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We Pay Our Rent By Buying Coffee
Wired is running a story on Delicious Monster, a startup Mac software company whose main office is a Seattle coffee shop. Hope they're drinking decaf.
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Except it's in Seattle and it's for a niche market. I worked for a virtual company. Our "office" was our customer's offices. About ten of us.
Nothing very special about this except it's got insufferably precious Mac-Seattle-GraphicDesginer disease.
Wouldn't it be easier to work from home? That's what I do.
I'd wonder about security though. These guys are working on wireless internet on a public network while developing proprietary software. What's to stop one guy with a snooper and a latte-wielding disguise from stealing all their work? Yes, it's quirky. And I'll be damned if I wouldn't love to pay my rent in coffee... but I'm just not sure it's good business. Of course, this is all speculation on my part. We only have a Starbucks here.
Yeah, and everything is fine until you need to start shipping things UPS from work.
Co-founder of OmniGroup in Seattle.
http://www.omnigroup.com
I had no idea Wil left his baby, OmniWeb to do a start-up. With his almost 15 years of Cocoa programming experience I'm sure they'll make it.
> bank, they'll feel compelled to set up shop in a regular office
Maybe. But I read on Think Secret that Delicious Monster was started by some guys who left the behemoth software conglomerate Omni Group:
So it sounds like they left a small company to put together an even smaller company.
I admit, I just use their software. I know none of these guys and I've never worked for their companies, but it doesn't sound like either company is running to put on the white shirt and tie just yet.
Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
... also a complete, utter waste of time.
I have to admit that I bought the software because I am a Criterion collector and because the developers did a really nice job in terms of look and feel. So I scanned hundreds and hundreds of DVDs in there and now I can see them sitting on gorgeous virtual shelves on my fully loaded PowerBook G4. And I can pat myself in the back. And that is about it.
The fact that useless software (and products in general) that does not make you nicer, more knowledgeable, or more intelligent can generate so much revenue is beyond common sense. But the saddest part is that I am actually contributing to that trend.
I started a company with a friend of mine three years ago. We each worked out of own homes, and met twice a week in person (at a coffee shop, natch') to be sure we were synched up. But after a while it started to become difficult for me to stay in the same damned room all day, then move over a few feet into the kitchen for dinner, a few feet over to the living room to watch a movie, and then a few feet again to go to sleep. I felt like a freakin' hamster.
When we got the chance to share office space with a couple of other guys who ran their own small companies, we jumped at the chance. Splitting the money three ways makes rent much cheaper, and we get human contact. Sometimes you don't need to have specific interaction. You just need to be around people.
That's part of the appeal of working in a coffee shop. You can focus on what you're doing, but there's enough human activity that you can also get that feeling of connectedness. When you work alone at home by yourself it's easy to feel disconnected from the rest of humanity, no matter how many IMs you get from your buddies.
But maybe it's just me. I haven't yet transcended meatspace.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Dont forget the hardworkers get a dime, while the CEO/leader walks away with millions because his equity was 95%+.
Its one thing to have controlling interests (>50%) share, but its another quite evil thing to USE your employees to make yourself filthy rich, then sell out, sack the employees and leave em to dry while the CEO walks away super uber rich with 10 lifetimes of assets/money.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
"But maybe it's just me. I haven't yet transcended meatspace."
Actually it is you. And I don't mean that in a bad way. Simply everyone's requirements are different. Something to keep in mind as the internet (and it's 'new business models') intrude ever more in our lives.
It is not open-source crap, meaning it 1. does not look like complete shit assembled by a three-year old and 2. it actually works.
Heh. That FireFox browser really sucks!
But the whole point of starting your own company is so you can work for yourself and do the projects that you want to do. (well, that and become fantastically rich)
Sure, they could get hired at Apple, but then they'd have to start listening to the people above them.
> They left a smaller company where they didn't have control to form a smaller company where they would.
I was the president of Omni Group for about 10 years, and I founded it, and I still am the largest shareholder.
> When they enter middle age they'll not want their 'window office' to be a seat at a coffee bar.
I'm 35. I had a real window office most of my adult life, and I'm much happier now.
We have a fulfillment center in Olympia for the scanners and we have a FedEx Kinko's a block away for other shipments.
I'm willing to pay the prices when the coffee is worth it. I just can't understand paying the prices starbucks charges for burnt beans.
I've spent an inordinate amount of the last decade sitting around in coffee houses of varying degrees of corporateness (Starbucks obviously being on one end of the scale). Quite frankly, one of the reasons that I've stopped spending time at coffee houses are people using coffee houses in exactly this way.
I don't mind people working in coffee houses. I don't mind people meeting in coffee houses. What I do mind is when people start doing things like presentations to enough other people that they have to raise their voices, talk loudly and endlessly on their damn cell phones (not to mention taking endless calls), and blather away like they own the whole place. Guess what - it's not your office, guys. It's really not.
Tech nerds are usually fairly good about this. Some of the local business types are just complete pricks about this, though. It's like they've never considered the idea that the whole place isn't interested in the unique, dynamic work environment that their chain restaurant is going to provide.
I'm not under the delusion that coffee houses should be some sort of library-like atmosphere, or that no-one should ever conduct business there, or anything like that. I'd just like (for a change) for people who are doing business in a coffeehouse to recognize that they aren't in their own office.
The two La Marzoccos at Zoka cost, no kidding, something over $20,000 each. (They are re-tuned by hand once they come in the United States to be even more frou-frou.) Their entire water supply is run through an enormous Cuno water filter. They roast their own beans (which they sell as far away as Japan) and train baristas from all over the country. Their baristas consistently place tops in the national tournaments.
Seriously, you have to try an extra-foamy mocha here. Imagine drinking coffee-meringue-pie!
I feel like you're still missing part of my point, and thus misunderestimating the grander plan.
First off, let me explain that I feel that progress is made in tiny little increments. Do I expect Delicious Library to instantly bring peace to the whole planet? No. Do I think it's a step in a positive direction? Yes. That still makes it worthwhile.
It seems like what you're saying is that everyone shouldn't want to read the same thing, and I'm not disagreeing with you. What I'm saying is, imagine being able to instantly find people who have the same _taste_ as you, and then getting recommendations from just them, instead of from the entire world.
And yes, the world has real problems. But a lot of real problems go away when people treat each other with dignity and respect.
The way Delicious Library could bring the world together is we will create new meta-communities based on common tastes instead of based on racial, monetary, or geographical boundaries. Imagine you rate a bunch of books you like and discover someone else who has almost the exact same taste as you through Delicious Library -- maybe at first you sample some of the selections from other person's 'loved-it' list that you haven't tried yet, but then as you build up confidence you start talking to the person, and exchanging ideas about the stuff you both love.
What if you then discover this person lives in a country that your country currently calls its enemy? How is this going to change your view of the "enemy"? I know that "you", in this particular case, probably aren't impressed with this scenario, because you're already enlightened vis-a-vis your country's enemies. But I'm also sure you can imagine a "you" where getting to know the enemy as a person would have a profound effect.
--
Of course, the e-book club is useful for a lot more than stopping wars. I see it as a way for us to create new societies. I don't claim to have invented this idea, what I do claim is DL will make it VERY EASY. Once you have all your stuff in your computer, it should be REALLY easy to rate it and compare it with others.
My point isn't that we should avoid human contact, in fact, it's quite the opposite. We are basically shy creatures, and we need commonalities in order to bond and form societies. For instance, I barely know my neighbors, but I know everyone at my local Apple Store.
What we want to give people is some known set of common interests for them to form real friendships around. We want Delicious Library to say, in effect, "Hey, there are 35 people in Seattle who have very similar tastes in horror novels as you do... maybe you should form a book club?" or "Hey, there's a woman down the street who has the next book in this series you love -- why not ask her if you can borrow it?"
It's ironic to argue with someone on slash-dot, which is a very clear example of what I'm talking about (a new society that ignores traditional boundaries), about whether this kind of idea is valid.
I am a tad starry-eyed. I'm proud of it. Twenty years ago everyone said I was a dreamer for fighting Microsoft and supporting UNIX (and then Nextstep, then Mac OS X). "There's no way Microsoft's reign could ever end! Who could imagine such a day!"
Dreamers fail a lot, except when they don't, and then, THEN they change the world. And if I die having not changed the world, well, at least I tried.