Matt gave Rahul and I an in-office blist (rhymes with twist) demo on Monday last week and I was really quite impressed.
Blist is building what I can best describe as a database for normal people that isn’t Excel. Kevin Merrit, founder and CEO, has a great post on the multiple dimensions of data and how blist is building interfaces to handle additional dimensions (something Excel does very poorly).
I was struck by two things as Matt walked us through the product:
- The 3rd+ dimensions of data. I love Excel. For a large range of projects, I’m convinced that working with Excel is faster than using a DB (despite what my developers tell me). However, Excel is not a DB and it is awkward to deal with multiple 1 to many relationships. I don’t encounter this problem frequently, but it is definitely a limitation and blist is attacking it head on.
- Flash is a viable Internet development platform. Blist’s product is more full-featured, more intuitive and more responsive than any AJAX app I’ve seen. From a user’s perspective it seemed equivalent to a desktop app. We were working on the local network, but I’ve never seen an AJAX app that was responsive enough to be confused with a native desktop app. The Live Documents team is also working in Flash, and I’m curious how their product will compare to Google Docs.
I’m also impressed with the coverage that Blist has been able to get. Unlaunched and unfunded, Blist has gotten picked up by Techcrunch, the Seattle PI as well as a number of bloggers.
I worked with Matt at Judy’s Book and he has done a great job raising awareness of Blist and bringing in coverage.
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We’ve largely wrapped up development work at Judy’s Book and are just addressing a few bugs here and there. The wind-down has taken several weeks and I’ve been incredibly impressed by the focus and dedication that the development team has demonstrated finishing their work at a company that would cease to exist in the near future.
In soccer, the two minutes after a goal or around a half presented unique opportunities. Games were won or lost as teams either lost focus or intensified their efforts.
The same thing applies in business. How individuals (and organizations) conduct themselves during transitionary periods provides great insight into their character and values.
A sales guy at one company deleted his contacts from Salesforce, downloaded the company’s customer list and went to work for a competitor. We’ve all worked with people that handled their transitions so poorly that we won’t work with them again.
The same can be said about companies. The core of the company culture is exposed when management learns that an employee is thinking about leaving. I’ve seen employers that instantly escort the person from the building. This tells the rest of the company that employees aren’t trusted.
These transitionary periods set the tone for how others think of you. The lasting impression you leave on most of your superiors, peers and subordinates will often be from the last few weeks of interactions. As an employee and especially an employer make the most of transitions to maintain (strengthen) your relationships throughout the company.
One of our developers spent both Saturday and Sunday fixing bugs. Another logged in remotely and kept the build process running. Everyone else has been chipping in code to squash the last few bugs.
My respect (and pride) in our team has never been higher.
A look at the decision of whether or not to exercise your stock options. Touches on the typical reasons you would exercise your options, early exercise plans, and key questions to answer to determine if you should exercise your options.
