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This is a great question. In classic recruiter style, I’m going to be very definitive and say: I think that it depends. :-)

Startups are great because they force people to wear multiple hats, work in a resource-constrained environment, and think about how what they work on interacts with other pieces of the puzzle rather than of owning a very narrow project or piece of code.

While that entrepreneurial flexibility is highly desirable in any size org, a pattern of several in a row might unfairly brand someone as a serial startup person, likely to bolt every year or so.

Speaking of patterns, how many failed startups are we talking here? I love people who take risks and follow their passions, but if your resume lists a series of short stints at failed startups, I think it’s natural to question a person’s career management skills.

I’m always curious to get my candidate’s take on why the company failed. Were there adverse market conditions at play? Was the product ahead of the need? Was it unforeseen technology gaps, poor product or shady business dealings? I think it’s fair game to find out what role the candidate played in contributing to the success or failure of any venture.

Another thing to keep in mind is that building and scaling provide different challenges and not everyone is good at (or wants to do) both. During the interview cycle, you might be asked about whether you are solely a "V.1 person" or if growing a product/service is something you’d find as intriguing as building from scratch.

Lastly, it’s worth mentioning that failure is not an absolute. Microsoft LOVES to ask questions around what one has learned while failing. We’d be foolish to discount valuable lessons learned in defeat. I think it’s funny that I’m answering this question because my whole "pre-Microsoft" career had been finding candidates for small startups in the Bay Area and Puget Sound. During that time I learned a lot of lessons that have helped pave the way for future successes.

Anyone have a good "lesson learned at Startup X" story they’d like to share?

- Matt

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AT&T just announced they are launching a mobile platform for their mobile phone subscribers to stay connected with their favorite social networking platforms. The application, developed by Intercasting Corporation, allows users to maintain and manage several social networking platforms with one easy to use interface.

“Our social networking applications are among our highest-performing category, and we anticipate sustained interest from consumers as social networks continue to explode in popularity and diversify in purpose,” said Mark Collins, vice president of Consumer Products for AT&T’s wireless unit. “The My Communities application brings unmatched simplicity, increased functionality and deeper integration to this space, a combination we believe will win over active users and newcomers alike.”

My Communities is compatible with MySpace, the mobile-only community Rabble, blogging sites LiveJournal and Xanga and the photo-sharing site Photobucket. My Communities also features sites whose members share common characteristics such as ethnicity (AsianAve, BlackPlanet, MiGente), faith (FaithBase) or sexual orientation (GLEE). Subscribers get instant access to additional sites as soon as they are added to My Communities and will be alerted to updates when they launch the application — no upgrade is required. Through My Communities, subscribers can register for social sites directly from their phone without ever having to go to the Web, a feature not common with most other social networking applications.

This application is available on 23 devices for a monthly subscription of $2.99 a month. To find out more or to see if your mobile device qualifies, please visit AT&T’s Media Mall.