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Tomorrow I head back to the Upstate (SC) for a short visit with the family before heading back up to Boston and a hopefully "The Hangover" style Vegas vacation with some old college buddies.  It has been a great relaxing week.  I've been able to do some blogging, think big picture strategy and of course lots of sun.  It feels like I have gotten a years worth of Vitamin D this last week if you know what I mean.

This week has also been an opportunity to see some old friends.  Enjoy the video and pictures below.

Here is another funny little HubSpot video for you with me playing a little role. 

Nothing to really say about this one.  Watch it or don't watch it...  I don't even care anymore.

If you do watch it, I hope that you like it.

To say that I've been busy lately is an understatement.  I've been crazy busy.  Things are starting to get exciting with our little interactive campus map project and HubSpot continues to grow at hockey stick clips.  The one interesting piece of content I can share is a couple of the recent videos that HubSpot has been putting out in which I've made appearances.

Foursquare Cops Episode #1: "How do you like this badge, B*TCH?"

Last I checked, this first video had over 30,000 views on YouTube and was picked up by mashable and the foursquare blog. 

Just HubSpot It - Episode 1: Batman Voice

This second video hasn't seen quite the press that the first one has, but it is still really funny. 

Maybe you notice a little trend in these two videos.  Yes, that's right...I got manhandled pretty badly.  Maybe that is just my role in life?  Hopefully it's because I can fake a good funny beat-up with the best of them. Enjoy the videos.  There are a few more to come so stay tuned, and I'll try to share them when they come out.

Also, a special shoutout to the producer and director of both of these videos, Woody Tondorf.  Woody, thanks for believing in me...  or at least believing in me enough to be your go to beat up guy.

Last weekend one of my coworkers at HubSpot’s band was playing out in Waltham. What a great opportunity to support a coworker and listen to some live music! To top it off they are an 80’s hair metal cover band! That’s right lots of AC/DC, GNR, Bon Jovi and the rest of the great tunes of that decade. So if you are in need of a Boston area 80’s rock cover band you should definitely check out Wildside!

Don’t believe me check out these short videos I took of the action.

The Wildside of Boston

Some GNR Love

While wandering around Boston the other week we made our way to Faneuil Hall and the street performers.  If you haven't seen the Yo-Yo People be sure to checkout YoYoShow.com.  John and Rebecca are married and we learned that Rebecca just had a baby so she wasn't at the show.  Imagine that they are creating new generations of Yo-Yo People!

The YoYoMan was a sight to see. So much so that I decided to not take one, but TEN videos!  I also wanted to play around a little bit with the YouTube Playlist function so this seemed like a perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.  You know me, all about efficiency.  Enjoy the videos.  Also you can watch the whole playlist on YouTube.  Be sure to watch the videos in HD for the full performance!

So yesterday Mike Volpe took the day off his normal co-hosting seat at HubSpot.TV and Karen Rubin asked me to try and fill Mike's literally larger than life shoes.  I think I held my own, but be the judge for yourself by watching the show.  For full notes of the show check them out at the HubSpot TV - Marketing March Madness page. 

Last night was my friendLara Simpson's 24th birthday. Lara and I go WAY back. Way back meaning when Lara was just a little freshman in college and needed someone to fix her computer, I just happened to be the guy working the IT Help Desk that night. I won't get into the whole story, but a few years later Lara was the first student I hired as Webmaster at Wofford and I like to think that the little letter of recommendation that I wrote for her helped to get her into Emerson for grad school (hey Lara even if we know you're just a Bad Ass and it didn't really help let's just pretend like it did!). So anyway Lara led the way to Boston and when I was contemplating the move up here she was one of the first people that I contacted to explore the idea.

So Happy Birthday Lara! Great time last night hanging out and meeting all your friends and I wish you nothing but the best as you shoot for the stars! Although I don't get to claim to be your boss anymore you have been and always will be a great friend.

It's not the Bar it's the Relationships

Something else that I was thinking about last night on the walk home was from a conversation I had with someone last night. We are always wanting to check out new places and looking for the perfect bar to hang out. Boston has its famous Cheers thanks to a certain television show back in the 1980s. Although we are always looking for a great new place to hang out that has the best drinks in town at the end of the night it always comes back to the friends and the relationships that you build with those people. A bar is a bar, but the people who you spend time with is what you remember the next day or a decade later.

So next time you plan to go out don't stress it trying to find the perfect place, spend the time to make sure that you have all the people whose company you want to enjoy on the same page to spend the time together.

Wow what a wild last week at HubSpot. Long work days into the night, but that's more of the norm now than the exception. I'm not complaining, "it simply is what it is". Between these two events on Thursday and Friday it became obvious a blog post was in order.

HubSpot 1K Customer Party

That's right HubSpot crossed the 1,000 customer plateau and that meant time to have a celebration with the customer base. I'm really not sure of the exact turnout but I was on Photographer duty and brought Rock Band for some good time at work including this "EPIC" performance by Ben Smith.

Enjoy these photos from the event.

MC Hammer makes an appearance on HubSpot TV

So some of the guys got on Twitter and asked @MCHammer to stop by the studio and make an appearance and what about him actually doing it! I spent most of the event attempting to answer support calls over the massive cheering and but did hear this quote with everyone else:

"forget the numbers, just be interesting." -MC Hammer

So cool! I snapped a few pictures of the event, but this has to be the gem.

For more information about either of these events be sure to checkout HubSpot's Company Blog.

• Good Times For All at HubSpot 1K Customer Party
• MC Hammer Drops by for Camera Time on HubSpot.TV
  

On Sunday we had our first meetup of "The Hub".  So what is The Hub?  The Hub is our HubSpot band in Rock Band.  Yes we also invite guest musicians and groupies, but for the most part the band is made up of HubSpot Rock Stars.  The roster yesterday of famous twitterholics included:

• Rebecca Corliss - Singing Marketing star by Day
  
• Kyle Paice - Expert Marketing Consultant of Impossible Problems
• Dan Abdinoor - Extreme Programming Developer
• Ellie Mirman - Warrior Princess of Social Media
• Patrick Fitzsimmons - Quiet White Knight of Bug Squashing
• Lara Simpson - Band Groupie and PR Handler of Ancient Lore
  
• TJ Hrabota - Band Groupie and Builder of things Majestic
  

Lead Singer Patrick Fitzsimmons and his Pipes

Drummer Extraordinaire - Dan Abdinoor

The Hub - Jammin' to some Oasis

So the remaining question is should we build a Rock Band Grader or focus more of our energy on getting Classic Rock Legend and Chief guru extraordinaire Brian Halligan to play an epic set with the band? Stay tunes for more updates from this upcoming group.  Hope that you enjoy the pictures and video as much as we did making it!

Picture Shoot