Over the past decade, I've started, been employed by, and advised a flock of startups. More recently, I've been an advisor at events like Startup Weekend, Lean Startup Machine, and the new Longhorn Startup Program at UT.

One of the big pushes in recent years - I suspect primarily due to Lean Startup - is customer interviews. At some point during these interviews, the "would" question comes up. Generally it's structured something like this:

"Would you like a product that makes X better?"

And every group celebrates that "95% of our customers said yes!"

That's great, right?  Well.. let's break this down a bit.

First of all, until they give you money, they're not a customer. That's it plain and simple.. so therefore, these are potential customers or potential users but not customers.

Just like everyone else, I've applied and interviewed for a development job or ten. You know the situation... you kick off your resume, get a time for an interview, walk in with another copy of your resume, and talk about your past projects. If the interviewer subscribes to the Microsoft Model of interviewing, they may give you one of the silly "How many gas stations are in Los Angeles?" questions.

But what is really the point of this question? Obviously they don't - well maybe the more sadistic ones do - expect you to solve it. The standard line of reasoning is that this "demonstrates how you think". With the exception of developers who work for Exxon-Mobil or in GIS, this is just a plain silly question which has zero relevance and is not even anywhere close to the types of most of the problems you solve, let alone the area.

I've decided to take a completely different route. After a friend of mine put together a simple portfolio, I have decided to do the same.