There are some really great things about being a part of StartUpHire. Given the current economic times, it’s good to be working on something that helps both folks who need jobs and the engines of growth for the world’s economy.

The other great thing is being exposed to some really cool startups. The amount of innovation we run in to daily is really exciting. Today’s post is a short list of some interesting companies we’ve come across; by no means is this an exhaustive list of cool startups.

Cogo Labs – this is actually a startup incubator. There are many of these, but any group that can claim over $1 million in revenue per employee is worth a look.

Invincea is a Fairfax, VA based startup company with a very novel approach to browser security. If you’re worried about zero-day attacks on the most used application in your company, give them a look. If you’re interested in stopping malware before it’s known, take a look at their jobs.

Want in at the ground floor of what could be the next big startup? Check out the posting from Yapsee. They’re working on a new way to make friends online.

Roblox is mixing elements of Legos, Minecraft, and user-created MMO content to make some interesting web-based games. They’re hiring like crazy, which is usually the sign of a company doing great things.

We’ve previously posted about startups making tools for developers. Another example is Version One. They have a widely used tool to support agile development teams. If you’re interested in helping accelerate the pace of change in every industry, check them out.

Hopefully you’ve seen some interesting companies from today’s post. If you know of other interesting startups, drop us a line using our contact form.

Quora is an interesting startup in Palo Alto, CA. Recently found on their site was someone asking “What is it like to work at Twitter as an engineer?” An anonymous user (we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that they do, in fact, work for twitter) replied with the following:

It’s slightly embarrassing to read about Twitter outages on Hacker News, since the commenters like to talk shit about how we’re all incompetent.
My non-programmer friends assume I’m really good, which is silly.
People keep apologizing for not having an account to me. Seriously, it’s okay.
People think I have a lot of secret insider knowledge.

The work culture is good, though chaotic. We’re on a ridiculous hiring spree, and getting to the size where communication is difficult, and duplicate work is starting to happen.

Twitter has the standard perks you’d expect from a well-funded startup that values its developers: free lunches, and now dinners, MacBook Pros for everyone, flex hours (though individual teams may choose to do daily standups and thus force you to come in at a certain time every day), a lot of really smart, motivated, and competent people, a flat org structure, and ease of transfer between teams and projects.

Overall, Twitter’s setting a really high standard for what I want from my workplace. =D

If you’re interested in learning more about startups, you should first subscribe to the StartUpHire rss feed. Then you may want to head over to Quora and do some searching on startup topics of interest to you.

Oh, and while we’re on the topic of twitter, did you know StartUpHire has a twitter stream? Follow it to find out about exciting job opportunities and to learn when we post a blog entry.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Is an infographic worth more or less?
Monetate gave the world of startups a Christmas present with their inforgraphic guide for developers wanting to work at a startup. They cover everything from what stage you should be looking at, to choices of how to impress your potential new company. They could have improved it by including StartUpHire in their suggested web sites, but if you’re reading this, you already knew that.

Monetate is a good tool to try out if you have a website and want to test which pitches get the best responses.