James Currier (a founder of Tickle and currently of Ooga Labs ) is my hero for the week. On Wednesday we both spoke at the STIRR Founder Hacks event and James was by far the best of the three of us "seasoned" entrepreneurs who spoke. Not surprisingly he is the most seasoned, Tickle actually being a site that informed a part of the ffwd.com marketing strategy. Regardless, he had the best lock on the inspirational speaking style appropriate for the occasion.

Watch the videos and you'll see what I mean...

Scott Rafer and I both had interesting things to share, but James did an exceptional job of distilling his message to a simple take away, "hit it hard". I, on the other hand, tended toward the a Socratic lecture style and got complemented on succinctness and revelation (the a ha moment), but not for being particularly exciting. In retrospect, I think mine could have been, "You need people to bust your chops".

In passing let me also note that the STIRR crew put on hands down the best industry event I've been to all year, somehow allowing ample room for both "networking" and more substantial types of connections. It may be simply because everyone pays, except for founders (otherwise they are more likely to stay at the office and work!). But I also think there's a really collegiate vibe where cunning (i.e. name tag scoping) matters less than openness. Everyone I met spoke about why and how they do things, as opposed to most silicon valley events the focus seems to be about what you are doing and who you are. I highly recommend checking out their other programs.