My good friend Dan and I were talking shop about our recent business challenges. He works for Omniture (OMTR), the leading Web analytics software company, and is one of the top sales guys there. As an aside, we were both at the University Venture Fund when I sourced our Omniture deal and we had the privilege to co-invest with Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Scale Venture Partners in one of Utah’s shining technology successes. Every quarter, my friend handily beats his quotas and makes good money doing so. Life ought …

The best Super Bowl commercial for me was the National Football League’s “Super Ad: Who Wants it More?” spot titled Mr. Oboe. The advert features a story about NFL offensive lineman Ephraim Salaam convincing a young, oboe-playing grocery bagger named Chester Pitts to give football a try. Pitts ends up joining the San Diego State football team, getting selected in the second round of the NFL draft, and playing right alongside Salaam for the Houston Texans.
What an inspiring story! It reminds me of a line from Disney’s (DIS) Pixar-produced Ratatouille. …