Entries Tagged 'job' ↓

I’m going to be occasionally blogging on technical matters on the new Mixx Engine Room blog.  (Mixx is where I work, for those who may not know.)  Those posts are going to be seriously geeky, so don’t be ashamed if you don’t decide to read those.  But if you are interested in how one goes about building a social news site in Ruby on Rails, check the Engine Room.

Well, up in Beta, anyway.

After an intense summer of activity, and a crunch mode that has lasted for the last three weeks or so, we’re now sending sign-ups to our private beta.  You do need an invitation, but that’s easy to come by: just go to  www.mixx.com and add your email to the list and you’ll soon get your invitation.  Or drop me a note and I’ll get you added to the list.

We’re already generating some discussion, with a nice post on Techcrunch.  It’s here.

And a final note: we’re looking for a good Ruby on Rails developer.  So if you’re interested, or know someone who is, drop me an email at jdzik@aol.com.

We’re still in stealth mode, but at least we have something up on the web now.  It’s at:

http://www.mixx.com

Go look at the pretty picture and imagine the wonderfulness that is coming.  Or give us your email address and we’ll send you a nice little bit of spam when we’re up for real.

In the start-up life, there is no infrastructure, and your opinion on everything matters.

Think of all the things that are provided for you in a big company.  There are standard offices, someone buys furniture, internet connectivity is provided, the telephones just work.   From the perspective of most employees, all of this just happens.

But at a start-up, nothing just happens.  We have to figure out all of this stuff, and everyone can offer an opinion.

Take internet connectivity as an example.  Back at AOL, the internet just worked.  I don’t know who set it up - as long as the socket in my wall worked, I was happy.  But here, we have no MIS department, so Michael is in the corner arranging DSL or a T1 or some other connection with providers.  And if I have an opinion (which in this case I don’t, as long as our connection is fast enough), it will be carefully considered before making any decision.

Or a matter on which I do have an opinion: office space.  We haven’t actually got offices yet - we’re squatting in a conference room in our lawyer’s office.  So we all get to go visit some possible spaces.  What’s more important - avoiding a bad intersection, or the nice sports club down the hall from one suite?  Being walking distance from a number of good lunch spots, or a slightly lower rent?  We all get to have our say.

Once we pick out a space, we all decide how to lay it out.  Go for a windowless private office, or have a nice big bullpen for development?   Have a nice desk, or perhaps a big overstuffed chair?  (Yeah, I’m considering not having a desk at all.  I work in a recliner when at home - I’m in one right now.  I like the working-in-a-den style, and there’s no reason why I shouldn’t do it here.)

Plus, one lovely coincidence.  Our current leading candidate office space is at 8260 Greensboro Drive.  That probably does not mean much to you, but it was the location of my office in my first job out of college.  Julie and I even belonged to that sports club I mentioned, way back when Julie was doing water aerobics working around her first pregnancy.

So yesterday, I’m sitting in an all-day meeting with my fellow starter-uppers to nail down details of how we’re going to work together and what we’re going to build. A lot of requirements discussions, diving deep into the product definition. And a lot of fun - there’s nothing quite like starting with a blank sheet and beginning something brand new.

It’s a meeting much like many that I’ve been in over the last several years. But at some point, I realize that there’s a big difference this time. Absolutely everyone who has a say in what we’re going to build is in the room. We don’t have to check with anyone else to make a decision, there is no chance that our plans will be overridden by some executive somewhere, we do not have to run things by Integrity Assurance or Legal.

Not only that, but there are only four of us. Four is a great number for this kind of meeting - everyone can be heard, everyone can influence the decision, but we can still move quickly through the agenda. It’s all really exciting, and things are moving forward quickly.

All of which is to say that I’m really enjoying the start-up life. Yes, I’m only two days in. Yes, there might be all sorts of troubles to come, and there’s certainly going to be a lot of long days.

But I’m working with some great people, and there’s no artificial barriers to what we’re doing. What a blast!

After ten years of working at AOL, tomorrow is my last day. I’m joining a start-up as the VP of engineering, something that sounds a little less impressive when you realize that for the next six months at least there will be no more than 3-4 engineers working for the company, and I’m one of them. Still, it will be fun.

I fully expect I’ll be keeping a blog covering both the adventure itself and any technical details that interest me along the way. As of now, I’ll be starting that blog right here. This may continue elsewhere - I haven’t really decided that yet. With things changing at a rapid pace for me right now, I’m not sure when that will be settled.

But wherever that is, I’ll link from here. So if you are here because you used to read one of my AOL blogs - welcome. If you want to follow what I do in the future, keep an eye on this space.