January 15 marked the second anniversary of Rubyred’s official launch. Woohoo!
The original vision for the company was to do whatever we thought was fun, and that vision is still very much alive.
We also have a policy of implementing the dumbest ideas we could come up with. Here are a few examples:
Start a company with no real plan. Back in the fall of 2005 Thor, Amy, and I decided that we wanted to have a company but we weren’t sure what kind of company. Instead of figuring out what to do we concentrated on how to do it. We started by making up a name, hiring employees, and getting an office. We figured the rest would work itself out.
Have a party every Monday morning. There was already a South Park area happy hour on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evening, so we decided to have a party first thing Monday morning to beat everyone else to the fun. We didn’t expect it to make the international news or anything. But it did.
Seek out clients with no money. Our first consulting client was Yahoo, but we quickly got bored working for a company that made success so easy. Instead we sought out startups that could barely scrape together enough money to get us started working, and it was way more fun.
Go to parties instead of working. We didn’t feel like overworking ourselves in typical startup fashion so we went to every event we could find, starting with one of the first TechCrunch parties. We thought we were going to parties because they were fun, but it turns out we were working every night. All of our employees and most of our clients were found at/through parties and happy hours.
Launch a schwag subscription company. What should you do when you assemble a great software development team? Start a business mailing people stickers and t-shirts, of course! Valleyschwag was a huge time sink but it made us famous in the web world. It was on track to be pretty profitable, but it was way too hard to keep up with the customer service issues. So what did we do?
Cancel the revenue stream and concentrate on the hard annoying part. When we realized that customer service issues were killing our profit margin and distracting us from consulting we shuttered the Valleyschwag service, took a break from our profitable consulting business, and focused on just doing the hardest thing we’d encountered. The idea was to pick the most troubled company around and spend our time/money providing great customer service for their products by, in Lane’s words, “enabling the customers to service each other.” We spun-off Get Satisfaction in early 2007, and I took over as CEO of Rubyred.
When all is going well, switch industries. Now I’ve moved to Los Angeles and have plenty of client work coming in, much of it with the great designers at 17FEET. It’s a good time to be a consultant, and the years I’ve put into my personal specialty of mobile interaction design are really paying off. Clearly the smartest thing to do is to keep up the consulting. So I’m forced to ask myself, what’s the dumbest thing to do?
Announce new ideas before they’re fully baked. I’m not one for secrets or big surprises, and Rubyred has always tended toward transparency. We figure the input we get will be more valuable than any mythical “first mover advantage,” and if someone steals our idea it probably won’t make a difference anyway. Ideas are free, execution is everything.
So, as a prize for reading to the end, I’ll tell you that Rubyred is putting together a plan for a new service. It would help professional actors, musicians, politicians, and other public personae use the internet to connect directly with their fans. It starts with consulting, moves into software integration, and finishes with a full web product with broad appeal. I’m not sure that we’ll actually do it, and the plan will change every two weeks if we do, but I’m pretty excited and ready to talk with all who are interested.
I seriously thought this headline on GigaOm was a joke: “Update: Like Gaboogie, Foonz Losing Its Voice Too.” It turns out Goboogie is changing its name to Lypp, while the Foonz team will be focusing on Utterz.
This has to stop.
Here are 3 rules for naming your internet company.
Use real words.
The companies I’ve worked with over the last few years all follow this rule: rubyredlabs.com, valleyschwag.com, getsatisfaction.com, pivotallabs.com, 17feet.com. (The first two were named by Thor, but under our Lennon/McCartney agreement we shared credit for all concepts. We’re still arguing over who gets to be John.) Of course, it would have been nice to get “Rubyred.com” or “Satisfaction.com” but of course they were taken. Still, I think it’s better to have a long name with multiple real words that a short name that is unpronounceable and stupid.
Forget about “.com”.
This is the hardest one for most people, and the main reason I’m writing this post. We are simply out of dot com names, and we need to start using some other TLD’s. Specifically, I think we need to make “.TV” cool, and this will happen by having some successful companies with .TV names. If YouTube.com had been Youtube.tv there would be no stigma attached to .TV domains, and we would all be buying our names using the auction process (which I’ll get to in a minute) and domain piracy would go away, as would Lypp and Utterz.
Buy a premium .TV domain using the official process.
I’ll assume you’re naming a video sharing company, since we need 3000 more of those. Here’s a secret: when they created .tv, Network Solutions pre-registered every real word domain name and now they’re selling them for profit, anywhere from $100/yr for 0124.tv to $500,000/yr for business.tv. When I first heard this I thought it sucked, but after a few minutes of browsing the domain list I changed my mind. Why? For $1000 I could get “whatever.tv” or “taco.tv”, both of which are way better than gaboogie.com. If the company is doing well then $1000 a year shouldn’t be a problem, and if it fails then the domain goes back into the pool to be leased by another legitimate company.
I’ve been following a developing story on GetSatisfaction.com about T-Mobile turning off Twitter. The most interesting part of the story came from a post by Brian Humphrey, a firefighter with the LA Fire Department. He’s been using Twitter to publicly log emergencies and communicate with people around the city. This is a rare example of government embracing new technology to augment their official systems.
From an article on Governing.com:
It has set up searches on various sites, not just Twitter, using key words such as “explosion,” “fire,” “fire department,” “bombing” and “terrorist.” Then, as Humphrey puts it, “you don’t visit your favorite Web sites, they visit you.” For instance, he knew about the Minnesota bridge collapse before the first fire truck arrived. That’s because some people stuck on the bridge started twittering. The LAFD picked up the buzz. … Humphrey says he investigates every digital tool he learns about to see if it can benefit the LAFD. “We can no longer afford to work at the speed of government,” he says. “We must remain relevant to the people we serve.
A few of my old friends, including my original design mentor Tony Rose (of digitalwave.com), have been working on a cool project over the past few years. It’s called Back to the Beach Boys, and the basic concept is to reconstruct Beach Boys recordings as live performances. From the website:
No details were spared to recreate the sounds of the original recordings. Using period correct instruments, the music featured everything from marimbas and accordians to horns and strings…the keyboardist even built what is most likely the only exact replica of Paul Tanner’s electro-Theremin that he played on the original “Good Vibrations”…and many of your favorite sci-fi movies!
So if the recording has 5 beach boys singing 3 parts each they need 15 singers to do it live, and if a 1963 Fender guitar played 2 parts and was redoubled in the recording session they need 4 1963 Fender guitars. You get the picture.
Check them out playing Little Saint Nick in somebody’s livingroom.
“I want to be you” - The coward Robert Ford, according to my guess as to what may be the next line after the one in the preview
I spent the weekend driving around LA looking at apartments, and let me tell you there are some shitty-stank-ass dwellings in that town. This is another thing I’ve gotten used to in SF: the city enforces building codes and renter’s rights laws to a level that makes us the laughing stock of all other cities. For all their flaws (high prices, piss smell on the porch, etc) the apartments in San Francisco are pretty fucking sweet.
There are great places in LA too, but there is a whole under-level of filler that sits in between the places you’d actually want to live. I’ve mentioned before how this is true in other areas like parties and restaurants; there’s a whole giant class of eateries and events that are to be avoided at all costs.
Anyway, I’m looking for one of the places that doesn’t suck, so here is a Craigslist ad of my dreams:
1 bedroom cottage/guest house in Silverlake with big kitchen, full bath, and a giant fenced yard where your awesome dog can play all day with our french bulldog and boston terrier. We’re out of town a lot so we need someone who can keep the leaves out of the pool and make sure the hot tub remains chemically balanced.
“Do you wanna be like me, or do you wanna be me?” – Jesse James, according to an ad for that new movie
If you’ve always wanted to be like me you can start by moving into my apartment. I’m going to move to LA as soon as someone takes it, so you can pick up my life where I leave off.
You can take over my parking space and my laundry room and roof deck, you can take over my regular walk to Ritual or Zeitgeist and take over my favorite drink (small double cappuccino and wheat beer in a mason jar, respectively).
You can take over my walking distance access to hundreds of fine dining establishments, my half block walk to the bart station, my two block drive to the 101 on-ramp, my six block stroll to Dolores Park. You can take over my sunny bay windows, my big bathtub, my new appliances, my track lighting, and my friendly neighbors.
You can take over my hardwood floors, my granite countertops, and my ample close space, which I will fill with some of my old clothes so you can pretend to be me as you go about your daily life in the best part of the best city in the best state in one of the top three countries in North America.
I’ll miss my sweet ass apartment, and my next one will be 500 miles south and 50 percent more modest, but my loss is your gain.
The weather. How come nobody told me it would be beautiful every day? The down side: when will I get to wear my collection of fur hats that I accumulated while living in San Francisco?
The smart people. In addition to their general goodlookingness most of the people here are also interesting, hilarious and, yes, smart. They are also engaged, ambitious, and fun.
The stupid people. And then some of them are not very smart. There is some level of stupidity that just isn’t tolerated in San Francisco. You’re not required to be smart to live in the bay area, but there are so many smart people competing for the jobs/friends/mates/etc that stupid people just don’t like it and eventually wander off. Not so in LA — stupid people can live and thrive here indefinitely. But ugly people eventually leave.
The coffee. Lucky for me there is finally a good coffee shop in LA. Yesterday I rolled into Intelligentsia around noon for a coffee and the barista said “hey, you’re here early.” I said “no, you just work the afternoon shift and usually miss my whole morning visit.” If I’m not a recognized regular at a coffee shop I feel empty inside.
The driving. You have to drive everywhere. I’ve even found myself doing the Caravan, where three people each have their own cars and drive somewhere together and talk to each other on cell phones. It is the LA equivalent of walking down the street chatting with a friend.
The art. Sorry San Francisco, the art here is better. I like the artists in SF more than anything, and I love being there for the process of creation, but the product here is incredible.
The love for San Francisco. That there is an intense rivalry between SF and LA, but only San Franciscans know about it. Everyone here loves San Francisco, but the standard habits that people have here really are the things that make them hated up there. I’m talking about driving aggressively, not bussing your table, dressing well, and ignoring people who bore you.
The velvet ropes. San Francisco is all about trying to convince people to come to your party. LA is all about trying to get your friends to come to your party while keeping out the thousands, thousands of people who will show up, drink your free beer, sleazily hit on your friends, and try to spot movie stars and ask them for a job. Sad but true: every event I’ve been to that didn’t have a guest list totally sucked and we left immediately.
Move to Los Angeles Actually this isn’t so much a “might” as it is a “when.” Los Angeles has many repellent things and many attractive things, but it pretty much comes down to one issue for me. If you’ve met her I’m sure you understand. San Francisco has given me 7 good years, and I’ll probably come back at some point, but for now I’m outta here.
Have a giant send off party The party will be epic, and you are invited. I just need to figure out where to have it and when and how.
Launch version 3.0 of Rubyred Labs Version 1 was what most people think of as Rubyred; Thor, Amy, and myself running a design/development consultancy with a bunch of side projects like Valleyschwag, Cereal Bar, cowboy parties, etc. Version 2 started when we spun off the best side project, Satisfaction, and I kept Rubyred running as a boutique consultancy. I can share details if people are interested, but basically Amy and Thor (and Lane) wanted to build a product company, take funding, and stick with it for the years that it takes to make that sort of thing work. I wanted to slack off, take my dog for walks, and hang out with my girlfriend in LA. So I kept my shares in Satisfaction and took on an adviser role, but spend the bulk of my time working with clients and other agencies to design and build mobile/web applications. So that’s been Rubyred 2.0, which is fun, lucrative, and low pressure. I’m not sure what v3.0 will be like, but I’m thinking it will look a lot like v2.0 with some entertainment industry stuff thrown into the mix because, you know, it’s LA. Or maybe I’ll get the fire in the belly to hire a staff and build a new product. Any ideas?
Write a sitcom When you change your address at the Los Angeles DMV you have to show them your screenplay, so I’m getting started on that. You’re supposed to write what you know, so mine is about a designer who hangs out at a hip coffee shop with his dog and is best friends with the homeless guy who bums change out front.
Have an art show I haven’t done one in a while, and I need to make some new stuff. I’m working on some pieces that aren’t stuffed animals, returning to my roots of rusty metal glued to old pieces of wood. Maybe my big party can be at Flora’s store and double as an art opening.
Keep getting rid of stuff When I’m giving design critiques I always tell people to remove half the things on the page, then remove half the things on the page again. (Incidentally, my formula for time estimates is to make your best guess, double it, then double it again.) The design with the least stuff is usually the best one. I already got rid of half my things, so now I’m working on doing it again. The second round is way harder, but the stuff I give away this time will be twice as good.
Watch more TV Now that I’m going to be a superstar screenwriter I have an excuse to watch TV all the time. I also have an excuse to be on the internet all the time since I’m still a designer, and I’m working on a system for doing both at once.
Get a tiny apartment This is going to be hard, but I’m planning on moving into a significantly smaller & cheaper place when I go to LA. I’ve never had anything smaller than a big one bedroom, and I’m actually excited about the prospect of a tiny studio with a nice porch.
I have too many things, and as of today I’ve implementing a plan to reduce the number to 1000 by my 30th birthday. It’s not that I don’t like things — I love things — but I think they make me less happy, so I’m going to set up a structure that will keep stuff from piling up. Much of the inspiration for this comes from the “Power of 10″ section of Sean Kelly’s satirical inspirational seminar, Power Up. Here are the preliminary steps and rules.
Empty my storage unit. (DONE) I couldn’t have done this without the gentle but firm hand of KP2, who opted to spend days driving around in a truck with me and getting whistled at by gross guys at the dump.
Do the stomach test on everything I own. (1/2 done) This sounds kinda hippie but it totally works. I pick up each thing I own and if it makes me feel good I keep it, if it makes me feel bad I get rid of it. Some things make seem like they should make me feel good because they came from someone I like, cost a lot of money, or were purchased with a grand plan in mind. Often these are the ones that actually make me feel the worst in my stomach because, if they ended up in storage, they represent some sort of disappointment. Prime example: a PDA that I bought about 7 years ago that never quite worked right and cost a lot of money. I kept it around because it was still working and in perfect shape (since I didn’t use it much because it sucked) with a loose plan of selling it on ebay. The most joy I’ve ever gotten from the PDA was giving it to someone on the street today as I piled up boxes of free stuff.
Photograph and count everything I own. Since I’m interested in stats I need to know where I’m starting. I also know that it it psychologically easier to get rid of something once it’s been photographed and cataloged. I won’t really know how many things I want until I do this step, so 1000 may be way too high or too low. A wild guess is that I have 5000-1000 things right now, most of it in the “art supplies” category.
Decide on rules for what counts as one thing. - Most things count as one thing, such as furniture, clothing, electronics, a toothbrush, etc. - Sets of things usually count as one thing, like a set of silverware or a ream of printer paper. - Living things don’t count at all, such as plants or animals. This is mostly because I want to get more plants. - Food doesn’t count. - Each piece of clothing counts as one thing, though a three piece suit or a pair of socks only counts as one. - Each book counts as one thing. This one will be especially hard since I have hundreds of books. CD’s count as one thing if they’re in individual cases, but a book of CD’s only counts as one thing. Not that I use CD’s much anyway. - Art counts as a thing, but a set of 3 prints just counts as one.
Purge the easy stuff. Put the totally lame stuff out on the street or give it to the thrift store.
Spread the good stuff around. I’m going to make nice stickers or labels for stuff that I thing has some value (monetary or aesthetic) but that I don’t want. I’ll then give the labeled things to my friends who will love them, and every time I visit someone I’ll see something that used to be mine and feel warm inside because they’re actually using it and it isn’t cluttering up my house.
Decide what I actually want to keep. This process will be a combination of deciding on invidudual items and setting rough goals for the percentage of things I want in each category. For example, I might want 10% clothes, 20% art supplies, 10% books, 5% pieces of technology, etc.
One in, one out. Like a super exclusive nightclub full of douche bags, I’ll have to get rid of one undesirable thing each time a more desirable thing wants in. When it’s time to buy my private helicopter that’s fine, as long as I get rid of my old broken toaster that has a frayed asbestos cord and stays on indefinitely when the bread gets stuck in it.
When I can’t find anything that I want badly enough to get rid of an existing thing I will know I’ve reached my goal of owning 1000 perfect things.
I’ve had a few blog posts floating around in my head and I want to write all of them. The only way to keep things on track is to make a commitment to you, my dear readers, and have you complain to me if I fall behind.
8 Things I might do next. In this one I’ll list 8 major things I might do now that Burning Man is over and I’ve cleared my schedule of most commitments.
8 Conceptual theme camps for Burning Man 2008. In which I will explore ideas that will get me a good spot on the playa.
8 Websites I actually use. This is a posts that many bloggers write from time to time detailing their favorite web products.
1000 Perfect Things. This one is a surprise and I’m going to write it first.
Jonathan Grubb