It has been a bit of a quiet period at Sprout this past two weeks. A couple of our developers took time off to rest after the last sprint. New employees are getting settled. I have been totally focused on interviewing new team members. It is amazing how much time it takes to recruit great people for the company. We are maniacal about spending the time and energy now to make sure that everyone that joins Sprout not only has the skills and experience, but have the passion and drive to match our current culture. I have seen too many times where startups hire as fast as they can rather than hiring the best that they can. We are taking the long view on everyone that joins us. As Matthew says "hire slow, fire fast."

So what is the culture at Sprout? We try to keep it very simple. First and foremost we all respect each other. We share a common goal and vision for making Sprout a success and that means that we all roll up our sleeves and do whatever is needed. There is no "that's not my job" mentality. In Hawaii there is a word and concept called "ohana" which loosely translated means "family." That is how we work... we don't always get along, but in the end we realize that we are all in this together.

The calm before the storm is about to be over. We are working on our V2.0 roadmap and will be starting a new sprint soon for that launch. Deep breath!

Cool video that Loic and the gang at Seesmic shot last week.