Amy and I are huge fans and collectors of Rick Dula. We’ve got a number of pieces of his art of the construction of the new Denver Art Museum hanging in my office at Foundry Group that we bought from the William Havu Gallery in Denver. Our anniversary was June 21st and neither of us managed to get the other one a gift. So – on June 21st we went trolling around the web for a piece of art to buy. We each bought one and then decided to buy two more for our life dinner gifts on July 1st. The two that we bought on our anniversary were Rick Dula’s – the first is R.I.P. Rocky Mountain News Building.

One of the most satisfying parts of what I do is getting to work with people over a long period of time, starting early in their careers. It’s one of the things I love about TechStars, but it’s not limited to that as I have many other relationships with young and first time entrepreneurs. Last night, at Ignite Boulder 5, I had a permagrin on my face as I thought about the amazing job Andrew Hyde was doing. I first met Andrew a few years ago when we started TechStars – he basically volunteered to hang out with a video camera for free all summer to film stuff and learn. He was so hugely helpful that it was easy to bring him on board the TechStars team in year two as the community manager.

Yesterday I posted that Trada is looking for a Test Engineer. Gnip is also looking for software developers – three in fact: Senior Software Developer Senior System Adminstrator Senior Web Developer If you are Boulder-based and fit the qualifications, email Jenny-Lynne Elledge.

Trada, one of our portfolio companies in Boulder, is looking to hire. They’re looking for a tech-skilled individual who thinks they can do just about everything, because they might be asked to. Primary role is testing their online advertising app but there’s a huge opportunity to contribute much more. There’s dev work; cloud systems admin; operations tasks; end-user support; and customer facing account management tasks that can be added to the mix for the properly skilled (and properly motivated) individual. While still in stealth these guys are already rocking. Interested – contact Michael Lawless at mlawless@trada.com.

If I told you that I had just filed a patent for “a system to sell equity in domain names”, I’d expect you to laugh at me. I haven’t ranted and raved against software (and business method) patents for a while because I got bored of doing it. The PTO has gotten so far behind on responding to patent applications that the whole notion of a four year cycle to get a software patent approved just underscores how ridiculous the whole thing is given the pace of innovation in software.

I’ve been a delighted iPhone user since they upgraded the software to have mail / contact / calendar sync with Exchange. With the 3.0 version of the software, I’m even more delighted. I’ve had an iPhone 3GS since the day they came out (thanks Ross for standing in the non-line at the AT&T store for me) and – with the exception of the crappy AT&T 3G network – I find new little magic happy things every single day. 

If you need / want your weekly view into the world of TechStars Boulder, following is The Founders: Episode 5: Engaging Mentors. This week’s episode includes guest appearances from some of my closest friends, including Seth Levine, Jason Mendelson, and my Gist t-shirt.

As my endless effort to become skinnier continues, I carefully read Ian Rogers post “…look at me I’m skinny…” Diet, exercise, nature, and nurture*.* I’ve enjoyed getting to know Ian through our investment in Topspin and have had several significant substantial meals with him. Little did I know that I was actually doing all the eating (well, I did, I was just in denial.) Ian’s post is dynamite. If you struggle to keep the pounds off, run (don’t walk) over to FistFulaYen, toss your Coca-Cola down the drain, and read “…look at me I’m skinny…”

I was pondering what a tiny part of the universe we are on my ride this morning into Boulder from Keystone. The first hour of my drive was extraordinary as the sun came up over the Rocky Mountains and I cruised down I-70 at a high rate of speed in the bat mobile. I had another reminder of this as I cruised through my Daily folder. The Astronomy Picture of the Day has been delighting me every day since I started looking at it a few weeks ago. Today’s is a movie of Japan’s Kaguya spacecraft’s last moments.