StockTwits: Pay Attention to the Babble?

Going to meet StockTwits founder Howard Lindzon is like looking for a black-market arms dealer -- or maybe online-games dealer is more fitting. We climb steps in a San Diego building with the feel of a roadside motel. There are no signs on the doors, but a manicurist from a neighboring day spa comes to the rescue. "Oh, you're looking for the geek squad?" she asks, then takes us through a back door. We pass a sink counter littered with half-empty liquor bottles and come to a young guy in a dark office, his face concealed by a computer screen. He looks up long enough to say, "Yes, this is StockTwits," then goes back to his work. Eventually, we find Lindzon talking to two employees in a room cluttered with unframed art and Ikea furniture. He seems younger than his 45 years -- perhaps it's his hyperkinetic nature, or maybe it's those many sunlight-starved hours in front of a computer and lunches of Cheetos.