qval blog

Traditional takes a hike for the Boulder business meeting

There are times when throwing on a suit and a tie and meeting in a conference room are appropriate, but often I find offices are a terrible place to do business. As it turns out business is just another part of life, and life is about relationships not projects.

On the day I decided to meet with Ruby guru Ara Howard, it was 75 degrees and sunny in Boulder for the first time in a long time. Ara and I agreed to go on a hike up Mt. Sanitas in in Boulder. Not only is a hike a great way to meet a person, it's also a great way to take the "suck" out of working on a beautiful day.

Here's the video I took at the top of Mt. Sanitas. The video shows that sometimes getting to know somebody means talking about baby carriers, hiking, and dogs. I learned a lot about Ara the person during the hike, and that's what relationships are all about.

Next time you schedule a "business" meeting, think about what you intend to accomplish and then use your open-minded judgment to make a decision regarding the best way to get it done. There are times when tradition rules in business, and there are times when it's 75 degrees and sunny outside and an amazing Boulder hike is calling.

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Bill Carroll

Suck it up! Great Work does not require Great Resources.

[Sunspots] The type edition - (37signals): "‘Sometimes greatness comes from not having resources’

‘To illustrate his point, [Director Doug Liman] recalled a commercial he was shooting for Nike in the late 1990s starring golfer Tiger Woods. Liman noticed Woods bouncing a ball on the edge of a club during breaks from shooting. Liman grabbed a shoulder-held camera and, away from the crew, asked Woods to bounce the balls while being filmed…The shot, which became a classic, was natural, unrehearsed, and driven by imagination rather than millions of studio dollars, Liman said.’"

(Via 37signals.)

The White Stripes, an amazing band, are another great example of embracing constraints. As previously mentioned in the 37signals blog, "The White Stripes embrace restraints by sticking to a simple formula: two people, streamlined songs, childlike drumming, keeping studio time to a minimum, etc."

Embracing and working within constraints can be a wonderful thing if you have the right attitude.

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Bill Carroll

Anti-procyclicaity

Headline reads "PE firms close big middle-market funds" up 32% from the first quarter of 2007. Hold on a minute, nice eye catcher but the reality is that the largest funds are distressed debt vehicles. Don't be fooled -- private equity is not buying us out of this one. Banks and more importantly S&Ls definitely aren't buying anyone out of anything unless their hand is forced by regulation, which by the way I don't condone.

"Procyclicality" meaning that bank lending fuels economic crisis by loosening credit standards and in reverse fuels economic downturns by clamping down on credit terms. Also known as irrational exuberance and greed. WaMu, of course, is the poster child this week. In 2006, WaMu was recognized as No. 3 in Mortgage Services Category of America's Most Admired Companies, and their CEO was CEO of the Year in the state of Washington. The similarities between WaMu and the S&L crisis of the 80s are striking. Basically, it all comes down to bad loans extended on overinflated values. This time however, most are blaming it on credit terms, while in the S&L crisis one of the main scapegoats was the appraisal industry approving overinflated property values.

Buying an S&L that you know well, as a former board member, whose value has deflated by 66% in the last year, there has to be a term for that ... "anti-procyclicality"?

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Brett Suchor

Quicker Safari and iFund the iPhone cause Financial Market surge

While most people believe that the bounce back in the market today was due to the 75 basis point cut by the Fed, the truth actually lies in two new exciting announcements for Apple users.

Today Apple unveiled Safari 3.1 for Mac and Windows PCs - just 1.9 times and 1.7 times faster than Internet Explorer and Firefox, respectively.

Kleiner Perkins, one of the best-known VC firms in Silicon Valley also launched a $100 million iPhone Fund today, iFund. Ironically, their first investment is Seattle, Pelago. Check out Jeff Holden's (CEO and Co-Founder of Pelago) post on his trip to Cupertino and of course Mr. Job's presentation on the iPhone from a few weeks ago. (The iPhone purportedly now has 28% market share and 71% of the mobile phone web browsing market.)

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Brett Suchor

What's a Bank Run?

This morning as I grabbed a cup of coffee and The Denver Post I was quickly drawn to the headline, "Fed acts to avert run on banks." Worried that my $250 in deposits might be at risk, I quickly read the article and realized that they were of course talking of a "run" of a different kind. According to the all knowing Wikipedia, "A bank run (also known as a run on the bank) is a type of financial crisis. It is a panic which occurs when a large number of customers of a bank withdraw their deposits because they fear it is, or might become, insolvent. This action can destabilize the bank to the point where it becomes insolvent."

In the case of Bear Stearns the facts aren't quite "bank run" facts, considering we are talking primarily about mortgage securities and an investment bank. Readers need to know that this is not a federally regulated bank, although the bailout is by the Fed. Yet, I am sure that my 96 year old grandfather would be happy to say "told you so" after reading today's headlines. He has always spread his money around among regulated financial institutions in case there was another "run." Yes, he remembers the 1930s well.

I wonder how much confusion the Post headline, "Fed acts to avert run on banks" caused those less informed about the world of finance. The same impact could have been made with a more appropriate headline, e.g., the Wall Street Journal headline, "J.P. Morgan Buys Bear in Fire Sale, As Fed Widens Credit to Avert Crisis." I get that the Fed avoid a possible wide spread financial crisis, yet "run on banks" terminology is actually what fuels a financial crisis.

Having set the record straight on what a "bank run" actually is, let's enjoy a Jim Cramer rant as he delivers a prediction that, "Bear Stearns is Fine!" -- Tues, 3/11/08.

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Brett Suchor

iCal, Yahoo! Sports, and the Rockies

For the last several years, I have struggled to keep up with the Rockies schedule. Are they home tonight or away? Is the game televised? In fact, my oldest son (7) would call me at work regularly to ask if the Rockies were on. Now after a magical season, the fever has already begun and I found myself listening to a spring training game on the radio.

Yahoo! Sports and iCal has made tracking the Rockies this year a breeze as I can easily add their schedule to my iPhone. Of course, now that I travel regularly to San Francisco and Seattle, adding the Giants and the Mariners to my calendar is just as easy (although not as important).

If you like sports, check out the Yahoo! Sports schedules offered in iCal format!

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Brett Suchor

qval and Quist Valuation on Apple.com and 37signals.com

Apple did a business profile on Quist Valuation just around the time that we were beginning work on qval. Some months have passed since Apple first wrote the profile, and since then qval has split off from Quist Valuation as sister company. There is no doubt that switching to Apple at Quist was the gateway drug that lead us to 37signals products like Basecamp, and open source software such as Ruby on Rails.

With qval now less than a year old, it's pretty cool to see mention of us up on the Apple website and on 37signals. Sure, the profile is really a marketing piece for Apple, and while it may miss some of the finer points we would like to convey about qval and Quist Valuation, it captures our feelings about Apple and 37signals accurately.

The Profile on Apple.com:

Apple - Business Profiles - Quist Valuation: "‘We’re creating something that can capture the information that we need to do a valuation,’ he says. ‘If we have a program that makes it easy to capture information then an analyst doesn't have to spend his or her time cutting and pasting information into an Excel spreadsheet. It frees the analyst up to do things that are more analytical in nature. Our program is designed to replace dependence on the monotonous parts of the valuation process.’

Carroll decided to develop the software using Ruby on Rails, an open-source web programming language developed by a partner of 37signals."

(Via Apple - Business Profiles.)

And 37signals picking up the story:

37signals Product Blog: Apple profiles customer who saved $70k by using Macs and Basecamp: "Apple profiles customer who saved $70k by using Macs and Basecamp.

This Apple profile of Quist Valuation talks about how the company has used Basecamp and the Mac to replace $70,000 worth of Microsoft software and equipment."

(Via 37signals Product Blog.)

Product Blog update: Basecamp storage, podcast case study, Apple profiles a customer, Palm OS client for Backpack, etc. - (37signals): "Buzz/Press Apple profiles customer who saved $70k by using Macs and Basecamp

‘The Mac and Basecamp have replaced $70,000 worth of Microsoft software and related equipment. ‘We pay a few hundred dollars a month for an unlimited version of Basecamp,’ says Carroll. ‘It takes care of Microsoft SharePoint server, Microsoft Project server and most of Microsoft CRM. We’ve replaced a solution that would have cost at least $70,000 to fully implement and would have required a full-time tech consultant.’’"

(Via 37signals - Signal vs. Noise.)

We are very thankful to Apple and 37signals for all of the press! And of course Quist Valuation too. We are also thankful to Sara France, the wonderful and talented photographer who took the pictures for the profile. Sara has also been kind enough to plug us on her blog - More of my images on Apple.com

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Bill Carroll

Merlin Mann’s Worst Website Ever!

I'm not sure why Viddler, a video sharing site that's been around for a while, hasn't made my radar screen until now, but it might just be enough to start me video blogging. Here's a great video from the site featuring Merlin Mann of 43 Folders as he "opens the kimono" about social networking sites.

The Viddler Spotlight » Merlin Mann’s Worst Website Ever!: "Merlin Mann, a maverick in his own right for things like GTD and Inbox Zero, and the founder of 43folders.com goes through the Worst Website Ever during a panel at SXSW by taking a stab at many of the tactics of today’s online services."

(Via Viddler.)

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Bill Carroll