Posted by Kevin Merritt on November 30th, 2007
Sorry blogging has been a little slow the last few weeks. We’re busy on numerous fronts.
We’re finally settled in to our new office. If you are in the Pioneer Square neighborhood feel free to stop by or invite us for coffee. We also love to host lunch and learn sessions with other startups, who are using similar technologies but who aren’t competitive with us. The basic idea is to bring the engineering teams together, feed ‘em lots of pizza and soda and get them talking technology. We can learn so much from each other, not to mention establish back channel ways to support each other over time. If you’re startup is interested in lunching and learning, let me know.
We received some great coverage yesterday on ZDNet. Read the article if you haven’t already. It’s a good overview on why we decided to build our user interface in Flash instead of Ajax.
I’m in Silicon Valley currently and have been here for a few days. It’s been a great trip so far, with a busy agenda again today. I love demo’ing blist and the receptivity has been off the charts.
The application continues to evolve at an awesome pace. I don’t say it enough but I’m super proud of the team we’ve assembled and the work they’ve done to date. Justin, Jeff, Paul, Chi, Amir, Aaron and Matt – keep up the great work.
We’re hiring. We welcome introductions to great contributors.
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Posted by Kevin Merritt on November 25th, 2007
Excel is two-dimensional. Columns run horizontally. Rows span vertically. Initially we think of data as having two dimensions as well. In fact, two key terms in database lexicon are rows and columns, just like in Excel. Here’s an example of what an Excel database of some fictitious people might look like:
In reality, however, data usually has three dimensions. Rows describe items. Columns are singular attributes of those items. Lists are plural attributes of those items. Observe how adding a column for the names of each person’s children necessarily morphs the structure into a third dimension. Here’s what that Excel database might look like with a list in a cell:
The way I’ve drawn that table is OK. The problem is that I had to grab each row and adjust its height manually. Another option is I could have selected all the rows and navigated to Format –> Row –> Height and set the height for all rows to some arbitrary height. The problem with that, of course, is that the appropriate height differs from row to row. Jacob has three kids, Paul has two and Kim has one.
Maybe a better approach is for the software to allow you to enter a list of items in each cell, but be smart about how it shows you that data. Tighten it up. Maybe decorate it with a little triangle to suggest there’s more here than you see, but when you hover your mouse over the cell, show you all the values. Maybe it would like something like this:
What do you think?
Posted in what is blist | 5 Comments »
Posted by Kevin Merritt on November 22nd, 2007
One of the things I love about blogging is that it allows me to share with the world some sense of identity about who blist it. This is the first of what I hope are many annual Thanksgiving posts in which we candidly share some of the things for which we’re thankful.
1) I’m thankful for the American economic system that encourages entrepreneurship. Ideas can be incubated. Capital can be raised. Products can be brought to market. Employees can viably work for fledgling entities. Wealth can be shared by all the direct and indirect contributors. These possibilities exist in part because we have an economic system that supports it. I’m happy to see this economic model spread to eastern Europe, India, China and Vietnam among other places. Access to resources has the ability to dramatically and beneficially change the lives of so many people in need.
2) I’m thankful for the Internet. Without it we wouldn’t be able to successfully market blist, much less deliver it. It seems like eons ago, but it was only 10 years ago when the thought of sharing an application with someone meant the recipient had to painfully install software on their PC. Now, it’s as easy as sending a link. So thanks to Al Gore for inventing the Internet.
3) I’m thankful for a sacrificing, supportive family who not only allow me follow my dreams but adopt my dreams as their own. You know you share too much of the passion when your two-year-old asks "what’s a blist?" at the dinner table.
4) I’m thankful for courageous, visionary employees who had the strength to join us when all we had was a vision in our minds eye of what we were building.
5) I’m thankful for the advice of others. We learn so much through our own successes and failures as well as from those generous enough to share their experiences with us.
What are you thankful for? Share your thoughts by posting a comment below.
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Posted by Kevin Merritt on November 14th, 2007
As many of you know, we recently moved from Kirkland to the Pioneer Square neighborhood of Seattle. I wanted to share some of the motivations behind the move. The simple answer is recruiting. This is where the top talent wants to work. We want to hire top talent, so it boosts our chances of hiring these kinds of folks. If you’re an investment banker in the New York area, you want to work in Manhattan, not in New Jersey. Many software engineers in the Seattle area want to work in Pioneer Square, not in the suburbs.
If you weren’t already aware, studies show that companies most often locate themselves where it’s a convenient commute for the founders. We wanted to be a little more thoughtful and deliberate and locate the company where it best positions us to succeed. We subleased in Kirkland for 8-months, paying attention to the recruiting challenges of our eastside location. I’ve already received a few emails from candidates we interviewed previously who wanted to work in Pioneer Square and weren’t attracted to our old location in Kirkland.
So how’s it been working in Pioneer Square? We like it. Two-thirds of our employees now have a commute from the suburbs into the city. That includes me (I think I now have the second longest commute). We’ve all decided to ride the bus to work. The bus is peaceful and relaxing, a nice 20-minute ride to visit with other bus riders, read the newspaper or think about the day. It feels good taking public transportation, doing a little to help the environment. Near the office there are lots of great restaurants and places to quench your thirst after work. I even walked to the Seahawks-49ers game on Monday night.
The biggest downside is that people who visit from the eastside may not be aware that parking is tight in Pioneer Square and they drive in for a meeting and call you circling the block asking where your parking garage is. No such luck. We need to learn to manage people’s expectations better. Take the bus if you can. If not, there’s a moderate amount of 2-hour on street parking for $1.50/hour. If you plan to stay longer than 2 hours, Qwest field has parking for $10/day and Qwest event center has parking for $5/day.
So wherever you are, when your lease runs out, be thoughtful and deliberate about where you move. My vote is to locate where you can recruit, not for the CEO’s commute.
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Posted by Kevin Merritt on November 7th, 2007
There are a number of books on how to manage direct and indirect reports. Most are useless. A few are good, to pretty good. That’s a different topic for a different day. Today I’d like to write about another related topic. I haven’t seen much written on how to manage your boss. In my opinion it’s an under-appreciated skill and probably more important than managing subordinates. Here’s my 6-point advice on how to manage your boss:
1) Partner with your boss. The key thing to remember is that a partnership is either win-win or lose-lose. Align goals and work together on achieving them. Understand why her goals are important to her and to the company and learn to appreciate them yourself.
2) Eliminate all surprises, negative and positive. Manage her expectations. The last thing in the world she wants is for her boss to grill her about some problem in your organization she isn’t aware of.
3) If you yourself are a manager, make sure your boss understands who the key contributors in your organization are. From time to time her boss will ask her who the rising stars are. You want the names of these people on the tip of her tongue. The success of your organization hinges in part in your people observing that they are being recognized for their contributions and are being given opportunities to grow and assume more responsibility in the company. I remember 8 or 10 years ago when the CEO of our company was in the elevator with one of our rising engineers, the CEO said “David, I hear you’re doing great things. Thank you. We appreciate your efforts.” He was bouncing off the ceiling for a week and shared with me “I didn’t know that the CEO even knew my name!” The corollary to this is that you need to have the courage to share who isn’t performing. If you say that everyone is a star, you’re indicating either that you can’t gauge and measure individual contributions or aren’t strong enough to handle the discontent of an underachiever.
4) Communicate in her style, not yours. If she likes raw data, give her raw data. If she likes to schmooze every day over coffee at the start of the day, use that forum to update her. If she prefers to debrief by phone on her drive home, accommodate her. If she won’t read long, prosy emails, adopt bullet form. If she suffers from email overload and some fall through the cracks, don’t use that medium.
5) Keep her informed. Use her communication style. Memo. Status Report. In-person daily updates. However she best digests information, keep her informed.
6) Make her successful. Early career employees don’t appreciate the trickle down theory well enough. If the company succeeds, management is rewarded. If management is rewarded, individual contributors are rewarded. It’s horribly self-destructive to think you can succeed while allowing your boss to fail. If you secretly want your boss to fail, do everyone a favor and quit before you get fired. Life’s too short to have so much animosity and you’re only fooling yourself.
Learning to manage your boss is a skill that will contribute to your company’s success, your boss’ success and ultimately to boost your own career.
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Posted by Kevin Merritt on November 5th, 2007
In 2004 when I was CEO of MessageRite we received a very fair offer to be acquired by FrontBridge Technologies. This wasn’t the first acquisition offer we had received, but it was the first offer that boldly proclaimed “we see you as strategic to our goals.” I wrestled with the idea and did what I often do. I called my mentor Bill Kendall.
Before I tell you what Bill said, I need to provide some context. From late 2003 through mid 2004 my primary focus was on raising capital. In MessageRite I picked a capital hungry company to found – email archiving as a service. I started the company when my own personal net worth was insufficient to carry the company to profitability. During that 6-month capital raising period I received term sheets from two VC firms you wouldn’t recognize. They were bottom tier firms who offered incredibly unfair terms. I turned them down.
Back to the offer to be acquired.
Bill’s advice was as follows “Kevin, you are one of the most objective people I’ve ever known and you would be the first to admit that you’ve struggled to raise capital. If FrontBridge’s offer exceeds what you think the company is worth then you should consider doing the deal. There are two reasons for my recommendation. First, it will be perceived as a successful exit, making you all the easier to back next time you start a company. Second, it will provide the capital to personally fund the next company if you decide you don’t want to work with VCs. If MessageRite were your second company I’d have different advice, but in that it’s your first I think you should accept the offer.”
I did the deal and Bill was right. Find wise advisors and learn to heed their advice.
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Posted by Kevin Merritt on November 2nd, 2007
Just a quick post to congratulate the team on a great sprint. It was our best to date. At blist, we use a development methodology called Scrum. It’s designed to be lightweight and agile. Within the framework of Scrum we run two-week sprints. That’s a short development cycle. On the starting Monday of each sprint we have a kickoff meeting where we review a prioritized product backlog of features and the engineering team assigns cost estimates for each feature. Then we draw a line where the total estimate equals the total available man power. Everything above the line is what we hope to accomplish in the sprint.
Early in the development of blist we’d be lucky to penetrate 50% into the backlog in any particular sprint. I think we finished this sprint with something like 93% of the work items being completed. Hoowah! Great work, team! Our burn down rate was linear through the entire sprint as well. The burn down rate shows on a daily basis how many hours of estimated work remain relative to how many man hours are left in the sprint. Here’s what a sample burndown chart looks like:
We’re still not revealing too much about what it means when we say we’re building the world’s easiest database, but a few features completed in this sprint include:
* Lenses
* Simple search
* Multi-sided columns
* Preferences
I’m excited for Monday’s sprint kickoff meeting to see what we’re going to bite off in the next two weeks.
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Posted by Kevin Merritt on November 1st, 2007
I moved to Seattle from California two years ago as part of a relocation program when Microsoft acquired FrontBridge Technologies. Earlier this year I started my second company, blist, and decided to stay put in Seattle. It’s been a great decision.
In addition to a great university (University of Washington) producing terrific home grown talent, big companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Real Networks, Boeing and Washington Mutual recruit and attract talent from outside the area. Often these folks explore startups when they’re ready to move on.
Recent reports show Seattle is the third largest venture capital market, behind Silicon Valley and Boston. We have some great VC firms in town.
Seattle is an awesome place to live too. Outdoor recreation activities are abundant. Schools are great. There’s a thriving arts community. We have 2.5 professional sports teams
We’ve got great people, great schools, access to capital and a great place to live. It all adds up to a great place to start a company.
Seattle is home to more than 200 startups. Check out the list, which is ordered by a composite of Alexa rank and Compete rank. While we don’t have much content on our site yet, we’re happy to keep climbing the ranking. This month we come in at 81, which is a jump of 22 spots from 103 last month. We were 113 the month before.
When you think about great companies across the country and especially when you think about an abundance of startups, don’t look too far. Right here in Seattle we’re developing a great startup ecosystem.
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