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In recent years, lean startups have become a popular sector of Internet businesses that look to push a product at "low burn." A lot of what makes a lean startup lean, according the man who coined the term, Eric Ries, is when the company strives to create value for customers. "Every activity that does not contribute to learning about customers" should be defined as "waste," Ries says.

But Lei's company seems leaner than lean, with almost no "burn" whatsoever. According to the ooShirts.com homepage, less than 0.5% of the company's revenue goes to advertising. Instead the company relies on referrals and repeat customers to help spread the word. By working with over a dozen suppliers, ooShirts keeps its shipping costs low - savings it passes on to its customers in order to undercut competition.

ooShirts is part of a unique subset of Internet companies. While many startups one might categorize as "lean" are developing applications and tools for the Web, ooShirts is playing in the co-creation and mass customization space. These companies serve as intermediaries between customers and manufacturers who can create customized products, and thus can afford to run at a "low burn."

Because of this business relationship, mass customization companies may need to be set aside from lean startups, which by nature are highly iterative product companies. But perhaps there is some intersection between lean startups and the low burning mass customization companies. Or maybe Abate's term "ultralight" is a new class of startups? Either way, running thin is certainly a growing trend among startups, and ooShirts is a fine example of how the Internet is enabling the success of these businesses.

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The program is founded by four entrepreneurs - Raymond Luk, Ben Yoskovitz, Ian Rae, and Alistair Croll - who describe themselves as "operators, not armchair quarterbacks. We've been in the trenches." The program will utilize the "lean startup" methodology and be focused on a "rigorous process of customer development and iterative adjustment."

Year One Labs' founders say the program will take a hands-on approach, offering $50,000 issued in tranches, a network of mentors, access to investors, and office space at the Year One Labs space. In exchange, the program will take a minority stake - between 10-20% - in the participating startups. Mentors include Flowtown co-founder Dan Martell and Shopify creator Tobias Lutke.

According to a blog post at Flow Ventures, of which Luk is the founder, "The best way to 'pitch' Y1L is to sit down with us face to face and talk about the problem you're going to solve."

"Pure play" startups are those whose product is predicated wholly on the Twitter platform.

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From June 2008 to May 2009, CB Insights tracked $21.6 million in investment into pure-play Twitter startups. But over the last 12 month period, that investment figure is down to $10.4 million. While the dollar amount is down dramatically, the number of investment rounds has stayed nearly the same: 11 last year versus 10 this year.

Despite the growing popularity of Twitter, investors (and developers) appear to be uncertain about both the stability and the direction of Twitter. When Twitter purchased Tweetie back in April and acquired Smallthought Systems in June, it signalled to many that the company would be "filling the holes" in its platform itself, rather than leaving them for third-party developers to address.

While investment in and development of the Twitter ecosystem as a whole will continue, it seems unlikely that investment in pure play Twitter startups will rebound to meet the levels cited in another CB Insights report: the one that tracked a 220% increase in pure play iPhone and iPad app startups.

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Jeremy isn't alone in his sentiments. In fact, many of the responses leaned in favor of working on Labor Day. Chris Grayson, a New York-based digital media consultant and marketing strategist, said, "What @brianjeremy said." Others jokingly hinted at the fact that they were unaware any holiday even existed today.

When I asked if it was even a question that startups and entrepreneurs would work this weekend, the entrepreneur behind the Twitter account techofnow replied, "No question. It is something I enjoy too much, had to put at least a couple hours in." Another response said, "I love to use holidays as a chance to get ahead of the competition," which is certainly a good move, if your competition gets lazy.

It would seem that time off and holidays are few and far between for young companies looking to get off the ground. For those with some experience (and a team of employees) under their belts, holidays are avoided less often. Jeff Powers, co-founder at Occipital, says that even though his team officially had the day off, he's "been working all day as usual." Sometimes even the most seasoned entrepreneurs-turned-managers can't break old work habits.

But perhaps polling Twitter was a bit of a biased method for this question. After all, those out enjoying the holiday weekend are less likely to be paying attention to Twitter well enough to chime in.

So here is your opportunity - let us know: did your startup get work done this Labor Day weekend? Or did you take the time to decompress before getting back to business Tuesday? Or was it a mix of both with laptops on the beach? Leave us a comment with your opinion on working holidays!