« Job Hunting | Main | Considering a complete re-rip/encode »
April 13, 2006
Decisions, Decisions
I'm heading back over to the start-up this afternoon to have another chat with the founder and a couple other members of the team. There's all of 14 of them or something. It's very early stage, and it's very intriguing.
I'm also still actively engaged with the folks from whom I have an offer .
If I had to guess, it's going to come down to one of them. I'm meeting with some folks from Amazon tonight (a VP of something or other), but after navigating the bureaucracy at a 1000 person company, it feels like smaller is better. Hence I don't hold out much hope for the Microsoft conversation, either -- they're just too big (and, as much as I've tried to be open minded, I just can't shake the feeling that they're evil).
So let's try to talk this through...
Option #1: early stage start-up, angel funded with enough in the bank to last 12-18 months. The exit strategy is cash-flow positive, build cool products/services, and succeed as an independent entity. I figure if they're successful, Google buys 'em. The core management team includes a couple of folks from Real who I basically respect, but haven't worked with closely enough to draw firm conclusions on. I've met the first "core tech" guy they've hired - but haven't talked to him enough to get a good read. Going to try to do that this afternoon.
Option #2: if you're even a casual gamer, and unless you've been hiding under a rock, you know these guys. I wouldn't be working on the game engine - at least not initially - I'd be working on their digital distribution platform . Love it or hate it, it's changing the industry - it's disintermediation in action. Game houses can push their content directly to consumers, dramatically reducing their reliance on the traditional publisher. Their platform is undergoing an evolution, and it's an interesting product to work on. They're about 100 people, and much about them flies in the face of conventional wisdom about how you have to run a software shop. And it seems to be working. They're profitable, the team is stable, and all the guys I met with struck me as really damn smart.
Gah! They're totally different opportunities - and they're both compelling.
Enough so that I just let Option #3 (QPass) off the hook. I dunno if they'd have made an offer, and hadn't yet gotten feedback from the interview loop, but stringing them along just to prove I could get an offer from them doesn't seem like the right thing to do.
One down, one (Microsoft) to go.
That body-swerve's gonna be tougher. There's an outside recruiter involved who stands to make a healthy placement fee if she gets me in.
Posted by dberger at April 13, 2006 10:40 AM