This post was originally written on the official inDinero blog, where we talk about our product, business finances, and entrepreneurship.

inDinero is a relatively new company - we've been a corporation for a little over a year, we've been fulltime for only a few weeks, yet we've put a lot of thought into what we stand for as a company. Since deciding to work on the startup as our fulltime jobs, a lot of people have suggested we shoot for early acquisitions, suggest that we build out the ultimate Quickbooks replacement, without putting much thought into what we wanted to do with the company. I actually found it pretty shocking that friends and classmates would suggest flipping the company as quickly as possible for a few million dollars, and they would find it shocking that a quick flip wasn't something that interested us. It's because Andy and I have put a lot of thought into why we're doing inDinero and what we stand for. We know precisely why we're building our company, and every decision we make is aligned with the key motivator for why we're working on inDinero: because we want to have fun. Sounds pretty cheesy, but if you think about it, what keeps you going during times good and bad? The common answer is "the prospect of finding success". Or unfiltered, "the prospect of becoming a millionaire." The problem with that type of thinking is that during gloomy times, you might consider a quick pivot into a completely different business idea. Or some friends I know would just leave entrepreneurship and go into a banking job that's guaranteed to make them rich. But among everyone working here at inDinero (all four of us), we're purely in it for the fun and joy of building a great product. And as long as all of our big "strategical decisions" are aligned with the purpose of optimizing for fun, we know we can't fail. People frequently ask me why I'd want to go into the accounting space. Quick answer is that we're not - we'll always stop short of doing formal accounting, simply because I don't think it's fun. And we won't build comprehensive tax-management features either, because I don't think it's fun. If the company doesn't make as much money as a result, it's ok, because we're fulfilling our core purpose as a company: and that's to have fun.

I probably feel more insane about my company than most entrepreneurs - in fact, I know that I'm 99% more fanatical about inDinero for reasons I'm having trouble describing. I had the stark realization that as long as I continue to build inDinero, I know that everyone in the company is going to have fun, which by obvious logic means that we'll obviously be a successful company. And the true beauty behind that statement is that we've already achieved great success by merely having fun. So in order to be successful, we just need to stay in business. Continue what we've been doing for the past three weeks, but manage to continue this trajectory for the next 60 or 70 years of our lives. This statement holds true for everyone in the company right now. Having massive amounts of fun while building a company also needs to be rationalized. What comprises fun? 1) People, 2) Product, 3) Vision. Having fun while building product is relatively easy - just don't build features that you find useless, and don't build complex accounting features just because people want them. Frequently, there are simpler ways to solve the same problem. I'll describe "vision" further in a future blog post, but I don't think that's immediately important for having fun in an early-stage startup. Which leaves "people" as the most important factor to consider. Among my entrepreneurial classmates at Berkeley and friends in the YCombinator program, I've found that a lot of them have trouble recruiting talent. Finding technical expertise is often considered the most difficult part, with less consideration being placed on culture fit. With inDinero, we quickly brought on two early members - Chris and Borden. The main reason for bringing on more coders so early in the life of the company was primarily because we didn't know how long it'd be before we could find other incredible computer scientists who we would consider family. Consider this thought: you met the woman of your dreams, and she wants to get married soon. If you don't propose now, she's definitely going to leave you. Even if you're not entirely ready to get married, it makes obvious sense that you should marry her. Andy and I made a similar decision for bringing on Chris and Borden - simply put, we wanted them to be family, and if we didn't do it now, we probably never would.

inDinero is actually like a family. We cook and clean for each other, treat each other like playful siblings, work as hard as you'd expect from a group of asian immigrants, and it works out incredibly well. The interesting thing is that many software companies have cultures equally as unique. I've seen other early startups with cultures that resembles that of a fraternity, class project team, united nations delegation, or for the unfortunate business-people-only teams, a fortune-500 company. All startups pride themselves on having a "hip" culture, but the interpersonal dynamics are vastly different from startup to startup. Some people say that your culture is solidified from the first people you hire, but from personal observation, it's usually based on the relationship between the original cofounders. For example, my co-founder Andy is practically family to me, and therefore, our company has been shaped around the idea of being a very cohesive family. While I run the risk of one day contradicting myself, I think it's important to give some tangible examples of what this means going forward: Anyone we involve in the company will feel like family. This includes employees, and even investors and board members. If I wouldn't adopt them into my family (and if the rest of my family doesn't want to adopt them), it's a no go. And this is consistent with our company's purpose of existence, because we'll continue to have massive amounts of fun as long as there's nobody here to crash the party. Based on these thoughts, we've been able to narrow our hiring process down to a single question: do we trust them enough to adopt them into our family? Is it too early for a technically three-week-old startup to be thinking about these kinds of things? Perhaps, but it didn't take us long to come to the conclusion that we were in this for the fun. And it won't take others to realize that they're in it for the money, the excitement, escape, or challenge. As your company grows, continue to be mindful of the original reasons for why you decided to go into business. That way, you'll somehow find certain success.

When I was recruiting our lead product person to join Indinero, he had already prepared himself to tell me he wasn't interested. His reasoning had nothing to do with the idea, the team, or anything related to the business. He was just scared that our expectations of him would far exceed what he was capable of, when we were actually on the same page all along. Since then, he's been tremendously helpful to the company.

How often do you hear of personal relationships not working out? In almost every case of a breakup, it's that the expectations were off. The guy wanted a casual relationship, the girl wanted more. It's very instinctual, but most people just don't communicate these things. So when the guy starts talking about what he wants in his next girlfriend, the girl's shocked to find out that he hadn't even considered her for marriage. What a disaster...

Not only should expectations be set, but they should be higher than what you're personally expecting. It's like financial planning - you have your "ideal scenario", but in the back of your mind, you know you'll never hit those benchmarks.

Set high expectations, expect low results. Then you'll never be disappointed again!

The past few days have been intense! In a nutshell, I've been looking at an internship -- yes, a JOB with a real COMPANY. It's come to my stark realization that I never thought about working for a company not so much because I thought corporations were dumb, but because there are few places that would allow me to explore my own projects. In other words, I would only work for a company that allowed me to be an entrepreneur within the company. While there aren't many companies with such a culture, I've started to look at a few companies that prosper on having creative and fast moving "intra-preneurs." My partial list includes Ning, Six Apart, PBWiki, and Ustream.

Of course, being that I'm bratty Jessica Mah, I'm super picky with the companies I would want to deal with. Here are my thoughts and reasoning behind the companies I've talked with so far:

1) I'm picky with the companies I interview with, and I immediately look for a culture fit. If anything, culture fit is the FIRST thing I look for in a company. If I'm not going to be happy there, it's not even worth a legit interview. What does culture mean? That deserves a blog post on its own, but it's so crucial for a startup to be fast-moving, communicative, open-minded, friendly, and enthusiastic. If the company has high-walled cubicles and segregated "departments," I have no interest in spending my summer there.

2) I don't accept offers from companies who don't thoroughly interview me. Sure, I think I'm a moderately smart person. However, I want to work for a company where people are brilliant. If the company doesn't bother to test my knowledge and skills, it shows that they don't take hiring seriously. With that said, if I get a job or internship offer from a company that doesn't spend the time needed to test me for culture and knowledge fit, I don't see the company as being good enough for me. Lesson: I only work for startups that make it difficult for me to get in. The next time you interview a "rockstar" prospective employee, keep this in mind.

3) Companies and employees need to give and take equally from each other. In my search for a summer internship, I'm not looking for a big name brand. I want to work for a company that lets me play around with my product management, business, and coding skills. I want to work for a company that wants me as much as I want them. One of the companies on my list offered to fly me out for a visit -- that shows a lot of dedication. It proves to me that the company wants me as bad as I want it.

4) Do programming ninjas talk to the business people? In other words, do the complaints and desires of the users get seen by the people working on the product? Sounds like a silly question, but so many companies (United Airlines among them,) don't have any connect between the customer support people and the executives who implement the changes. With that said, I like seeing companies where coders and business people are in everyday dialogue with each other. I love how Ning's customer advocate team also works in product management -- since they talk to customers everyday, they are more likely to know what changes should be made.

5) Money!!! As you've probably read before, compensation is not my #1 priority. However, it's not something that can be ignored. Living in the Bay Area this summer costs a LOT of money. I'll be paying $2000+ / month in various living costs that include food, apartment, transportation. Then I somehow need to pay off the $5,000 summer tuition bill that Stanford University is soon to send me. The startup scene is competitive -- In most cases, I want these companies just as much as they want me. If they want me to join on board, a competitive offer is definitely in order.

6) Networking, colleagues, and mentors. Last, but not least, I look for any potential to grow my network. I'm looking for executives who are well connected in Silicon Valley and beyond. I'm looking for colleagues who are open and willing to help me just as much as I'm willing to help them. With all of the companies I've applied to so far, I've either personally met an executive there or had one of my friends refer me. Never underestimate the power of a personal network!

With that said, I'll keep you updated with my internship hunt. Now you know the supposedly secret thoughts on what a self proclaimed teen entrepreneur looks for in an internship! Having this summer internship won't slow me down from being an entrepreneur. It's simply a way for me to further my learning -- a way for me to figure out how fast-moving companies survive and grow.

By the time I graduate with my Bachelor's degree in two years, I'll be fully prepared to take on the world with a company of my own.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore at early college, Bard College at Simon's Rock.

She loves chatting with fellow students, readers, and entrepreneurs, so don't hesitate to email her or message her on AIM! Feel free to subscribe to her blog or stalk her twitter.

There are so many little things about a prospective employee that can tell you, as the entrepreneur or hiring manager, whether or not the candidate is capable of being a reliable, long term, team player. For example, if I'm hiring a person, I'm going to look at how many schools this person went to and whether or not s/he graduated. I'm going to look at his/her smoking habits. I'm going to look at how long this person remained at his or her last few jobs. If I'm hiring manager for a company like Google, which receives thousands of resumes daily, I'll quickly eliminate people who didn't get a college degree, who smoke on a daily basis, and who weren't able to keep a job for more than two years because each show a lack of commitment and/or a preference for short term over long term goals. There are so many brilliant people who don’t have college degrees, but it takes much longer to screen these people for commitment. I don't think companies like Google care about what you learned in college so much as they care about your desire to stay with a company for more than a few months. They want employees who are able to work on projects that they aren't necessarily in love with.

Many people critique Google for looking at college transcripts, but I'm going to defend them on this for several reasons:

1) High GPAs show the ability to do everything (besides business/computer science), and this is often a good measure for what happens in the workplace. This isn't to say that dropouts are unable to prosper at a company like Google, but it's an easier way to weed out the definite slackers.

2) A transcript allows Google to see what kind of courses you took. Did you only take computer science classes? Did you stick with your Jazz Ensemble for all four years, or did you join in and out depending on the semester? Are there any independent studies? All of these gives clues as to who the person is and what their commitment to their studies are. Maybe you took a class in philosophy which you had absolutely no interest in whatsoever, but were you able to get at least a B?

3) I hate to say it, but looking at college transcripts is an easy way to weed people out. If you're running an amazing company, you'll get thousands upon thousands of transcripts, and you can't possibly take everyone. By weeding out college dropouts and those with poor grades, it's much easier to focus on those who are likely to succeed in a large company.

As Seth Godin often says on his blog that resumes give a reason for companies to reject you, which is exactly why Google asks for them in the first place. It makes the hiring process much better for them! For those of you who don't have a college degree or resume, find people to hire you based on something you did. Through keeping this blog, I've received many recruitment emails from technology companies. Although I'm yet to receive my college diploma, I'd feel reluctant to hire someone without a college diploma unless s/he has solid work experience to compensate. Even a college diploma is no longer enough to hire somebody. I'll take this even further to say, if I receive an offer to work for a company without an interview and review of my past experiences, I would feel reluctant to join because it shows something about how smart my colleagues in this company may be.

The moral of this story: If you think rationally about it, Google has a reason to recruit people in the way that they do. Fewer people leave the company not just because they offer amazing job benefits, but because they attract people who are more likely to stick it out and see the good in whatever they're working on. Most of the people I know at Yahoo are high school or college dropouts, and most of them are seriously contemplating leaving their job. While Yahoo is yet to better their job benefits, hiring committed people from the onset is often a significant part of the battle.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore at early college, Bard College at Simon's Rock.

She loves chatting with fellow students, readers, and entrepreneurs, so don't hesitate to email her or message her on AIM! Feel free to subscribe to her blog or stalk her twitter.

Firstly, no entrepreneur should be expected to know everything about business, but s/he should be able to know enough in order to recruit help from remarkable individuals in their respective fields. And if the individual is anything short of remarkable, look for someone else. Remarkable entrepreneurs don't need to be baby geniuses, but they need to be able to network with the individuals who will influence their businesses for the better. If the entrepreneur manages to hire and manage a remarkable team, s/he will have more time to devote to a personal life.

While I ran my first (failed) company, I managed to do just that. I recruited incredibly smart techies to help manage all of the issues related to my dedicated server clients while I enjoyed time on the beaches of Puerto Rico. My team didn’t exist to assist ME -- their purpose was to serve the company, and my existence was to make sure that their ideals remained that way.

This unnamed TEDster proposed the idea of having a "board of life," which caters more to the individual entrepreneurs. This board should consist of accomplished entrepreneurs and experts who feel personally invested in one's future. They'll get you the connections you need, offer you limitless personal support, and encourage you to do amazing things. In a way, I see members on my board of life as being my aunts and uncles. While it takes time to build a relationship with them, you almost have an inherent instinct from the moment you meet them as to whether or not you can provide meaning to each other. They literally feel like family in that both you and your "mentor" would go out of the way to do anything for each other. I call them "mentors" because they're far more than mentors. The TEDster I met with made clear the distinction: while mentors are there to give you sound advice, members on your board of life have a family-like relationship to you.

The ideas of recruiting a dream team can also be applied to managing one's personal life. My parents employ multiple people fulltime to manage our family's finances, home, appointments, travel, etc… In fact, I'm the only person in my family who hasn't yet taken advantage of the ideas that I'm proposing to you as I write this. Why? Because I enjoy making my own appointments. I enjoy comparing the prices between a Jetblue and a Virgin flight. I prefer to email my blog readers than to have my publicist send generic replies. I still utilize my mom's accountant and secretary, but only because it makes more practical sense for me to do so. When it comes to emailing people and managing my own schedule, nobody can do it better than me.

In the end, you need to come to terms with the fact that you're not superman. You don't know everything and you don't have the experiences and perspectives of everyone on this planet. You're hopefully smart enough to realize this -- recruit the necessary help in whatever part of life you need. By surrounding yourself with accomplished people in their respective fields, you're more likely to see your own success.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore at early collegeBard College at Simon's Rock.

She loves chatting with fellow students, readers, and entrepreneurs, so don't hesitate to email her or message her on AIM! Feel free to subscribe to her blog or stalk her twitter.

Mishap #1: (4 months in business, 300 customers) I was driving down the freeway with my family on a rainy day in July. We were driving up the Jersey Coast, going to our next vacation destination. All of my responsibilities were temporarily designated to one of my co-founders, Tyler, and I received a terrible phone call:

"Hey umm... our servers are down! All of our customers are bitching at us!"

Oh. Bloody. Hell. We had downtime for the next 48 hours and eventually found out that one of our customers, once again, was phishing. In other words, somebody with an account on our primary machine was pretending to be PayPal and sent out fake emails. All of this from OUR server. This cost the company a few hundred dollars in revenue and thousands more in potential business, but it was a good lesson that I learned young. a) invest in security, b) figure out ways to get your customers online if such a problem ever happened, c) compensate them for having suffered through your stupidity, and d) be transparent and honest as to what happened. We failed to do all of the above when we needed to. Fortunately, we learned from these mistakes. We ended up giving out heavily discounted services and emailing updates to customers when they suffered through our careless mistakes.

Mishap #2: (9 months in business, 700 customers) I was in a hotel room on December 31st a few years ago. It was 11:59 and 15 seconds (+/- 10 seconds) and suddenly I get a phone call. Of course, another problem while I'm trying to enjoy my vacation. Co-founder Tyler tells me that some f**khead hacked into all of our servers and wiped off our clients' accounts. Not. Funny. Except this time, we learned from our mistakes. My other co-founder, Alan, was also a nerdy Asian. He was brilliant. An absolute genius. He found out what happened and he patched the problems up within 15 minutes by reverting to our backup machines. Since this was new years, nobody was looking. We were so fast with getting things back online that not a single customer sent us a support ticket. This brings me to my next super important lesson: Always critique yourself and learn from your mistakes. If something terrible happens, (such as if some dickhead deletes all of your customers' accounts,) then learn. Figure out what happened, patch it up, and promise that it'll never ever happen again in the future. And if somehow it does, you're going to lose business.

More to come on my stories from when I was a stupid, arrogant, teenage entrepreneur!

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She's currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com, and Jessicamah.com. In her free time, she enjoys the prospect of being an underage angel investor while partying like a rock star.

Sure, it sounds like you're doing your family member a favor. Your grandson Johnny needs a summer job, so you let him run the family store. Your only real benefit is trust. You supposedly know this person well, but it doesn't mean that he or she will be good at the job.

For example... let's talk about restaurants. I went to a Thai restaurant for lunch and a Chinese restaurant for dinner. I'm a regular at both restaurants and can safely say that the staff members are all family related. And in both restaurants, I've had bad experiences with nasty or dumb waiters/waitresses. At the Thai restaurant, there's this one waitress who just so happens to be the daughter of the owner. She's slow, she has a snotty attitude, and comes off as if she hates her job. The other employees there (who are also family members) maintain a happy attitude, but this one waitress stands out like a sore thumb. I've even read reviews on the internet that talk about this one waitress at this Thai restaurant!

Now for the other Chinese restaurant... Two evenings ago, I had a Chinese guy who was a decent waiter. Tonight, I had a Chinese guy who couldn't speak English, couldn't really understand English, and also came off as a guy who really hated his job. I think we asked him to repeat our order three times and he still didn't get it right.

There are always two sides of the story. One might say that this poor Chinese guy needs a job. The entrepreneur/investor will say, "what was the restaurant thinking for hiring this guy who can't even do his job?" It all comes down to priorities. If you want to be a better business owner, hire the people who know what they're doing. Family and friend connections don't matter if the person can't even speak English. But again, if this guy's your cousin or something, I can understand hiring him for kindness sake.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She's currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com, SimonsRockers.com, and Jessicamah.com.