Last week Tara and I took the kids to Disneyland for Ashby’s 4th birthday. We stayed two nights and thanks to a friend who works at Pixar we had our hotel for a fraction of the price. The whole trip was nothing short of magical for Ashby and the entire family.
I was amazed by the quality of service and professionalism at the park. I had not been to Disneyland since I was about 10 years old. It was the first time for everyone else. I’m excited to return.
I spent the last two days with the MindTouch executive team. While sequestered in an undisclosed location in San Diego we plotted another year of remarkable success in 2010.
MindTouch 2010 executive offsite. Left to right: me in my favorite Debian tshirt, Mark Fidelman, Rion Morgenstern.
2009 was another great year for MindTouch. I love my work. We achieved most of the milestones that we set out for the company at the beginning of the year. We even hit some stretch goals out of the park. We more than doubled our annual revenue and revenue growth was not the most important achievement of 2009. I’ll be posting a year in review on the MindTouch blog later this week.
MindTouch has been enormously successful in driving adoption of our software, in generating revenue and in building a recognizable and respected brand. There are many factors that have contributed to our success, not least of which is our brilliance of mind and modesty ;-), but I want to share some of the less obvious.
Set and communicate goals and expectations. At MindTouch we do this top-down by setting annual and quarterly initiatives. These are high level goals not projects. People prefer to think in terms of projects rather than overarching initiatives. Thinking at project level makes it impossible to manage forward progress, guarantees distraction and restricts you to the tactical when you need to be strategic.
Once you’ve established your goals then define how success is measured. Once you’ve done this the projects you need to execute on and how you prioritize them is obvious. And you’ve created a system for tracking and measuring success. Everyone likes success. This reminds me of something I read as a kid: the answers are easy, it’s finding the right questions to ask that is difficult.
This slide is from Mark Fidelman’s slide deck. With which he asserted: "Fuck strategy #2, I removed it"
Measure. If you can’t measure it you probably wasted your time. How do you know your resources were well spent? We measure and track damn near everything at MindTouch. This includes individual, departmental and corporate wide performance. In the last 72 hours I’ve examined dozens of key performance indicators (KPIs) of each department and the company as a whole. I have reviewed a hundred graphs and charts visualizing various aspects of our business. This includes several lead funnel conversions, site traffic analytics, ~20 views on revenue alone, software distribution and installation, customers (10 different ways), even individuals at MindTouch are examined to determine how we can improve. We make very informed decisions and we have a deep understanding of the mechanics of our business.
While MindTouch is a highly data-driven company not all business models can achieve the same level as we have. Personally, I don’t know that I will ever be interested in building a business that can’t be as data-driven as we are. Even in less data-driven models there are ways to track and measure performance, I encourage all entrepreneurs to do so, you’ll be better for it.
A side note, nothing pisses me off more than colleagues who make statements based on assumptions without, at least, anecdotal information to back it up. Commonly these are the same people who stubbornly cling to ideas even after data has proven them wrong. It is a demonstration of either laziness or stupidity.
Beware false KPIs. A common mistake of companies and people who wish to become data driven is that they’ll track for the sake of tracking. Meaning, they won’t actually measure anything useful. Be sure to set goals and measure the success of these goals.
This is the actual revenue graph for MindTouch
Love your coworkers. To say I care for my coworkers is an understatement. I love my coworkers, even those that piss me off. Seriously, you don’t have to like your colleagues, but you do have to love them. Some ways we express our love at MindTouch:
In short, I want my coworkers to be the best human beings they can be. Professionally and personally. I will help them in any way I can to achieve this and MindTouch has done a good job of systematizing this.
Love what you do. If you do not love what you do you will never be great at it. Also, If you don’t love your work I don’t want to work with you. Not just because you won’t be great at it, but also because you’re a downer. Do whatever it is you love because life is too short to waste on bullshit, even if it pays less.
Four guys who absolutely love what they do. Left to right: Timo, Cote, Jevon and Aaron.
Few people know this about me, but I love to cook. I cooked for many years when I was a young backpacking dharma bum. I even received accolades in culinary magazines. I helped to open four restaurants (three successful) and I held positions as sous chef and executive chef. I worked as a cook from the ripe age of 17 to 24. I loved it. It was creative and fast paced. I had the flexibility to travel. Every several months I spent weeks on end camping or months on the road. Moreover, I had a lot of time with the people I love. Sure, my clothes came from Goodwill, my cars never exceeded $500 (American K-cars are awesome) and I didn’t live with the amenities I do now, but damn I was happy. If I didn’t love what I was doing I would, in a heartbeat, move my family to a resort town, like Ely MN, Meta Italy or somewhere in Costa Rica and live a simple life as a lowly cook. I wouldn’t have as much stuff, but I would still be happy. Do you work for stuff or because you love your work? Don’t work for stuff.
Surround yourself with people that love what they’re doing. It makes work fun and it increases the likelihood that your team will be incredibly effective. This alone usually nearly guarantees monetary success.
Follow all four of these tenants if you want to increase your odds at achieving monetary success. However, if all you take away from this blog post is the following two things:
than you are guaranteed success. Perhaps not monetary, but you will be happier.
Tara and I had planned to have Christmas dinner with my oldest friend, Henry Kikunaga. We’ve been good friends since kindergarten in Morgan Hill, CA. Over the years he and I have lived all over the states, but never near one another until recently when we some how managed to end up only 8 miles away. He is in Chula Vista and I am in downtown San Diego. Of course, we rarely see one another. He works as hard as I do and he recently had triplets. Yes, triplets.
Alas, our Christmas dinner plans were dashed because my kids were sick and we couldn’t expose the triplets. We did have a wonderful time nonetheless. We visited Mission Bay Park and then later, since we hadn’t planned for Christmas dinner, we ordered dinner from Celadon Thai. It was great, we had duck. It reminded me of “A Christmas Story”.
The day after Christmas we took the kids to the Zoo. I hope my kids will realize how lucky they are to have Seaworld, the San Diego Zoo and countless parks and beaches within a couple miles from our house.
I love San Diego. It is an idyllic place to raise kids.
If you know me, you already know I’m a huge Amazon.com fan. I love the service, but here are four reasons other than it being the best online store evAR.
Reason number one. Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder:
Jeff is awesome. Cheerful, smart, down-to-earth, funny. He is just an awesome guy.
Reason number two. I love my Kindle. It’s magical. Thanks again for the awesome birthday present Steve.
Reason number three.
Right, that is Werner Vogel, the CTO of Amazon, fielding support on Twitter. By the way, Werner is another guy who is a brilliant person and also very cheerful and friendly.
Reason number four. Finally, I love Amazon.com because a few of their lovely and wise executives have referred business to MindTouch. Including some big customers like The Washington Post.
Thanks for being kick ass Amazon.com.
I keep getting invited to Google Wave even though I’ve had an account for months. It seems others are inviting me with different email addresses than the one I have registered with Wave. I can’t add my other emails though and Wave is disconnected even from my Google profile. 😦 Lame.
I have been asked many times for my thoughts on Google Wave. Here are just a couple:
As Jevon wrote to me, in a Wave, “if [Google Wave] had email notifications it would be more useful”. Oh the irony.
Don’t get me wrong. Google Wave is interesting. Primarily because of the underlying protocol and architecture. I am certain that if Google throws enough money at Wave, and I suspect they will, they will develop it into an important and useful technology.
Ping me with your email address if you want a Google Wave invite. If you’re already on Wave feel free to add me. I am AaronRoe At GoogleWave Dot com
I love that show: “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”. It makes a nice title for a blog post with some random photos from our recent family visit to Philly. It was indeed unseasonably warm and sunny while we were there. I had work in DC, but the family came along and the weekend before we visited friends who live outside Philadelphia. We took a “big bus” tour of the city. This is a double-decker bus that you can jump on and off at designated stops. It was great fun. We also visited the “Please Touch” museum for children. Philadelphia is a beautiful city. The flora brought back fond memories of of the three months I lived in Central PA when I was 18 years old and in transit across country.
I have a favor to ask. Please donate a couple dollars and a few minutes. If each reader of my blog gives a couple bucks we can fund many of these projects. But let’s start with this one. Let me explain.
Several months ago I attended the Web 2.0 Summit Dinner. Good times. As a door prize, if you will, O’Reilly and Pahlka gave all of us in attendance a $100 gift card to DonorsChoose.org. Here’s the deal:
Here’s how it works: public school teachers from every corner of America post classroom project requests on DonorsChoose.org. Requests range from pencils for a poetry writing unit, to violins for a school recital, to microscope slides for a biology class.
Then, you can browse project requests and give any amount to the one that makes your eye twinkle. Once a project reaches its funding goal, we deliver the materials to the school.
You’ll get photos of your project taking place, a thank-you letter from the teacher, and a cost report showing how each dollar was spent. If you give over $100, you’ll also receive hand-written thank-you letters from the students.
At DonorsChoose.org, you can give as little as $1 and get the same level of choice, transparency, and feedback that is traditionally reserved for someone who gives millions. We call it citizen philanthropy.
Thanks O’Reilly and Pahlka for turning me onto this. I’ve add this to my list of charities, which include: Plan USA, Kiva.org and EFF. Given the many years I invested in bridging the digital divide in under-served communities in NC and MN with the creation and support of several non-profits (three still in operation) I’m stoked on DonorsChoose for the slant on education. Through DonorsChoose I have donated to a several projects thus far.
Here is a summary of my first two projects:
The teacher letters are awesome!
My most recent project was discovered by my wife, Tara. You can dramatically impact a school and community. It will only take you a couple minutes and a few dollars. There is no minimum donation. As previously mentioned, if every reader of my blog donates a couple bucks we can fund many projects. Please help with this one.
There is a literacy project at C.C. Spaulding in Durham, NC that needs YOUR help. This is one of the at-risk inner city schools where my wife taught and I volunteered. Moreover, I launched a technology community center here, built the network and IT/IS infrastructure. I know first hand how much this population of student needs YOUR help.
Please donate. Even if only a couple dollars. There is no minimum and this will only take a minute and MindTouch will match every dollar donated. Just contact me via email or Twitter and we’ll match.
Thanks!
Ashby has been participating in the Little Rascalz multi-sport class on Tuesdays at Pioneer Park in Mission Hills. This has been wonderful for her. Thus far she has played La Crosse, Baseball, Soccer, Tennis and Field Hockey.
The above photo is from her last class. Prior to this class starting her and I were participating in our own Greco-Roman wrestling session on the grass. After we had paused, Ashby stumbled into the top of my head when I was looking down. She busted her lip wide open. Blood was everywhere. The other parents didn’t know we had stopped wrestling and it was caused by her stumbling. They only saw her bloody face and tears and had been witness to our shenanigans for the previous 15 minutes. Needless to say, their looks were telling. I felt like a total ass.
Anyway, I got the blooding down to a trickle and offered her to go home. She wasn’t having it. She immediately got out on the field as soon as the coaches started and got down to some field hockey.
Today, when she saw the above photo she said: “I’m holding my lip like that because it still hurt.” She’s such a bad ass. 🙂 And yes, I do recommend Little Rascalz.They have eleven locations in San Diego county.
I lucked into a ticket to Gogol Bordello last week. The show was fantastic.
As previously blogged I recently attended the ReadWriteWeb Real-Time Web Summit. The day before the event I had noticed the Pogues are playing at the House of Blues in San Diego on October 19.
I am a big Pogues fan and it has been over a year since I’ve been to any concert. When I looked at ticket prices I learned they are selling for $85 a ticket! I don’t think I have ever spent more than $50 on a concert ticket. Tara encouraged me to go to the show, but there is no way I can bring myself to spend that much for a concert. Especially not for a concert at the House of Blues—the Applebee’s of concert venues.
After deciding not to attend the Pogues show I was pondering how long it has been since I went to a show and how I really wanted to see Gogol Bordello live. In the event you are not familiar with this band, think: Gypsy Punk Rock. Sounds awesome, right? It is.
The next day, while at the aforementioned conference, I bumped into Eric Marcoullier. Eric is one of the guys who built and sold MyBlogLog to Yahoo!. I’m not sure how we first met, but Chad Dickerson, formerly the lead of Yahoo! Developer and the current CTO of Etsy.com, is a mutual friend and I believe Chad introduced us a couple years ago or perhaps Chad just said we should meet. I’m not sure.
Eric and I suffer from what I call: cyber familiarity dissonance (CFD). This is when the familiarity with a given person is disproportional online than the familiarity afforded via meat space interactions. Basically, you barely know them, but thanks to social networking and social media tools you feel like you know each other fairly well. It seems my relationships in meat space increasingly suffer from CFD.
While talking, Eric mentioned he was attending Gogol later that night. Having just been thinking the night before about Gogol it seemed a peculiar coincidence. Alas, the event was sold out. 5 minutes after speaking with Eric he returned to inform me he had a ticket. $35. I was in. If I were
The show was fantastic. It was the highest energy concert and best pit I’ve been in for years. I was left of center stage and surging between 3-8 people back. The pit was friendly, but there were plenty of elbows flying, body surfing (which means you have to watch or be kicked in the head) and I experienced a few head-butts. Good times.
Maybe it’s the nature of Gogol or perhaps the changing times, I’m not sure, but there were a surprising number of women in the pit. Is this typical these days?
in closing, if ever you have a chance to attend a Gogol Bordello show you really should jump at the opportunity.
Aaron Fulkerson 