tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34030532011-04-21T12:09:34.866-07:00How to tell if your company is going underChronicling the demise of a Silicon Valley startup company.Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comBlogger361100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-1084989798948269202004-05-19T11:02:00.000-07:002004-05-19T11:05:08.040-07:00See my current blog for current information. If you're here for reading pleasure, please start at the beginning.Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-1058388175041895272003-07-16T13:42:00.000-07:002003-07-16T13:42:55.090-07:00Update: Been doing a whole lotta nothing for the past two months. It's been a blast. Finished Ulysses, 100 Years of Solitude, some Yeats plays, a new TCL-backed photo website, went to Big Sur, started a contracting gig with a small operation in town, about to start working on a mini-ITX with PK.
None of my two former coworkers are employed as yet.
Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-944776362003-05-16T17:36:00.000-07:002003-05-16T17:36:43.660-07:00OK this is my last entry for real this time. GL turned me down for someone else who was far more qualified. I don't blame them. So now I'm truly free.Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-943433162003-05-14T12:05:00.000-07:002003-05-14T15:57:18.000-07:00This will be my last entry, as today is my last day. We are lunching with T and the CEO and then we will receive our last paychecks and PTO checks. I told my boss and coworker that I would not be joining them with U-corp as it's too far for me to commute, and I feel like this is a good point for me to leave without feeling that I'm running out in mid-project. My boss took it very well. Right now Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-942790282003-05-13T11:21:00.000-07:002003-05-13T12:14:18.000-07:00I'm torn. GL has an interest in me and due to the nature of the position they would want me to work right away, if I were selected (there are two other candidates). I am intrigued about travelling to Europe on a monthly basis, but the idea of doing pure software is less appealing (though Matlab and embedded GPS sounds fun). Would the tradeoff be worth it? How much time to myself would I have in Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-940949252003-05-09T23:38:00.000-07:002003-05-09T23:38:34.190-07:00As evidenced by my last post I had a pretty bad day at work on Tuesday. Mainly because I was asked to solder a bunch of stuff (which I always hate to do) and do other "real" work that, a month ago, would have been completely ordinary and acceptable. But this working in my severance period is really bugging me. I got all ansy and paced around the building and was holding my head in my hands, Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-938907352003-05-06T15:54:00.000-07:002003-05-06T15:54:56.830-07:00I'll go mad.
Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-938875832003-05-06T14:55:00.000-07:002003-05-06T14:55:07.193-07:00Plantronics has a job opening for a firmware engineer, but I don't want to work right now! Do I call them and try to get the job, or what? I wish the 15th was today, so I could know if I'm going to be stuck here for another n months.
Plantronics contact info:
Joyce Shumizu: president of mobile communication division
Jack Reynolds: product manager for M1500 Bluetooth headset
Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-938869182003-05-06T14:42:00.000-07:002003-05-06T14:42:44.006-07:00I'm still working here, next door to where we used to be. It's still weird. Yesterday my boss convened a meeting in my cube and told us that the IP company is dropping all support for our radio. Which (I feel) doesn't really matter, but it was annoying to hear because had we known they would withdraw support, we would have chosen to use the Ericsson radio months ago. So then the VC walks in and Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-934132552003-04-28T11:28:00.000-07:002003-04-28T11:28:19.456-07:00The U-Haul truck showed up this morning and a bunch of minions from P-corp swarmed in and scoured the place one last time for assets. I ducked out the back door and am now secretly working in the company next door, which has loaned us four cubes for the interim. Last week I told the CEO that being asked to work for two weeks with absolutely no guarantee what will happen next feels a bit odd, and Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-932603952003-04-25T13:31:00.000-07:002003-04-25T13:31:44.660-07:00So today I applied to nVidia, Plantronics, some small medical device company in Santa Cruz, Bermai, and Global Locate.
I keep telling myself to Bee Positive if we do in fact get continued funding, and use this time wisely to cultivate those skills I have left dormant for so long. Meaning using equipment and time at work to develop new pet projects.
Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-932571512003-04-25T12:29:00.000-07:002003-04-25T12:29:16.373-07:00Rolled in at noon today. Lack of sleep from the past few nights finally caught up to me. My boss tells me now the VC has decided he wants to see if the chip works or not, so we'll get paychecks for another couple weeks (as opposed to getting the last one in five days). But there's still a deal to work out with P-corp, which wants all our assets, including the Bluetooth group, and until today had Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-932035212003-04-24T15:21:00.000-07:002003-04-24T15:21:43.020-07:00Went to the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco yesterday, and walked around and collected info from companies that I might like to work for. U-corp treated us to lunch, and we also met with B-corp. U-corp seemed very excited about Bluetooth SD-cards for cell phones; I voiced my concern over a complete lack of standards for piping voice over SDIO. Tim picked me up after the conference Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-930856622003-04-22T19:31:00.000-07:002003-04-22T19:31:22.790-07:00Today I wandered around the house and did some paperwork, and thought of more get-rich-quick schemes and more electronics projects that I would like to complete. I decided to wait on the AB project until I could play with some simpler technologies first, like getting a 24-bit ADC working at 24 bits (hard), or building a simple inclinometer or accelerometer out of sample parts from Analog. But Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-930653882003-04-22T13:00:00.000-07:002003-04-22T13:00:25.010-07:00I did charity work yesterday at Applied Geomechanics helping Jeff find the source of A/D glitches in his firmware. No money available to pay me though.
Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-928031982003-04-17T15:20:00.000-07:002003-04-17T15:20:10.466-07:00I love resumes. I just had to look up the 68HC11 because I couldn't remember if it was 8 or 16 bits. All this so I could say "8 bit experience". Just don't ask me any questions, OK?
Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-928022292003-04-17T14:57:00.000-07:002003-04-17T14:57:59.500-07:00Writing my new resume here. I was depressed last night because I thought after 2.5 years I had little to show. But now my resume looks overstuffed. Great. I'm having a great time choosing words for my resume:
Constribute, Assist, acquired detailed knowledge, designed, worked, acted, modified, managed, supervised, debugged, proposed, integrated.
Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-927969522003-04-17T13:10:00.000-07:002003-04-17T13:10:47.936-07:00So today a bunch of people from P-corp came over and combed the place for inventoried items. They finally left after an hour or so. We got our latest chips back from TSMC and tested them. The spectrum looks quite different but the drift is still there. The 2.4GHz VCO wanders all over the place. It wanders lots when you touch the board, or move it, or zap it with a blast of freeze spray. There's Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-926696592003-04-15T13:04:00.000-07:002003-04-15T13:04:18.483-07:00Why I am at work?Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-926686562003-04-15T12:44:00.000-07:002003-04-17T15:22:30.000-07:00My boss is complaining at me because I didn't bring my resume in for him to proofread. I'll miss this place.Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-926142182003-04-14T16:45:00.000-07:002003-04-14T16:45:56.700-07:00So this uncertainty thing is really annoying and now that I'm all ready to be jobless I will surely be pissed if it turns out we have to stay on in some life-after-death incarnation of our company. I will feel relieved when the CEO comes back on Wednesday and tells us that all bets are off.
Right now I'm trying to decide whether I want to take a not-so-perfect job (programming) in a perfect Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-923896912003-04-10T15:56:00.000-07:002003-04-10T15:58:46.000-07:00We all had a meeting with the CEO today (that makes four people total); today is our unofficial "notice" day, the last paycheck will come at the end of the month. Other than vacation, there will be no severance. P-corp will come in at the end of the month and loot the place to reclaim the loss on their $1m loan. And we will cease to exist, unless U-corp or T-corp fall for our pleas for help. We Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-923291082003-04-09T18:42:00.000-07:002003-04-09T18:42:01.623-07:00I asked my boss today "how soon are we going to be flipping burgers?"
His reply and the ensuing conversation was refreshingly open and candid: "I'm pretty sure we'll get a paycheck next week, but after that I really don't know."
Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-922345752003-04-08T11:02:00.000-07:002003-04-08T11:02:43.950-07:00So being a Bluetooth company we were going to buy an Ericsson T68i Bluetooth phone so we could build a headset for it, as a snazzy demo to potential investors. Unfortunately none of us wants to spring for the $30/month phone. Asking my boss the other day if the project was dead, he said "with our future so uncertain, I don't want to go buy a phone right now."
Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-919428472003-04-03T14:58:00.000-08:002003-04-03T14:58:47.560-08:00Yesterday I was given a "company resume" which reads pretty much like a personal resume, except it has three names at the top (one for each employee). I was listed as an "expert" in several fields. Talk about embellishment. We will be showing this "resume" to potential investors.
Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-919427642003-04-03T14:56:00.000-08:002003-04-03T14:58:17.000-08:00Last month, AM came by and asked me if my computer had an asset tag. I said no, but my monitor does. She was carrying a clipboard and asked where some other items were. I helped her and asked whether this was for tax reasons. No, she replied; it's an inventory of the collateral we posted for the loan we've defauled on. Great. So now P-corporation is going to take all our stuff.
Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-897461422003-02-25T17:26:00.000-08:002003-02-25T17:26:37.590-08:00The last time we did a tape backup of the file server was december 2001. It's February 2003 now.Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-890042162003-02-12T17:13:00.001-08:002003-04-03T14:58:04.000-08:00You see a new fax from P-corporation that says your loan of $1,000,000 is past due and they will resort to any means necessary to obtain the balance.Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-890042322003-02-12T17:13:00.000-08:002003-02-12T17:13:37.726-08:00your boss asks for new ideas.Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-878048582003-01-21T14:21:00.000-08:002003-01-21T14:21:03.260-08:00You can't expense snacks.Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-768621902002-05-22T17:41:00.000-07:002002-05-22T17:41:48.200-07:00Rather than laugh at the day's Dilbert cartoon, you just nod and say, "Aint it the truth".Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-766759122002-05-17T16:11:00.000-07:002002-05-17T16:11:58.586-07:00You get phone calls from credit collection agencies because they can't reach the accountant.Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-766758672002-05-17T16:10:00.000-07:002002-05-17T16:10:04.990-07:00your boss takes a vacation.Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-766758552002-05-17T16:09:00.000-07:002002-05-22T17:40:38.000-07:00There's beer in the fridge. Always.Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-110191582002-03-22T13:52:00.000-08:002002-03-22T13:52:07.883-08:00The venture capitalist that funds the company uses your meeting room to interview other prospective clients.Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403053.post-109527742002-03-20T18:04:00.000-08:002002-03-20T18:04:12.940-08:00The president stops picking up the tab at lunch.
The president is no longer an employee of the company.
You create and fly a collection of paper airplanes. Secret delight is flying said airplanes over boss's cube when he's working. With so few people left in the office, hope the landing noise isn't too obvious.
You overhear your buddies holding telephone interviews at work.
You come to work Pierishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05951711355791432246noreply@blogger.com