ZURBlog is where we discuss product design, business and strategy.

We had a blast at last Friday’s soapbox with tech evangelist and blogger Robert Scoble, of Rackspace and Scobleizer. During his nearly 50 minute talk, Robert gave us insight into what he called the Freaky Line and how crossing that line is driving entrepreneurship.

The Freaky Line is when something, like a locator app, sends a shiver down your spine and makes you say, “man, that’s freaky!” When it comes to the Freaky Line, Robert couldn’t stop taking about Highlight, which goes way over the Freaky Line. That’s because it’s linked to your Facebook and lets you learn a lot about other people around you that are also on the app, whether you know them or not. Or as Robert put it:

Highlight is like f--k the Freaky Line.

But these locator apps know they are crossing the Freaky Line in collecting data on your whereabouts. And another app is already surpassing Highlight in going way over the freaky line. Robert recently ran into Sam Liang, founder of Placeme, which collects information about where you go without you having to do much of anything. It uses your phone sensors to collect information on just about anything and everything it can. Check out the video below and notice how Placeme blows past Highlight in crossing the Freaky Line:

As Robert would say, "that’s freaky!" But apps like Highlight and Placeme may be the future, helping us plan our days better or keep our days on track. But crossing that line, for Robert, drives innovation and is what entrepreneurism is all about — getting people to do what they don’t know they want to do.

It's like when check-in apps, like Gowalla and Foursquare, came on the scene. At first, nobody wanted to give away their location, but now it's like second nature to check-in. Giving away even more information on our whereabouts, what we exactly do when we're there may one day be like second nature.

To hear more about the Freaky Line, check out our podcast and summary of Robert Scoble’s soapbox:

Check out the Podcast & Summary of Robert Scoble's Soapbox

We had a blast at last Friday's soapbox with Box.com CEO and Founder Aaron Levie, who has been named as one of the "Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30" by Inc. Magazine. He was one of the most energetic and enthusiastic speakers we've had, cracking jokes and talking really, really fast. It was almost hard to keep up with him! During his nearly 50 minute talk, he gave us insights into the Cloud storage industry and let us in on, what he called, "a relatively easy growth strategy."

See in 2005, Google's long-rumored GDrive was a constant threat that kept Aaron up at night. Box had to do something to combat it. So the company decided to dramatically open up its funnel by giving away a Freemium — a free gigabyte of storage.

While it was a gamble that required getting more VC funding to subsidize the cost, the freemium worked out for Box. The day Box launched its freemium, it was number one on DIGG the day it launched, getting tens of thousands of sign-ups. In the first month, Box had a couple hundred thousand sign-ups.

Turns out when you get free things online that normally cost money, it’s a relatively easy growth strategy. You just have to be able to fund it.

While the freemium got lots of sign-ups for Box, it actually drove a wedge between the company and its investor, Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Hear and read more of Aaron's insights into those events and why it paid to go Freemium by clicking on the link to the podcast and summary of his soapbox below.

Check out the Podcast & Summary of Aaron Levie's Soapbox

Last Friday's soapbox talk with Dave McClure, the man who calls himself a greedy venture capitalist who has been geeking out in Silicon Valley for over 20 years, had tons of great takeaways for entrepreneurs who are out there looking for angel funding.

We discussed how Dave evaluates startup ideas, what he looks for in entrepreneurs, his investment strategy and the takeaways from some of the failures he has dealt with throughout his investment career.

We spoke about some examples of companies that have failed and as Dave's due diligence methods and advising startups. We also spent a few minutes talking about the controversial Bin 38 AngelGate meeting back in 2010.

Dave McClure Soapbox Podcast, Transcript and Summary

The soapbox talk with Ron Conway, the man who has placed more bets on Internet start-ups than anyone else in Silicon Valley, was absolutely packed with over 220 people and tons of excitement last Friday. Ron shared a wealth of insights into when and why entrepreneurs should seek funding as well as their internal evaluation process at SVAngel.

Some of the topics we discussed during the 30 minute Q&A were: the raw numbers behind all of his investments, challenges and wins he's had with his portfolio of companies over the years and the controversial Bin 38 “AngelGate” meeting between super angels who were thought to be colluding.

Ron Conway's Soapbox Podcast and Summary

Two years and 15 million customers into developing their product, the Posterous team decided to scrap everything and start over from square one. It's rare that you hear of a startup doing that these days, but they had a strong feeling that this was the right path for them. Locking down once screen per day, they spent 7 months going from page-to-page, rethinking, rebranding and redesigning each from scratch. They launched the new and rebranded Posterous Spaces a few weeks ago.

Sachin Agarwal got on his soapbox last Friday to share Posterous' setbacks, losses and wins, and reasoning behind many of the decisions made along the way. It was a very engaging talk that sparked the most hand raises we’ve seen in a while!

Sachin Agarwal's Soapbox Podcast and Summary

Posterous announced today that they are shedding their blog identity in favor of becoming a full-featured social network. During the past 8 months they have completely redesigned and overhauled their entire product and brand with a new focus: private sharing. Posterous' 15 million users will log in today to find a completely new product.

1. What was the thinking behind a complete redesign and rebranding?

2. Why did they decide to go back to square one and start form scratch?

3. Is the new Posterous going to compete with Google+ and Facebook?

Next Friday, September 23rd at 12:00, Sachin Agarwal, the founder and CEO of Posterous, will get on his soapbox to share the reasoning behind the complete overhaul, the process they employed for the redesign and the strategy behind the decisions they have made.

Check Details and RSVP

Last Friday's ZURBsoapbox was truly one of the most sincere, fun and laid back talks we've had in a while! Matt Mickiewicz, the founder of Sitepoint, 99Designs, Flippa and Learnable, joked quite a bit with us as he talked about the days when he was 14 years old and closing $10K advertising deals on school lunch breaks.

He shared his thoughts about the criticism of 99Designs, talked about how he dealt with the outraged response to Flippa's launch and gave some quick pointers for entrepreneurs trying to launch a product. The highlights, podcast and pictures are below. Enjoy!

Matt Mickiewicz's Soapbox Summary and Podcast

We are live! The fourth annual ZURBwired 24 hour madness is in full swing by now. We kicked off at 8am today with an ice breaker to loosen the group up as everyone spent a couple minutes drawing an image of what their last meal would be and presenting it to the group as they introduced themselves. We have now split up in project teams and are cranking away at the define phase of the project.

The goal of course is to launch a new website, create new brochures and marketing collateral, as well as teach the nonprofit members and volunteers how to get awesome stuff done in just 24 hours!

We're filming the event and are posting pictures, video clips, and progress on our ZURBwired blog. Give us a shout!

Check out ZURBwired For Updates

How many of you have been in a meeting where Captain No chimes in or a Spineless Leader lets a great idea get squashed? Building great things online is tough and requires skills, but the lack of passion or dysfunctional organizations usually get in the way of making great things happen.

Any of these sound familiar?

• Team is beat down and unwilling to take a risk
• Team lead doesn't stick up for a great idea
• "We need to table that until..."
• Disruptive ideas spark only disruption late in a project
• A new person joins the middle of a project
  • VP of ____________ changes direction

There's an endless list of reasons why something can't be done. Sometimes it takes a spark to get people out of the same-old-same-old ways of doing business. It can be a new meeting location, a different team, a new tool or great customer insight. Five years ago, we decided to try something new to help non-profits get unstuck.

This Thursday marks our 4th ZURBwired where we'll pull off a marketing miracle in 24 hours for Rebekah Children's Services. It started as a crazy idea to show non-profits that amazing things can happen when you have a team of passionate people who want to make something great happen. It's now become something even more to the ZURB team- it's a way to build teamwork, inspire great ideas and encourage risk taking in a supportive environment. It's a rite of passage for ZURBians and it's so awesome to be able to share this with a great group of passionate people who have made social services their life.

On Thursday we'll be blogging the entire event with photos, real-time videos and progress reports that showcase the work as it unfolds. We're going to attempt to build an an entire campaign that includes a website, newsletter and printed materials- all in 24 hours. We're going get Rebekah's team to make tough decisions and commit to them to make something awesome happen. You can see a past event on the Pie Ranch page.

It would be awesome if you could chime in on the ZURBwired blog during the Thursday event to support Rebekah Children's Services and in doing so you're letting them know they can do it.