A New Setup

A little more than a week ago, we moved into an apartment in Foster City/San Mateo. The big plus here is that we don’t have to rush through an hour of traffic to get to meetings in the Valley. Suburbia provides fewer distractions here than you would have in San Francisco, but the hipness level is low, and a good bar is hard to find.



Fewer distractions have allowed us to make progress on the prototype. It turns out that this is more productive than working in a coffee shop. My commute now takes 10 seconds, and my workspace has a nice Dell flatscreen monitor and my favorite ergonomic keyboard. In addition, we have blocked YCombinator’s Hacker News and similar sites on our router, which resulted in an additional productivity boost.



Things are progressing well on other fronts, too - I’ll keep you updated. For now, it’s back to work.

Questions about the Startup Economy

I've been watching the meltdown from afar, catching bits and pieces on CNN International and the newspapers (which here in Thailand are focused on an entirely different problem). Like Sequoia, the media is all doom and gloom, but what does it really mean for startups? I don't have the answers, just questions:

1. Will there be venture capital? This time, dotcoms are not the cause, but Silicon Valley could come to a halt if investors are too spooked, or have no money to invest. There have been no IPOs lately, and the pace of acquisitions has slowed. Are VCs still thinking with a long enough horizon to invest in good ideas and teams? Do they have enough money from limited partners? I read somewhere that funds raised in the harsh times of 2001-2004 all had great performance. Let's hope limited partners remember that and will put money into 2008+.


2. Will there be layoffs? Are we about to see Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo shed thousands of workers? I think we are. I still remember Jerry Yang and David Filo teary-eyed, announcing Yahoo's layoffs in 2001. For great startups, this makes things easier: While great people won't get fired, they will be more poachable if you can offer a solid, productive environment free of drama.


3. Will enterprises still make IT investments? If not, any enterprise software startup is hosed.


4. Will consumers still have money to spend? If not, see point 3.


5. Will there be regional differences? In contrast to the US, European economies look surprisingly healthy, if you look at things like personal savings rates, foreign account deficits, and so on. This will make these markets much more interesting than before.


6. Will big companies reduce R&D expenditures? If Microsoft et al slow investments in new initiatives, this will be a great opportunity for startups to pull ahead, and just get bought when the down cycle ends.


7. What will be the effects of new regulation? Last time there was a problem, Congress introduced Sarbanes-Oxley, with the unintended effect of shutting down the ability to IPO. Almost certainly, there will be new legislation this time around - what consequences will it have?


8. How long will this take? I'd be surprised if this took decades, but it's entirely possible that this situation will take years to resolve.

On the plus side, I'm very happy that this is playing out while I'm on vacation. Instead of being caught up in the vortex, I can adjust my new company's strategy once there is a bit more clarity about what's going on. Also, I'm relieved to not be working for anyone right now. Nothing is more paralyzing than the fear of getting laid off.

Let's hope for the best.

Pictures of Silicon Valley

I got a present! It's Gabriele Basilico's Silicon Valley 07, which accompanies an exhibition that is currently on display at the SF MOMA.

These photographs were all taken during Basilico's short visit to Silicon Valley last year. They show this region without pretense: In San Francisco, he took pictures of pretty hills with the Golden Gate in the background, but also of sketchier parts, used car dealerships, and deteriorating warehouses. In Silicon Valley, he photographs the sleek headquarters of Oracle and Sun, the villas of Palo Alto, and the cookie-cutter clone houses and McMansions.

For someone who lives here, everything seems very familiar: The images from highway 101, the annoying Verizon billboards, the skyline of San Francisco.

The book starts with a panorama on which you can see my bedroom window, and page 118 pictures the apartment complex where I used to live in Mountain View. That's almost a bit close to home.

The French Invade Xobni

(This happened almost a month ago, but I haven't had time to write about it)

Matt mentioned that there would be "some French bloggers" visiting "later tonight". That sounded pretty innocent, but I had no idea that there would be so many of them.


Xobni still lacks the advanced conference room facilities of larger companies, but we do have a big-ass plasma screen and some leather couches. Thus, we packed our visitors into our "living room" and gave them the Xobni demo, followed by an hour-long Q&A session and some beers at the pub.


It turns out these guys were French entrepreneurs and bloggers on a week-long study trip to Silicon Valley. Jeremy Fain had organized for them to visit places such as Stanford, the San Francisco City Council, Microsoft, Google, eBay, Twitter and Xobni, all packed into a tight schedule.


I only wish this kind of trip had existed when I was back in Zurich - or that I would've had the idea to organize one.