Seattle Startup Life

Goodness, it’s been a looooong time since I’ve updated my blog. Life has been pretty crazy on my end. Apologies to my 2 faithful readers. A few quick updates from around the Seattle world:

• It’s too bad I didn’t have more time, or else I would have tried to weasel my way into getting a free lunch with Judy’s Book’s (now out of business) CEO Andy Sack. From what I hear, he’s great with entrepreneur advice. But alas, his lunch card is now filled for the new few months…
• For some reason, Naveen Jain always entertains me. He’s like the anti-Jeff Bezos.
• comScore is sold to M:Metrics. They’re getting $44.3M in cash plus issue approximately 50,000 options. Not too bad for mobile internet usage.
• Does anyone have a good source as to what Ripl is doing? They seem to be still in beta. I’d love to see how they are differentiating themselves from the rest of the social networking sites.
• And last but not least, Jobster raises more money. For the love of everything good, what do you need more money for? I don’t get it. The site. Is. Horrible. Period. I’m usually a big fan of local startups, but this one oozes of wasted cash. If anyone from Jobster is interested in chatting, let me know.

Ha. I wish right. The other day, one of my bud’s, Bahn Lee, forwarded me something interesting he stumbled upon while searching for himself on Facebook. It seems like someone - or something - liked my picture so much that it cropped my head and used it as their profile picture. What’s even more interesting was that his/her/its middle name is Bahn, the same first name as my friend.

I’m thinking it’s a spam bot of some sort creating fake profiles. So, if you see anyone looking like me acting weird, it’s probably me. But if you see someone acting shady, it’s probably one of these profiles.

(see last picture on the list)

In a previous life, I worked as the designer for Redfin. Being the guy in charge of aesthetics, I had to make sure all of the pixels were aligned properly and consistently. It was my life for almost four years and I took the job very seriously. However, the problem with being a web designer is that it’s so easy for another person to rip off your designs.

Today, my chaps at Redfin referred me to a design jackin’ so hard that it makes Tupac want to cry. It was so shameless, that my fellow colleague, Glenn Kelman, aka G-mail, aka Gangsta Boogie, aka G-Pac, wrote a blog about it.

The best part of the whole thing is stealer wanted to get a refund for the half-assed work he paid for. Here’s an excellent excerpt from the post:

You come to me and you ask me to build you a Ferrari look alike car very cheap ($10.000) .
If I am desperate for the money I will take the job and rent a Ferrari take it for a drive so I will have some idea of how it drives.
In a few months I will give you a car which looks similar to a Ferrari , you can drive it .. it brakes , it has air bags … etc.
Then you come and say to me that it doesn’t perform like one and my replay will be well a Ferrari which you look at costs easy $500.000 so this is what you got for $10.000.

And the full post can be found on this real estate forum.

I hope no one steals this picture of Glenn that I did for him. It’s currently hanging on his door.

• Farecast is official sold to Microsoft for $115 million. I first heard of this company at Redfin’s sponsored Techcrunch Seattle party. They had a pretty booth with brochure’s stacked up nicely next to our sporadicly dressed up, sticker-filled walls. Needless to say, it’s nice to see a company that co-sponsored something with Redfin go from small to gobbled in that time. Hugh, pick up one of these with your newfound wealth!
  (Bonus: Read how my truck was blasted in the event hauling kegs to the party on Redfin’s blog.)
• Read Guy Kawasaki’s interview with Josh Bernoff about The Impact of Social Technologies on Sales, Support, Marketing, and Branding. It’s a great conversation.
• Nokia plans big expansion to Kirkland. Savannara, you seeing this!
• Digital Hobbit talks about leaving Google for a startup. It’s a great comparison. (You made the right choice, brotha.)

• Farecast is up for sale/merger. Oren Etzioni is a beast when it comes to technology startups.
• Buddy TV gets funding from Madrona.
• Dave Naffziger, former VP of Engineering at Judy’s Book, weighs in on the Google AppEngine and Django (which he’s building his new startup, Brand Verity, on)
• A Place for Mom’s gets a Community web site. It’s back by Battery Ventures and provides an online database of assisted living facilities. The demographic of this community will make it interesting to design and build. I’m going to assume there may not be much AJAX or Flash involved.
• Getting banned from Google is a costly mistake. Just ask Oatmeal from SEOMoz. Here’s a very interesting article about Widget Bait Gone Wild.

I sometimes wonder what the people writing the blogs I read are like. I’ve met some, but for the most part, I don’t know most of the writers. So, to give you some a view into my life, here’s a quick snapshot of who I am.

Full name: Savanrith Kong (Yes, no middle name. Asians don’t like that superfluous stuff). I go by Savan, Sav, Savon, Savin King, King Kong, Donkey Butt, Skeet, Son, and a slew of other Cambodian names.

Born January 18^th, 1980 in a Thailand refugee camp. My family fled Cambodia, our homeland, during the killing fields of the 70’s and 80’s. I lost a lot of family members. I consider myself lucky because I could have easily been decimated in a plain of grassy meadows along with my brothers.

Part Cambodian, part Chinese. I claim my Cambodian heritage and background as a source of strength and motivation. I speak it at home with my family but hardly ever in public. If you’d like to come over and eat dinner with us, drop me an e-mail.

Grew up in the projects. My parents raised me in the south side of Seattle. The better part of my life was spent in the Park Lake Homes projects in White Center. I spent my elementary school years at Mount View and Salmon Creek. I then relocated to Burien where I attended Cascade Middle School (still in White Center) and 2 years at - what I consider the worse school out of all of them - John F Kennedy.

Most people would argue that you can’t get any more ghetto than these places, though I found comfort in government cheese, making my own toys and eating lots of rice every day.

I was debater and on the team during all 4 years of my schooling. I made it to the state tournament and found out that there were people nerdier than I am. I also spent one term as a Senate page for Margarita Prentice in Olympia.

My last two years of high school was an awakening to the upper social stratosphere of the world. After being put through a rigorous interview and testing process, I was admitted into The Lakeside School. And, yes people, it’s a tough sucker to get into. I got mediocre grades but loved the experience. I also learned that the rich really do get richer and the poor stay that way. There may be a few stragglers that break that chain, but that was far and few in between. Case in point: all of the my friends that grew up in White Center are working rudimentary jobs and probably will never read this blog; all of my friends from Lakeside are living comfortably and will probably email me about this blog.

During my high school years, I invested three of my summers interning at Microsoft.

I spent my last year of Lakeside getting into Occidental College in Pasadena, California. I dropped out a year later and moved back up to Seattle to work for a startup called NextHost/NextStudio.

NextStudio would go out of business in a year. A good buddy of mine, Kirk Wetherill, and I took some of the major clients and started our own business. He and I ran it for a few years before I decided to go back and finish college at the University of Washington. I received a degree in Communications with an emphasis in digital media.

I ran a consulting company called Skky Digital. During this time, I met David Eraker and a friendship bloomed from our work together. He eventually would go on to found Redfin and suck me into the madness.

I devoted a whole summer of my life working next to him, Josh Horton, and Bahn Lee for no money, a few packets of Ramen and some great games of Halo. I loved those days. We kept the company afloat and it’s now thriving under the reign of Glenn Kelman and Co. (Including Pamela, Sr. Transaction Coordinator who is working her butt off here late!).

I’m currently the Director of User Experience at another great company called Conenza. I love it. I love the pace, people and environment. One can say I’m addicted to taking something intangible and making it real (well, as real as 1’s and 0’s can get). It’s a passion I have and something I take very seriously. Though, from my Flickr pictures, you can definetly see that I’m a party animal, love interacting with people and dogs, and enjoy the daily dose of liquor (see my post below).

Conclusion

There is some power above that’s given me this once in a lifetime opportunity to do something that I love, instead of being buried in the burial grounds of a mass extermination field of Tuol Sleng. I remind myself everyday that I am very fortunate to be in my position. I am fortunate to have my family, my friends, my house, my condo, my dog, my car, my office, my computer, my bills. I don’t take my work for granted; I don’t complain about overtime; I don’t gripe about over-extending myself; I don’t understand the notion of not working hard.

My fortunes have afforded me to take care of myself and my parents. I am humbled by my past and look forward to my future.

Happy Early April Fools Day! Let me introduce my latest blog with an annoucment:

Savan Kong will not be drinking for the entire month of April.

And, no, that wasn’t a joke. I know, I know. My last post was about happy hours and how it’s good for startups. Whatever. You can call me out on it in person if we ever meet.

But for now, onward to more important things. Here are three items that I’ve always wondered about in my startup life:

1. What’s the perfect ratio of PM to engineers? Educated guesses anyone? For example, Linkedin is looking for a Sr. Product Manager for New User Experience. Now, don’t get me wrong, they may actually have a position to fill, but do you really need a Sr. PM for just that facet of the site? Maybe. Maybe not. But wanting to hire a Sr. PM for just that role doesn’t seem like a smart move for a startup.Any advice on the perfect mix of PM to developers?
   Matt Goyer or Bryan Selner from Redfin? Andy Sack from Founders Co-op and Judy’s Book? Kevin Merritt from Blist? Mike Arcuri from Ontela?
2. Will all websites end up being a social network? Fast Company recently re-hauled their site to mimic traditional social networking functionality. With the emergence of behemoth online communities like Linkedin, Facebook, and Myspace, will it only be a matter of time before users demand the ability to communicate and collaborate with each other? A good friend of mine from Lakeside, Matt Johnson, works at Blist. Blist is trying to break into the consumer database market. I know, I know. Savan, databases aren’t super sexy. But you know what? It will be if you can manage sexy data like all of your pictures and information of Scarlett Johansson or Jessica Biel and distribute that information to your fanclub. Hats off to Kevin and his product team for making that move forward. I can’t think of a single web site out there right now that wouldn’t stand to become better by adding one or two social networking features (connections, groups, etc)
3. Why are there so many men compared to women in the VC/investment world? Alyssa Royse, blogger for the PI, recently asked the question: “Where are the women VCs in Seattle?” My first run with the VC/investment world was with Laura Jennings, former Microsoft VP, former Atlas Ventures Partner, and former boss of my mother (we helped raise their children - all very, very cute!). She exposed me to angels, the high-stakes (and losses) of the VC world, and general day to day trade-offs between startups and VC’s. Little did I know while talking to her in my teenage years that she would be the last VC I would meet that’s a woman. I’d personally love to meet more women in this capacity.

What do the Black and Tan, Hoegarden, Boddingtons, Car Bombs, and nodes and roots all have in common? They all make up the intrinsic DNA of a startup. I strongly believe that team building is deeply rooted in activities outside of the cube. When choosing a company, I try to assess many things. I believe that in order to really bond as a company – especially a startup – you should take the time to really get to know the people you’re working with (read: quality time at bars, clubs, lounges).
At Conenza, we have a great time at our happy hours. Since I’ve joined roughly 2 months ago, I’ve been to a show that my cube-mate Andrew Smith put together (Crown Arubaaaaaaaaaa!), spent endless hours at Fado, had great discussions at Imo and racked up sizable bills at Collin’s. I’ve learn so many things from people that I’d probably never pick up in a 30 minute meeting during the day. Unless you have a drinking problem or it’s against your religion, I believe that having informal, voluntary drinking sessions is an important (even imperative) aspect to building a startup team.
Alas, a list of why Happy Hours are awesome for team building. Feel free to send this to your HR department.

1. Happy Hours bring you all together at a specific time to talk about anything
2. Happy Hours loosen the tension between yourself and your peers (I’d advise not getting too drunk that you’d put on a red Christmas vest in the middle of March in a bar).
3. Happy Hours expose the chatterbox in everyone. Interestingly, people that usually don’t speak are so loquacious after 2 vodka tonics.
4. Happy Hours are a stress reliever.

Good excuses for a Happy Hour:

1. Introduce new hires
2. Entertain visiting out of town employees
3. Celebrate a milestone – release, etc
4. Celebrate birthdays
5. Show off your Christmas sweater in March
6. Celebrate that you made it through another 80 hour work week

And some tips to make the outing a good one:

1. Make the outings regular and semi-scheduled. This doesn’t mean that there should be a mandatory drinking session every Friday, but leaving that option open gives employees something to look forward to at the end of a week or month.
2. Have someone pick up the tab; rotate as necessary. If your company isn’t big enough to fund the drinks, allocate someone to be responsible for the bill. It takes the stress of having to round up everyone at the end. And usually, all of the tabs end up being roughly the same amount anyways.
3. Go somewhere unpretentious. You don’t need attitude while you’re drinking.
4. Go somewhere close to work. Engineers hate to walk. And the ladies that look good in heels hate to walk even more.
5. Have a backup plan just in case your first place is packed.

• The Seattle Times profiled Lifestyle Wireless. They supposedly send you text messages related to Sports, Lifestyle, and Faith. The only “catch” is that you have to buy cards to activate the service. Who in their right mind would buy such things when you can easily find that information for free using Google? Hello 466453. Also, the barrier to entry is so low that competitors (read 1-2 college students) could easily penetrate this market by coding for 4 months straight if you fed them Ramen and Redbulls. I predict the company will go out of business in a year.
• A friend of a friend (Matt Johnson > Andy Sack and Chris DeVore) started a new venture called Founders Coop. I think it’s a very interesting and exciting idea to help kick-start ideas and bring smart people together. From what I hear, Sack and DeVore know a great deal about the startup world.
• I wish I was going to this: Snap Summit 2.0.
• A great post by Curious Office. I couldn’t agree with them more. Arm Chair QB vs Entrepreneurs.

Conenza has been growing pretty rapidly lately. We’re packed like sardines (ode to Radiohead) in our current office and I love it. Being able to just turn your head and talk to someone about a question is so easy and efficient. It’s the simple things that make working at a startup great: the small kitchens, the intimate walks to lunch (and the intimate walks straight back), the ability to work on all aspects of the product, and especially the smart people. You see, a startup is essentially made up of two things: a great idea and really smart people. The right mixture of the two ingredients transforms the hodgepodge of humans and concepts into a well run machine.

I love talking to people that make me re-think myself. It’s an exhilarating feeling.  I had two meetings today that really challenged me. The first included Andrew Smith, Katherine James Schuitemaker and I going over user-flows. We did a walk-through of how media would be used in the next version of the social network we’re building. Towards the end of the meeting, Katherine suggested something she was thinking about on her way back from a recent trip. Her idea was very simple yet extremely complex. Her question (or challenge?) to us was: how do you build a visual representation of user profiles – their professional trends, decisions, challenges, success-metrics, personal stories – and show it in a compelling way? I took it a step further in my head. Once you build something, how do you make it a product that users will find useful?  It took fundamental ideas that I overlooked and turned it on its head. Needless to say, I was stunned at how hard I was thinking about this problem. Sometimes the best conversations are the ones sitting around a table, deep in thought.

If you enjoy solving complex problems with simple solutions, drop me a line. We can use you at Conenza.