Mahalo.com is a high profile local startup whose backers include Elan Musk (a founder of PayPal and the guy behind Tesla Motors, the all-electric high-performance sports car company) InteractiveCorp (IAC http://www.iac.com/) and some well-known Silicon Valley venture capital firms. It's located in a huge hangar-like unfinished space in a wholesale/light industrial strip mall on Colorado Blvd in Santa Monica. This is it! The flowery mahalo logo painted on the building and Tesla roadster parked in designated mahalo.com parking spot #1. inside it is as big as a high-school gym, three stories to the skylights, all open except for some partitions down the middle. concrete. flood lights. pipes. cables. off to one side is a 150-foot row of high tech metal. plastic table desks, each one commandeered by a geek. these guys each have a personal 27" at least LCD monitor plus one two or three little auxiliary screens off to both sides. many are wearing headphones and seem to be chair-dancing and coding in a trance-like rhythm. digital factory assembly line! imaginatarium! virtual world construction zone! this is totally xxxxx.com looked like in the early days, when we took over an empty factory space in marina del rey the real deal! (also since the place is mostly empty, i see they have money and are planning for expansion over the long haul.) i decided to wear my new jeans and my good sneakers and a dress shirt out of my pants and my big informal 'blazer' -- my guess for 2009 dotcom startup wardrobe. i ring bell and am greeted by young geeky guy in jeans, sneakers, dress shirt out pants and sweater. Wardrobe! Score! Coffee ritual. Ushered into what they use as a conference room. Woo hoo -- it's also the TV studio. Green screen. Real lights. Real camera. Blackout drapes. Dedicated Mac video workstation. mics, etc. The interview was with the manager and _____, the young geeky director of product who I would be replacing (his wife is making him move back to NYC). I guess the manager figured that the guy needed to feel comfortable that I could handle the technical aspects. I tried to keep it all low key -- I didn't expect this guy and was not prepared. I tried to ask intelligent questions that show me to be *more* than just this tech guy kid -- stuff about visitor stats and tracking visitor behavior and stickiness that they mentioned in the 'bonus points' listing of qualifications in the craigslist thing. kid doesn't know. manager doesn't know. i talk about stickiness and where do visitors enter the site, how many go to the front page and how many go directly to an inside subect page, etc. they are all 'hurm' and scratching their heads and 'good question.' i asked some questions which showed i had experience with web development approaches and responded appropriately when the subject of on-line vandalism came up. i tried to present myself as who I really am -- an experienced senior web exec who brings a depth of wisdom a growing startup might find valuable. i made a statement to the effect that it is all sort of awkward because of my knowing the manager but I was nevertheless here because i had a real interest in the company and what they are doing and I think I could do a good job. and the manager told me they had a bunch more interviews and they are gonna call people back Friday. I figure I can't *sell* myself.. They have to buy me. So it was handshakes all around. Out past the Tesla. Out into Santa Monica. I put the top down; I deserve the SoCal sunshine. Job well done. They never called back despite promise and the job was back on craigslist two weeks later