Yessir, the insurance cards arrived in the mail over the weekend. Full medical, dental and vision coverage for the whole company. Some would call this a luxury. I disagree. We cut corners elsewhere. Thanks to Pierard for making it happen.

Plus, the insurance actuaries think our company profile means we’re lower cost than the average. Do they know us? Half our guys ride bikes (motorized and not) into the office. Doesn’t matter. Try to stay in one piece, fellas. But whatever happens, we’ve got you covered!

I recently got some grief for not mentioning that we’re hiring a Content Editor. (Well, yeah, that’s a good point…)

Here it is. We’re moving quickly on it, and getting close to a final decision. If you’re a late-inning entrant, better move quick!

CultureMob.com is your personalized guide for discovering great local events — music, movies, theater, and more. We provide personalized recommendations and are adding more rich content every day.

We’re looking for someone to take the lead on aggregating the best third party content (reviews, images, video etc.), writing original reviews and previews, leading our blog strategy and leading portions of our SEO outreach efforts.

Here’s what we’re looking for:

• Ability to rapidly produce great content with real personality. Seattle’s got personality. So do you.
• Knowledge about and enthusiasm for local events of all types. If you’re idea of a happenin’ time is to sit on the La-Z-boy while watching bad TV, this probably isn’t right for you.
• Extroverted. You need to be willing and enthusiastic about contacting tons of people, all the time.
• Web-saavy. You’re more of a blogosphere/myspace/facebook/twitter/whatever2.0 junky than you should probably admit to.
• Highly Organized. Self-motivated. Seriously, do you think I want to babysit someone? No. You understand the goals. You make it happen.

CultureMob is a startup that is backed by some of Seattle’s leading angel investors. We have fun, but we’re also serious about building a great company. If you’re not interested in going the extra mile, please don’t bother applying. (Just being candid, it benefits us all.)

If this sounds good to you. Please drop us a note. We’ll be even more impressed if you go to culturemob.com and put some comments in the system!

Find great events in Seattle at CultureMob.com!

Thanks to Marcello Calbucci at Sampa for maintaining the Seattle Startup Index. This is a great resource. In January, Marcello noted that CultureMob was one of the “big movers,” moving up 51 positions during the month. Thanks for the mention!

We’re thrilled to have Cedric on board. Ced’s background at Amazon during the early days means he has experience with rapid growth, and all that goes with it. His experience as a musician and forming his own record label means he understands first-hand the challenges facing artists and performers.

We’ve talked about CultureMob being “the artist’s friend” and “the place artists go to find great events.” There’s a couple reasons for this. If we build to this standard, we’ll deliver an outstanding service for everyone. Also, while we focus on helping people find great events, the other side of the equation is that event performers and promoters are looking for growing and enthusiastic audiences. To look at only one side of the equation is to miss the entirety of the challenge.

Ced will be working with artists, enthusiast, promoters, venue owners and others, to make sure we understand their needs and can help them fill their events with enthusiasts.

If you’re on the performer/promoter side of the equation, and are interested to learn more about what we’ve got in store, feel free to shoot him a note! cedric at culturemob dot com.

Welcome aboard, Ced!

With the new year upon us, I found myself thinking about some of the fundamentals of business success. One that keeps coming back to mind is “the rule of three,”

We developed a philosophy at my previous company, Serials Solutions (we used to call it SerSol, so I’m going to start doing that), that can be summed up as the rule of three. The order is important.

1. Give customers something great.
In our case, we focused on a great product, at a great price, backed up with great service. We were always aggressive, but never knowingly made a promises we wouldn’t be able to keep. We lost some business over this - prospective clients would tell us that they really wanted to work with us because of our reputation, but “you were too honest.” Those are the breaks.

Another aspect of this is that while it’s important to track what the competition is doing, it’s a hell of a lot more important to track what the customer wants and thinks about your product. Customer satisfaction is a critical early indicator of success.

2. Give great employees a great place to work.
We’re not talking about any or all employees, just the great ones. The ones who want to be challenged, to grow, to be proud of great work, to be part of a great team, and to leave the world a bit better. This includes giving people the high level direction, resources, and freedom to create something truly powerful. It’s tough for a start-up, but this also means a total compensation package that reflects the work being done.

3. Give shareholders a great return.
The problem with this one is that so many companies put this ahead of everything, to the point where it harms all three goals. The the order is important. The first two are the real value creators, so you’ve got to get them right. Otherwise, getting number three right will be hard as hell. Granted, people obsess over this and ignore the first two all the time. But I’m skeptical of the true success rate for software companies that choose this route. By contrast, when you get the first two right, and maintain clear and consistent focus on shareholder returns, you can deliver outstanding results for everyone involved in the project.

As I look back over 2007, I think we’ve done a good job of staying true to these fundamentals at CultureMob. Start-ups aren’t theoretical places. A lot of people make a lot of decisions, many of which are done quickly and with limited resources. But at the end of the day, a common thread becomes apparent. That thread should add up to something clear and consistent. As the company grows stronger over 2008, I’d like to see us continue this growth trajectory, and make sure that thread is clear and strong.

Recently we wanted to hire a talented individual. The problem was he lacked start-up experience. We were concerned that he was accustomed to life at “BigCo.” That evening, I wrote him a letter. Our CTO reviewed it, made a few minor edits, and together we sent it off…

Dear Candidate,

We look forward to discussing the prospect of you joining the Green Couch Conspiracy in a full-time capacity. Before we do that, it is imperative that you fully understand the realities of start-ups in general, and Green Couch Conspiracy in specific.

Start-ups are the worst possible work environment for 99% of the population. The hours longer, the pay lower, the work more stressful and demanding, the prospect of no paycheck higher, and the probability of failure higher than in any category of businesses.

Start-ups have no friends. No competitors welcome a startup into the market. No customers or vendors have grown to rely on them. The overwhelming majority of potential clients don’t want to hear about yet another product/service/company. The standard reaction is to dismiss the new offering out-of-hand with the first objection that comes to mind.

And yet, for a tiny handful of people, this presents the ideal work environment. Startups are challenging, demanding, and sometimes harsh. And because of this, they are vital, exciting, and creators of tremendous value.

Our current challenge is an execution race. To succeed, we must, and do, have ruthless focus on that. The time has past for pondering and exploring new ideas. We have a strategy. We have received good feedback that it is the right one. We must execute on it as rapidly as possible. There is no time for anything else.

The hours are long. The founder of Cisco said that “dedication begins at 60 hours a week.” Please consider this. Are you ready for the impact it will have?

In a start-up, you must work on the highest value task. Fun, or interest-level just doesn’t play into it. If shoveling shit is the highest priority, that’s what gets done first. This is true for everyone, ourselves included. There are no two-ways about this.

Related, there isn’t much management overhead. This means that everyone must be trusted to follow through on delivering the highest value project, particularly if it is delegated to him or her. If you disagree with prioritization, a startup is the most likely place that reason will win out, as we cannot afford to make dumb mistakes. But the final decision must be executed upon.

We both want you to read through this note and consider it very carefully. If you have any questions, please ask either one of us, or both of us. If you agree that the forgoing is a requirement for all employees, and a level of accountability to which you are willing to fully commit to, if you are willing to shovel the shit, if you are willing to do work even when you disagree with the priorities, if after all of this you’re still interested in joining the Green Couch Conspiracy in a full-time capacity, then we are excited to talk with you about the possibilities.

Thank you for taking the time to carefully consider this. We value your contributions and friendship, and have invested the time in this because we care about a relationship that works for all.

Sincerely,

Steve McCracken
CEO
Green Couch Conspiracy

Jeremy Franklin-Ross
CTO
Green Couch Conspiracy

I’ve redacted the sections that were unique to his role, but the letter serves as a good reminder of what it means to join a start-up. And it’s a great reminder that while employees are easy to find, great employees are hard to find. They’re cut from a different cloth. They’re worth their weight in gold. I’m proud to say that we have a team of great employees. And our candidate chose to join.

Recently I was describing our business to an astute investor. As we talked about the business — the social network aspect in particular — it became clear how broadly this term is used when describing web-based businesses. Yet these businesses can be dramatically different.

In order to clarify our strategy, I coined a new term: “Social Reference Site.” I did some quick searching, and didn’t find this terminology in use. In fact, I didn’t find much discussion or good terminology for articulating the different ways in which websites are including social networks as a part of their product. In response, I’ll put forward the term “social reference site” and how it differentiates from more traditional social networks.

Social Reference Sites (SRS)

• Reference sites replace “content directories”
• High value for non-participants
• Majority of traffic from search engines is common
• Small clusters of users add significant value and have their own social interactions within the directory site

Social Networks (SN)

• Sites replace a communication vehicle
• Low value for non-participants
• Majority of traffic from direct navigation
• All users add value

The following table shows the distinction between them. Note that the “displaced product” category is a substantial simplification, but speaks to the core value proposition that drives most traffic. Also, these example sites are illustrative only.

I’m interested to hear others thoughts on this…

Chris “the-brum-0-later” Brummel has joined the conspiracy full time.

We’re thrilled to have him. In addition to cranking out front end code, he’ll be be making sure we’ve got the slickest-looking site in the local events space. He’s sitting in Cube #472, in sector G, on the fifth floor of the worldwide headquarters (until Jeremy returns…)

It’s true! As reported by John Cook of the PI, Mike Showalter has joined Green Couch Conspiracy as the new VP of Product Management.

This is a big win for us. The role of product management - understanding users’ needs and designing the right application - is absolutely crucial to web startups. We’re thrilled to have Mike join us. He comes from Marchex, and before that… Serials Solutions, where he was Group Product Manager, and instrumental in launching 5 web-based applications in 5 years. All of which continue to be leaders in their categories today.

I’ll let other celebrities sum it up:

“The best ever!” — Ricky Bobby

“They’re SUPER-CHARGED with Mike Showalter on board!” — JR Jenkins (local product management celebrity)

Welcome aboard, Sho.

With our private beta coming online, it’s time to give a quick heads-up on our philosophy about releasing. About a week ago I came across this post which does a great job of summarizing two choices for going to market: Big Bang vs. Darwinian Evolution.

There’s no need to repeat it all, but suffice it to say, we’re not doing the late ’90’s dot com approach of trying to build version 5.0 and launch with a colossal party (fun as that might be). We’re committed to the other path: release early and often. The value of getting our product in the hands of users, and then listening and acting on that feedback, can’t be overstated. This approach was one of our keys to success at Serials Solutions. Our release cycles were shorter than our competitors, we were more serious about listening to our users, and we responded faster. As a result, we were able to win in product lines where competitors had multi-year head-starts on us. We’re taking it up a notch here, with a serious commitment to agile development.

We’ll be reaching out to more people over the upcoming weeks, inviting them to check out the service and provide feedback. Yes, you will find some big bugs, missing functionality, and strange use cases. The servers will probably bonk out as well. But we’ve got a great team in place, we’re squashing the bugs, and growing the application fast.

Best of all, the earliest users will be able to say “I saw it when…”