myShoggoth

The last year and a bit

Hey, I feel like bloggin!

I suspect this is due to the product I'm working on finally being at a point where I think it is usable and useful for enough of the target market that I'm willing to really talk about it and seek out feedback at a bigger scale.

What I'm talking about is VCHub, and the way we like to think about it is we're modeling the startup ecosystem.

There's a lot more to creating a successful new company than just the people in the company itself.  You have law firms, accounting firms, advisers, investors, so on and so forth.

We started with, and the core of the product still is, an online capitalization table.  This is where all the investors, including company founders and employees, are tracked and what portion of the company they own under what terms is tracked.

Most companies currently track this information in a custom Excel spreadsheet, maybe they got it from their law firm or got a hand me down from another company.  I'm not going to spend time in this post on why this is suboptimal, for many I think it will be obvious, and for those who have been in the trenches dealing with the situation the problems are very well known.

Around this core of knowing the corporate structure we also track service providers for the company and those who work with it who may not have a direct investment or option grant.

Then you add on top of that the ability to share this information with others, like the previously mentioned service providers, potential investors, advisers, and so on... and I think we have a compelling product that helps solve an area with lots of current pain, mostly in terms of how much time is sunk into managing, updating, and sharing this information.

I'm going to start to blog about the product, what we're doing, and how I'm building it.  I'm very interested in feedback on all aspects, particularly around technology and how users see the space we're modeling.

The whole thing is early yet, we have beta users and a customer advisory board (and I'm hoping both sets will read this and let me know what they think of where we're at as we go along), but others are certainly welcome to try it out and help influence what direction we take it.

iPhone post

At the gym, on a stationary bike, and I thought to look for a SixApart iPhone app. Sure enough, there it is.

Does this mean I'll post more? Who knows.

Sweet Water at Neumos

So I have this friend, Adam, who I worked with on and off for a few years and then more closely for a year while I was on the Messenger team.  Adam is a rock star coder and an excellent dev lead and a great guy who I am very happy to know.

Then one day, after I've given my two weeks notice but haven't left yet I find out that no, really, he's a literal rock star.  He was the lead singer for this band named Sweet Water that was hot in the 90s and then went back to school and is now a kick ass programmer.  This explained some of the show posters and such in his office.

His band is back together and made a new CD (their 5th) and tonight they had their release party.

They tore it up, I had a great time, only saw one guy get throw out by the bouncers and maybe three or four crowd surf.

I'll definitely hit their shows when I'm in town, they put on a great one.

I was really expecting to see a lot of people I knew but maybe Neumos was a bit edgy for the Microsofties...

Brandi Carlile at Mount Baker Theatre

Oh. My. God.

I think that was one of the most important concerts of her career, I've been to a couple now and in this one she raised the bar substantially.  Instead of being a great Seattle area talent who is starting to broaden to being nationally and internationally known, she made a statement tonight that she's a bigtime international star being born and we witnessed part of the the birth.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I drove 5pm - 7pm on a Friday from Bellevue to Bellingham.  Those of you know who the area and the traffic know that there's serious devotion in that act.  I was far from the only one, I overhead a few people in the audience talk about making the trek from Seattle to see her.

The opener was Gregory Alan Isakov, and this guy is a serious talent in his own right.  His set was solid, varied, and very interesting.  Additionally Brandi came out to sing a few of his songs with him and they announced that she had done so for about half a dozen songs on his upcoming CD.  Worth picking up for that alone by Brandi's fans, but the songs he sang were really good.  It is on my list.

She also announced that he's agreed to open for her entire upcoming tour, so if you go to see her be there in time for his set.

She had a huge range of stuff, part of the reason I think it is her breaking through.  She did fan favorites, stuff from her upcoming CD (which sounds like it will be stunning), and covers that I wouldn't have expected as well as a few I've heard before.

She ended her main set with Folsom Prison Blues, and she tore it up.  They started playing it and I thought it would be interesting to see how this pans out but she blew me away.  They ended it with a bang and walked off the stage to a quick standing ovation.

She did the encore alone (exception for the end of one song where one of the twins came out to whistle) and started with Stand By Your Man.  It was funny and very authentic at the same time.

Totally worth the three and a half hour round trip, that was an incredible show and I feel privileged to have been there for it.

Michael Shrieve's Spellbinder at ToST

Wow.

I expect (and was told to expect) something special at this show but I was still blown away.  A group of exceptionally talented and skilled musicians working their craft.

Michael Shrieve did not disappoint.  When I watch a master at work one question that I always ask myself is whether I'd really like to be able to do what he's doing, and the answer in this case was absolutely!

The other members of the band were amazing in their own right.

I will be going to this show regularly, maybe not every week but at least once a month.  The venue, ToST, is small and intimate and the musicians mix in with the not-too-crowded crowd between sets.

For the price ($6 cover!) you're seeing a performance that could easily be at the Jazz Alley, as an example, for a lot more.  Hard to beat that deal.

Faith and the Adam Hunter Band at ToST

I'll link to the upcoming one rather that the event for Sunday that I went to.

This is, as I remember it, a new collaboration between Faith and the preexisting Adam Hunter Band.  It worked very well, they're still early on and it shows in the performance but the amount of potential and talent is really great.  The band itself worked well, at one point they did a song where Adam (I assume) was singing and Faith did backup, and that went fairly well although Faith's part seemed needlessly tacked on.

Faith has a wonderful voice and clearly loves being center stage and having the attention.

I'm hoping they keep going and really concentrate on tightening up the performance, I really enjoyed what I saw but there's so much potential for more there.

Viqueen at the Tractor Tavern

Man that was a fun show, Seattle-based Visqueen headlined at the Tractor Tavern tonight, a sold out show that really deserved it.

Dale, Jodi and I showed up around 10pm just as they posted that it was sold out, Dale had anticipated this so we all had pre-ordered our tickets.

The band just before them, Department of Energy, started playing a little bit after we got there and met up with some friends.  They were a mixed bag for me, I'm not a fan of their lead singer's... singing, and their keyboards were overpowering and I think took away from the sound.  On the other hand their basic songs were very interesting and have a ton of potential.

Visqueen just rocked the house, I had listened to their music a bit on MySpace when Dale invited me to go but seeing them live was a whole different ballgame.  I instantly fell in love with their lead singer and their new bass player is just plain adorable.  I think there were also other band members, but I can't say for sure.

Attempt to Kill My Brother #1

In the first house I grew up in next to the front door was a full length pane of bubbly glass.  I don't know the technical term for it.  You couldn't quite see through it, it was possible to make out vague shapes and colors to know something or someone was on the other side but it was completely distorted.

The doorbell rang one day and my brother and I, being fairly competitive, both took off running to answer get there first so we could answer it.  I'm two years older and thought better of the situation about halfway there and stopped.  Jeff kept going and probably lost traction on the tile floor, skidded up to the door and put an arm through that glass pane.

My parents were obviously very worried and went over to see how bad he was hurt, one of them opened the door to see who rang the doorbell in the first place.

It was a girl from the neighborhood (now I'm struggling to try to remember who, probably Jill or Carlie), in uniform, who said "Girl scout cookies?" with an utterly traumatized look on her face.

Happy Hour Heroes at the The Monkey

Went with Dale and Jodi to see one of Dale's favorite (but least seen) local bands which under its current incarnation is named Happy Hour Heroes.  I can't find a site for them and I'm not sure if it is because they don't have one or because there are other bands across the nation with the same name.  A better name is in order, guys.

They were clearly a bit out of practice but had tons of talent and some great songs, I'm really looking forward to hearing more of what they've got in the future.

They played at The Monkey in the U District, hadn't been there before, had a great time.

Update: Dale gave me the correct name/URL so I've updated.

Rebirth Brass Band at the High Dive

Holy. Crap.

My friend Dale forwarded me a note he had gotten from the Tractor Tavern about the Rebirth Brass Band not being able to make it to their Portland gig due to weather and washed out roads, and they had managed to book a 10pm show at the High Dive at the last second.

I am so glad that happened, Portland missed out.  They put on a show, it was incredible.   If you get a chance to see them to not miss it!

Unfortunately we got there a bit after 10 and they didn't get on the stage until around 11:30pm.  I blame the horrible cover band on the stage before them.  As Dale said, "They had the trees but no forest."  I can't put it any better than that, so I won't even try.