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This site is an archive of old blog posts. You can find the new, current blog at: blog.andrewbaisley.com.

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Waking Up, Wanting to go to Work

How do you wake up and want to go to work? There are a lot of answers to that. Here are mine:

- Today we gathered up a bunch of people, went into a conference room and called a colleague in a remote office. As soon as he picked up, we all started singing Happy Birthday. Just our small way of wishing him well on his birthday.

- Over the Thanksgiving holiday, while I was away in Cairo, Egypt, a colleague turned my desk into a fort. It says, "Andrew's Fortress," has dragons and even a moat.


- People commonly gather around a desk and watch insane YouTube videos.

- We have a creative director that runs a coffee blog and has replaced our burnt Starbucks coffee with smooth, tasty Intelligentsia coffee.

- Our live guy tells the funniest stories on the planet. Last night, on a date, his table caught on fire at a very fancy place. He ended up standing on the table, trying to stomp out the flames. The guy just can't catch a break.

- I traverse the office on a razor scooter.

- Sometimes, the candy jar at Mike's desk is stuffed full of real, adult-sized candy bars.

- The whiteboard in the hallway shows off some "great" works of art.

- Silly String happens:


But, honestly, the thing that makes me want to come to work everyday, more than anything else: Megan, Candice, DZ, Nigel, Jared, Brian, Brian, Brian, Darren, Mike, Elizabeth, David, John, Max, Steven, Leonid, Fred, Ken, Larry, Ike, Michael, Jackie, Laura and even Guy. And, back in the day, Matt, Jeremy, Aqueelah, Dennis, Andy, Mark, Beth, Steven, Mac, Joe, Frank, Dee, Missy, Dan, Andrei, Dave and many others.

I'll miss you, FeedRoom.

My Purpose, Dream and Ultimate Goal

Several people have asked me over the years, "What's your dream?" That's a tough question, and, a fluid one. My 'purpose' or 'dream' or 'ultimate goal' has evolved over the years and I don't expect that evolution to stop any time soon.

There is one particular idea that I've mulled on for many years: opening a school. And, while the overall concept has remained the same, the details have changed a lot.

Originally my idea was to open a public magnet art school in some poor area of the world. This, in all likelihood, stems from the fact that I went to a public magnet art school - Dreyfoos School of the Arts - and came from a poor part of town.

This, at some point and with much input from my good friend Dien Vo, morphed into a music school in South America. In reality, this was Dien's dream, but I thought it so romantic that I fantasized about it as my own.

Today, my dream of opening a school is this: a tuition-free private grade school that fosters the development of technology- and business-focused entrepreneurs. Regardless of the student's affluence, or lack thereof, all accepted into the school will attend for free. The school's operation will be financed through a combination of grants, donations and profit-sharing with local businesses and businesses of former students. No corporate sponsorships permitted (no, it won't be the Google School of Business).

Eventually, and similar to some school's endowments, the school will become a primary source of Series A and seed financing to current and former students.

That's it. That's my dream and, although it will likely change or evolve somehow, this is something I would like to see become a reality.

Network, I Need Your Help

Network, I need your help. More specifically, Kenroy George needs your help.

Kenroy is a talented web designer/developer and a good friend. He is offering a brand new 13" MacBook Pro to the person that helps him land a full time job. He's a victim of our economy and subsequent layoffs.

He's got my recommendation. The guy is a rock star designer, a good friend, a great person to work with. I can't say enough good things.

You can download Kenroy's resume here [PDF Link].

YouTube Confessions

Those of you that know me know that I purport to be one of those "social media experts." That's a funny thing. I've made my career in video - analog briefly and then online. I have a confession to make...

Just the other day I posted my very first video to YouTube. You know YouTube, right? Of course you do. What kind of new media superstar am I if I just uploaded my first video to YouTube?

Like most consumers, I'm lazy. I don't own a video camera. I'm not a big picture taker. I don't have children whose memory I'm striving to preserve. So why would I go to extraordinary means to get a video online?

I haven't seen my mother in a long while. I recently moved and I wanted to show her the deck at my new apartment. My mother isn't the most savvy when it comes to these things, so I knew I needed a super easy way to share my deck with her. I shot a quick video on my new iPhone and, right from the phone, trimmed heads and tails and uploaded the video to YouTube.

I was flat out amazed at how easy this was. Forget my experience, which was seamless, as they say in the biz, but, my mother's experience? Well, she didn't call me to ask why some crazy link I sent her wasn't working!

I love it; Posting things from the stupid to the (relatively) interesting.

A video of the NYC Water Taxi pulling into the Frying Pan near my house in Chelsea.

How about this? I was in a taxi, heading down Park Ave and saw the tell-tale flashing lights in front of me. I readied my iPhone and captured what seemed to be a pretty horrible car accident. FDNY, NYPD, stretchers and all. I was able to immediately upload the video to YouTube and then Twitter about it. I'm a breaking news bad ass. Safe to say, it's my top viewed video to date. Hope the stars of this short video are doing better tonight than they were earlier today.

The point is, this stuff is becoming, well... seamless. I'm pretty excited about that. Maybe a little late to the YouTube party, but excided none the less.

Putting It All Together

Since last Sunday I've been in the small town of Westborough, Massachusetts. It's a few miles West of Boston and my company, FeedRoom, has an office here. We acquired this office along with a company called ClearStory Systems back in December of last year.

Since that acquisition I've heard the hype from our management about how important it is that we bring core digital asset management (DAM) capabilities into our FeedRoom enterprise video platform (we call it EVP). But, spending this week here with the ActiveMedia team, I came to a realization: it's not hype at all.

It is, actually, the total opposite of hype. We are doing something that is, without trying to sound cliché, revolutionary. I blogged about this on our company website but, because it's the company website, I had to hold back a little bit.

I don't have to hold back here: This shit is fucking bad ass.

This is real and it's happening. In short order we will be the only company in the world (that I know of) that combines true digital asset management, online video publishing and the infrastructure to support it all.

In the startup and VC markets online video has been hot, hot, hot. Digital asset management? It's been around for a long time. People don't talk about it, but the fact is, it's used in every major corporation and organization.

Do you see what I'm getting at? This is why, well, this shit is fucking bad ass. It's all coming together: the people, the product, the market. We're there and being there is exciting to me.

One Year Anniversary at FeedRoom

Today is my one year anniversary at FeedRoom and WOW! it seems like a lot longer. They say that time flies when you’re having fun and they don’t lie. Over the last year I’ve learned a lot about the business and a lot about myself.

Here are some things that I either learned or that were reinforced in the last year:

- You shouldn't do anything on your own. For a project or product to be successful you must build a team that works together quickly, smartly and with a common purpose. I've always been a very independent person in both my professional and personal life. Over the last year I've realized that you can accomplish great things with the right people behind you.

- Don't be shy. It's like the MTA says: If You See Something, Say Something. If you don't speak up, who will? When a problem needs to be addressed you should bring it up to the right people, even if you don't have a solution readily at hand. Apply the first point and build a team to address the issue.

- Always watch the bottom line. The economic environment over the last year has been rough, to say the least. If you're building out a solution or product, identify the market need and opportunity early. If there isn't a market, don't build it.

- Innovate often. FeedRoom was a pioneer in online video - if anyone tells you that they were first, it's marketing spin, because the fact is that we were there long before them. That's pretty cool, but it presents challenges. Over the last 18 months this company has reinvented itself from a culture and software prospect to enable itself to innovate. I've been lucky to take part in that transformation and I can see, first hand, that the benefits it allows.

- Don't be afraid of management. This goes back to the Don't be shy point, but it's worth eloborating. If you have an idea, put it in front of management. Tell them why your idea is great and offer to help make it happen.

- There is such a thing as a stupid question. Who ever said that there are no stupid questions is stupid. It's good to be curious, I encourgage those questions, but if something has been documented... go read it and retain the information. Nothing is worse than someone that asks the same question over and over. I have been guilty of this from time to time, but I'm learning to research before asking.

- Be completely confident. If you think you have a great idea stand behind it until the bitter end. Passion is completely necessary and if you don't have it, well, it probably means that your ideas aren't that great to begin with.

I work with the best people in the business and we have the best clients in the business. Because of that, I love my job and I don't think that very many people can say that. Thanks to everyone that have made the last year a great one.

Venture Capital Bootcamp

If you're an early stage startup and you think you may be looking for VC funding at some point, you may want to register to attend this free event: Venture Capital Bootcamp.

Presenters will discuss a broad range of topics regarding the venture capital fundraising process, such as strategies to secure an initial meeting with a venture firm, how to best present your idea, financing strategies and alternatives, overview and timing of the process, identifying and negotiating key business and legal points of the deal, and how to position the company for a successful liquidity event.

This event is part of Internet Week and takes place at Columbia University. Again, it's free, so why not - go learn something about VC funding.

Update: You can find a recording of this event here: http://www.markpeterdavis.com/getventure/2009/06/vc-bootcamp-livestream.html

Do Clients Ruin Software Companies?

Someone told me recently that Marc Benioff, the founder of Salesforce.com, turned down a large client in Salesforce's early days because he didn't feel like the product was ready. He took a huge (I assume calculated) risk, but Benioff didn't want that client to impact the software roadmap in front of him. He had development goals and no one was going to stand in his way - not even large contracts.

Now, I have no idea if that's true or not; someone told me the story in passing, but it got me thinking.

How do you balance the vision for your company with the vision your customers have for your company? I've spoken to a few seasoned vets about this and most answer: That's a good problem to have. I'll agree that it's not as bad as many problems to have, but I'll argue that it's not a good problem to have either.

Clients, especially big ones, know that they can have a direct impact on your development roadmap and will not hesitate to exercise that power.

I believe that you'll find yourself in this situation for any combination of the following reasons:

1. You're soliciting clients too early;
2. You're targeting the wrong customers;
3. You built the wrong product; and/or
4. The market isn't ready for your product.

You're soliciting clients too early
Whether your self funded, angel backed or venture backed you need to plan a reasonable amount of time and effort to reach what I, unlovingly, call baseline. I hate the concept of baseline because it seems so limiting, but in this case limits are a good thing. When you started your company you likely put together a business plan that clearly outlined objectives and markets. I'm not saying that it can't change along the way, but have a reasonable goal in mind and give yourself enough time and resources to reach those goals before you bring clients into the picture. Customers will pee in the pool before you've even had a chance to fill it with water.

You're targeting the wrong customers
If your customers are constantly pushing you to make unplanned changes to your core product then you are talking to the wrong customers. Just because a prospect has timeline and budget doesn't automatically mean that they should be your client. When you take money just for the sake of onboarding clients you are doing a great disservice to your company, your vision and your other clients. Over the long term, you will pay in multiples for this common mistake.

You built the wrong product
Okay, so you're sure that you're talking to the right people. There's no doubt that you've got your ideal customer in the bag, but they're still insisting on core changes to your product, what does that mean? You built the wrong product. Somewhere along the line you either strayed in the wrong direction or, more likely, you misunderstood the need for your product to begin with. It's time to take a step back, look at your product and the market need and make a very difficult decision: do you march forward, kick your clients to the curb and stand behind your product as it is or do you start over? This is not a good situation to be in. Talk to your employees and your investors and find a way out.

The market isn't ready for your product
You've got the product, you've got the customer interest, but something doesn't fit. Somewhere along the line, there's a gap. Being two steps ahead of the market is great, but don't get too far ahead. Being too far ahead is no better than being ten steps behind. You are not ready for clients - you need to dial back a few notches and make sure you have a market.

There are exceptions of course, but I believe that there are very compelling reasons for early stage companies to stay far away from selling their product. If you do it right it will pay off big in the end and you'll be able to focus on growing your company and developing great software for all of your future clients.

Is Craig's List Killing Innovation?

I was having a conversation over e-mail with a friend about the local startup eegloo. I don't know much about the company, so I won't take any liberties to elaborate; you can read their executive summary [PDF link] yourself.

What I do know is that they, and many, many others, are trying to improve the Internet classifieds market that Craig's List currently dominates. Craig's List holds their market share for a lot of good reasons. It's clean, simple, free and most importantly it has massive scale.

I don't have exact quotes, but Craig's List has made it clear that they aren't looking to innovate any further, improve usability or make significant changes to the site. That's not to say they aren't doing things like combating spam and fraud (to a limited extent), but they aren't looking to change the way their website works.

This poses a huge problem for innovation in online classifieds. How can you compete with the massive scale of Craig's List?

Newspapers are certainty failing at it, but we haven't seen them use innovation to try and upset Craig's List's lead. Newspapers are generally relying, wrongly, on their own reach and ability to go to market. In this example users have a choice: go to Craig's List and see a ton of listings, a ton good and a ton that are crap or go to your local paper and see a limited selection and still a ton of crap. At least there are more choices with the former.

So you have startups like eegloo that think they've found a better way. Maybe they have, but challenging the scale of Craig's List isn't even an uphill climb - it's upmountain.

My theory is that there are much better classifieds solutions out there, but Craig's List is killing them. They've basically frozen the market for the foreseeable future and I, just like everyone else it seems, haven't quite figured out how to break them.

I plan on doing it by skipping the destination site and creating highly scalable software that others can use to power their own idea of an innovative marketplace.

Connecting Data Seamlessly

Everyday we work to connect data types. We do it by searching on Google.

I think of something I want see, I ask Google for it, it searches it's vast database and makes suggestions. In theory, it's a simple transaction:

What's happening here, while very complex, is not entirely complicated. Google is compiling information and deciding, based on your query, what to show you. The idea is that the results are relevant. In this particular transaction, you're required to make a query.

Google compiles all the information it can get it's hands on. This is a good strategy for them and works well, but when you start to silo off that information and group it together, you get communities. These communities can be very broad, Facebook, for example, or very niche, NextNY, for example.

The information that these communities draw upon is usually called your 'profile.' This isn't to mean that all profiles are filled out by the user. It can be based on information you provide, your behavior, the data and media you create, the friends you keep, etc. These silos, by themselves, don't mean very much.

When you start connecting these silos, in intelligent ways, it starts to get interesting. This is most often done at the user's request. I know what I'm interested in, so I seek out and join communities that share my interest. It's intelligent because it's human.

Sites with existing large communities, again Facebook is a good example, are starting to find ways to suggest intelligent connections. Here are people you might know, based on them being friends with your friends. Here are topics you might be interested in, based on what you've been interested in in the past.

Suddenly unexpected, but intelligent, communities are being formed.

So what does this mean to you? Well, the great part is, you don't really have to do anything. Unlike submitting a query into Google for information, there are solutions being developed that anticipate what information you're looking for.

Most of the innovation in this particular space takes place around advertising. Send an e-mail in Gmail to a friend about your apartment search and you're bound to see ads for real estate sites. But what if, instead of seeing advertisements for various marketplaces, you were connected directly with the market?

I'm working on something that connects people who can help each other. If I have an apartment that's a good fit for what you're looking for then we belong, whether we know it or not, to the same niche community. I want us to connect. Seamlessly.

I'm Alive

I'm still here, just had my mind on other things recently. I've decided to make the switch from ROO (now known as KIT digital) to The FeedRoom, which I think was a great decision for myself. I had several reasons - most of which I won't cover here - but the biggest plus is that The FeedRoom is a much better cultural fit for me.

I quit smoking, which feels great. I moved, which also feels great. I'm still just as involved as ever with technology, so I'll begin posting my thoughts on that again soon.