David Cohen is the founder of earFeeder. He previously founded several software and web technology companies including Pinpoint Technologies. The company was acquired by ZOLL Medical Corporation in 1999 and became ZOLL Data Systems. David is also an active startup advocate, advisor, and technology investor who writes commentary on his personal blog. David's hobbies are technology, software/web startups, business history, and tennis. He has two amazing kids who always seem to be teaching him something new. Visit the earFeeder blog here.

What is earFeeder, and how did the idea get started? Why is your company named 23 Things?

earFeeder is a free tool that delivers a single customized RSS newsfeed based on your favorite musical artists. It efficiently scans for music on your machine, then lets you select only the artists you're most interested in. The feed contains notification of new releases on popular music services like iTunes, concert announcements, and general press coverage. Basically, it's a simple way to keep up with your favorite artists rather than having to search for the latest information on a regular basis. I built earFeeder with the help of my co-founder Brad Searle who handled the graphic design. The company is called 23 Things because my favorite number is 23, and I feel we can generate at least 23 cool and interesting things like this. And, you have to have a name after all.

Personally, I listen to a lot of music but do not often read about or search for my favorite artists. Why do believe there's a market for earFeeder?

Lots of people are like you. I know I am. I listen to the stuff I already know that I like for the most part. I know which artists I enjoy and there is a subset that I want to really keep up with. However, I just don't want to do the work of constantly searching for new songs on iTunes by these artists, or to find out if they're coming to town. For example, I'm not interested enough to search for new songs by Coldplay once a month. But earFeeder tells me when they release new songs, and I can check them out right away. I'm more likely to buy them because of that. I think it's important to understand that 23 Things didn't build earFeeder to go after some enormous untapped market. We built it because we wanted it for ourselves. Our friends liked it, so we released it for others to enjoy. earFeeder earns some affiliate revenues because people subscribe to the feed and buy music and tickets that they might not have otherwise even known about.

What are the biggest issues you have been dealing with since launching? What are your future plans for the service?

Well, the coverage on TechCrunch took us a bit by surprise. We had done a local beta test with only about 50 users here in Boulder, but hadn't really done much to test scalability. Fortunately, it's a scalable design and we've had no problem handling the extra traffic so far. If it keeps going like this, we may just have to upgrade the server hardware a bit. We've been scanning the blogs, and so far most of the feedback is positive. With the new influx of users, we're getting lots of requests to do more with the service. They'll all good ideas, and we'll just see where this leads.