The new name is Thing Labs. What else is new? New address in San Francisco and the addition of Chris Wetherell (co-founder of Google Reader with Jason) and the tech he’s been quietly building. Lots going on. Follow the company on Twitter to stay in the loop.

Staying at a large company during a recession may be safer but isn’t exactly safe nor is it full of opportunity. Large, public companies are overly influenced by the mood of public markets and hence by the macro environment. They can close or sell entire product lines or divisions. In an attempt to manage financial performance, most slow down innovation and substantially cut R&D (one of the key reasons why the quarterly focus of Wall Street isn’t great for US competitiveness).  This limits opportunities for organic growth and advancement from both an intellectual and career perspective. The prevailing philosophy is simple: first let’s stop the bleeding and then we can grow through acquisitions. When innovation and growth come back in, they come from the outside, again limiting the options for existing employees.

If you are a person whose skills are in high demand, you may be better off heading to a startup that has a couple of years of funding. Worst case, if things don’t work out and you need paycheck, you can always get a new job at a large company. During recessionary environments most large employers take the opportunity to upgrade their talent. The real question is whether you’ve forgotten how to work hard…

We are looking to bring a couple more people on the team at this point. Check out the Plinky blog for details.

I got an email today from a friend who read the VentureBeat story about Ryan coming on board and asked something along the lines of “why are you hiring such a high-level guy so early on?” Making interactive design both feel and workgreat is a daunting task. There are many sites out there that look cool but do terribly at achieving their business objectives, e.g., getting someone to buy a product or generating a ton of click-throughs. All form. no function. On the flip side, there are many sites that are great businesses but are very light on design and, many times, emotional appeal. All function, no form. Striking not just good but optimalbalance between form and function requires a level of understanding of both the philosophy behind the user experience and the driving forces behind the business as well as ongoing fine-grained experimentation/iteration. Ryan is just the person we need to get this right.

Jason got a good shot with his iPhone.

I got a decent shot with my Blackberry. I have a larger image because I used the digital zoom feature of my Curve.

The pictures were taken from room 1221 at the Ritz Carlton @ Battery Park.

In my six years at Polaris, Plinky is the fourth company that I have helped launch and the second company I have co-founded. Last fall I decided to switch my focus fully to helping entrepreneurs launch companies. Many of the entrepreneurs I’ve talked to are looking for help. There are not that many people in the venture business who both know how to do this and have the bandwidth to do it well. Think of me as a serial co-founder who helps shape the idea, raise capital, build the team and execute. I have founding equity in the companies, which aligns my interests with the entrepreneurs’. In order to have time to partner and engage deeply with my co-founders, I have stopped doing traditional investments and taking board seats, although I remain a partner at Polaris and 100% dedicated to building companies that Polaris invests in. My partner VCMike did the Plinky investment and will be on the board.