The GleepLog

Long Term Planning in Startups

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 01:49:25 -0500

We interviewed a job candidate recently. He was just a kid, really. 2 years out of college and spent most of that at “big blue”.

He asked us what our company would be like in 5 years. I laughed.

I told him we only had the roughest ideas of what our system would look like in 5 weeks. We have firmer ideas after our next spring planning session. This seems to surprise him quite a bit.

You see, he had listed “Agile” on his CV but admitted his team at IBM didn’t use it. That got me thinking.

5 year plans

5 year plans only make sense at big companies. Why? Because they’re so slow and unwieldy it takes them 5 years to do anything useful. Why should a company like that embrace an agile methodology?

They can’t iterate quickly, changing their plans as they go. They can’t experiment to find the best solution. They’ve got a 5 year plan and a billion dollars of CapEx depending on it!

Innovation

That’s why so many new ideas come out of small companies and startups. They take chances on things and find new ways to make things work. They fail. all. the time.

Rebels

I sat in a meeting room at [REDACTED LOGISTICS EMPIRE] once. It was a meeting Sanjay had set up so that a bunch of us startup gangsters could meet executive suit wearing types from said empire and talk about adoption of technologies, priorities etc.

One of them told us he was considered a rebel because he was willing to adopt technology that was ONLY 5 years old. I almost fell out of my chair. None of us had even been in business for 5 years.

Don’t make plans

If you have to make plans because you just have to make plans then make very general plans. Put them in your backlog and then get back to work on short term, specific goals.

Leaving the Peach

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:03:01 -0500

The short version: I’m leaving StarPound and moving back to Orlando with my family.

Atlanta has been my home base since I moved here in 2003 after the small company / startup I worked for mostly imploded. I’ve thought about moving back a lot because I still have family and friends there. Recently an opportunity came up to make that happen and after giving it a lot of thought I decided to go for it.

It wasn’t easy. I’ve lived here a long time now and I have a wife and kids now. I thought with the housing market like it is that we’d be stuck forever but we found someone that wants to rent our house from us.

In the end, making a big decision like this is pretty scary but having an entrepreneurial streak in me, I’m ok with taking risks. There are some times when you have to fight your way out of a rut and really stretch yourself. This is one of those times. The easy, safe answer would be to keep my head down and stick to the status quo but that’s just not my style.

The technology / startup community in Atlanta is great and has grown tremendously since I came here. I plan on staying in contact with all my new friends and acquaintances.

I talked to a number of companies in Atlanta that offered me positions as tech cofounder, architect, engineer etc and many of them were very tempting. In the end, the position in Orlando may turn out to be only a temporary diversion.

Like Tom Petty said, “The future is wide open”.

Thanks Atlanta, Keep in Touch!

laughingsquid: PaleyFest2012 Honors The Office by Jason...

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 21:44:41 -0500

laughingsquid:

PaleyFest2012 Honors The Office by Jason Edmiston

Lesson Learned... #aws

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:21:53 -0500

So it turns out this:

elb-configure-healthcheck prod-lb —healthy-threshold 2 —interval 30 —target “http:80/index.php” —timeout 15 —unhealthy-threshold 5

and this:

RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} !https

RewriteRule !/status https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R]

are not compatible…

Resolutions are for Suckers.

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:21:00 -0500

So once a year you decide you’re going to lose weight, get in shape and finally learn to speak Italian? to hell with that.

Here’s what you need to do. Write down some things you NEED to get done. READ that list to yourself EVERY DAY. If anything on that list is still on that list in a year then YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG.

Pursue. Attack. Destroy. Repeat.

Here is your homework: Do something dangerous that makes you uncomfortable. No, do something that scares you. Check back in with me when that’s done.

[Update: I need to learn to follow my own advice.]

Just Do Something.

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 01:13:00 -0500

To all the non-believers:

unlike what you’ve been taught by your television, it is necessary to alter the world in order to have lived in it. If you fail to change the course of history at all then no action you ever took meant anything. if that doesn’t bother you then you are already dead.

if you don’t know the shape or size of the dent you will make in the universe then hurl yourself at it with all your might and do the most destructive, violent, creative thing you can think of.

if you make a big enough impression in the universe, others will see it and want to make their own. if you fail to make any impression, continue hurling yourself into it until you succeed.

if you hit it hard enough you might just get lucky and blow the whole thing up.

in all cases the most common mode of failure it INACTION. when presented with choices, choosing naught is immediate failure.

if you risk nothing you die anyway.
if you take the easiest path you die anyway.
if you live in fear you’re better of dead.

choose a course and attack it with FEROCITY. pursue it with every sinew of strength you can muster. let no obstacle deter you. nothing else matters.

do something that makes you hate yourself for not doing it better. enough being comfortable.

JUST DO SOMETHING.

CAN’T WAIT.

Inspiration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJshw2Axsqc

"I’ve been doing location and mobile stuff for a while - for more than 10 years now. So the fact that..."

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:34:04 -0500

“

I’ve been doing location and mobile stuff for a while - for more than 10 years now. So the fact that there are 15 million people on Foursquare is a big deal. We get more users in half a day than Dodgeball had in its entire existence. So, I don’t really pay much attention to those studies.

If you look at the Forrester studies for Twitter three years ago, it’s like, “This isn’t interesting. There’s 1 percent of people tweeting what they had for lunch.” I’m sure they nailed their research story, but it didn’t turn out to be true.

”

- Dennis (via brycedotvc)

People that do research reports are like that friend you have that bets on sports and never wins. You have no fucking idea how or why they continue to do the same losing thing over and over again but they do. And the best part is they are always confident that at sometime in the future they will be right.

(via siminoff)

Recruiting begins with Selling Yourself

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:04:06 -0500

For a long time it’s been status quo for companies to have a “jobs” or “careers” page on their website.

Sometimes it’s something hideous like a link to some outsourced portal that will suck the life out of you the moment you try to search for an opening in one of their 117 global offices (Looking at you, multinational defense contractors…).

At small companies, though, it’s usually just a list of a few job openings that may or may not still be open depending on how busy the person with access to the content has been lately.

Startups

And then there is this new wave of catchy, compelling and soulful attempts to sell the visitor on the corporate culture. This movement isn’t new but it’s become ever more fervent and creative.

Take, for example, the infamous Hipster campaign to give a year supply of PBR as a referral bonus.

Good Examples

When I took a job at CoffeeCup Software my interest was due in no small measure to their creativity and humor. It was clear from the “About Us” page that they took pride in their little company and enjoyed working together. Once I started there I realized quickly that their culture was real and I quickly assimilated.

Similarly, the Twilio jobs page has evolved and now shows their own strong company culture and unique brand of personality and humor.

Having worked there I can tell you that their strong company culture is one of their biggest success factors. More about that in another post maybe…

Another good example I saw today is the Wordpress Engine team. Lots of emphasis on fitting in and being at home.

They’re clearly looking for the right person instead of just a warm body.

To do that, they lay out their corporate culture before you and let you judge for yourself how you fit it.

What about your company?

What does your jobs page say about your company? Can visitors to your site get any sense of your company culture? Do you get serious applications from serious talent or crazy random CV that make little or no sense?

nevver: The Idea Funnel i can’t say this has never...

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:55:33 -0500

nevver:

The Idea Funnel

i can’t say this has never happened to me…

Obama for America: Hi, Tumblr.

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:47:17 -0400

Obama for America: Hi, Tumblr.:

barackobama:

It’s nice to meet you.

There are lots of reasons we’re excited to be launching the Obama 2012 campaign’s new Tumblr today. But mostly it’s because we’re looking at this as an opportunity to create something that’s not just ours, but yours, too.

We’d like this Tumblr to be a huge…

While many CAN, some DO

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:51:22 -0400

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about motivation. What is it that makes some people willing to push themselves to the breaking point? Why doesn’t everyone have that drive?

Mostly I’m curious about the subject because I have an 11 year old daughter and I’m trying to inspire her to think big, dream big. Think Different. I wish I could go back now to talk to my 11 year old self and give that shy young man a pep talk.

So when news of Steve Jobs passing away exploded on Twitter yesterday as we were sitting down to dinner it was all I could do to stay composed in front of the kids and I didn’t even know the man. He was my childhood hero. Steve was the ultimate Doer, the very definition of a driven individual with an unwavering belief in himself and what he was building and he was an inspiration to millions of young geeks.

When I was 5 my family bought an Apple II and I learned to write BASIC programs. I wrote a number guessing game for my younger sister after learning how to generate random integers in a magazine. My dad and I soldered a new resistor onto the motherboard to replace a faulty potentiometer that controlled the brightness of the display. We punched holes in floppy disks. I hacked my SE/30 and my Performa with ResEdit. I removed all the vowels from a friends keyboard mapping as a prank. I built games with Hypercard. I wrote music on a NeXT cube using CSound.

I remember hearing stories about the groups of computer enthusiasts that built the first personal computers and the first switches and routers. I was fascinated by the idea that two men in a garage could start a company that could challenge the giants of industry.

When I started my own company a few years ago I knew I was up against formidable odds. Pursuing companies with a 5 year head start and millions in revenue from my couch didn’t seem crazy to me and that’s because of the trail that was blazed many years before by brave, driven people.

My company ultimately failed when my co-founder and I stopped pushing ourselves but I never regretted starting it or closing it down. Ultimately if you don’t believe in your idea then nobody else will either and you shouldn’t be doing it.

Here’s the thing. You only have so much time. Spend it doing something that gets you fired up. If somebody has to push you to do something, you’re doing the wrong thing. I left my Fortune500 job a couple of years ago because I had been there for 6 years ( a huge chunk of my life) and it wasn’t going anywhere. It needed to be about more than a paycheck for me.

Do Something. Be Something. Rest in Peace, Steve.

nevver: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone...

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:45:45 -0400

nevver:

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” — Steve Jobs

I thought I lost my Gogo!

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 13:50:00 -0400

So I know I said I wasn’t going to go online during this flight. It turns out I’m not good at Kindle reading for 4 hours and even though I fell asleep before we even took off that liter of Dr. Pepper kicked in somewhere over Arkansas.

Ultimately the temptation to use the free GoGo Wireless code I received for upgrading to Priority Seating™ was too great… the 572 digit coupon code wqs buried in my email! I had gotten that coupon on 5/24 and I only had my phone set to sync my inbox back 4 days so now I couldn’t get to it while offline.

FOOK ME, RIGHT? SRSLY.

I took out my android phone (HTC G2) to play Angry Birds but then I changed my mind. Even though it was in airplane mode I turned on the WiFi and connected to the GoGo Inflight HotSpot. What the hell, right? I got nothing else to do.

BAM.

I have new email! I was shocked. Apparently you can send and receive emails on your Android Device even if you haven’t paid for access.

So I was able to get to the aforementioned 8673 digit coupon code and get online after all.

Only now I just want to take a nap.

scotthensley: The German Hair Force: A Failed Experiment in...

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 10:07:34 -0500

scotthensley:

The German Hair Force: A Failed Experiment in Military Manes

For 15 months during the 1970s, Germany’s armed forces, the Bundeswehr, allowed soldiers to wear their hair long, reflecting trends in society.

Not so popular with NATO and traditionalists.

Register for StartupRiot

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:18:37 -0500

Here’s the thing, StartupRiot is going to be HUGE! I mean like GIANT HUGE ENORMOUS.

You should go. Seriously. If you have any interest in startup companies or new technology ventures you will love it.

So here’s how: Go to http://startupriot.com/ and sign up to attend or present. (I presented last year and it was incredible) and put my email address (sur@gleep.org) down as the person that told you to do it.

Then come find me the day of the event (I’ll probably be wearing a red jacket - it’s a long story…) and tell me how much fun you’re having.

Seriously.

nevver: This is Not Your Life Wow, that is some powerful...

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 13:55:00 -0500

nevver:

This is Not Your Life

Wow, that is some powerful writing!

Kudzu Playhouse Presents: A Christmas Story

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 16:37:04 -0500

A Christmas Story

Jean Shepherd’s memoir of growing up in the Midwest in the 1940’s follows 9 year old Ralphie Parker in his quest to get a genuine Red Ryder BB gun under the tree for Christmas.

Directed by Jeannie Hinds and Jessica Alexander
Stage Managed by Carla Flack
For tickets call 770-594-1020
www.kudzuplayhouse.org

All seats are $8.75

November 27-December 24, 2010
Every Saturday and Sunday at 2pm
Friday and Saturday at 7pm in December
Tuesday (Dec 21) at 7pm
Wednesday (Dec 22) at 7pm
Thursday (Dec 23) at 7pm
Friday, Christmas Eve, Dec 24 at 2pm

FCC Proposal "Compromise" Not Good For Entrepreneurs

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:02:09 -0500

Read this story on NPR.org first… Now back to me. Now back to them. Now back to me.

A little about me

I worked in the engineering department of a major MSO (AKA “the cable company”) for 6 years. I’ve spoken at CableLabs (the big MSO conference). I’ve met engineers and executives from a lot of other MSOs as well. In short, I know more about this issue than I would if I were just an MSO customer but I’m not currently working for one and never had the authority to set policy.

The issue at hand

The long and short of the issue is that MSOs are being relegated into 1 line of business. They are being pushed into providing data pipes and ONLY data pipes. Why? Because, frankly, they SUCK at everything else. They’re too big to be good at everything.

My former employer was the largest CLEC in the state of CA and our phone service still stunk. It was empirically proven that our service was worse than the established telco provider but our customer service was 1000% better than theirs so people loved us.

That’s not a technology advantage. After all, it’s not hard to provide better customer service than the phone company. Am I right?

We had gigantic problems running our network that nobody will talk about publicly. We were horribly immature when it came to change management. The technology we were using was constantly evolving and our engineering teams struggled to keep up and fought constantly with the teams in local systems about change management, technology choices, vendor selection, standards adoption… you name it.

When I left, our video services were starting to catch up with the future laid bare by “over the top” providers like Hulu long before but doing it in the most awkward way possible and not because we wanted to.

All the talk at CableLabs was about “providing value” to the customers as a defense against these over the top services. Proposals were everywhere to build phone and video services that nobody wanted. HD phone calls? Oh, that only works if both people have HD phone service? Pause live TV and start watching it on your iPhone? Yeah, let’s pay $3 million to implement that service…

The only recognition of the fact that this strategy seemed doomed came from the engineers in the audience. The executives on the panels either didn’t understand or wouldn’t admit the obvious truth.

Over The Top

I don’t think there is anything MSOs can do about over the top services for video and telephony. It’s an arrogant assumption on their part to think that they could each possibly be smarter or more inventive than the diaspora of services proliferating on the internet. Video and telephony services of ever increasing variety are sprouting up everywhere. Some are minor tweaks to what you’re used to using and seeing. Some are truly revolutionary ideas that no MSO would ever DARE consider.

Here is the key thing about MSOs

They are huge companies with political factions that have been developed over long periods of time. Some people, especially in the video departments, have been in their jobs for DECADES. Any new product that would threaten these entrenched, beloved and sacred lines of business is immediately set on fire, shot in the head and drowned in a bathtub. Sometimes the person with the temerity to propose it goes along for the ride.

Why do you think it took so long for the phone companies to develop DSL? Because they wanted you to buy… wait for it…. and ISDN line. I kid you not. Business DSL? Why deploy that? People will stop paying $500 a month for a T-1 line if they can get 20x the speed for 1/10th the cost!!!

Net Neutrality

To the NCTA (MSO trade group) Net Neutrality means being able to pinch off the data flow to companies who challenge their other lines of business by providing better services to their customers. This includes almost any service you can think of like Skype, Netflix, Google search, Hulu…

If they can’t compete with Netflix, they’ll take away your ability to choose to use it.

I know that the MSOs spent billions on their networks to make them faster, more reliable and more available. I was there. It was quite a thing to see. That doesn’t mean they should be able to use their data networks to stiff arm the competition.

What it means to you

If you’re starting a business that is going to challenge an MSO’s phone or video line of business, be prepared to have a hard time reaching their customers over their data pipes.

The FCC Compromise

The compromise that the FCC came up with is to not classify internet service as a “common carrier” service which would have forced them to treat all traffic equally.

What they will do instead is manage their networks however they want “as long as they publicly disclose their network management practices.” They can’t block services outright but they can disrupt the service and make it unusable.

Who do you think the consumer is going to blame for your new application or service not working very well? The MSO? Not hardly. Do you think they’ll bother to troll through the MSO website to see if your app or a competitive app provided by the MSO is listed explicitly in their public disclosure of network management policies?

If you believe that I have a summer home in Greenland you might be interested in.

Feedback

If you have an opinion on this subject you’d like to share or if you have any questions please comment below.

laughingsquid: A Personal Appeal From Mule Cofounder Mike...

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 09:29:32 -0500

laughingsquid:

A Personal Appeal From Mule Cofounder Mike Monteiro

Trend Developer in Atlanta

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:28:39 -0500

Trend Developer in Atlanta:

This looks like a really interesting group and I’m looking forward to attending their kickoff event on Wednesday. If you’re in Atlanta and you are a developer you should check it out!