How to avoid MySpace-style stagnation

Failure is weighing heavily on Weekend Reads’ mind, especially given the huge haircut Rupert has just had to take on MySpace.

How do you prevent your start-up stagnating and declining in the way that MySpace did? Here’s an interesting first-hand account of how to reinvent your business and keep it fresh.

Thirty bright young things who may or may not crash and burn in the future were listed by US entrepreneurial site Inc.com this week. Can you pick out some stars of the future?

Meanwhile, the flurry of recent market activity for successful tech companies (sorry MySpace) has led to fears another web bubble is forming.

Guess how much investor cash was pumped into social start-ups in the first quarter of 2011? The figure may surprise you.

Square is perhaps at the forefront of the sky-high valuations placed on tech start-ups at present. The Jack Dorsey-founded company has just snared $100 million in funding and is now worth a cool $1 billion.

Airbnb is trying to repeat Square’s trick of raising $100 million and following its launch in Australia, it’s set to kick off a scrap with rival Wimdu over the nicest traveller accommodation space.

However, as this piece explains, Airbnb nearly shut down before it could even dream of its billion-dollar valuation.

New to all this tech/mobile/online lark? If so, you can quickly get yourself up to speed with 157 facts about apps and this rather lovely infographic on the history of computing.

Finally, if you’re in the process of hiring staff, there are certain questions you should avoid asking them at the interview stage. Here are 20 real-life examples of ones to avoid. Unless you run a table tennis strategy consultancy, of course…