Gilroy Was Here

37Signals - There are lots of ideas I plan on stealing from this company. Most of them documented in their book Getting Real, required reading for potential co-founders by the way. Not the least of which is the idea of a 4 day work week. One of their employees wrote a post describing how they’ve been able to do it and actually increase output.

Google - I really like the idea of 20% time. If you’re not familiar with the idea, Google allows all of its employees to take 20% of their time and basically work on whatever they want. Or at least that’s my interpretation of some of the things I’ve read.

So basically a day a week or so you build a project or product that you hope to bring to market for the company. I don’t know what Google enforces any standards on these projects or not.

My thinking is that if I’m to adopt the idea I mentioned above from 37 signals, that in a way people can choose to either work 20% of their time on a project, or take their fifth day off.

Best Buy - Tim Ferris wrote a blog post today about Best Buy’s Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE). The basic idea is that employees are allowed to work whenever and wherever they want, as long as the work is getting done.

Ternary Software - Ternary is the pioneering company behind Holacracy. Holacracy is basically a fundamentally different way of making decisions and organizing a group of people. Once my company has 2 or more people, this is the process we’ll use to organize ourselves.

From what I can tell, Ternary has also successfully integrated Agile Software Development methods like Scrum and Extreme Programming into a software practice that has proven very successful. Ternary offers training on their methods.

As I mentioned a few days ago, one of the issues I am faced with in giving birth to a new software company is that I have no co-founders. Why do I need anyone else you ask?

Well, two thoughts come to mind on that. First of all, by definition, to have an “organization” you really need to have at least two people. I can’t really honestly call what I’m doing a company if there aren’t at least two of us.

Second, I don’t have all of the skills and talent necessary to create the company I want to create. I have filled the role of software engineer, but it’s not one of my strengths. I will need a very strong technical co-founder if I’m going to make a go of this.

Lastly, part of the reason I’m doing this is to have an impact on the world around me. I want to prove to the world that there is a better way to run a company and improve the lives of working people while I’m at it.

So here is a list of ways I’m brainstorming on, to come up with a good co-founder or two for my new software company.

1. Social Networks and Twitter - Of course one of the ways I plan to meet potential co-founders will be through the Internet. I will continue to network through sites like LinkedIn and others looking for like minded entrepreneurs. This blog post itself will immediately get posted Twitter as well and I invite any twitter followers who are interested to send me a note.

2. Professional Events - I’ve stepped up my participation with groups like Agile Philly in recent weeks. I will continue to network via local professional groups.

3. Corporate Events - Our local Chamber of Commerce hosts a sort of Business 101 meet-up monthly where you can learn more about how the Chamber can help you and meet entrepreneurs in the area.

4. Traditional Advertising - It’s occurred to me that it might make sense to post an add in some of the local newspapers. I personally get all of my news from the Internet these days, but that doesn’t mean there are some sharp people in the local area that use traditional means.

5. Web Based Advertising - I’ll definitely put an ad up on Craigslist and a few other free/cheap sites.

6. Previous Co-workers/Associates - I’ll plow through my current contacts list, newgroups, prior co-workers etc looking for help. Even if I don’t get any bites there, I may ask some of them to help me vet some of the potential applicants.

7. Current Friends - I can think of at least a couple of friends who might make good co-founders. I don’t want to screw up any friendships of course but this might be the best place to find a good match in terms of like values, etc.

8. Family Members - I can think of at least one family member who knows a great deal about business and has an entrepreneurial streak, this of course could also be ugly, mixing business and family.

9. Attend Classes - I’ve been attending some workshops and seminars lately and made some good contacts but it occurs to me that getting involved with some local colleges might also be a good idea. There is bound to be a higher number of less “risk adverse” people there.

10. Current co-workers - Being in a more IT and less engineering or academic oriented organization now, I can’t currently think of any potential co-workers, but I’m keeping my eyes and ear open.

11. Reality Show - Now for a couple of strange ideas. It has occurred to me that it might be interesting to turn this process itself into a unique marketing idea. I could gain followers for the company itself before even having a product or service to offer by making a public “game” out of finding my co-founders.

12. Approach in like Dating - Again, a little off the wall, but it occurs to me that I could approach this a little like dating. Get setup with some blind “dates” with potential co-founders, try each other on for size utilizing a series of small consulting gigs or open source projects and take it from there.

That’s about all I have for now. I plan to try and start building a pipe-line of potential candidates with the idea of weeding it down to one or two. The remaining folks, if interested would serve on a sort of board of advisers. If anyone out there has any other ideas for finding potential co-founders, let me know.

I’m going to try and keep this post short and sweet. This was a big weekend for me. I attended a workshop on a fundamentally different (and I think better) way to make decisions in a professional environment and run an organization. In the weeks and months to come I’ll talk more about that workshop and what brought me to attend it. But for now, I have more important things to do.

I have decided that when I strip out all of the ego and perceptions of personal needs and wants that there is one thing at the core of my being that is dying to get more attention. It is the idea that there has got to be a better way to run a for-profit software company. That there has got to be a better way to work, provide a service, and make money than what exists in much of the world today.

To that end, I’ve decided to start my own software company. There will be many challenges ahead for me in that endeavor, not the least of which are that I currently have no capital, will have to continue to work my full-time job and have no co-founders or partners.

In the days to come I’ll be beginning to try and solve some of these problems.

I’m attending a workshop this weekend in New York hosted by Ternary Software on Holacracy. Holacracy is a term the company coined to embody the “Agile” way they run themselves. I decided it would be a good idea if I came up with some business cards since part of the reason I’m doing this is for networking with other professionals in my field.

I haven’t had business cards in a while and usually end up wasting a bunch of them when I get them through work, so I thought I’d take a different approach. The picture above is a scan of what I created. I’m calling it my “Agile Business Card”.

Here is a list of the advantages of this approach:

1. Mobile - I tend to move around allot. In the past 5 years I’ve worked for 6 different combinations of consulting firms and “permanent” employers. These cards are completely reusable regardless of the position I hold or the company I work for.

2. Reusable - Even if I stay with the same company for an extended period of time these cards are reusable if I change my e-mail addresses, phone numbers, web or physical addresses.

3. Flexible - This is where the real “agility” comes in. I can redesign the contents of these cards every time I meet a new person. Whether the encounter be for professional or personal reasons the card can be adapted. They are completely flexible in that I can write any information I want to give out on the card at the time I give it away.

4. Simple - These cards stand out amongst others in their simplicity. The only thing printed on it is the only thing that has virtually no chance of changing, my name.

5. Efficient - I’m a pretty open person. If you know my name you can find out a great deal about me, including contact info by simply doing a web search. My website happens to rank #1 on Google for the string “Frank Gilroy” should I forget to write anything on the card.

6. Versatile - They can double as a name tag in a pinch when crashing a professional or social event.

7. Economic - These cards use the least amount of ink and energy possible to convey anything relevant.

8. Personal Touch - These cards have a certain personal touch when combined with a hand written message.

9. Secure - If your wallet gets into the wrong hands these cards will prevent any would-be indentity theives from gathering more useful information on you.

10. Conversation Starter - If nothing else these cards will definitely beg the question, “Why do they only have your name on them?”. Outside of a group of agile software developers, you’ll have lots to talk about.

photo credit: Javier Aroche
I have been doing a little bit of Web Site work over the past few months. It occurred to me that I wasn’t really advertising my services in any way. A few days ago I created a new services page here on this site.

Check it out for a list of ala-carte services I offer along with pricing and engagement instructions. For now I’m offering simple installation services for popular Blogging and Content Management Systems. As time progresses I’ll offer additional services relating to the customization of these platforms.

Let me know what you think about the services, pricing and procurement model I’m using. I welcome any and all feedback. If you don’t think the pricing is fair or the level of service I’m offering is reasonable, I want to know. Thanks!

photo credit: stephen_dedalus
I’ve taken a break from my blog writing for awhile. To be quiet honest I’ve been in a bit of a funk. I decided today that I believe I’ve devised a way of reviving my writing once again while also providing a service to my readers.

The basic theme of my blog will remain the same. It’s still my intention to write a great deal about the Internet itself, web based applications, how people use computers and the Internet and Internet Marketing. I have however come to the realization that a new passion has developed in me that I want to share. Finding companies for folks to work for that don’t suck.

At times I get pretty fed up with Corporate America. I get tired of the lack of true focus on individual’s quality of life. I get disenchanted with the bureaucracy and the difficulty companies have with making decisions and allowing the creativity and ingenuity of their employees to flourish.

So in the days and weeks to come you’ll see more articles out of me along these lines. I’ll talk about companies I think suck and why I think the suck. I’ll talk about companies I think don’t suck and why. I’ll even talk about models for running a company that I think suck or don’t suck and what we as employees can do about it.

I also believe I have an entrepreneurial streak in me that is just dying to get out. Some of my writing may lean in this direction. In other words, I may suggest that if you can’t find a company that doesn’t suck to work for your only choice may be to start your own.

Corporations around the globe are the organizations that truly run our lives, not the governments. I read somewhere that a fair number of the corporations in the United States have economies of their own that meet or exceed the economies of many major nations. If we’re to really cause a change in this world, make it a better place, I believe the best place to start is with cleaning up the organizations that truly have the power.

Wish me luck!

I recently stumbled across a video of Clifford Stoll giving a talk at TED about … well pretty much about whatever was on his mind at the time. Most people who watch this video will most assuredly ask, “What’s wrong with this guy?”

My take is a little different than most of the comments I’ve seen floating around the web. I’m wondering if Cliff has signs or symptoms of what a community of psychologists would call a disorder on the “Autism Spectrum”.

If you haven’t done much research on Autism you might want to if you have kids. In my humble opinion, Autism is quickly overtaking ADD/ADHD as the “diagnoses of choice” for many children and adults that don’t quite fit in.

If you know me or have read my “Random Stuff” page, you know that I was diagnosed with ADD as an adult after going to see a psychologist with complaints about not being able to focus on my work. My son Chase has recently been evaluated by our local county “Intervention Unit” and it has been suggested that we get him tested for being on the “Autism Spectrum”.

This “Spectrum” can apparently be anything from full blown Autism (yes like Rain Man, ticks and all) to high-functioning but anti-social behavior, to something called Asperger’s Syndrome. Basically my son has so much energy that he has trouble staying in his own skin when he’s not doing something he wants to do. I’m feeling the same way lately.

Anyway, long story short, I’ve been doing quite a bit of research into this topic along with buying a pretty good book called “Autism Spectrum Disorders, The Complete Guide to Understanding Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, Pervasive Development Disorder, and other ASDs”. The book is pretty good. I especially liked what it had to say about the usefulness of using these labels to begin with for the gain of your child.

Ok so I didn’t really make the long story short, but back to the main point. After reading this book I happened to watch the afore-mentioned video of Cliff giving a pretty darn scatter-brained speech and thought, he acts very much like Chase does at 5 years old.

Will that be how Chase acts when he’s older, or will he learn to adjust? I looked for more information on Cliff and whether or not he had been diagnosed but found none. Anyone know if Clifford Stoll is Autistic?

I’ve been a big fan of Tim Ferris lately. I love his book titled “The 4-Hour Work Week”. The book, in addition to many other neat ideas, touts the notion of using cheap personal assistants to do the things you don’t like or were not meant to do.

Yesterday Tim revealed in this blog post that he hasn’t even been writing his own blog posts for the past year. I’m so envious of this guy it’s driving me freakin’ nuts.

I was finally getting around to writing a new blog post tonight when I stumbled upon the fact that Google Adsense has started placing ads for Gay Personals sites on a few of my blog posts as indicated in the screen shot below.

I’m not gay. I’m also not a homophobe. But I do find it curious that Google would make this most interesting match. Any ideas on why Google is questioning my masculinity?

I am constantly coming up with cool titles for blog posts but never getting around to fleshing out the article. I’ve been consistently writing, and that’s a good thing. But for every article I do get out, 10 more sit in my draft folder.

Below is a list of 10 article ideas I never got around to finishing. I decided that if it sits in my draft folder for more than a month, I’m going to purge it. Rather than just delete it, I thought I’d offer the ideas up to my readers.

See anything interesting? Want to finish the article? Let me know and I’ll send you my ideas for the post and maybe we can help each other out. Or just start with the title and go to town. Either way, let me know you did it and I’ll link to you.

• Review of “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferriss
• “Do something cool and blog about it.”
• 10 Things Your Mother Should Know about Internet Marketing
• Research Roundup on Risque Marketing Ideas.
• Shopping for a Social Media or Internet Marketing Job in Philadelphia
• Reasons Regular People Don’t Use the Internet the Way Geeks Do
• The Difference Between Black Hat SEO and Bad SEO
• Top 10 Lady Internet Personalities and Why They’re Popular
• 50 Things to Do on a Quiet Internet Day
• Top 10 Internet Personalities I’d Like to Kick