Startup Watch | May 2011

Today's new businesses are lean. Businesses less than a year old are hiring fewer employees than they have in years past.

"Not only are these businesses starting out smaller than their predecessors, they are staying smaller."

"We won’t fix our core unemployment problem in the United States until young businesses get back on track."

Details can be found in a new report from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation entitled Starting Smaller; Staying Smaller: America’s Slow Leak in Job Creation [ press release | 20-page report ]

Startup Watch for May

Mass High Tech highlights startup companies each week in a series called "Five You Should Follow."

Here are 22 Massachusetts-based startup companies to keep your eye on:

[NOTE: Hover over company name to view a tooltip summary of that company's value proposition.]

» AcuityBio Corp. | Newton

» Aid Aide | Cambridge

» Alpinewerx, LLC | Cambridge

» Bioarray Therapeutics, Inc. | Boston

» Click Diagnostics, Inc. | Lexington

» CraveLabs | Tewksbury

» EmptyCabin | Watertown

» Enlight Biosciences LLC | Boston

» EveryFit, Inc. | Cambridge

» Fundraise.com, Inc. | Boston

» Junctions | Brookline

» Kaminario, Inc. | Newton

» Loxal Rewards | Cambridge

» Modo Labs, Inc. | Cambridge

» Noblegen Biosciences, Inc. | Boston

» NuOrtho Surgical, Inc. | Fall River

» RippleFunction | Boston

» Thermedical, Inc. | Somerville

» Transatomic Power Corp. | Cambridge

» Typesafe, Inc. | Cambridge

» UsTrendy, Inc. | Cambridge

» Zigswitch, Inc. | Cambridge

Five new startups are listed every Tuesday at Mass High Tech -- The Journal of New England Technology. Access Startup News for details. If your company was founded within the last three years, and would like to be considered for the Watch List, contact the Startup Watch editor.

Access previous Startup Watch lists:

• Startup Watch | April 2011
• Startup Watch | March 2011
• Startup Watch | February 2011
• Startup Watch | January 2011
• Startup Watch | December 2010
• Startup Watch | November 2010
• Startup Watch | October 2010
• Startup Watch | September 2010
• Startup Watch | August 2010
• Startup Watch | July 2010
• Startup Watch | June 2010
• Startup Watch | May 2010

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Boston Market | June 2011

Web technology professionals should target advertising and marketing executives to enhance employment prospects. A net 19 percent of advertising and marketing executives plan to increase staffing levels in the third quarter. Here are the positions in top demand:

• Web designers/developers
• Mobile apps designers/developers
• Interactive marketing managers

Only legal professionals are in greater demand according to the Robert Half Professional Employment Report for the third quarter of 2011 . Complete details are available in an 11-page report.

Boston Market

The list of Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston has been updated and appears in the right-hand column.Each technology links to job postings at Boston.com that list that technology keyword in the job description. The number of job postings has declined over the past 30 days and this may reflect a seasonal slowdown as the summer months begin.

None-the-less, jobs are plentiful. Even the technology in position #20 -- MySQL -- is mentioned in more than 100 job postings.

~ SQL Server is mentioned three times more frequently than MySQL.
~ SQL and Oracle are mentioned eight times more frequently than MySQL.

So, the ability to store and retrieve data is at the center of today's advertising- and marketing-driven, Web development landscape.

Next Action

If you are a Web technology professional and are interested in exploring opportunities in the marketplace, start with your LinkedIn list of connections. Search your connections for those that list "Marketing and Advertising" as their industry. Then, send each a message with an update on how you might be able to help them.

Advertising and marketing executives are looking for talented and experienced Web technology professionals. Let them know of your interest and availability. (If you also have a law degree, don't be shy in mentioning that skill as well!)

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Web Innovators Group | WebInno30

Eleven companies. Eleven hundred networking opportunities. All in one room. All FREE.

If you are interested in previewing the latest innovations on the Internet and mobile devices, and networking with industry leaders, then check out the next gathering of the Web Innovators Group.

This 30th installment will feature the following presentations:

Main Dishes

• Lockify | Take control of your private communications..


• Pintly | A new kind of beer website -- one that only recommends beer you're sure to love.


• Smarterer | Show what you know by taking tests and sharing your skills.

Side Dishes

• Apptegic | Do you know what your customers are doing?


• Fantourage | Get rewarded for fandom!


• GamesForLanguage | Learn languages the fun way!


• Goshido | Focus on doing the work that matters.


• The Happy Cloud | How longs are you willing to wait for your games?


• TourSphere | The mobile app generator for museums & cultural destinations.


• Zaarly | Helps you buy and sell with people around you.


• CLOVR Media | Card Linked Offers with Virtual Redemption.

A Startup's Guide to Navigating Agencies & Brands

A special optional breakout session will begin at 8:00 pm. The panelists will discuss how to overcome the challenges that small startup companies have in attracting the attention of digital agencies and large brands with significant ad spending power.

Moderator: Dave Balter | CEO of BzzAgent
Panelist: Edward Boches | Chief Innovation Officer of Mullen
Panelist: Jeff McMahon | CEO of Agency Oasis
Panelist: Jessica DeVlieger | V.P. of Strategic Accounts at Communispace

Event Details

Monday, June 13, 2011, 6:30 pm

Royal Sonesta Cambridge

Registration is FREE and the networking could prove invaluable! Check out the Attendee List of more than 1,000 pre-registrants to determine if this networking event is right for you.

Registrants are encouraged to join the Boston Web Innovators Group on LinkedIn and connect with nearly 1,400 members.

[ NOTE: Follow Beantown Web on Twitter @webapprentices and on Facebook by becoming a Fan of Beantown Web. ]

Seven Skills | Seven Cities

Seven Web technology skills offer the greatest potential to advance your career. Seven cities offer the best prospects for employing these skills.

Seven Skills

Here are the specific IT skills that staffing executives say are most in demand—and that are commanding the highest pay rates:

• Java
• C#
• PHP
• Ruby on Rails
• .NET
• SQL
• Oracle DBAs

For details access an article at CIO magazine entitled IT Pay Creeps Up After Two-Year Downward Spiral.

Seven Cities

Here are the seven cities with the best job prospects for technology workers:

1. Houston
2. Washington, DC
3. Columbus, OH
4. Detroit
5. Philadelphia
6. Edison, NJ
7. Boston

For details access an article at Forbes magazine entitled The Top 7 U.S. Cities To Find An IT Job Right Now.

One Action Plan

While it may not be realistic to uproot your family and move to another city, you can develop new skills that the marketplace wants and will compensate you for at above average wages.

Identify one of the top seven Web technology skills and develop a plan to get better at this skill. For example, 192 web-developers-in-training have committed to a 17-week self-study group to learn PHP. You can organize a self-study group and make a difference in your community.

There is no need for your career to be a crap shoot. Set a goal, develop a plan, get others involved.

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Boston Market | May 2011

Two surveys provide insights into how workers find jobs and what employers are looking for in candidates.

Who You Know

How did you secure your most recent position?

1. "word-of-mouth" referrals | 28 percent
2. online job postings | 19 percent
3. recruitment/staffing firms | 16 percent
   
4. direct approaches from employers | 16 percent

More than 18,000 U.S. workers were included in these findings which were presented in the Kelly Global Workforce Index. This report is rich with information about the emerging effects of social media on job search and is worth a deeper look. [ Press Release | Complete Report ]

What You Know

What skills sets are employers looking for in new grads?

1. communications skills (written + verbal) | 69 percent
   
2. technical skills | 57 percent
   
3. project management skills | 44 percent

These findings included more than 2,800 hiring managers and human resource professionals and are reported in CareerBuilder’s Annual College Job Forecast.

Seven-Day Action Plan

Based on these findings, here are three questions to ask yourself about your goals for this week:

~ What networking event will I attend?
~ What article will I write or presentation will I make to my industry peers?
~ What project will I manage from start to finish?

Boston Market

Now for the technical skills. The list of Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston has been updated for May and is presented in the right-hand column. Many of the technical skills posted increases over the past 30 days. Twelve of the 20 skills were mentioned more frequently in job descriptions posted at Boston.com than this time last month.

The double-digit movers on the plus side were as follows:

#08 "Web Services" | 267 job postings 10%

#12 JSP | 181 job postings 20%

#13 UI | 176 job postings 31%

#18 Photoshop | 148 job postings 16%

Bottom line: Interpersonal skills + technical skills = increased opportunity

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Startup Watch | April 2011

Annualized economic expansion rates during the first quarter of 2011:

~ U.S. economy | 1.8 percent
~ Massachusetts economy | 4.2 percent

The dramatic difference can be explained largely by the booming technology sector in Massachusetts according to new report issued by MassBenchmarks (Bloomberg Businessweek, Reuters).

Refer a Rockstar

You don't have to be a technology rockstar to benefit financially from this tech expansion. You simply need to be acquainted with Steven Tyler's techie twin.

To enter the Refer a Rockstar Lottery simply select the amount, click and refer!

$1,500 | $2,500 | $10,000 | $12,000

Startup Watch

Most of us don't have the catalog of hit tunes to become a judge on America Idol. If you are currently struggling to land a record deal, perhaps joining a garage band is the next step.

Mass High Tech highlights startup companies each week in a series called "Five You Should Follow."

Here are 20 startup companies to keep your eye on:

[NOTE: Hover over company name to view a tooltip summary of that company's value proposition.]

» 28Wins | Cambridge

» Acceptional | Weston

» ByteLight | Boston

» Closed Loop Service | Tewksbury

» ExceLingo | Cambridge

» Family Health Portfolio, Inc. | Sherborn

» GamesForLanguage LLC | Watertown

» Getabl | Boston

» GoodTwo | Boston

» InCrowd LLC | Chestnut Hill

» KnowEssentials | Boston

» Luminaire Coffee | Somerville

» Modapt, Inc. | Wellesley

» MyTake LLC | Westborough

» Paperwork.Pro LLC | Cambridge

» PerkStreet Financial, Inc. | Boston

» PK Clean Technologies, Inc. | Cambridge

» SilverRail Technologies, Inc. | Woburn

» Swellr, Inc. | Woburn

» TrainingPal LLC | Cambridge

Five new startups are listed every Tuesday at Mass High Tech -- The Journal of New England Technology. Access Startup News for details. If your company was founded within the last three years, and would like to be considered for the Watch List, contact the Startup Watch editor.

Access previous Startup Watch lists:

• Startup Watch | March 2011
• Startup Watch | February 2011
• Startup Watch | January 2011
• Startup Watch | December 2010
• Startup Watch | November 2010
• Startup Watch | October 2010
• Startup Watch | September 2010
• Startup Watch | August 2010
• Startup Watch | July 2010
• Startup Watch | June 2010
• Startup Watch | May 2010

[ NOTE: Follow Beantown Web on Twitter @webapprentices and on Facebook by becoming a Fan of Beantown Web.

Boston Market | April 2011

Companies are getting more aggressive at poaching talent from rival companies. This practice is more common in information technology (IT) than in other disciplines with 62% of hiring managers and recruiters agreeing that poaching in on the rise.

What industry sectors are ripe for poaching in New England?

• industrial
• medical
• educational

What traits are hiring managers looking for?

• multi-skilled
• experienced
• industry-specific

Details from two separate findings can be found at Dice.com: Dice Report and Local Markets.

There are no shortage of opportunities for Web professionals in the Boston area. Here are the current postings available at Dice.com:

• web development | 776 opportunities
• web design | 636 opportunities

Boston Market

Generic titles such as "web development" and "web design" can cover a wide area of technology skills. One job search strategy is to focus on an individual technology.

The Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston has been updated for April and appears in the right-hand column. The frantic pace of technology job postings has slowed over the past 30 days. None-the-less, every technology listed has seen a substantial increase in activity since the beginning of 2011.

Single-month movements do not signify a trend. However, it is worth noting that only three technologies experienced a net increase in job postings over the past 30 days. They are as follows:

• Social Media | 261 opportunities 13%
• PHP | 163 opportunities 07%
• e-commerce | 163 opportunities 07%

Best Training Opportunity

The Boston PHP Meetup is offering a virtually FREE training opportunity to learn PHP, a popular Web programming language. This virtual self-study group is designed for PHP beginners only. The total monetary investment is the purchase of a book. Each participant commits to the following:

• read one chapter of the book per week
• complete the exercises associated with that chapter

An online discussion area has been created to answer questions and resolve challenges along the way. Since this training opportunity is virtual, participants are welcome from anywhere on the planet! More than 100 Boston area developers-in-training have signed up so far.

For details access Self-Study Group for PHP Beginners Begins May 1. Then click the "Join us!" button and reply to the discussion to begin the training.

[ FULL DISCLOSURE: This self-study opportunity, called PHP Percolate!, is coordinated by yours truly, the creator of Beantown Web. ]

[ NOTE: Follow Beantown Web on Twitter @webapprentices and on Facebook by becoming a Fan of Beantown Web. ]

Startup Watch | March 2011

Bloomberg Businessweek reports:

"As the economy rebounds, tech companies are battling over engineers, designers, computer scientists, and executives who can stay ahead of rapid change in the industry."

"Several factors are driving the talent grab. The rapid growth of social media, mobile technology, and e-commerce has fueled a run on employees with expertise in those fields. The recent increase in the number of startups is also fueling hiring."

Details can be found at Techdom's Talent Poaching Epidemic.

This perspective confirms last year's Gartner report of the top three Strategic Technologies for 2011:

• Cloud
• Mobile
• Social

Enterprise Mobile Event

If you are looking for talent (or you are talent looking to be found), sign up now for a FREE networking event sponsored by Cisco. The Enterprise Mobile Event tour began in Austin, TX on April 4 and will visit the following cities:

• San Francisco | April 11
• Boston | April 11
• Seattle | April 18
• New York City | April 25

The Boston event will be held at the Liberty Hotel.

Once registered, let your network know about the Boston event on LinkedIn.

Startup Watch for March

Mass High Tech highlights startup companies each week in a series called "Five You Should Follow."

Here are 20 startup companies to keep your eye on:

[NOTE: Hover over company name to view a tooltip summary of that company's value proposition.]

» Asthma Signals, Inc. | Woburn

» City Penguin | Boston

» Defective Studios | Watertown

» EasyUnsubscriber.com | Boston

» essayCLOUD | Boston

» Forma Therapeutics, Inc. | Cambridge

» ImpulseSave | Cambridge

» Mobinett Interactive, Inc. | Medford

» Nimbus Discovery LLC | Cambridge

» Novogy, Inc. | Cambridge

» Oddfellow Studios, Inc. | Somerville

» PostPost | Waltham

» Privy | Boston

» Stonewedge Corp. | Andover

» Synapse Firing Squad LLC | Brighton

» Take the Interview | Boston

» The Tap Lab | Cambridge

» Triumphant Visions | Boston

» U for Life, Inc. | Needham

» Upward Mobility | Boston

Five new startups are listed every Tuesday at Mass High Tech -- The Journal of New England Technology. Access Startup News for details. If your company was founded within the last three years, and would like to be considered for the Watch List, contact the Startup Watch editor.

Access previous Startup Watch lists:

• Startup Watch | February 2011
• Startup Watch | January 2011
• Startup Watch | December 2010
• Startup Watch | November 2010
• Startup Watch | October 2010
• Startup Watch | September 2010
• Startup Watch | August 2010
• Startup Watch | July 2010
• Startup Watch | June 2010
• Startup Watch | May 2010

[ NOTE: Follow Beantown Web on Twitter @webapprentices and on Facebook by becoming a Fan of Beantown Web.

Sources of Hire (SOH) Study | 2011

Picture yourself sitting in a conference room with three coworkers. Only one of you would NOT consider a new job opportunity if approached with one, according to a newly released study.

Source: Plateau Systems

Are we in the early stages of a battle for talent?

Details of this survey of more than 2,500 U.S. workers are available in a press release and executive summary from Plateau Systems, a leading provider of integrated talent management solutions.

Sources of Hire Study

Whether you are actively seeking a new opportunity or passively awaiting a tap on the shoulder, the 10th Annual Sources of Hire (SOH) Study offers effective strategies for locating the exit sign.

This survey represents 36 large companies. These enterprises filled nearly 70,000 jobs in 2010. Where did these workers come from?

More than 50 percent of all jobs were filled by internal movement. Get your foot in the door. Do a good job. Move up!

The remaining jobs were filled by external candidates. If you are on the outside looking in, what is the BEST strategy for securing a new job with a new employer?

Land a referral!

Referrals: The #1 Source of External Hires

Referrals (27.5%) are more effective than job boards (24.9%).

Referrals (27.5%) are 11 times more effective than temp/contract-to-hire arrangements (2.4%).

Referrals (27.5%) are 15 times more effective than career fairs (1.8%).

Every 10 referrals results in one new hire. Compare that return with the number of times you may have launched your resume into the black hole of a computerized job posting service and received no reply.

For additional information access a press release and a full report of the 10th Annual Source of Hire (SOH) Study.

Conclusion

How do you land referrals?

~ get out and meet people in your industry

~ exceed expectations whenever possible

~ expand your LinkedIn connections

A referral could make the difference between "I'll stick around" and "I'm outta here!"

[ NOTE: Follow Beantown Web on Twitter @webapprentices and on Facebook by becoming a Fan of Beantown Web. ]

Startup Watch | February 2011

The number of tech workers in San Francisco today is nearing its peak in 2000. The city had more than 32,000 tech jobs last year, compared with approximately 34,000 in 2000. Could this be an indicator that a new bubble is about to burst?

Bay Area economists and commercial real estate experts think not. Today's startups seem more cautious. They rent less office space. Also, there is less risk of a bubble because investments by venture capitalists last quarter were less than one-fourth the value of investments made at the peak of the boom.

According to one Bay Area real estate expert:

"This leg of job growth is in its early stages. The whole dot-com revolution started in 1995, and it took five years to reach its crescendo."

Details are available in a San Francisco Chronicle article.

How does this translate to Boston? Perhaps it doesn't. However, startup companies do create jobs. According to StartUpHire.com there are nearly 800 job openings at startup companies in the Boston metro area.

Mass High Tech highlights startup companies each week in a series called "Five You Should Follow."

Startup Watch for February

Here are 12 startup companies to keep your eye on:

[NOTE: Hover over company name to view a tooltip summary of that company's value proposition.]

» Aura Biosciences, Inc. | Cambridge

» Bliss Healthcare, Inc. | Waltham

» Conversation Media, Inc. | Brighton

» Good Start Genetics, Inc. | Boston

» HeadSpin Software, LLC | Burlington

» Jarvian, Inc. | Boston

» Owlchemy Labs, LLC | Watertown

» Playrific, Inc. | North Billerica

» Proteqt Technologies, Inc. | Franklin

» SocialSci | Cambridge

» SweetDeeds | Boston

» Ziptivity, LLC | Carlisle

Five new startups are listed every Tuesday at Mass High Tech -- The Journal of New England Technology. Access Startup News for details. If your company was founded within the last three years, and would like to be considered for the Watch List, contact the Startup Watch editor.

Access previous Startup Watch lists:

• Startup Watch | January 2011
• Startup Watch | December 2010
• Startup Watch | November 2010
• Startup Watch | October 2010
• Startup Watch | September 2010
• Startup Watch | August 2010
• Startup Watch | July 2010
• Startup Watch | June 2010
• Startup Watch | May 2010

[ NOTE: Follow Beantown Web on Twitter @webapprentices and on Facebook by becoming a Fan of Beantown Web. ]

SXSW Interactive Awards | 2011

This year's South By Southwest Interactive (SXSW) festival offered a showcase of trends in interactive design.

Taking home the Best of Show award was The Wilderness Downtown, the HTML5 experiment featuring the music of Grammy Award winning Arcade Fire. If you have not yet experienced the capabilities of HTML5 video coding technology, download Google Chrome and witness the future of interactive design.

Awards were handed out in 17 categories. The Film/TV category showcased Collapsus: The Energy Risk Conspiracy. Collapsus is a transmedia project that combines interactivity, animation, fiction, and documentary. The following three-minute video provides an overview of this emerging transmedia trend.

Collapsus Walkthrough from SubmarineChannel on Vimeo.

SXSW Interactive Awards Categories

Here are the 2011 award winners by category.

Activism: The Tiziano Project | 360° Kurdistan

Amusement: Most Awesomest Thing Ever

Art: The Johnny Cash Project

Business: Get Satisfaction

Classic: The Onion

Community: iFixit

Educational Resource: Rosetta Stone Version 4 TOTALe™

Experimental: Isle of Tune

Film/TV: Collapsus: The Energy Risk Conspiracy

Kiosk/Installation: Unilever - Smile Activated Vending Machine

Mobile: Airbnb

Motion Graphics: Record Tripping

Music: The Wilderness Downtown

Personal: JKVC Interactive & Print Design

Social Media: Conan O'Brien Presents: Team Coco

Student: FeedSpeaker

Technical Achievement: AP Timeline Reader

Special Honors

People's Choice: Groupon

Breakout Digital Trend: GroupMe

Speaker of the Event: Jane McGonigal

Digital Campaign of the Year: Old Spice: Smell Like a Man, Man

Best of Show: The Wilderness Downtown

For additional creative ideas check out The Finalists at the SXSW website.

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Boston Market | March 2011

Job opportunities for Web technology professionals continued to expand over the past 30 days. The pace has slowed somewhat from last month's report. So have the referral bonuses.

March Referral Rewards

Marsh Sutherland at Walden Recruiting is offering $1,000 finder's fees for each of the following opportunities:

~ Web Designer (and mobile too!)

~ Senior Ruby on Rails Engineer

Joe Cronin at Edvisors is offering a $500 finder's fee for the following opportunity:

~ Director of Software Development and Engineering

What do these three opportunities have in common?

• highly developed technical skills
• experience implementing these skills in a Web (and increasingly mobile Web) environment

Dharmesh Shah from HubSpot, who fired the first $10,000 shot in the Boston battle for technology talent, reports as follows:

"For us, it's less about specific skills and more about finding people that have a passion for programming and a background delivering applications over the web."

Technical skills high on his list include the following:

• Java
• Python
• PHP

Boston Market

It pays to develop your technical skills.

Java, Python and PHP are three skills in the Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston. This list is updated monthly and appears in the right-hand column.

• Java | 667 job opportunities 66% in two months
• Python | 167 job opportunities 80% in two months
• PHP | 152 job opportunities 31% in two months
  

The list of Average Salaries in Boston has also been updated for March. Data is supplied by CBSalary.com, a service of CareerBuilder.com. A sampling of jobs filled recently and the salaries offered to the selected candidates reveal the following:

• Graphic Artist | $49,700
• Graphic Designer | $66,600
• Web Developer | $96,300
• e-Commerce Programmer | $107,200
• Web Architect | $116,100
  

It pays to develop your technical skills.

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Web Innovators Group | WebInno29

Ten companies. Ten hundred networking opportunities. All in one room. All FREE.

If you are interested in previewing the latest innovations on the Internet and mobile devices, and networking with industry leaders, then check out the next gathering of the Web Innovators Group.

This 29th installment will feature the following presentations:

Main Dishes

• FollowUp.cc | Schedule your email to-do list. Earn respect by staying on track.


• Practically Green | Learn to live healthier and greener.


• Unbound Commerce | Mobile and Facebook commerce for retailers.

Side Dishes

• Heretoo | The game begins early 2011


• Media Armor | an analytics company that helps the mobile display advertising industry


• MobiFlex | build complex native mobile apps without a developer


• Newsle | news about your people


• Postpost | a news aggregator for the social generation


• Synchronize.TV | enables developers to create applications that augment the television viewing experience


• TapCity | a multiplayer city-building game with a real-world twist

Building Products That Win

A special optional breakout session will begin at 8:00 pm. The panelists will discuss how to launch great internet products and scale high performing product teams.

Moderator: Nitzan Shaer | High Start Group
Panelist: Ben Foster | OPOWER
Panelist: Adam Medros | TripAdvisor
Panelist: Fareed Behmaram-Mosavat | Zynga

Event Details

Monday, March 7, 2011, 6:30 pm

Royal Sonesta Cambridge

Registration is FREE and the networking could prove invaluable! Check out the Attendee List of more than 1,000 pre-registrants to determine if this networking event is right for you.

Registrants are encouraged to join the Boston Web Innovators Group on LinkedIn and connect with nearly 1,400 members.

[ NOTE: Follow Beantown Web on Twitter @webapprentices and on Facebook by becoming a Fan of Beantown Web. ]

Startup Watch | January 2011

As the job market for Web technology professionals heats up, the market for ninjas, gurus and rockstars is boiling!

Dharmesh Shah, Founder and CTO at HubSpot, is looking for developers. There is just one catch. Only awesome ones need apply. Refer an awesome developer and pocket $10,000. Check out the details in his blog post entitled HubSpot Fires First Shot in Boston Battle For Talent: $10,000 Bounty.

This is not just a Boston phenomenon. Rand Fishkin, CEO at SEOmoz in Seattle, has upped the ante to $12,000 for software engineers. Details at WANTED: Software Engineers REWARD: $12,000. To be considered you must be amazing.

GRANA Opportunities

So, are there job opportunities in the current market? Yes, if you can demonstrate GRANA skills:

• Guru
• Rockstar
• Awesome
• Ninja
• Amazing
  

After all of the GRANA coders are locked up with long-term stock options there might even be a few opportunities remaining for mere mortals.

Startup Watch for January

Mass High Tech highlights startup companies each week in a series called "Five You Should Follow."

Here are 11 startup companies to keep your eye on:

[NOTE: Hover over company name to view a tooltip summary of that company's value proposition.]

» Acetylon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Boston

» Autotegrity, Inc. Cambridge

» Avantra Biosciences Corp. Woburn

» Baydin, Inc. Cambridge

» Gingko Bioworks Boston

» Grembe Apps, Inc. Marstons Mills

» MyPaperlessBills, Inc. Medford

» Novophage Therapeutics, Inc. Cambridge

» TerraVerdae BioWorks, Inc. Beverly

» UpRace Boston

» WaySavvy Boston

Five new startups are listed every Tuesday at Mass High Tech -- The Journal of New England Technology. Access Startup News for details. If your company was founded within the last three years, and would like to be considered for the Watch List, contact the Startup Watch editor.

Access previous Startup Watch lists:

• Startup Watch December 2010
• Startup Watch November 2010
• Startup Watch October 2010
• Startup Watch September 2010
• Startup Watch August 2010
• Startup Watch July 2010
• Startup Watch June 2010
• Startup Watch May 2010

[ NOTE: Follow Beantown Web on Twitter @webapprentices and on Facebook by becoming a Fan of Beantown Web. ]

Ruby on Rails | Boston

The growing demand for Web technology workers can only be met by increasing the supply of skilled candidates. Skill is developed through a combination of training and practice.

Crisis or Opportunity?

The unemployment crisis is not abating. Yet, as reported in Boston Market | February 2011, the demand for Web technology workers increased steadily in 2010 and experienced an upward spike in January.

Still, many unemployed and underemployed workers are underskilled for these information technology opportunities.

Ruby on Rails

Let's dig deeper and explore a technology whose demand profile does not yet place it on the Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston list posted in the right-hand column:

~ Ruby on Rails | 43 job postings

This technology was developed by 37 Signals, creators of Basecamp, the popular online project collaboration tool, and authors of Rework, one of the Best Business Books of 2010. Wikipedia provides a nice overview of Ruby on Rails (RoR) which is defined as an open source web application framework.

You may already be using an RoR application and not even be aware of it. Twitter and Groupon are just two of many thousands of websites built using Ruby on Rails.

A recent Dice article confirms that "demand is high, but supply is low" for Ruby on Rails experts in the greater Boston area. There apparently is a talent shortage in other large technology markets as well, including Chicago.

Training Opportunity

A Cambridge-based venture capital firm, Fairhaven Capital, has joined forces with thoughtbot, inc., a Boston-based web design and development company, to offer Ruby on Rails training at a 50% discount. Not just anyone can sign up, however. You have to apply.

First, you must demonstrate experience in web languages such as Java, Python, C#, PHP, HTML, and SQL.

Second, preference will be given to developers from start-up companies.

If you feel you meet the qualification standards, then apply online for one of the 25 available training slots.

[ NOTE: Follow Beantown Web on Twitter @webapprentices and on Facebook by becoming a Fan of Beantown Web. ]

Boston Market | February 2011

Demand for information technology talent exploded in January!

Job postings for the top 20 Web-related technology skills in Boston increased 36 percent year over year, as detailed in the Boston Market | January 2011 post. From early January to early February these same technology skills experienced an average 49 percent increase!

• Top 20 Skills (January 2010 - January 2011) 36%
• Top 20 Skills (January 2011 - February 2011) 49%

We'll take a closer look at the numbers in a minute. First the bigger picture.

Job Growth 2010

According to the Labor Department three U.S. metropolitan areas added the most jobs in 2010:

• Washington, DC
• Dallas
• Boston

All three cities are home to industries that are poised to hire this year:

• information technology
• biomedical research firms
• government contractors

Details can be found in a Bloomberg Businessweek article.

Boston Market

The list of Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston has been updated for February and appears in the right-hand column. The list is comprised of keyword searches for web-related technologies mentioned in job postings at Boston.com (managed by Monster.com).

The usual suspects of programming and database skills populate the Top 10 including the following:

#3 - Java 53% in 30 days
#5 - JavaScript 57% in 30 days
#6 - XML 50% in 30 days
#8 - C# 54% in 30 days

The biggest mover, however, enters the Top 10 for the first time:

#9 - social media 73% in 30 days

A closer looks at the posted jobs that list "social media" in the description reveals that many of the positions are more suited for writers and marketers. None-the-less, the social media experience occurs on the Web and Web technology professionals should know how to incorporate social media content into Web projects. This content includes, but is not limited to the following:

~ Facebook integration
~ Twitter integration
~ YouTube integration

Social Media Opportunity

Social media is not a passing fancy any more than the World Wide Web is a fad that will quietly disappear. Web technology professionals should consider adding "social media" to their technology skill set.

The best way to start is to develop a 30-day action plan to incorporate Facebook, Twitter and YouTube into your business communications.

[ NOTE: Beantown Web is now on Twitter. Follow Beantown Web @webapprentices and on Facebook by becoming a Fan of Beantown Web. ]