Blog Entries - November 2007

“A” Managers Hire “A” People

admin — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0100

We’ve been considering creating a new permanent position in one of our tech team for four or five months. We don’t hire willy-nilly because we have almost zero turnover and have a horror of layoffs. We have a couple of folks who have been doing full or part-time contract work for us, so, because we’re a buncha chickens that like to manage risk, that group was our focus:

1> Reduced risk due to known ‘isims’
2> Reduced cost of recruitment
3 [...]

Avoiding the Logo and Color Debate

admin — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0100

No, not the “crips vs. bloods” debate. Nor the “Arsenal vs. Real” one. The one at work where one guy wants a triangle that points right (feng shui!) and another one wants a circle that spirals inwards toward the first letter of your company name. And, oh yeah, someone has an Aunt who is “creative.” Help!

If you’re going to be selling retail-over-the-web in a super competitive arena like fashion then you should spend a lot of time on your look, [...]

Maximum Cross Post Overdrive

admin — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0100

We were having a philosophical discussion about posting content to social networking sites - the diggs, reddits, propellers, etc. But also to the newsvines, canadakas, and all the others.

One of the guys was trying to justify posting stories from his dog blog into foreign sites which are over-run with (generously speaking) English general purpose stories. For example, he found NuMarketing and was excited - the dutch love dogs, he wants visitors to his blog. Perfect.

Except he w [...]

Google, Channel Stuffing, and Hate

admin — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0100

I read an interesting post at Slightly Shady Seo entitled “Understanding Your Relationship With Google: Why Google Hates You.” and enjoyed it quite a bit. But I think the reason Google hates SEO enhanced selling on the internet is quite a bit simpler than he thinks, but go read his article and come on back.

Ok, here is my simple reason: Google can only make money through a channel they can’t control. And that scares them witless. And scared people do stupid stuff.

[...]

User Interface Design is HARD

admin — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0100

We have mentioned before that our company is interactive, with senior people, experienced people, long term people. Then why do they behave like a dozen third graders faced with eight cupcakes at a party on a hot day?

We have three competing UI designs for our new product around helping people use social networking sites more effectively. It’s kind of a tricky thing to make it all look simple without removing a lot of flexibility. And we all understand the problem space very well [...]

Shutting Up To Be Heard

admin — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0100

I realized today I was talking too much. It’s easy to do if people are paid to listen to you. No matter how independent they are, they will defer to you when you’re talking. So today I basically shut up so that they’d hear me better.

In the spirit of that koan, I’ll keep this post short. For a change.

I learned a long time ago with my worst-boss-ever (Adrian, I still hate you, it’s been 10+ years. You’re amazing me even today.) that the more [...]

Yahoo Stores Crater on Cyber Monday - Still Outsource?

admin — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0100

I wrote an article on my SEOMoz blog about how if you were smart you’d Outsource Your Business. Do I feel stupid as we watch a major player screw up the most important cyber shopping day of the year for 25,000 merchants?

Nope.

Look, without Yahoo (or someone like them) let’s say 80% of those people wouldn’t be on the internet with anything but a (shudder) 1&1 hosted brochureware site with an 800#. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Floods h [...]

Triority - The Top Three Number One Things to Do

admin — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0100

I will never forget the first time I told a boss we had to choose between which of my top three deliverable and he told me that all three were my #1 priority. I was at the stage of life where that kind of thing would make me go get drunk.

I was also at the time of life where a greasy diner breakfast would put my hangover right. I’m way to old to recover in a morning (sometimes it takes days) so now I’m more careful about getting into a triority corner.

You know the o [...]

Reading Business Books

admin — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0100

Over at SeoMoz one of the better blog posters, Vingold, has a really good article on 4 Things That Are Wrong With the 4 Hour Workweek.

Of course, besides some of the get-rich-quick (how does that work again?) schemes in the book, the real problem is that after some period of experiences you can’t actually learn much that is actionable from a “normal” business book.

True fact, as my kids say.

Look, Jack Welch is 100 smarter than I am, with 2,000 times mor [...]

Making Employees Go Home

admin — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0100

I admit it - I don’t get chair rash on my bum at work anymore. That is because I have to go home and do hubby/kid stuff. And I try to make sure my managers force people to work reasonable hours when we’re not, you know, actually on fire.

So I don’t worry too much about the attitude of the guys who are still there when I leave. They know I’m on email and reachable by phone if they need me. I also work some pretty fierce late night and weekend hours to make sure m [...]

When a Project Goes Too Well

admin — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0100

Something spooky is going on. This project is going too well. Clearly I’ve turned into the brain-in-a-jar from Mars Attacks.

Seriously, our technical teams have jumped ahead of schedule on infrastructure and user system design. The documentation guys have finished two pieces that aren’t due until next week. Project stuff is not supposed to go well towards the end of the project.

The backoffice team has completed moving our bank, changing our payment gateway, and ch [...]

When the B-Round Kills Your Mom’s Nest Egg

admin — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0100

Not that you should actually let your mom invest in your startup, but if she insists that she wants to be in on the “A-Round” she’s going to get crushed on the professional B-Round.

We talked earlier about VC term sheets and about how you can’t really negotiate your term sheet much at all. So what does that mean for your Angels who bought in an A at $5M pre-money?

Better hope they are as unqualified as your lawyer let them be for SEC purposes. Because th [...]

Burn Baby Burn - Your Credit Card and the VC CFO

admin — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0100

When you start your first company you have some advantages - youth, energy, and a good credit rating. (Probably you also have hair and can see your feet while standing.)

If your business fails you probably wouldn’t really expect to exit with good credit. I mean, there is no doubt that there will be business and personal bills piling up while you Slim Pickins your bomb on down. And good on ya, nothing wrong with that. And since you made that choice, I’ll buy you a drink, sla [...]

Help, a VC Tried To Eat My Management Team

admin — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0100

Well, not actually eat since there wouldn’t have been an receipt for an expense report, but they did try to hire them.

I’ve talked to other entrepreneurs and they have reported similar experiences. You go in and do your pitch. You know the drill - polite interest, somewhat random questions from the recent MBA grads gunning for a partner slot, promises to call, etc, etc. You pretty much know the next stop is the closest place you can purchase alcohol based numbness. Then one [...]

Negotiating (or Not) Your Term Sheet

admin — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0100

Why should Don have all the fun riding roughshod over VC’s and their attempts to have non-consensual intercourse with your company? Herein is my tale of negotiating term sheets - I’ve done three and closed one, which is actually a fair bit of experience. For a poor guy, anyway.

(Guy has a great post on how less knowledge is better, and it’s worth a read. Though I don’t agree with him, but maybe I would if I were a VC.