A Hacker Moustache

Moustache month has nearly concluded. Over the past 28 days, we've been inspired to see so many Mo Bros rocking 'staches and even this woman (who suffers from hirsutism) sporting one for the awesome cause of men's cancer research.

Not surprisingly, SoundCloud - the world's leading social sound platform that rocks on an average work day - has absolutely grown it for Movember. Check out the amazing pics below of my colleagues who are raising funds:

From top down: Alexis, Tomás, Marco, Ed, Ele, Corey, Deepak, Jami

Grow Beards for Sweden!

This past week, SoundCloud encouraged me to throw a "master class" in beard & mustache growing with a specific focus on The World Beard & Mustache Championships. But no beard and mustache presentation would be complete without the expert opinion of the incredible Phil Olsen, captain of Beard Team USA.  In the following sound, Phil gives a brief history on the global sport of bearding, while also presenting an alarming fact about Sweden & one momentous challenge to one of my colleagues in particular....

Reminder: don't miss the third annual Beard Team USA National Beard and Moustache Championships taking place on Sunday, November 11, 2012, at the Clark County Government Center Amphitheater in Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. The amphitheater has lawn seating for 3000 beardsmen and their fans!  

Perhaps the 1st ever Swedish beard team will show up? I know a few Swedes who could help this cause...
 (Photo: Hannes Tydén - SoundCloud genius and best beard at the company)

Make The 'Stache Last

Jami Welch is one of my awesome colleagues at SoundCloud (where he works on the community team).  In his spare time he creates electronic music under the name Seams. When he's not working or making beats, he's growing one bad-ass mustache. So cool, that I believe his signature 'stache now replaces Justin's beard as my favorite facial hair at the company (sorry, Justin).  This level of achieventment also means that you can't shave, Jami -- ever.  

(Photo credit: David Noël) 

Justin Street: Bearded Biz Development

Last night, while at The Salt Lick in Austin, I overheard someone referencing my colleague as a "bearded sex panther." This prompted me to take a good hard look at Justin Street's facial fuzz and decided it was time to feature him on BaB.  

He works at SoundCloud. He has a kick-ass beard. His life rocks. Any questions?

(Photo: Justin in his natural beer & bbq habitat) 

SoundCloud EyeEm Summer Party at Picknick

Yesterday afternoon, I jetted from London to Berlin to attend SoundCloud EyeEm's Summer Party held at Picknick. Although this was an "office" party (a party that went from 7 pm - 9 am Sunday morning and had over 1,000 people in attendance at one point), I couldn't help but also feel that it was a borderline beard meet-up. I have never seen such a sea of hairy faces (and this coming from someone who used to live in Brooklyn).

It is no coincidence that SoundCloud's founder & CEO has a beard - has a staff of tech beards and/or mustaches working there - and that I'm their US PR Manager.  

It was a great soiree. Here are some stand-out beards to admire (below), more on EyeEm, and conversations captured during the event. 

Photo: Alexander Ljung, Founder and CEO, SoundCloud

Photo: SoundClouders Eric Wahlforss, Founder & CTO; Dave Haynes, VP Biz Development (Content)

Photo: Ben Fawkes, Audio Content Manager, SoundCloud

Photo: Sarah Haswell, Music Content Team

Photo: Ramzi Rizk, Founder CTO, EyeEm

Meet Beardyman

Conan O'Brien featured Beardyman last night - a musician from London renowned for his beatboxing skills and use of live looping technology - but of course his name caught our attention.  And although his goatee is not as incredible as we'd like to see (nor does he have an actual beard), his talent for creating audio mixes is truly something to admire.

The BBC has called him the "King of Sound" and "Ruler of Beats."  You can listen for yourself on SoundCloud.  Also, he was given the nickname "Beardyman" because a name was quickly needed for a flyer for an early show, and at the time he had a beard.  

Our advice - grow it back!