Grasslands

The Grasshopper Labs crew has landed in Austin for SXSW 2010! They will be in the city until the 16th, so if you want to grab a coffee just give them a shout. They’ve got all sorts of Chargify SWAG to give out and have a big surprise planned for Monday night.

There may or may not be a giant green bull running around with them as well. Purely hearsay at this point. If you’re interested in talking shop with any of the Labs guys, just shoot them a DM on Twitter – David Hauser (@dh), Michael Buffington (@go), or Jon Kay (@grasshopperbuzz).

Enjoy the show!

Along with basketball, indoor soccer is one of the team sports we participate in outside of work. With Ben Madden as our goalie (and MVP), Grasshopper takes the "field", has some fun and once in a while, scores some goals.

High school kids rock. Especially the ones I had the pleasure of meeting last week at the Massachusetts State DECA Conference in downtown Boston. DECA is an organization that aims to empower young people to pursue careers in marketing, management, and entrepreneurship through education and leadership development events. 185,000 high schools students participate through 5,000 chapters across the U.S.

Along with my colleagues, Jeremy Butler (DECA alumni) and Jon Kay, I served as a judge in the Entrepreneurship category and Grasshopper donated scholarships for the top three participants in our category. The scholarships we gave will help out the winners of our category with travels costs for the DECA National conference. Over the course of three days, we each heard from between ten and fifteen groups of young entrepreneurs who pitched us their entrepreneurial ventures. Their businesses ranged from internet properties to landscaping companies and everything in between. The vast majority were outstanding.

We were also given the opportunity to do a couple of workshops on Friday afternoon. Jonathan presented on generating buzz and Jeremy and

A piece of advice to web entrepreneurs just getting started: rather than becoming consumed with starting the next Google or Facebook, focus on creating a remarkable company with a niche target market that solves a problem that you yourself have had. Here are four and a half great videos from six entrepreneurs to help you focus, get inspired, and launch a successful startup.

1. Make Money - David Heinemeier Hannson, Co-founder of 37signals

David from 37Signals gives an uplifting, straightforward talk on creating a profitable company, charging money for your product, and to solve simple problems. David and I have similar views on growing a business: do it yourself without venture capital, focus on entrepreneurs (he calls them Fortune 5,000,000), and solve a problem you face yourself. What changes can you implement to either make or create an additional $1 million a year from your niche target?

Connect with David on Twitter: @dhh

2. Break Conventions - Eoghan McCabe & Des Traynor, Founders of Contrast.ie

Breaking conventions is easier said than done, and Eoghan and Des