Chris Sacca's 'What is left?'

Big Company, Small Company

Google has done a better job of any outfit I know at retaining a small company feeling despite massive growth in its employee ranks. The shared information, distributed decision-making, and entrepreneurial encouragement all give Googlers a stronger start-up sense than has ever been possible while juggling 16,000+ employees. Just how many people is that? Click here to get a staggering sense thanks to Google Blogoscoped.

Yet, despite Google's efforts, it is nearly futile to replicate the nimbleness and commitment to execution that one finds in a startup where the three coders all live and work in the same apartment. Case in point. This email exchange lifted from the blog of my portfolio company, Auctomatic.com:

On Feb 7, 2008, at 2:12 AM, Vincent wrote:

Hi,

I just found your site. It looks nice but I have a question: do you support ebay NL (Netherlands) ?
Regards,

Vincent

Yes, that is 2:12 AM Pacific Time. Most of us are asleep, but the Auctomatic boys have just fired up another bowl of ramen and are on top of things:

On Feb 7, 2008, at 2:23 AM, Harjeet Taggar wrote:

Hi Vincent,

Thanks for your email. We did not support eBay Netherlands ten minutes ago, but we’ve worked on it since your email, and support is now available—please test it out, and let us know how you’re finding Auctomatic.

We’re adding new features all the time, so please do feel free to drop me an email with any feedback you have.

Thanks,

Harjeet

Come on! At 2:23 AM, within eleven minutes of the original request these guys added international site support and got back to the user!

I love startups and I love Auctomatic.

Thank You, Auctomatic.

Today, my portfolio company Auctomatic announced their sale to Canadian acquirer Live Current Media. There are so many things I could type after working with the founders this past year, countless lessons learned. However, typing from the back of a cab in Los Angeles on an EV-DO connection, I figure I have sufficient battery for just one real message -- thank you.

Thanks to Kulveer and Harjeet Taggar for being the most prototypical examples of entrepreneurial hunger I have seen. When I met these guys during my annual visits to Oxford, they couldn't write a line of code. Never did they seem to let that dim their prospects of being web startup guys. Instead, they just bubbled with an enviable energy and drive and never hesitated to do whatever it took. They are wicked sharp yet instinctively recognize and humbly learn from mistakes without slowing a step. They and their other founders lived in the same room from which they coded. Sleep was rare and there was certainly nothing sexy about their startup existence, but their belief in their mission was unwavering.

Thanks to co-founder Patrick Collison, and his brother John, for making the accomplishments of my youth seem downright inane by comparison. These guys, 19 and 17 respectively, write new operating systems in their spare time and were the jockeys behind the guts of what makes Auctomatic special. I loved that I couldn't take the Auctomatics to a bar for a company meeting. I also admire that despite being off-scale geniuses, both of the Collisons were such likable guys with great attitudes and balanced lives.

Not So Clear For Me.

My friend Brad Feld recently posted a ringing endorsement for Clear, a company contracting with the TSA and individual airports to offer accelerated passage through security check lines. Essentially, for $100 a year(after a pre-screening that costs an additional $28), the Clear program employees escort participating travelers to the front of the security line. As I still find myself flying once or twice a week, I can sympathize with Brad's assessment that paying a mere $100 to skip the line maze is worth it considering the value of the aggregate time saved.

If the hundred bucks were all I was conferring to Clear in exchange for this privilege, I would not hesitate to sign up. Yet, after learning more about the program, I became concerned. You see, to qualify for Clear, a candidate needs to first provide some biographical data including a social security number, home addresses for the past five years, and a current credit card. If accepted, then this potential new customer needs to pay an in-person visit to a Clear station in which they 1) provide two forms of government-issued identification, 2) have their picture taken, 3) produce fingerprints, and then 4) submit to an iris scan.

Wow. If we join, remind me what we get in return for providing all of that data? Do we get to skip the metal detectors and xray machines? Do I no longer have to take my laptop out of the bag? Hopefully, I can now bring on fluids of normal size?

Nope. A Clear membership just entitles you to move to the front of the herd that is waiting to be moved through the futile theater that is our current security screening program. All Clear participants are still required be screened as thoroughly as any other passenger. Clear solely moves you to the head of the line.