GigaOM notes that the current CEOs are stepping down at two booming Internet startups. Both Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn, the business networking phenomenon, and Arik Czerniak of Metacafe, an online video sharing site, recently announced that they had chosen replacement CEOs. Both of these companies have been successful in raising financing, and both are valued at over $200 million dollars were an acquisition to take place.

It takes a special sort of person to pull a startup through the difficult initial phases of growth: a blend of creative vision, adaptability, and strategic flair. But once the vision is established and the startup has legs, it becomes important to have somebody at the helm who can execute that vision. Sometimes this is the same person, but often the visionary doesn’t fare well when required to focus on operations rather than tackling abstract, big picture issues.

If that’s the case, it’s best for the company (and for the CEO) if the CEO can see and admit they are no longer the man (or woman) for the job. That seems to be what’s happened with both LinkedIn and Metacafe, in both cases the exiting CEOs are remaining with the company, in roles that allow them to focus on products and strategy. It’s a win-win situation, the outbound CEOs get to do what they have demonstrated they are good at, and the companies get a CEO who can execute the vision.

There is a lot of prestige attached to the title of CEO, and in the case of an executive who has steered a startup through the difficult first years there is often a sense of ownership. It isn’t easy to recognize or admit that you are no longer right for the task, and it must have been a difficult decision for both Hoffman and Czerniak. But it was the right decision, and they are to be commended.

How can you tell that it may be time to take a new role within your startup? Here’s Cambrian House’s handy list of 5 signs it may be time to step aside as CEO of a startup:

1. The company is struggling or unable to maintain the level of success initially achieved on launch, and you feel that it has nothing to do with you
2. You identify possessively with the business, and refuse to consider acquisition offers (no matter how generous the terms)
3. Despite a solid vision and financing, you find yourself focusing more on re-thinking the vision than how to realize it
4. The competitive landscape has changed dramatically since you launched
5. The business relationships that you have to manage are no longer just investors and partners - the CEO’s role is no longer as much about growing the business as it is about maintaining position among your industry

According to some clichés these things tend to happen in threes. So, which startup CEO do you think needs to see this list and realize the time has come? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to give us your reasons.

Or, if you want to try being the CEO of your own startup, you can join the Cambrian House crowdsourcing community and start harnessing the wisdom of the crowd to launch your own idea.

Bnet.com, the new business oriented offering from technology news giant Cnet.com, published a crash course in crowdsourcing. Jennifer Alsever has done a solid job of outlining some basic strategies to bring the traditional business crowd up to speed.

There is one major point raised in this article that diverges from Cambrian House’s approach to crowdsourcing. The wisdom of crowds is pitched as a free alternative to consultants or focus groups, rather than as a meeting of equals:

Use these techniques to harness the intelligence of customers that love your business, talk about your business, and better yet, will do free work for your business in today’s increasingly democratic, user-generated, social-networked, marketplace.

At Cambrian House, our crowdsourcing model is based on the belief that the reward should be equal to the value that you add. “Give them stuff” and “give them fame” isn’t enough. Every valuable contribution to a Cambrian House project is rewarded with royalty points, which translate into an ongoing percentage of the profits when the product goes to market.

Some of the things not mentioned in the article that we think are important to think about when considering crowdsourcing for your company are:

1. Transparency - unless you are willing to open the kimono (my favorite cliche) you will not get valuable feedback/data/work from your community. How can they give you what you want if they don’t know where you’re coming from?
2. Passion in your company - you are trying to engage your most passionate users. “If you build it, they will come” is not applicable without passion. A good indication of this is whether your employees/consultants spend every minute possible in your community. Check out our fave blog on this topic for more information!
3. Time - you can’t ignore your community. Every person that contributes to your new crowdsourced model should be given the care and attention you give your employees. If you are not willing to commit the time to them, your community will not commit time to you.

Crowdsourcing is changing the way business is done, and Cambrian House is proud to be the leading edge of the transformation.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter. How do you think corporations should approach crowdsourcing?

Hi all,

Due to a record snowfall and numerous yeti attacks this week I am sad to announce that we will be delaying the release of IdeaForge for at least a week. It is not because we are fixing bugs, and making IdeaForge functionality even better.

In the meantime we’ll make final changes to The Forge, while avoiding the white monsters lurking outside our windows.

Sincerely - JR

To keep this plant alive you don’t need water, just blood, sweat, and tears. Dajackel’s Productivity Plant is a creative way to monitor how much work you actually do. The more you work the better it grows. ‘Test’ out the new dungeons in World of Warcraft and all that that will be left is a brown withered husk.

Our community has some of the most talented people around. Not only is dajackel the winner of the Red Pig Tournament, he’s also a contributing member of the Gwabs Angry Mob. In his spare time he likes to do some Second Life freelancing, or rock out in his band. Since he developed an affinity for Japan when he lived there, I wonder if his plant will be a bonsai?

Dajackel should be seeing plenty of green with the $10,000 he won as the winner of the IdeaWarz Red Pig Tournament. With his seed money he should be able to develop his idea and see it blossom (pun intended).

The Idea:

“A small little desktop application that continuously runs in the background. You set up profiles within it for example, ‘Home’, ‘Work’, etc. Within the profiles you set up different applications under different categories. For example, under your ‘Work’ profile you would set up some games under a negative category, and something such as Visual Studio or Excel under a good profile.
Throughout your day it will monitor which applications you are using, and if you are using all good applications your plant will grow and prosper. If you start using negative applications your plant will start to wither and die.
A lot more could be done from this, for example, the plant could bloom and look different depending on what applications you are using, or even instead of a plant, it could be similar to a ‘Tamagotchi’.”

dajackel’s inspiration behind the idea:

“At home and I should have been working, but, I was reading up on Digg and playing little games. I thought it would be cool if I had a visual indicator of how my work habits were for that day and the first thing that had good ‘withered and dead’ and ‘alive and vibrant’ looks would be a flower.
I think just the fun of trying to keep it alive and kicking would be enough to stop be from clowning off, at least, cut down on it!”

We are thrilled for dajackel and can’t wait for Productivity Plant to hit the platform and begin development.

We also want to congratulate our other finalist Deckard. His idea Location-based MMOG was another favorite that made it to the finals. We look forward to seeing more of his ideas in upcoming tournaments. Good job Deckard.

Besides fame, glory, and praise from fans everywhere, dajackel will win $10,000 in order to help realize his idea. Dajackel will of course also receive the coveted IdeaWarz winner’s t-shirt.

So there you have it folks. Congrats again dajackel and all the best to our future contestants, and may the BEST idea win.