Years ago, rumors used to circulate about Microsoft interviews.  They were the hot, new company that everyone wanted to work.  With envy came the urban myths.  These rumors have since been transfered to Google, and will surely be transfered to some new company in due time. Bloggers – always desperate for links and traffic – [...]

Having just finished up my first year in Wharton’s MBA program, I often hear the question, “is an MBA worth it?” It’s a tough choice: $100k or so in tuition and other expenses, plus the lost salary, plus the loss in possible promotions. With TechCrunch having just posted an article on this matter, I thought I’d [...]

My elderly (childhood) nanny just bought a pre-paid cell phone and, naturally, I needed to help her set it up and teach her how to use it.  The phone was a great deal, she told me – just $99 for a year of free US and international calling! Cheapest phone plan ever, right?  This is [...]

What have you learned in the past year?  Jill Foster of WomenGrowBusiness.com asked me this question and posted my response here: 3 Business Ideas: Experiment Often, Carefully, and Singly.  You can read it there or below where I’ve re-posted it. —— I started CareerCup to solve one part of software engineering interviews: preparation. Candidates who [...]

Many services are structured as follows: Person A pays Person B for a task or item, and the “finder” or “connector” service takes a cut. It’s a wonderful business model – someone else is doing all the “real” work, and you get a bit off the top. The problem is that users are wise to [...]

If you haven’t checked out PeopleOfWalmart yet, you’re in for a treat. Pages of entertainment from America’s classiest individuals (yes, mother of mullet-baby, I’m speaking to you). One of my favorite websites just got a little bit better: it just launched EmptySpaceAds! Move your mouse to the margins of the page and you’ll see the [...]

Since discovering the wonder of outsourcing nine months ago, in October 2008, I’ve outsourced approximately 300 hours. That’s 300 hours that I got to spend reading or playing (or working…) while various assistants re-formatted an e-book, researched traffic stats for competing sites, scheduled apartment visits, got price quotes for vacation rentals, designed posters for an [...]

The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that schools cannot strip search students, with Clarence Thomas as the lone dissenter. In the case, a 13 year old was accused of having ibuprofen by an ex-friend. Though the school never searched her locker or desk, they strip searched the girl. For ibuprofen. Redding says she was then asked [...]

In an upsetting – but expected ruling – the CA Supreme Court voted to uphold Proposition 8, which reads: Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. Wording like this would have been torn to shreds by my high school debate team (which once, rather infamously, defined Huckleberry Finn, in [...]

A guest blog post I wrote for Women Grow Business: Working for Microsoft, Google and Apple, I not only became a better engineer – I became a better entrepreneur. Their successes and failures, encapsulated in these five lessons, provided me with invaluable instruction in how to build a company and effectively compete. #1. Build a [...]