end of year predictions

What will the next twelve months bring? That's looking too far ahead for me. I'm at a startup! I'll focus on the next twelve weeks instead:

Some things are certain:
- Life will suck as we prepare for our launch
- Our launch will be delayed (LOL)
- We will change the look and feel of the site . . . again
- New folks will join the team

Some things are uncertain:
- How will the site perform?
- Are our financial projections accurate?
- Will we ever move to West Hollywood?

Happy New Year!

our very own mail slots

There are now three full-time employees in the LA office. This milestone was recognized with an official section in the mail-room and slots with our names on them. Yes friends, we have arrived.

The last few weeks have been truly crazy. The new GM has come on board and is mixing things up a bit. We're making really good progress on the site re-design and we made a few major adjustments to the way the site works. Our logo and tagline were finalized, too. Our launch is scheduled for January 24th.

I've been doing a lot of product management: preparing wire-frames, specifications, use cases and mock-ups. In my spare time, (LOL) I'm struggling through some pretty nasty network configuration issues. I have been forced to learn how to connect to a database remotely via SSH / Putty and had to install and configure my own ODBC driver.

At times I do get frustrated but I try to take it in stride. All of these unexpected challenges are exactly what I expected to encounter.

the new boss

My new boss came into the office for the first time today. Overall, he strikes me as as sharp, easy-going and excited about the new company. In some respects I'm a little sad; I feel like a phase of this startup experience is drawing to a close. Already he's asking for documentation. He grimaced when I explained that the best we have by way of requirements is a collection of saved emails.