« July 2005 | Main | September 2005 »
August 28, 2005
Back to it
I've taken a two week hiatus from writing here after our launch. The last two weeks have been pretty nuts and I've just been head's down trying to get loose ends wrapped up as well as get our new VP of Business Development up to speed with the company. He's working out great and we are expanding again. We are currently trying to hire 3 more people, and we've got a new profiler starting on monday. Hiring the right people is definitely the hardest thing to do. We really need to get the positions filled, but making sure we get the right person for the job and the culture of the company are critical. I strongly believe that if I as a manager have to fire someone, 98% of the time (the other 2% accounting for cleptomaniacs and other un-detectable weirdness) I have failed. I have failed in either hiring the right person for the job, or in enabling, positioning, or communicating direction to that employee. Also it is REALLY costly, in time and money, to have to rehire for a position. So, we are deliberate and we grow at the best speed we can.
Here's a great tip for anyone interviewing for a job: when the HR person, or whomever asks you if you have any questions about the company; ask them what their turn-over rate is for the year. If you get an answer, it will tell you a lot about the way the company is managed.
Posted by David Adams at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)
August 15, 2005
New Exec
Mobile Research has hired a Vice President of Business Development. Brad David (previously of Dwango Wireless, ZTango, Sprint) started today and is already busy helping flesh out our sales channels here and abroad. We are all really excited to have Brad here. Three of us have previously worked with Brad in the past, and he is the right guy at the right time. So we got that going for us; which is nice!
Posted by David Adams at 03:32 PM | Comments (1)
August 14, 2005
Stock options an incentive?
I'd like to hear from anyone who has ever had a good experience (as an employee) with stock options or other employee incentives. I am in the process of moving Mobile Research into the next phase of a startup , where I need to start attracting greate people at a pretty good pace. To do this I need to be able to offer competitive pay and benefits (as well as interesting work and a good environment and culture). So naturally the topic of stock options has come up. Mobile Research is going to start offering benefits to it's employees next month; health insurance, parking, vacation, etc. , and I am considering what kind of incentives I want to be able to offer to be able to attract more people of the calliber of the current employees.
I've had some experience with stock options as both an employee and and employer. From an employer perspective, they are a pain to administrate, and frankly after the dust settled from the collapse of the Internet bubble, I am not sure that stock options are so much of an incentive. From an employee point of view I know they didn't incentivize me at all. At the last company I worked for, the criteria for options wasn't very clear. I also had a very large chunk of options from the sale of my company to that company. If I had excercised those options when I had the chance , I'd be $58,583 in the hole right now. So at some point that becomes a dis-incentive for the employees. I think if you work at a company like Google, that is public and you can compare your strike price to market price, it might work. Although I know you quickly get into a situation where there is a very large amount of time wasted by employees watching the stock price every day and focusing on that, instead of focusing on growing a successful company. Since Mobile Research is not going to be going public any time soon , I don't think stock options, with some arbitrarily assigned strike-price would be much of an incentive to the employees.
I believe very strongly that my employees need to have some stake in the success of the company and need to be able to directly see how their work affects the company. To that end we are going to implement profit-sharing, starting next month. Every quarter, a percentage of the company's profits will be divided among all the employees. This isn't money that the company is giving the employees or something that they are entitled to; instead the employees get a percentage of how well the company performs.
I've had a lot of great input from my brother who runs a 200+ employee company and has a similar program in place. I'd love to hear input from anyone who has had good/bad experiences with profit sharing, especially in technology companies.
Posted by David Adams at 11:47 AM | Comments (3)
August 10, 2005
Monday night barbeque
The Second Annual Seattle Mobile Networking BBQ went off without a hitch. We had a really good turnout. It was great to meet the new people who showed up. It is also amazing how many mobile companies there are in the Seattle area now.
Posted by David Adams at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)
August 08, 2005
Seattle Mobile 2nd Annual Networking BBQ Tonight
The Second Annual Seattle Mobile Networking BBQ is tonight. Everyone is welcome, there is no cover.
Tonight is a networking only event, so feel free to come by and meet everyone if you are in the Seattle area.
Posted by David Adams at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)
August 06, 2005
Thanks!
I want to thank everyone who posted and emailed all the positive comments this week. It was a tough week. I've been slammed with emails since the press release went out and we were mentioned on a few blogs I've had a lot of tough questions, which I don't mind at all, but some criticism as well. It was a bit of a roller coaster this week and it was nice to get the positive feedback from people. It really kept me motivated.
So thanks, I really appreciate it.
-David
Posted by David Adams at 01:27 PM | Comments (1)
August 02, 2005
Launched!
Six months and a day since we started Mobile Research, we have launched our first product: The Mobile Device Database.
You can check it out on the website:http://www.mobileresearch.com
This product is targeted at larger mobile development companies and content publishers that need a database of device info that they can use programmatically to format, deliver, etc.
We will still be launching the KnowledgeBase product later this year, targeted at individual mobile application developers, etc.
Big thanks to Charles, Ryan, David, Jacob, Tyler and Brian! These guys really busted their butts. And for everyone else out there, the trick is to bang the phones together guys.
Here is the press release:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mobile Research Launches First of Its Kind Mobile Device Data Service
SEATTLE, WA (Aug. 3, 2005) - Mobile wireless tools and services provider Mobile Research today announced the launch of their "Mobile Device Database" service for the North American market.
The "Mobile Device Database" is the first commercially available solution that provides mobile developers and content publishers the data they need to address the problems associated with mobile device fragmentation. The "Mobile Device Database" is a comprehensive database of device data for each device on every major carrier. The "Mobile Device Database" contains over 500 data per device including supported APIs, media support, markup language tag support, WAP Push characteristics, messaging, and much more.
"Device specific information is crucial to developing mobile games and applications, formatting mobile media, providing customer support, and the delivery of mobile content in a mobile market where there over 100 unique models of mobile device available to subscribers at any given time" said David Adams, CEO of Mobile Research. The "Mobile Device Database" is launching initially for the North American market but will be expanding into European mobile markets this fall. The "Mobile Device Database" service is available on an annual subscription basis.
ABOUT MOBILE RESEARCH CORP.
Mobile Research develops tools and services that enable mobile application developers and mobile content publishers to overcome the technical challenges of the mobile wireless marketplace. Mobile Research is located in Seattle Washington.
For more information please visit www.mobileresearch.com
Posted by David Adams at 10:06 AM | Comments (7)