...Did anyone else notice that all these CRM companies seem to be founded and/or run by ex-Oracle people?...
Yes, that's true. A lot of other companies are/were run by Oracle people, including Craig Conway's PeopleSoft. I'm not sure they all left because Larry's an "asshole."
(BTW, I left Oracle to start my own company. Larry was great, taught me a lot, but I wanted to be a CEO, too. Hey, a girl can dream, right?)
At Oracle, I saw a lot of people leave to start their own company, Tom Siebel included. It always seemed to be the same old story. Tom was head of sales at Oracle, and had his head IT guy build a really great sales information system. It was so successful that they decided to sell it as its own product, to support the prime directive of selling more Oracle databases. Problem was, the system was hamstrung by having to use an Oracle database as an engine, back in the days when a portable Oracle database was an oxymoron (keep your comments to yourselves). So Tom and his lieutenants left to create their own company, dedicated to selling their own sales information system.
Look at it from Larry's perspective. Here's another trusted co-worker, whom Larry gave lots of opportunities, who leaves, brandishing the finger. With Larry, you're either with him or against him, and Tom badmouthed Larry when he left, and on every opportunity since them. Larry bides his time and has the last laugh. Siebel is now being bought by Larry, and Tom is forced to bow at the alter of Ellison.
Oracle is, obviously, one of the most successful tech companies on the planet, and Larry is the reason. He is the founder and has been at the helm for over twenty years. He made that place successful and some people rose in the company, liked what they did and left because they wanted to do it their way. Is Larry an asshole because they left? Or is it because they just wanted to be like Larry?
Stealth startups run the risk of "groupthink"... when everyone in the room is so invested in their own ideas that they can't imagine anything is wrong with their baby. By facing a public audience, you are forced to own up to weaknesses in the product or service, spotty support, poor design.
The core message seems to be to get your stuff in front of real, live customers as quickly as possible (with caveats about not overpromising). Only when you have customers do you have a real business.
As a kid in junior high, I didn't think it was art then. Now, as a mature technie, I do not see "Firewall" as art. I see it as a post-modern interpretation of what was called 'art' way back when. Are old, cast off computers the post millenial exciting new media, and these artists experimenters in a brave new form?
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...Did anyone else notice that all these CRM companies seem to be founded and/or run by ex-Oracle people?...
Yes, that's true. A lot of other companies are/were run by Oracle people, including Craig Conway's PeopleSoft. I'm not sure they all left because Larry's an "asshole."
(BTW, I left Oracle to start my own company. Larry was great, taught me a lot, but I wanted to be a CEO, too. Hey, a girl can dream, right?)
At Oracle, I saw a lot of people leave to start their own company, Tom Siebel included. It always seemed to be the same old story. Tom was head of sales at Oracle, and had his head IT guy build a really great sales information system. It was so successful that they decided to sell it as its own product, to support the prime directive of selling more Oracle databases. Problem was, the system was hamstrung by having to use an Oracle database as an engine, back in the days when a portable Oracle database was an oxymoron (keep your comments to yourselves). So Tom and his lieutenants left to create their own company, dedicated to selling their own sales information system.
Look at it from Larry's perspective. Here's another trusted co-worker, whom Larry gave lots of opportunities, who leaves, brandishing the finger. With Larry, you're either with him or against him, and Tom badmouthed Larry when he left, and on every opportunity since them. Larry bides his time and has the last laugh. Siebel is now being bought by Larry, and Tom is forced to bow at the alter of Ellison.
Oracle is, obviously, one of the most successful tech companies on the planet, and Larry is the reason. He is the founder and has been at the helm for over twenty years. He made that place successful and some people rose in the company, liked what they did and left because they wanted to do it their way. Is Larry an asshole because they left? Or is it because they just wanted to be like Larry?
Stealth startups run the risk of "groupthink"... when everyone in the room is so invested in their own ideas that they can't imagine anything is wrong with their baby. By facing a public audience, you are forced to own up to weaknesses in the product or service, spotty support, poor design. The core message seems to be to get your stuff in front of real, live customers as quickly as possible (with caveats about not overpromising). Only when you have customers do you have a real business.
The firewall display reminded of the works of Louise Nevelson. Her 'art' in the 70's mostly consisted of walls of wooden boxes, all painted one color, with other wooden objects inside them (for a glimpse... http://images.google.com/images?q=louise+nevelson& hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-41,GGLD:en&sa=N&tab=i i&oi=imagest). She was hailed, at least in my art class, as a pioneer artist in an exciting new media, working in a brave new form.
As a kid in junior high, I didn't think it was art then. Now, as a mature technie, I do not see "Firewall" as art. I see it as a post-modern interpretation of what was called 'art' way back when. Are old, cast off computers the post millenial exciting new media, and these artists experimenters in a brave new form?