This weekend was all about product ideas, user values, specs, user flow, logic and building prototypes. That means we were able to walk into the office on Monday morning and show folks what we'd done and get feedback. Wow, did that feel good.

We've got a ways to go, but I feel like we're finally getting to one of the places we need to be at--having ideas ready to turn into code, commit and eventually go live, just so we can release, get people using it, learn from their feedback and then  do the whole thing all over again, hopefully many times.

Here is what I did this weekend:

• Write product vision white papers
• Write specs
• Draw pictures on coffee-stained paper with a smudgy pen
• Consume far too much coffee, diet coke ad white wine.
• Eat at wierd hours, pretty reasonable stuff ('cept for the trip to IHOP, Lisa's favorite food spot (and they have free wireless, too!).
• Talk to Lisa as she worked away
  

Here is what I did not do:

• Get a manicure/pedicure
• Go hiking
• Obtain a bike and ride it around
• Buy the BF a birthday present (I did look)

And here is what we got: Stuff to move forward with. Well worth the time.

"...all startups have a natural life. Some live forever and some are killed in their cribs."

--Boulder technocrat around town and VP of Biz Dev at Lijit Networks Micah Baldwin, writing the three big lessons for start up success.

Susan sez: BTW, I am working my little tail off and posting like a bunny on the start up life at Peoples Software blog.

So it's been two weeks in Boulder @techstars, and working with my co-founder Lisa Wiliams on Peoples Software. Twp weeks ago Friday, A & I were in a hotel in Sacramento, then in Salt Lake, and finally, here in Boulder. It's been 10 days since the TechStars program started, and we're running, hard.

Some observations of place:

• The Rockies are beautiful. You can see them from everywhere in Boulder. If I didn't live in the Bay area, I'd think this was the most beautiful place I could ever be (but I am obsessed with California, even more.)
• The body fat ratio is the lowest here, ever. The number of fit, trim, thin people who obviously spend portions of most days riding bikes up rocks, training for triathalons, or bounding to the tops of mountains to do stretches that put their legs over their heads is huge, higher than anywhere else I've lived.
• Boulder's nickname could be "Gluten Free."  All the healthy, fit people are obsessed with diet, so vegan (that's pronounced vey-gan) and gluten free foods are big here, both in grocery stores and restaurants/cafes.
• Trustafrarians are the ultra-skinny vegans with the skateboards and the dreads, smoking 420 at the Maceo Parker concert. Some of them have some gorgeous steampunk clothes and piercings that make you stare (they make me stare).
• It's a dog town. Labs and Goldens are the frisbee/ball-throwing standard for pups, but Big Daddy Winston (my American Bulldog) gets lots of puppy love. If you have a big dog, this is paradise, pretty much.
• Santa Cruz, CA should take a leaf from Boulder and replicate the moves that are turning this place into a super-desirable way station to incubate companies.Moving more and more high-tech into Boulder seems like a smart way both to boost the economy and attract a high number of "digital nomad" refugees, Bay area expats, and people who want to merge high tech development with keeping their body fat down (okay, with spending time outside in this glorious place.)

I wish I could tell you I've met alot of great people, and what the city is like, but truth is, I've been head down in a windowless room most of the time here, coming up for dog walks (the paths and trails are glorious and the mixed used spaces impressive), dinners, and some great bits of fun (Maceo Parker, hiking).

"Here's my own definition: It's the things we wonder about as we walk (or drive) the streets of our community.  Today, for instance, I was thinking --

•  What's with that used-book store?  The sign in its window seems to say its business is failing.

•  What's the asking price for that house?  What does it look like inside?  Why are they selling, anyway? 

•  Have any of my friends been to that new restaurant?  Could I take the kids?

You were thinking completely different things, I'm sure.  And that's the point: Hyperlocal should be relevant to you.  It should be about your day-to-day concerns in your local community.  Those definitions are personal, so hyperlocal must be personal, too. "

--Loladex founder Lawrence Hooper, discussing what problems hyper-local products should solve for communities.

So Dave Sifry announced the private beta of his new personalized and printed travel guide service, offbeat guides, last night. Back when I was still casting about for the next good thing, I spent some time with old friend Dave and heard about the ideas and the prototype.  I was excited then, and still am, and here's why:

• Picking through the comments by friends on TripAdvisor and on blogs to compile what people really think about places, lodgings and attractions for a destination is time-consuming, unwieldly and un-efficient.
• Even if you do this work, finding a place to save/store it can be a pain. And there's no good way to do the wisdom of crowds and find others' compliations (or annotations).
• When you're on the street in Rome, unless you have a smarter phone than many people do (I don't think most people today have a BlackBerry, iphone, smart phone, etc.--though they will--)paper really matters. And guidebooks just don't always have what you want. Or have too much. And tear out pages is ugly.

So, there's something great about being about to print a custom travel guide, focused on what you want to know, for a place you are headed. Having both a digital copy and a printed copy is cool, useful, disruptive--it diminishes the importance of the airline aggregator and the publishing business as middlemen, as well.

And finally, I think it's neat that someone who built something very distinctive in search back in 2003 is tackling a totally different set of problems here in 2008--and this time, it seems like Dave's been able to build some initial business models right in.

More in the breaking TechCrunch story, here.