If You’re Growing a Company and Its Talent, Don’t Forget to Grow Up

I first learned about the concept of a “tech startup” when I was in college about 10 years ago. My friends and I all joined a website called “thefacebook,” which allowed us to review pictures of guys we liked to be sure that they were actually as handsome as they appeared to be with our beer goggles on. Thefacebook was exclusive at the time (“good” universities only), and though buggy, the platform was sleek, intuitive and cool — especially compared to our usual go-tos, like MySpace and Webshots. But beyond the technology created and connections made, the biggest showstopper for us was that it was all started by a guy who was about our age.