” [Online]

“The Taco’s Site” [Online]

“Slashdot – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia” [Online]

“Scott Beale / Laughing Squid” [Photo]

[/sources]

[/interview]

• Interview with Noah Kagan – The Amusing Entrepreneur
• Interview with Leah Culver – The Social Networker
• Interview with Craig Newmark – The People Person
• Interview with Zack Domes – Disciple of Simplicity
• Interview with Alexis Ohanian – Leader of the Alien Social Revolution