I've received a number of questions and comments lately regarding the unique company culture at HubSpot, mainly because of our recent recognition by the Boston Business Journal as the number one best place to work (just ahead of Google!) and by the Boston Globe as the number four top workplace. The recognition resulting from these awards has tended to emphasize HubSpot's perks like free beer and no vacation policy, but that's only a snapshot.

At HubSpot, we are trying to create something I like to call a "post-modern culture," and believe it or not, this post-modern culture was inspired by the TV show Mad Men. The show is set in an advertising company 50 years ago, and it pokes fun at corporate culture in that era. While watching Mad Men, I couldn't help but wonder what a show might look like 50 years from today that poked fun at current working conditions and company culture. That led me to think a bit about what didn't make sense anymore given the realities of the Gen Y worker, broadband internet at home, constant connectivity via mobile devices, the modern market for hiring exceptional people, etc.

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After just doing a bang-up job on a little west coast swing built around LA's Fuck Yeah Fest and ending with the successfully packed Buddyhead + FYF presented show at the legendary Spaceland, AA Bondy is heading back out on the road this week. Starting next Tuesday, October 5th, Mr. Bondy will be touring down the east coast (most dates find him opening for his Fat Possum label-mates The Walkmen) before calling it a year, packing up and moving from Woodstock, New York to the capitol of the world (aka Los Angeles, California) and recording his third full length album! Which judging from the five or six new songs I heard him play live at those left-coast shows, it's promising to be his best effort yet. And I can honest say Mr. Bondy is not only one of the best lyricists of our time but he's also one of the most literate men in rock n' roll. A title which Noel Gallagher claims is held by none other than Morrissey, and I'm never one to argue with Noel.

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Perhaps the most nerve-wracking part of starting any new venture is the cold-calling. All the time invested in developing slides and talking points can either pay off or fall flat in a matter of minutes. I've never gotten as comfortable as I'd like to be with this process. Every time I find myself trying to generate new leads, my mind wanders back to a trip to India I made almost fifteen years earlier. I often think of an artisan who I never met in person, but who created a piece of art I still remember vividly. When we visited the home of a family friend, I complimented her on the mural outside her front entrance. It depicted a wonderful village scene, yet the colors were much more subdued and modern than similar works I had seen in my travels.

Our hostess proceeded to tell us about how she had met the artist at a local handicrafts show. He was from one of India's poorest states and did not speak the local language. Yet she was impressed with his work - enough to ask him if he would come to her home and create the mural. He reluctantly agreed, but shrugged when asked how much he would charge. When he arrived, he asked her for ideas or a picture of what he should paint. She wanted to respect his work and told him to surprise her.

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The "gun rights" absolutists are continuing their campaign to ensure that guns are carried into every corner of American society, with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signing legislation to allows guns in places of worship, Arizona allowing the carrying of concealed weapons without a permit, and Utah giving out concealed carry licenses like candy to folks who have never set foot in the state. The madness is driven by the "more guns=less crime" malarkey that has become the mantra of the gun lobby.

The "more guns" argument goes like this. The world is neatly divided into good guys and bad guys. The bad guys will always have guns and will attack the good guys who are unarmed, but not the good guys who may be able to shoot back. "Criminals still prefer to prey on the weak," says former NRA President Sandy Froman, "and they don't like armed victims." According to this argument, the bad guys will be deterred from committing criminal acts by the fear that the good guys are carrying guns. In the fantasy world constructed by the "gun rights" crowd, this idea is taken as presumed truth. In the world we actually live in, it doesn't work so well.

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