People who know me well (in person) know that I like to talk about Google. In particular, their business model interests me because they have taken a very public, visible approach to R&D. Instead of having developers in secretive, dark “labs” where they are destined to work on projects that will most likely never see the light of day, Google encourages its developers to create visible projects that are showcased (and talked about) on their Google Labs website. This has its good sides (publicity!) and its bad sides (publicity before the apps are ready for prime time.) Most importantly to Google, it makes sure the word “Google” is always on the tip of reporters’ tongues, as Google continually refreshes its product list and finally “releases” products from Labs into the real world.

Google is not only doing this for the publicity aspect, however. Their management team is apparently of the philosophy “Let’s throw 1000 things against the wall and see what sticks.” That is, Google is hoping that eventually, a few of these Labs ideas will pay off and make big money for the company. Google shares this wealth with the employees that create the projects via Founders’ Awards — huge stock option grants for projects that make the company a lot of money. The first two Founders’ Awards were given out in 2005 and totaled $12 million in stock compensation. (reference)

That’s great for the big projects (and believe me, every employee at Google works doggedly to make sure his or her pet project is next in line for one of those awards.) But this blog entry is about those projects that aren’t the next billion-dollar idea. Obviously, by giving employees incentives to create web-based projects of their own accord, Google will have hundreds of these projects going on in a few years. Some of these hundreds of projects will be successful and will integrate with the rest of Google. The truly unsuccessful ones will either languish or be cut entirely. But what about the inevitable projects in the middle?

Let’s say (just using some random numbers as an example) an employee that Google pays $100,000 per year creates a project in his or her “20% time” that is successful. The project, funded by pageview ads, grosses $250,000 per year. That employee does not spend the majority of his or her time supporting the project… perhaps just the aforementioned “20% time”. What does Google do with this project?

“Well, keep it, of course!” you say. “It’s profitable!” Well, not exactly. Now that Google is a publicly-traded company, its shareholders are expecting big things. With annual revenue of $1 billion+ per year and stock prices in the stratosphere, it’s clear that both shareholders and Wall Street are not interested in a project that nets approximately $200K per year after expenses. The question that Google execs will have to ask themselves in the future is, “Is this developer’s time (even part of it) better spent on a project that will never net more than $200-$300K per year, or on a project that has the potential to make millions (or billions)?”

Companies have traditionally solved this problem by creating spinoffs, but at only $200K-$300K revenue vs. Google’s $1B+ bottom line, it’s not worth it to Google to spin a company off, even if it is profitable. The only choices left, then, are to either let that employee continue working on a project that will not substantially improve Google’s bottom line, or to axe the project. It’s the latter I think Google will have trouble with. After all, their roots are in creating a “startup-like culture” for their employees. Google Labs is full of projects that will likely never make the company a dime (except by some marginal publicity), like Google Mars. As long as these projects suck up nothing more than a one-time “develop and showcase” investment of a developer’s time, that’s fine. The problem occurs when these projects continue to suck up more and more time from developers who could be working on “better” (read: more profitable) ideas. It will be a tough call for Google to “prune” less profitable projects, but they will have to in order to continue to be a successful company.

Once Google realizes they have to cut back and only continue development on the projects that did “stick”, inevitably, they will crush a few of their developers’ hearts. I have a feeling some of those developers may even become jaded and go out and start their own companies (sort of like the many software companies spawned by former Microsofties in Redmond.) Those companies may even grow to become quite successful. Hmm…

Okay, I usually am not a big fan of blogging about the “OMG Google yourself and see what you find” memes. But this one is really fun. This was passed on to me by a hosting customer of mine, but I haven’t seen it make its way around the /. journal circle yet, so here we go.

The meme: Google the phrase “(Your name) looks like” and find the best one from the first page of results. Don’t forget to put it in quotes; otherwise it won’t work.

I went for it, Googled “Erica looks like” and got a hilarious page of results, but by far my favorite one was Erica Looks Like A Lion. (Yes! Click it! It’s a Flickr photo!) Now I do not know this Erica, but I can appreciate the inherent lioness in this Erica, as I feel I too have an inherent lioness. 😀

My other favorite link, since we’re sharing, is Would the real Erica please stand up?, which is a blog entry about the trials and tribulations of being an Erica Vonderheid and meeting another Erica Vonderheid. I totally get what this Erica is saying, too, because I know if I met another Erica Douglass, well, that would just be freaky.

What can you guys find when you Google this phrase? Post away! I hope to see this make the /. journal rounds. 😉

Russ wanted a “Simpli phone”, so I picked up a Sprint Treo 650 on craigslist yesterday ($275 including a 128MB memory card; slightly used) and began the long hassle of negotiating my cell phone plan with Sprint PCS.

Rep: “Thank you for calling Sprint PCS. How may I help you?”
Me: “I’d like to add a second phone line to my account.”
Rep: [launches into long reading of how great Sprint’s new Fair & Flexible plans are]
Me: [cuts him off] “I’m not interested in signing anything more than a 1-year agreement.” [Fair & Flexible plans require a 2-year agreement.]
Rep: [sounding disappointed] “Are you sure?”
Me: “Yes. What are your prices for 1000 minutes per month?” [quickly hits up Sprint PCS website to see retail prices]
Rep: “We currently offer 1100 minutes for $65.99 a month.”
Me: [notes that this is the same price as shown on the Sprint PCS website] “Now listen here. I’ve been a customer of Sprint PCS for 7 years, and I pay my bill on time every month. I think you can do a little bit better than that.”
Rep: [without missing a beat] “Of course. We have a special plan [snarky Erica note: “special” is defined here as “for the really pushy customers”] of 1000 minutes for $50/month.”
Me: “Great! I’ll take that, then. And it only requires a 1-year agreement?”
Rep: “Yes.”

This phone conversation took 40 minutes.

Morals of the story: 1) Cell phone companies suck. 2) Always negotiate, especially with big companies. You have more power than you think.

I wrote a blog a few days ago about how guys are in relationships/fuck-buddy-ships/whatever for one reason. And, while that generally may be true, it’s not always true. So, as a matter of swinging things the other direction a bit, I want to write about someone I love very deeply. That someone is S.

S and I first met in person in November, when I came to NYC and ended up staying at his place in Manhattan. There, we realized we have a lot in common. I first noticed it when I stepped off the plane to find him waiting for me and reading a book on quantum physics. It was then that I knew we would get along really well. We were shocked to find we had even more in common, from general attitudes toward life to personality tests (Myers-Briggs INTJ; Enneagram type 3) to jobs (S managed a datacenter for a big NYC Forex firm; I run a hosting company. The jobs are shockingly similar) to having been burned in relationships in the past and the consistent struggle to find someone who gets past the tough outer shell and into our hearts. S is a Pisces and I am a Cancer, which also makes us a natural fit, and also makes him best friend #4 of mine who is a Pisces.

The unfortunate thing is that S and I can’t be in a relationship because we drive each other crazy. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but the fact is that when you’re 99% the same as someone, the 1% of the time when you are completely different is so annoying as to be fatally damaging to any relationship that would try to develop. So that’s a bummer. But the good news is we realized that really quickly and were able to adjust to being best friends and having conversations that go something along the lines of “Can you fucking believe that <event> happened?” “No way! Well, here’s what you should do. …” “I TOTALLY AGREE!” And this goes on multiple times a day. The really good news is I’ve hired S temporarily to help get a bunch of stuff going on at Simpli, so all of our customers will have some cool new toys to play with this summer. And, before he moves out here on May 5, I just wanted to say, S, I couldn’t get through a day without you there to bounce ideas off of and tell me about all those cool websites you find (except UserFriendly. I could do without more UserFriendly links!) 😉 And, above all, I am glad that you are one of my best friends, and I will definitely support you in whatever you decide to do with your life. I love you with all my heart. Welcome to California!

I’ve made an effort to meet more women lately, and I’ve definitely succeeded. One thing I can definitely appreciate is the need for more women-oriented conferences and breakout sessions. Too often, women are discouraged from becoming techies because they don’t think they have as many skills as the guys — when, in reality, it’s often that men tend to boast and brag and women are socialized to be more modest about their achievements.

I’m in support of events like the Women 2.0 conference because it is important for women, especially younger women, to meet and get to know women who have become successful. If you are a woman entrepreneur or woman techie in the Bay Area, I encourage you to attend. If you know of a woman who would benefit from being a part of this, please forward this blog entry or their website on to her.

Thanks!