Running marketing for a B2B tech start-up is a unique role. It's equal parts direct response and brand management, but too many B2B marketers focus all their efforts on one or the other.

Facebook has adopted the #hashtag, a form of metadata that provides a means of grouping messages, which can then be searched and aggregated. Most associated with Twitter, hashtags typically comprise a word or phrase prefixed with the # symbol. This is a big deal for Facebook. Hashtags bring Facebook one step closer to becoming a real-time network.

I've founded three companies, and at each one I needed to apologize to a customer we had disappointed. Early-stage media and technology companies are especially prone to error, a time when you have more vision than code and a team that is still figuring things out.

During an interview by the undergraduate admissions office at the Cornell Hotel School in 1991, I happened to mention that I speak a few languages. "Ohh..." breathed the Dean. "That's sooo marketable." At 17 years old, I hadn't realized I was "marketable," but there you have it. As it turned out, one of the big things I learned from my most excellent education was that, in fact, I didn't want to be in the hospitality industry. After graduation, I went on to have a career that can be described at best as eclectic, at worst as frustratingly vague. I never …

I am constantly amazed at how many brand marketers have VERY different points of view INTERNALLY about the campaigns they're lauded for EXTERNALLY. I cannot count how many times I've congratulated brand marketers on the press they receive in the trades, only for them to say something to the effect of, "If you only knew the truth!"

There's a storm brewing in the ad tech world. It's not a crash. It's not a bubble. Maybe some call it a correction. The fact is, there are more companies and ideas than there are dollars to go around -- and even fewer operators who know how to run these businesses like, well... businesses. Another way of looking at it: There are too many companies that aren't, can't and won't be making money anytime soon unless they get the proper leadership.

The controversy over unpaid internships continues to swell. U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III in New York recently ruled that Fox Searchlight Pictures violated minimum wage and overtime laws by failing to pay interns who worked on the 2010 movie "Black Swan." This opens up the risk of additional lawsuits, bringing intern compensation issues top of mind.

For me, building great teams and creating exciting new products is what I was meant to do. There's nothing that compares to seeing a group of people -- sometimes with more enthusiasm than experience -- come together to do something extraordinary.

Studies are wonderful things. Take, for example, studies that show children whose homes have more books do better at school than children who don't have books at home. In particular, take the detail of that study that shows this to be true whether or not the children read. Interpret. Arrive at obvious conclusion: all children need books in their homes.

I finally got caught up on "Mad Men" this past week, and I was struck by the scene where Don Draper tells Hershey's they don't need to advertise. Can you imagine an agency person saying that now? I can, though not for the same reason you might think.