We’ve spent the better part of 2011 working on our latest project. It’s called Commonred and it has a simple mission: be the best place to find commonality with other professionals.

Strong common threads are the basis for any meaningful professional relationship. We work together. We went to the same school. We like the same books. We know the same people. We both frequent the North Shore of Oahu or the Startup Grind Meetup. This information is scattered all across the web on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Some of it lives on our blog or Plancast profile. So when I want to build a relationship with you, I embark on a scavenger hunt across the internets wasting lots of time.

Commonred (short for common thread) solves this problem by giving you a snapshot of commonality you share with others. Each user’s data is customized to the person looking at it. I don’t need to know everything about you – just what we have in common and what’s interesting to me (schools, places, hobbies, people, companies, etc). This helps inform me on how to best approach someone, or gain a meaningful contact. The deeper the better.

Our goal is to drive serendipitous experiences for people as they find commonality when they never would have previously. We attempt to do it in a fun and beautifully designed way. Check it out today and start finding common threads with people you never would have otherwise.

Last night we had our seventh Startup Grind Event. We were fortunate to have Rod Swanson, one of the smartest brand guys in the world. Rod has worked at Electronic Arts for 18 years experiencing all areas of the business from development to publishing. Most recently to championing one of the most well know interactive entertainment brands in the world.

Rod shared some great stories and insight into how EA builds and maintains dozens of brands managed by hundreds of people around the globe. One thing he drove home was that your brand is the ‘gut feeling’ people have about you. He asked the audience to shout out the first thing that came to their mind when they thought of brands like Lego, Mercedes, Apple, and Bass.

He also explained that a brand can’t be a tag line or bought for a price, it’s built through action. Branding has to be authentic. It has to be what you’re really about at your core.

Our next event in December will feature Ben Galbraith, former Director of Development at Palm, and longtime entrepreneur. If you’d like to join us please RSVP for the Meetup here. Big thanks to our sponsor Rapid Leap for providing the food for the event.

On the last Thursday of each month we host an event called Startup Grind at our office in Mountain View. This event organized jointly by us and VL friend Spencer Nielsen, brings entrepreneurs together to meet, eat, and learn from some of the top minds in the Valley. Speakers include CEOs, Venture Capitalists, and everyday tech founders talking about what the real startup experience is like.

We recently moved our community to MeetUp.com to help organize and keep track of attendees and event details. Please join us this Thursday as we welcome the CEO of DataScaler Chad Harrington. He’ll walkthrough his experience as an entrepreneur and detail the ups and downs of the process. See below for pictures from some of our previous meetups, and let us know if you’d like to contribute and help us.

RSPV and get updates about this event and future events here. There are currently more than 50 entrepreneurs planning to attend so come early to grab a seat!

Here’s another shot by shot review of the Crossfire board game commercial that we remade for Steve Young Football. The office was clearly divided with some preferring this video over the My Buddy spoof and vise versa. In terms of the pureness of the spoof Crossfire wins hands down. It’s a shot by shot copy of the original. Big up to our friends at Side Street Productions who worked on these with us.

Here’s the original commercial followed by the one we made. If you want a really awesome experience then watch them at the same time. You’ll see what I mean.

After Gizmodo called our My Buddy iPad spoof the “best app advertisement ever, bar none” we laughed, then cried, then we really started to cry. The culmination of a lot of great work by a lot of people, produced the final video which can be seen below. Here are some of the side-by-side shots that we tried to recreate. You’ll see with the Crossfire video that the shots were dead on, but this is about as close a representation as you’re going to get.

Here’s the original My Buddy commercial and the iBuddy parody:

One of my earliest memories is my dad taking my brother and I to attend a celebrity golf tournament in Clearwater Florida. I still remember meeting athletes and sports figures, but my most vivid memory is of Jim Rice being a complete jerk! I was a huge fan of the Boston All-Star until I asked for his autographic and he acted like we wasted his time. The majority of my experience with athletes since then had been similar to Jim Rice; until we started working with Steve Young.

From the beginning Steve’s attitude has been nothing short of incredible. He has provided great ideas to improve the game as well as the overall launch and marketing. He’s impacted our vision throughout development as he is graciously donating all of his proceeds to the Forever Young Foundation. This organization was started by Steve 15 years ago and helps needy kids around the world get the medical and physical help they need to live a healthy life.

When we presented the ideas for the UPS-whiteboard style spoof videos (videos go live here next week), Steve looked them over and took control. He changed the themes, put on own personal humor and spin, and took them to the next level.

The Director invited his mom (a huge Steve Young fan) to the production studio for the shoot. She had no idea he was coming. After making him aware of the situation he burst into action surprising her, giving her a big hug, and talking to her at length. Throughout the shoot he continued to interact with her, asking her after each take if he’d done his job correctly.

In my years at Electronic Arts and EA Sports I’ve never seen an athlete act this way; not by a long shot. But this is how all my interactions with Steve have been throughout this process.

To me this is what continues to make him a major influence to the NFL and the community. He’s an extraordinarily gifted and talented guy, who acts just like a completely normal person does. It’s refreshing to see someone you’ve always looked up to and admire, act just the way you had always hoped they would if you ever got the chance to meet them.

We’re excited to finally unveil our new website and our latest project Steve Young Football available September 9 on iPad, iPhone, and iPod. Over the past few months we’ve had many ups and downs as the project came together.

The original idea behind Vaporware Labs was to create products that were interesting and fun to us. We started by launching MEETorDIE.com in February and quickly realized that our pain points are the same as millions of other people across the web.

We didn’t set out with the idea of creating iPad games. But after evaluating different opportunities, the chance to work on such a fun project with a world-class athlete was one we jumped at full heartedly.

Over the next 8-10 weeks we will discuss and unveil different aspects of how we built our game. The good, the bad, and the awesome. Hopefully you can learn from our successes and mistakes resulting in stronger games all around. We’ll be posting code samples, music, and other hard earned trade secrets to benefit the extended developer community.

Our team is based in Mountain View California. Feel free to ask questions about the game or development. We’re happy to help you in any way we can. Please join us for our monthly Startup Grind mixer and lecture series held in our headquarters in Mountain View on the last Thursday of each month. Or if you’re interested in working on our team lets make it happen! That picture feels pretty lonely.

This post was written by team member and Vaporware Labs founder Derek Andersen (bald guy in the middle). He can be found on Twitter @derekjandersen