October 7, 2008
Now that the splurge passed, everyone is arguing about whether Republicans or Democrats are to blame. I had naturally assumed it was the party that favors deregulation, the Republicans.
But then Redfin’s Rob McGarty sent me a video of all our old friends, the congressmen from the Housing and Finance Subcommittee. These are the people who lined up to challenge Redfin’s testimony that self-regulation mostly gives fails to prevent blackballing, and that old MLS rules limit access to the information consumers need to negotiate a better home price.
The new video shows that there were Democrats too who insisted that nothing was wrong with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, using the exact same rhetoric they used to insist that nothing was wrong with the real estate industry.
As before, Artur Davis and Maxine Waters led the charge, with Davis notable for an intelligence bordering on cruelty, and Waters for incandescent outrage and an occasional twinkle of self-mocking hooded behind her tinted glasses. Both are Democrats, heavily funded by real estate interests.
The video is the worst kind of partisan hack job, but what it reminded me of was a non-partisan truth: that both Democrats and Republicans are equal parts corruption and genuine conviction. When I came back from Congress, all the people who saw Democrats as good and Republicans as bad, or vice-versa, just seemed to be living in their own ideological world.
It’s impossible for a congressman to live in that world. A few months after our testimony, when the committee chairman was headed to prison on fraud charges, he left a late-night voice-mail thanking us for our testimony. By November, the whole committee staff was unemployed, their phones answered by strangers, because the Democrats had taken over Congress. It was hard at that moment to blame Davis and Waters for putting self-preservation first (though I do).
I thought about the two of them when reading Sunday about the retirement of Republican Congressman Tom Davis, a centrist who became convinced that both parties would rather embarrass one another than get anything done; judging by the number of party-line votes, Congress is more partisan now than it has been in a century.
And so are we. Any newspaper’s most e-mailed articles aren’t, like the Tom Davis swan song, about partisanship, they are partisanship, arguing that John McCain is half-senile or Barack Obama is un-American. Ellie Fields noted yesterday that opinion-and-rumor blogs have sprouted up just like the scandal-sheets popular 100 years ago, and Facebook makes matters worse by ensuring we never read anything that hasn’t been recommended by people like us.
But do we really believe that 49% or 51% of Americans have got it completely wrong? What has been best about America is that we aren’t subject to age-old grudges based on differences in religion, class or politics, or mythologized histories of victimization. We are still a new, open place. After years of partisan rancor, the two candidates for president are both promising to work with the other side. It is why Obama beat Clinton, and McCain beat Romney. And it’s why I’m hopeful about this election — even if my guy doesn’t win.
October 1, 2008
Watching the credit crisis destroy Wall Street this week, it was hard not to think of the mortgage episode of “This American Life,” which aired many months ago.
Clarence Nathan: I wouldn’t have loaned me the money. And nobody that I know would have loaned me the money. I know guys who are criminals who wouldn’t loan me that and they break your knee-caps. I don’t know why the bank did it. I’m serious … 540 thousand dollars to a person with bad credit.
Glen Pizzolorusso (a mortgage broker in upstate New York): We rolled up to Marquee at midnight with a line, 500 people deep out front. Walk right up to the door: Give me my table. Sitting next to Tara Reid and a couple of her friends. Christina Aguilera was doing some, I’m-Christina-Aguilera-and-I’m-gonna-get-up-and-sing kind of thing. Who else was there? Cuba Gooding and that kid from Filthy Rich: Cattle Drive. What was that kid’s name? Fabian Barabia? We ordered 3, 4 bottles of Cristal at $1,000 per bottle. They bring it out, you know they’re walking through the crowd, they’re holding the bottles over their heads. There’s fire crackers , sparklers. You know, the little cocktail waitresses. You know so you order 3 or 4 bottles of those and they’re walking through the crowd and everyone’s like: Whoa, who’s the cool guys? We were the cool guys. They gave me the black card with my name on it. There’s probably 10 in existence.
Thanks to Peter Cochran and my twin brother Wes for reminding me about this episode, nearly simultaneously.
I searched for a picture of Glen Pizzolorusso but he’s nowhere to be found…
October 1, 2008
I remember exactly where I was when I got the news that the Boston-area MLS — the database that brokers use to share listings — would allow Redfin to drop its registration requirement: sitting at my desk, reading ESPN.com while I fondled a Rubik’s cube (world record for solving, 9.86 seconds).
I remember running down a hallway and bursting through the double doors of a closed conference room to tell all the Redfin bigshots the big news. Our dignified compliance manager, Mary Black, flushed with an unholy glow, had somehow gotten there ahead of me.
And now, hardly a week later, Redfin has shipped a new version of its site that lets Boston consumers use Redfin the way everyone else does: without having to register your name or email address. This means consumers can get all the information about Boston-area homes for sale without wondering when a real estate agent will call, or getting buried in spam.
Why Registration Is a Big Deal
Why is registration such a big deal? Well, imagine if you had to register with Google before you ran a search. And imagine if Google was in an industry notorious for using that information to strap you into a gigantic drip-marketing system?
You would say what most Boston-area consumers have said to our website: no thanks. The graph below, taken from yesterday’s presentation to Redfin’s board, shows the results. Boston traffic is the green line, which after a year of toodling along, just got passed by Chicago (orange line) in its second month of operations. Pathetic!
But that’s all going to change. Now that we’re the first site to offer complete registration-free access to all the MLS homes for sale, we hope that our Boston traffic will shoot through the roof, and that our bu
siness there will too. We’re gearing up a big marketing campaign next week.
Many thanks to Kathy Condon, John Breault and the entire MLS Property Information Network Board for taking such a huge step forward.
What Does This Mean? The Big Picture
A long time ago, Redfin made a big bet that we could work within the system as a broker, showing all the homes for sale even as we changed how consumers worked with a Realtor and what they had to pay. For years that was a crazy bet. Maybe it still is.
But we’re seeing MLSs across the country negotiate a truce between brokers of all stripes so consumers can get more information about listings. That’s good for consumers, good for Redfin and, at a time when people have wondered whether MLSs and brokers would change with the times, good for the industry too.
Redfin Boston supporters, spread the word!!! And gentle Redfin blog readers, what do you think? Is the Boston-area MLS decision part of a bigger trend? We’ll keep you posted on what happens to Boston traffic.
September 28, 2008
It’s funny how much we blog at Redfin without ever really saying what life at Redfin is really like. Enter Shahaf Abileah, the engineering lead who radically changed the speed, breadth and accuracy of our data imports from broker databases.
He’s taking a long-planned one-year sabbatical with his fiancee to travel around the world, and just wrote an eyewitness account of life at Redfin based on his nearly two years here. We rarely realize how the world perceives us so I was very interested to read it, particularly since Shahaf has always been thoughtful, candid and constructive.
Shahaf describes Redfin as a place full of passionate, hard-working people, heralds our customer-focus, complains that our benefits package should include a health club membership, notes that we get into silly arguments with one another, and also wants us to do more long-term planning. He talks about learning more and advancing his career much faster than at a big company, but also says he could work at a big company again. It’s entirely BS-free, and has given me a lot to think about ways we could improve.
In the end, Shahaf acknowledges that there is a “non-zero chance that Redfin won’t be there by the time I return from the trip.” Shahaf refers to this risk as “excitement,” which made me smile. It’s true that our company has to perform to grow into a self-sustaining company, but that’s a good discipline. Business lately has been good and, as Shahaf notes, we’re operating in a huge market, and our customers love us. In the end, he manages to sound sober and optimistic at the same time, a trick many startup leaders struggle to master.
In a second post, Shahaf talked about what he’ll miss in his year away from Redfin’s culture, praising Dan Fabulich’s “incredibly high signal-to-noise ratio;” Chelsea Mitchell’s exuberant piercing, joyful laugh; Jamie DeMichele’s launch-day lab coats; Kevin Broveleit’s harrowing, heroic (and successful!) efforts to lose 20 pounds in seven days.
A great poet once talked about traveling to the four quarters of the world and, returning to the place where he started, really knowing it for the first time. But in Shahaf’s case, he already understands us pretty well. Thanks Shahaf, and bon voyage!
September 24, 2008
A job applicant just told me Thursday that “Everybody knows you don’t like Microsoft or Amazon people.” Just last week, a board member heard the same thing.
Which came as news to our chief technology officer, our Seattle-based engineering leaders, three star product managers and our hyper-productive lone marketing director, all of whom worked at Microsoft.
And it came as news to me, since I grew up in Redmond, adore Microsoft’s pass-the-bong video ads, and defend to the death the relevance of desktop applications (see comment 107). The first business book I ever read was Microsoft Secrets. My new favorite marketing campaign is Microsoft’s “I’m A PC” campaign.
So it’s probably fair to say that no CEO from Silicon Valley has a higher opinion of Microsoft than I do. I learn from Microsoft every day. And I’m intensely grateful that so many Microsoft and Amazon folks have thrown their hat into the Redfin ring.
“This Was Discussed at the Highest Levels Within Microsoft”
The trouble started because of one line in a Redfin job description: You don’t need big money to do something big. Don’t apply if you’ve worked too long at Microsoft, Amazon or an agency.
“This was discussed,” one applicant explained over a slice of pizza at a mall food court, “at the highest levels within Microsoft.”
What kind of “pompous ass,” one angry Microsoft veteran asked us, would write this job description? The people at Microsoft and Amazon, he continued, “know exactly what it takes to run in a start up environment, we were doing it when whoever wrote this ridiculous JD [job description] was probably in diapers.”
Of course, I’m the pompous ass. We agree that 30 years ago, Microsoft could still fairly be called a startup, though by that time I had graduated to underwear.
We probably disagree over whether someone who has not worked in a startup for 30 years is still a startup-type of person. And we disagree too, over whether any disrespect was intended to Microsoft, a company more successful than we’ll likely ever be.
Different Horses for Different Courses
My point wasn’t that any 15-year veteran at Microsoft has less talent or skill than the driven maniacs who tend to thrive at Redfin. Microsoft is a gladiator academy for brainiacs. But no one can honestly tell me that marketing Windows is remotely similar to persuading someone to ditch her Realtor-friend and buy a house through a website. We have no no budget, no agencies, three people.
We have to win by delighting consumers, juicing the Google index, having Octopus sex with the blogosphere, fighting like a trapped squirrel, moving super-fast. There’s just no way a company the size of Microsoft or Amazon — or Google (after complaining that we never saw Google candidates, we have seen a few) or Apple — could remain as desperate and impatient and unrealistic as we are.
Plenty of Microsoft folks thrive at Redfin and other startups, but their point of departure is how different a startup is from Microsoft.
“How Long is Too Long?”
Our best employees left Microsoft because they were squirrels and octopuses, juicers and speed-freaks. Some had been there two years. Some five. Some longer. But none had been there “too long” which was supposed to mean past the point of being passionate about what they do.
When we wrote this job description, we’d interviewed plenty of Microsofties who talk about staying “too long.” They’d say Redfin is a way to rekindle their passion for software or business. It makes us feel like a red sports car, or an extramarital affair.
Of Microsoft, But Unlike Microsoft
The truth is that many of the people at Redfin are of Microsoft, but they all say Redfin’s not like Microsoft. Marcelo Calbucci explained the difference.
The way I think about it is that our left brain (analysis, discipline, brilliance) comes from Microsoft, and our right brain (speed-lust, techno-promiscuity, the Internet’s goofiness and freedom as a cult) comes from Silicon Valley; nearly half of Redfin engineering is based in San Francisco.
It’s a good balance. What we’ve learned from Microsoft employees has made us better in engineering, product management & HR, where Microsoft folks excel. In marketing, Microsoft has taught us how to think in different dimensions than just public relations, social networks or search engine optimization.
What Do You Think?
We thought we’d ask other startups what your experience has been hiring from Microsoft and Amazon? And we’d like to know what to do about the job description. If it has offended others, we’ll change it. If there are any folks from Microsoft or Amazon reading this blog, please, tell us what you think (and if you haven’t worked there “too long,” apply for a job!)
(Photocredit: sexy octopus, jrixunderwater; speed dog, WisDoc )
September 23, 2008
I’ll be the last one — Redfin has been busy with its company meeting last Friday– to say I love Microsoft’s new “I’m a PC” ad.
Doesn’t It Remind of You That Discovery Channel Ad?
But maybe I’m the first who wonders if it was inspired by The Discovery Channel’s “The World is Just Awesome” ad, which came out just as Microsoft hired Crispin to take on Apple?
Both jump around the world, posing wild animals alongside innovative, nerdy free-spirits, who don’t seem to mind chanting a corporate mantra.
The Ad Is Un-One-Uppable
As soon as I heard that Microsoft was taking on Apple: I thought, 1. “Good! About time!” and 2. “They’ve started a fight they can’t win. Apple will one-up them.” But the ad it turns out is un-one-uppable. (It must have been designed to be that way).
Who wants to go after people saving polar bears, teaching African children, converting cow pies into car fuel? In fact, the ad sort of kills for me the whole Apple campaign, which now seems so precious, insufferable, narrow, white and male. As Crispin folks explained to Danielle Sacks when they first took the account, “To try to be cool is not to be cool.”
Why Did It Take Us So Long to See That Apple is Kind of Mean?
Why did it take us so long to see that? I remember being shocked on learning years ago that the Apple “I’m a PC” ad couldn’t run in Japan, because consumers there don’t like snarky comparisons; I hadn’t realized until then that the luminescent, post-modern ads were such a dirty shiv to the gut.
And it wasn’t just me: friends who still love unicorn stickers and long walks on the beach loved watching the PC nerd (whom Slate’s Seth Stevenson always maintained was more likable than Apple’s hipster) getting humiliated in ever-more elaborate ways.
Apple is the Marketing Juggernaut, Microsoft is the Software Engineering Company
And why did it take so long for Microsoft to respond? We think of Apple as a products company, and Microsoft as a business behemoth, but Apple is the company that floods the airwaves with ads while Microsoft is mostly a company of software engineers. Every time I’m about to buy an Airbook, I wonder how much of its cost is its carefully constructed image.
That’s why I love it that Bill Gates is cast as the anti-Steve Jobs, wearing dorky clothes and glasses, even though he’s the one who’s really trying to save the world.
So what do you think? Is “I’m a PC” a take off on the “World is Just Awesome?”Is Microsoft the real product company, while Apple is the marketing juggernaut? And what percentage of a Mac’s price is marketing vs. say, of a Windows Dell? I’ll go with 40% and 20%.
September 21, 2008
One small good thing about Wall Street’s terrifying meltdown: this year’s graduating class will send fewer of its best people into investment banking and more into fields where they’ll actually make something new and good.
I remember walking around Pioneer Square last year with one of my favorite Redfin engineers, who was mulling career options and thinking about his friends in dermatology and hedge funds.
He’d mentioned the “boatload of money” he could make in hedge funds, so I couldn’t help but ask just what he meant by that. He told me. It was a number so large that it would more than compensate for the weekly fruit basket we offer at Redfin headquarters, and that one time we took some employees water-skiing.
The engineer stayed, and ever since I’ve checked in on him with the fear and gratitude of someone waiting to be dumped. But look who has the upper hand now? Har! har! har!
(We’re very grateful for all the folks who work at Redfin, who are worth more than we — or — I hope! — anyone else — could ever pay.)
Update: Noam Lovinsky pointed out an interesting conversation about bankers becoming Internet entrepreneurs on Fred Wilson’s blog. The comments are as good as the post.
September 17, 2008
Republicans and Democrats alike are crucifying Carly Fiorina for saying her own candidate, John McCain, is unqualified to run a technology business.It’s odd to hear a spokesman for the Obama campaign, which only last week defended community organizing as good preparation for political office, suggest that a much different ability is now a prerequisite.
It’s odder still to hear Republicans accept that premise, arguing that McCain or Palin are up to the job. No one who has ever run a large technology business thinks that McCain or Obama, much less Palin or Biden, is qualified to run a large technology business.
At the very least, it requires an interest in technology, or business. Which is just another way of saying that setting government economic policies isn’t the same as getting a printer to ship on time. Only in countries like North Korea are we outraged if someone implies that the Dear Leader can’t beat Michael Jordan at basketball, or perform brain surgery.
Yet why are politicians so eager to be seen as CEOs? As former CEO Dick Cheney would tell you, the qualities that many people admire in a CEO – the single-minded pursuit of an objective, with a long-discarded regard for whether people like you or not — can create problems in political office. Undeterred, Sarah Palin now describes herself as the CEO of Alaska. And George Bush’s governing style has often admiringly been compared to that of a CEO.
The image these would-be CEOs seek to project is one we are now eager to admire. Whereas Americans once rooted for Teddy Roosevelt in his battles against tycoons, it seems like the public respects the imperial power and instinct for plunder of executives rather than politicians’ mealy-mouthed idealism and legislative give-and-take. The pied piper of the preceding generation was John Kennedy; today it is probably Steve Jobs.
But the charter of the President is so much larger and more humane than running a lemonade stand, even one of HP’s size. When Michael Dukakis said “it’s about competence” we all immediately recognized he was wrong: yes, someone like the CEO of HP has to be competent, but the presidency has a moral dimension that is, well, inspiring.
The best thing about Obama is that he chose not to be a CEO, instead devoting his time to helping poor people get a better life. The best thing about John McCain is that he served his country in a war. Sure, maybe if they’d spent their youth climbing the greasy pole at HP, they’d be ready to run HP. But I’m glad they didn’t.
September 17, 2008
There’s a home for sale in Foothill Ranch, California that looks custom-painted for Elle Woods, Barbie, Angelyne or Paris Hilton.
Some witty Forums posters are having fun with this one (TrabucoDom - thanks for the tip!):
- “Now I can safely say I have a good idea of what it would be like to live inside a guava.” writes BadKittyM … “Just be happy it’s not the inside of an avocado,” ToadB shoots back.
- “I think it is the pepto dismal home!,” pens TracucoDom.
- “Paris Hilton would say ‘that’s hot!’,” comments stillsearching.
- Helyes_Lopez claims, “I saw Angelyne in her pepto dismal pink Corvette the other day. She made an offer on the property just the other day.”
- “Barbie foreclosed, too!,” writes teachere.
There were a couple people who liked the pretty-in-pink paint calling it “AMAZING” and better than the “sad snow white kitchens.”
But Talyssa was the only one to look under the paint … now, I dare you to resist the urge to take a peek.
September 15, 2008
Maybe you can’t tell, but we work hard to make Redfin easy to use, going round and round on every design until we’ve forgotten where we started.
In an effort to improve our forms, ace product manager Matt Goyer bought a book on usability for one of his young charges, Jim Lamb. But when Jim started reading the book, he found that one of the forms the book was supposed to help us improve was already in the book:
On the left side of the page pictured here, you’ll see Redfin’s Offer Wizard.
When Matt came into my office to show it to me, I could only think of Groucho Marx’s rejection of any club that would accept him as a member. “Wow,” I thought. “It’s time to get Jim another book.”
(In fact, the book looks fantastic. Many thanks to author Luke Wroblewski for including us!)
