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Citizen Space is finally here!

November 3, 2006 – 8:09 am

Well, as of yesterday, really, we were (mostly) moved into Citizen Space: our new offices + the newest family member of the SF coworking spaces (The Hat Factory as well). There is still a wee bit of work being done on the boardroom tomorrow, but we have already had all sorts of awesome people stop by, like Evelyn Rodriguez, Tom Conrad, Alicia Preston and Chad Dickerson.

Current residents of the space include Chris, Ben, Ivan Storck and myself…with two others who we think are going to take residency, but they’ve been too busy to even come down and confirm (hint: they are way rockin’ Mac developers).

But that’s not even the best part. You see…the best part is what we plan to do with the space. Yes, it’s going to be an open fabulous drop-in and get creative type space, which is awesome, but what we started thinking about as we were building this baby, was, “Holy begezus! We have our own space! That’s like…power!”

Yep. A room of our own, folks. And what does one do with a room of one’s own?

Anything s/he wants.

So, here is what we are going to do: have as many amazing gatherings in it as possible…AND open it up to the suggestion that anyone out there who is doing something that is worth a damn in this world can have amazing gatherings in our space. Really. It’s yours. Let’s make some beautiful energy.

So…event #1 will take place next Friday (November 10) from 5-7pm…it’s our Open House and we will have food and drinks and music and a bevy of fine, interesting folks to mingle and mix with. We want to show off our new digs and let everyone know what a kickass space it is for such gatherings.

Another great event coming up in the space will be Net Tuesday on November 14. We hope they love it so much that they make it their permanent home. :)

There will be much more, too. We plan to have Mashpits (probably once per month or so), movie nights, Salons, wine tastings, art shows, meetups and DemoCamps there regularly as well as upcoming seminars, workshops and summits. Mostly small stuff, since our space could hold about 50 people max. (1350 ft2)

But…if you would like to suggest anything, throw anything or be part of anything…please do contact us. We’d love to be your hosts. I mean, really, we have a frickin’ space. (oh man, a space! we are so excited) If nothing else, you can drop by to work starting next week (the wifi is non-existent right now…waiting for Speakeasy) and for just saying hi anytime. :)
Here is the venue listing on Upcoming.org.

By Tara Hunt | Posted in Citizen Space, Startup 101 | Comments (18)

Upstanding Citizen: Obvious Corp

October 30, 2006 – 1:11 am

Ev and Biz’s latest move to buy back their assets from their investors has signaled a shift in this era.

You see, all sorts of hubub goes around in the media (new and old) when ‘big’ stuff happens. Someone gets millions in funding or someone gets bought for billions. But what everyone keeps missing is that there are a huge number of really rockin’ companies being launched without any intention of doing either of those things. These are the ‘unsung’ heroes of the Web 2.0 era.

These companies care about quality over quantity. These bloggers have small, dedicated audiences and could care less about their T’rati ranking or page views. These startups are bootstrapping themselves to be the true disruptors - those who are challenging the very notion of ’success’ and the core ethics of business. They want to build their companies and products right instead of flipping.
So, when Ev announced Obvious Corp and their move to buy back their assets Odeo and Twitter, my heart skipped a beat. Could this be another sign that the scales are being balanced? To me, Obvious was sending out the message to other startup entrepreneurs that there is no shame in bootstrapping. There is no shame in putting users ahead of VC interests. We can and will build businesses out of something real.

For those of you who don’t Twitter, it is helpful to know how involved Ev is in ‘testing’ out his own software. I’ve talked about how involved over at HPC. He is truly part of the community he serves. This type of energy and dedication can’t be faked. I truly believe that the reason Ev’s projects have been so successful (even the ‘unsuccessful ones’ are successful by reasonable standards) is because of his involvement with his user community. In the case of Odeo (that he proclaimed a failure), he admitted that one of his downfalls was that he wasn’t a podcaster himself, therefore, he didn’t know who his audience was. I don’t hear that from many CEO’s.
I really, really loved David Galbraith’s analysis of Obvious Corp:

If you can’t IPO or sell then what alternative is there?The Sustainable Model

The alternative is to question the whole notion of exit and to build a real company.

When I was an architect, you didn’t set up a practice on your own to ‘exit’, you setup to build a company that made a profit and made products that made the environment a better place along the way - a sustainable enterprise. The whole idea of ‘exit’ in the context of building an architecture firm, or a legal or medical practice is preposterous.

The reason why tech. companies have fallen into the mindset of raise money and exit, ‘live fast and sell young’ is that they traditionally needed large amounts of capital, both to bootstrap and later to fuel growth. They needed to gain ‘market share’ dictated by quantitative things like price rather than intangibles such as good design . But that has changed.

David is so right. We ran into this issue when we started Citizen Agency. People were so ensconced in this ‘raise capital, build and flip’ model that they couldn’t comprehend the business model of a consultancy. They’d ask, “What is your business model?” We were floored. Only in the Valley.

The funniest part of this situation is that so many people still don’t understand why Obvious Corp made this move. There are a few people who have surmised that they were trying to regain respect from the VC’s so they could raise more money in the future. Others tied it back to Ev’s Future of Web Apps talk when he discussed the failings of Odeo - thinking that this would help ‘clear his conscience’. Even their own VC’s are taking it as a signal of respect towards backers. I’m not saying that Ev and Biz don’t respect their backers, but I would bet that buying back Odeo and Twitter had very little to do with a hat tip to their investors and more to do with taking back control of their own future.

And what will that control get them? The ability to focus on what matters to them the most:

…I just wanted to create a company that would be as much fun and as fulfilling as possible. Fun in work to me means a lot of freedom, and ton of creativity, working with people I respect and like, and pursuing ideas that are just crazy enough to work. I don’t want to have to worry about getting buy-in from executives or a board, raising money, worrying about investor’s perceptions, or cashing out.

Craft. Community. Creativity. Sounds like a bright future to me.
That is why Obvious Corp is our Upstanding Citizens of the week. Thanks for the inspiration!

By Tara Hunt | Posted in Upstanding Citizens | Comments (3)

How do you measure the health of a community?

October 29, 2006 – 10:23 pm

[Juan23 on Flickr: Hellooooo Nurse]

With all of the talk lately about the Ze Frank / Rocketboom numbers, I thought it would be helpful for us to jump in and talk about some of the stuff that we’ve been thinking about.

You see, we deal with this issue regularly. We work with more qualitative (ie. anecdotal) data than we do with quantitative (ie. raw data). When it comes to community measurements, you can’t always think in terms of volume (ie. numbers of signups or page views). Nor can you always think in terms of density (ie. numbers of downloads or, in the case of Devnets, mashups, etc.).

There are always oodles of factors that affect the size or the shape of a community. Some communities abhor size. Some need large volumes to operate. We’ve witnessed communities of 20 to 20 million that could all be deemed very healthy.

But other than to go on ‘gut feeling’, what do we have to measure the health of one community against another. Or…more importantly for us…the growing health of a community? We want to see that what kind of advice we are giving is working and learn from it - adjusting so that we can truly help our clients and our clients’ clients connect.

Jeneane makes a great point when she talks about likability. Robert’s point about engagement is very valid. Both of these factors, plus many others, start to inform us how we are doing when it comes to serving our communities. We figure a good mix of quantitative and qualitative data - weighted just right - will start to inform us. But we can’t forget ‘gut instincts’, either. I have studied stats since that horrifically boring university class, nearly 9 years ago. I remember looking at a textbook example of some trend and thinking, “But that doesn’t account for human emotions. We could change our minds in a second.” Sure enough, every day people baffle the economists and go in directions that could never be predicted. Look at MySpace. Bah, look at Cabbage Patch Kids so many years ago. Tickle Me Elmo? Try to explain the phenomena all you want with scientific theories, but I remember falling in love with Cabbage Patch Kids for absolutely irrational reasons, then falling in love with Tickle Me Elmo for entirely different irrational reasons.

And wild ’successes’ aren’t the only story, either. What about those phenomena that thrive on rarity and secretiveness… communities driven by their obscurity and closed doors? ‘Buzz’ and press would kill them. We advise almost all of our clients to open up, but there are a few we think will do better doing the exact opposite.

So, what works for one community, won’t work for another - not to mention the individual needs within that community. Everybody has a different motivation for being there. How can you tell if you are satisfying all of those needs? And how do you satisfy all of those needs without getting to the point that you lose your own identity? Or worse…lose everyone to a watered down message?

So, we started thinking about this in a music equalizer metaphor. Take a look at these default settings in iTunes for the various genres of music:

ELECTRONIC

Graphic Equalizer

POP

Graphic Equalizer

JAZZ

Graphic Equalizer

Every song within those categories has a different ideal point on that equalizer to sound just right as well. It isn’t one measurement or adjustment (inputs and outputs) that determines the perfect sound. Some speakers will handle the sound differently. Whether it is an MP3 or a CD or a Cassette Tape or a Record will also make a difference. Oh…and of course the space you are playing the music in. I used to have a stereo that you could pick a pre-set for the ‘room’ of a house you are in: dining room, bedroom, party room, kitchen, bathroom, etc.

And…no matter how ‘great’ you make it sound…the recipient’s enjoyment of the music itself also depends greatly on their ‘taste’. I heart old R&B, Funk and Old Skool and cannot understand for the life of me why Chris can’t get into it. He can’t understand why I can’t get into alternative rock.
So, seeing that music is a nearly perfect metaphor for the way we approach community - gives us some solid measurements while allowing for endless variations - we are in the process of developing adjustable equalizers on three distinct levels that interact (as discussed as well at BarCampBerlin):

  1. ENVIRONMENT - total inputs. You can’t adjust these. Things like: politics, trends, competitive environment, language, reputation, timing,  etc. TimeCabbage Patch Kids today are just not as cool. Garbage Patch Kids, however…I like to use the example of one of the best marketing books ever published, Gonzo Marketing…launched days before 9/11. Think it got much airplay?
  2. PRODUCT - more inputs. Stuff like: features, user experience, design, platform, interoperability, language, sociality, documentation, complexity, etc. The product does not exist outside of its context, like the Environment and the Community.
  3. COMMUNITY - transparency, mood, communications, relationships, reputation (the part you can work on), trust, etc. The mix of the ‘gut’, the qualitative and the quantitative. This is the most complex system of measurement and the most delicate. We thought about calling this part ‘communications’ or ‘marketing’ or the like, because the overall goal is to measure the health of communities…but this is more the ‘little c’ community portion.

We’d love your feedback on the work we are doing and plan to start to publish more as we actually get moving on it (one of the issues has been time - between the new office, the client load and all of the events, we’ve been too swamped to work on this). When the office is set up, we plan to have evening get togethers (with wine) to discuss stuff like this.

By Tara Hunt | Posted in Bidness, Clients, Community | Comments (9)

We furnished our entire office for less than the cost of 3 Aeron Chairs

October 25, 2006 – 6:26 am

$2672

That’s less than the cost of 3 Aeron Chairs ($2697). What did we get for $2672? This is what makes it really awesome:

  • 10 desks with ample workspace
  • 20 boardroom chairs (stackable)
  • 4 movable boardroom tables (small, can come together or pull apart)
  • One Coat rack
  • 4 File boxes
  • 3 perfectly awesome adjustable ergonomic chairs
  • 2 bookshelves
  • 5 waste baskets
  • One beautiful black leather sofa (new)
  • One coffee table (to go with the leather sofa)

…and some other stuff, too. Of course, we have to put it all together ourselves now, but isn’t that half of the test of whether a team can work together?

We looked at all sorts of options, even buying used furniture from former startups gone under…loads of Aeron chairs and fancy modular units. All still very expensive (fyi…Aeron chairs second hand don’t lose much value…which I suppose is important).

We even talked about making it all ourselves from scratch, but a trip to home depot to work out the costs proved that Ikea (we don’t know how they do it) is only marginally more expensive - and it all sort of comes together, so no major labor.

We started out four and a half months ago, no savings (not even personal savings), no funding and no clients. Today, we have 10 clients, an office (we are sharing Citizen Space btw), ability to eat and now furniture! We are still fumbling through much of this business stuff and definitely behind in our own promotional materials (like the website, etc. - but we have so many requests for work that we haven’t had time to promote…wait…um…).

We are learning, too. Things haven’t been all sunshine. There are rough moments. Months we couldn’t pay ourselves. Scary moments when you question everything you are doing. Sad moments when a relationship doesn’t work out. Unfortunate moments when someone wishes you ill-will. Most of these moments are when we have to get a little real, put down our ‘embrace the chaos’ banners and think of real ways to move forward (which are still about embracing the chaos, but add a little ‘protective’ layer so that we don’t end up being taken advantage of by the self-centered interests that exist).

But, we are proud of ourselves for working hard and pushing through…and especially that office full of furniture that is being delivered this Friday for under $3k.

By Tara Hunt | Posted in Bidness, Startup 101, Updates | Comments (7)

Upstanding Citizen: SilverOrange

October 23, 2006 – 8:26 am

Upstanding CitizensIt’s always good to have heros and to be able to identify those folks whose good acts are worthy of imitation. They provide lessons to learn from, a prototype to tweak and a refreshing outlook on what’s possible.

From time to time, we’d like to chronicle those who inspire, excite and offer leadership for citizen agents like us, here on our blog. Feel free to play along too and tag your posts with “” as these folks tend to deserve more recognition than they sometimes receive.

To start, I’d like to excerpt some pieces of a recent interview with Dan, Nathan and Steven from silverorange, a small web development and design firm from PEI whose clients include Mozilla (which is where I first encountered them), Digg and others.

Robert Paterson: So what then is your organizational goal?

SilverOrange: I think that it is to foster an organization that supports our “Whole Lives”. To create and maintain a platform that enables each of us to do the things that we want to be able to do. To set in motion an organization that would be self-sustaining and that we can rely on to support all of us for a long long time. So we definitely do not set out to conquer the world which is implicit in the Total Financial Growth Model. Nor did we sell out in the boom and just take the money.

The interview continues and concludes with:

Robert Paterson: So now the big question — how in this unusual culture of fierce mutual support and accountability do you relate to your clients?

SilverOrange: We will no longer act as merely a supplier. We seek clients who wish to partner with us. This is more than words. In commercial sites we offer the site as a foundation of a contract where we both act to improve the tool to grow the results of the clients and hence for our business. We share in the growth that comes for using our tool. We don’t sell a product we sell our ongoing expertise in an area where we help a business grow their web business. In this way we mirror with our clients what we do at home with each other.”

“We aim for sustainability and hence growth that can be relied on. We tell each other the truth - especially about doing it right rather than easy. We respect the other person’s skills that are often not our own and we rely on those that have the knowledge to take the lead. We share the risks and the rewards. We in effect own a piece of each other. We have fun and we like each other.

Oh, and if that sounds as good to you as it does us, they’re hiring.

By Chris Messina | Posted in Upstanding Citizens | Comments (0)

Carlos is an internet rockstar!

October 19, 2006 – 9:00 am

Picture 10

I’m a wee bit late on reporting this story…we missed it when we were in Europe and I’m finally catching up!

I just got the chance to watch Carlos demo his upcoming release of Scrapblog on Podtech. It looks fantastic!

Scrapblog is another awesome client who implements quickly and designs beautifully. They’ve created a really delightful product. We’re proud to be working with them
Okay…so, um, Carlos? Release it already! :)

By Tara Hunt | Posted in Bidness, Clients | Comments (2)

Balancing the Scales

October 17, 2006 – 7:22 am

Balancing the Scales

This is why we think it’s our job to 100% of the time put community interests ahead of corporate interests.

We feel that there are enough people in the world that are concerned about that corporate stuff. It seems that everyone we talk to these days asks about ‘the enterprise’ or ‘the bottom line’. Yep. Last time we checked, a whole world of people were taking care of that end of things.

We love our clients. We think they are awesome and want them to do very very well. In fact, we want them to be big successes.

So, we totally ignore their corporate interests, technological limitations and funder concerns.

“Your slow performance is the number one reason that your customers are leaving.”
“But we can’t afford to buy new servers.”
“Your slow performance is the number one reason that your customers are leaving.”

“The reason your developer network is dead is because you put too many limitations on your API usage.”
“But our investors want us to keep it secure and tight track of who is using it.”
“The reason your developer network is dead is because you put too many limitations on your API usage.”

“Your user experience is horrendous. Bloggers all over the web are talking about it.”
“Well, that is just not priority right now. We have to get the next release of features out.”
“Your user experience is horrendous. Bloggers all over the web are talking about it.”

It’s not that we are a broken record. It’s that we sometimes have to drive home that customer feedback unheeded because of business interests will lead to the end of the business. Without customers, you will have none of the issues above. You will have no company.

So, in essence, ignoring your bottom line, your technological constraints and your panicked investors is the best thing anyone can do for your business.

By Tara Hunt | Posted in Community | Comments (8)

Awesome Postcard

October 13, 2006 – 3:27 am

Postcard from James

We enjoyed meeting you, too, James! James is an awesome guy who is working on a health site from Scotland who I first had the pleasure meeting at a Founders SIG. He spent some time in the Bay area meeting people around here. I’m really glad he made it to BarCampSanFrancisco.
Not enough people send postcards, dontcha think?

[btw...if you want to send a postcard or anything...our new address is #300, 425 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94107]

By Tara Hunt | Posted in Community, Events | Comments (1)

I [heart] my mini ma.rker

October 12, 2006 – 10:23 pm

I [heart] my mini

What is it about mini versions of things that just make them so lovable?

Our fabulous client, Ma.gnolia - which I know we go on about, but they just make us so darned proud (a 3-person 4-person team that implements fast and correctly and really, really gives a darn about community) - just released their mini ma.rker, a faster, cuter version of their bookmarklet.

I know I’m ridiculous, but there is something I just adore about smaller versions of stuff. We had dinner with our friends at Goowy last night and they told us their biggest hit was their minis, too. People love them. When we were in France, we were delighted by all of the mini cars on the road.

Maybe it is because we, in North America, live in a culture where things just tend to get bigger and bigger? Cars, buildings, malls, signs, portions, etc. When something comes out that is smaller, but packs a big punch (like an iPod Nano or a Mini Cooper), people pay attention.

Thinking Small seems to be a recurring twist in our biggering and biggering economy these days. A trend that I’m all for, really, and not just because it’s cute, but because, in some ways, it seems to be rooted in a philosophy of sharing, rather than competing for the space we have been given.

What small things do you love? Anyone else notice this trend?

By Tara Hunt | Posted in Clients, Design | Comments (2)

A work of … progress

October 9, 2006 – 7:20 pm

Citizen Agency website design

Folks subscribed to our blog who haven’t checked out the solid state version at citizenagency.com/blog are in for a surprise.

You see, we’ve been trying to get our website done — designed from the ground up — covering our services and generally providing a more meaty answer to “who are you and what do you do?” I mean, both our future landlord and insurance-quote-maker-dude couldn’t figure out what, for the life of them, we did to make money (which is, rightly so, of some concern to them).

So I did a couple designs, Ben did some designs and Tara did a layout or two. And the image above is kind of the takeaway from all that work… So far I’ve implemented the design on the blog — starting with the excellent — in a 6 hour, all night hackfest that resulted in what you see today. It’s not cross-platform and there are bound to be bugs, so if you find any, do send them our way.

I’m far from finished with the design, but this way, hopefully, with the in-process design out in the wild, I’ll be incented to push through subsequent improvements to something that we feel pretty good about.

And if you have ideas for color… please let me how we might liven things up!

By Chris Messina | Posted in Design, Startup 101 | Comments (1)