Todd Masonis is the founder of Plaxo. He was educated in Stanford and originally from Connecticut. Visit the company blog here.

What are some of the challenges facing Plaxo as we speak? And how are such problems being addressed? Does Plaxo have a process whereby problems can be effectively and timely addressed that you can recommend to new entrepreneurs to adopt?

We have the same problems as everybody else, late shipment and software bugs, just to name a few. But we have a fairly well defined process to address these type of problems. As our company grew, we were able to build a QA department and shipping department. So we place great emphasis on having great people where each person has a specific responsibility.

Where do you hope to see Plaxo in 3 – 5 years? What is your vision? With the market change this past year, primarily with the advent of Web 2.0 services, what (if any at all) has changed between your 2001 Plaxo vision and your 2006 Plaxo vision?

Our basic vision has pretty much stayed the same. Although, we did learn new things along the way as our product became more and more developed.

Things that have changed was our synchronization technology.

However, in terms of our basic idea and vision, where we hope to be, is to be able to continue providing a contact list synchronization and updating tool that can be used worldwide by more and more people, the continual acquisition and growth of new users that use our tool, generating more and more revenue through premium services, and having increased functionality such as our Plaxo mobile.

On this note, what is Plaxo’s primary method of generating revenue?

We do have multiple ways to do this such as premium services or consumers and partnerships with larger companies, who has the need for back-end contact synchronization and so we provide “power address books” management service.

Being in the cut-throat economy of today where competition for not only applying for but retaining jobs is high, what advice can you give to the next generation of entrepreneurs about applying for jobs and retaining their existing job? To put things into perspective, what does your team look for when hiring talent?

We have a rigorous hiring process and we don’t compromise when hiring. We look for people that do not just have the skills, but also the social personality. Some sample questions we ask during an interview are where the person has worked before, how they have interacted with different people, all with the aim of trying to get a general feel for the person.

In a startup environment, things change rapidly and so we generally tend to hire people of a diverse nature. For instance, people that show initiative, people from all different backgrounds, people that can step-up to the plate if the need arises, and people that can adapt to different tasks at a moment’s notice.

What advice would you give to new entrepreneurs when building their startups?

The best advice I can give is to just go out and do it.

The absolute, most difficult thing to do in any startup is just to get started and make it real.

The reality is about moving obstacles. What are the minimum steps needed to get things off the ground?

In terms of funding, how did Plaxo go about getting its funding? On that note, what advice would you give to entrepreneurs that need funding to move to the next level?

One of the good things about the whole Web 2.0 movement is that a startup does not need venture capital funding to get started.

Plaxo has received venture capital support and we were able to receive that from building a quality product. So focus on the product to get it out there and as the quality of your product increases, so will the valuation of the product and naturally you will attract the attention of VC’s.