A lot has been going on since we last posted to the blog. If you've not visited Krillion.com lately, you should take a fresh look. With the recent addition of deeper product information, user reviews and real-time (in-store) availability checking, the experience is better than ever (PR). There are exciting new partnerships and a host of new product categories on the launchpad as we ramp up for what promises to be an eventful 2008. More soon.
It might seem a little tardy to blog about your launch 30 days later, but we'd like to think we're demonstrating just how reluctant we are to puff ourselves up when there's work to be done ;-)
On February 5th Krillion reached an important milestone that Churchill would have called ..."the end of the beginning" After a year of hard work the team proudly launched Krillion.com. It still bears a "beta" stamp in recognition of the ambitious feature set we're going to build and the challenges ahead, but it stands firmly on it's two feet for the first time.
Our founders Joel and Roger set out to build an answer to a very simple question. "Where can I find this product near me?" It's a question that millions of consumers researching purchases on the internet ask every day, and as Joel delights in demonstrating, no one else answers very well.
We encourage you try it for yourself, and then pay us a visit. If you're in the market for a major appliance (our first category) and want to purchase it locally (as 99% of major appliance consumers do) then check out the site and let us know what you think. You may even come across one of the 275-million local pages we provide through your favorite search engine. Relevance, is a beautiful thing after all.
With the humility that comes from that mile-long feature list we want to build, we are happy to acknowledge the great press we've received since launch from Search Engine Watch, VentureBeat, Search Engine Land and StartupSquad.
Joel and the sales team have their hands full with advertising and syndication meetings, while Roger has us heads down on the next development phase. Exciting times. Don't forget to zip in to Krillion before you zip out to buy that new fridge.
One of the first steps that makes you feel like a real company is spending money in 4-digit chunks. And one of the first ways to do that comes when it's time to buy computers. There's a bewildering array of choices, and your first instinct might be "computers are so cheap now, just tell me the best price for a Dell, or HP, or eMachine". But wait - ask yourself, what's the most important factor about buying computers?
Is it price?
Probably not . The difference in price between the "super cheapos" and a machine that has expandibility, quality, and robustness is only a matter of a few hundred dollars. Don't get me wrong, I've got a 6-year-old 566Mhz Celeron eMachine at home that is my home file & print server (depreciated value = $0), but at work, it's better to spend the dollars to maximize productivity.
Is it computing speed?
Not likely. Unless you're developing the most advanced super-whizzy 3D graphics algorithms, all the modern CPUs are "fast enough". Just buy the fastest chips that aren't the most recently-shipped models, so that you get plenty of performance, without paying the newest-model exorbitance tax. Ours are mostly "AMD64 3800+ X2" (dual core).
Is it the brand?
Not really. You might think that the "Dell" or "HP" badge makes something more trustworthy; I'd argue otherwise. We buy custom-built machines, comprised of completely standard & quality-brand components (motherboards, disk drives, power supplies, etc.)
The reason Dell or HP have any profit margins on what is essentially a commodity product is because they've *removed* something. They've figured out where to shave off pennies or dollars by giving you cheaper parts. What you're left with are components that, while saving you a few dollars, are less robust and less standard than buying the generally-accepted-as-standard components. We want a computer whose components (a) we know will work because they are used and reviewed publicly by the entire tech community, and (b) we can find info about simply by "Googling" for it. I don't want to have to call a custom support line to discover there's a new driver that fixes a problem they never wanted to admit.
Our machines use Asus motherboards, AMD cpus, Linksys wireless networking cards, Seagate Barracuda SATA disk drives, GeForce video cards, and Viewsonic monitors. (As someone with thick glasses and bad eyesight, don't get me started on justifying the higher cost of a high quality monitor.) Most of us are using Microsoft ergonomic/wireless keyboards & mice, because they work ok, they're comfortable, and they're only $60 at Walmart.
In the long run, good quality components aren't that much more expensive than a Dell-all-in-one box, and you'll more than make your money back by (a) less down time, (b) easier upgrades or modifications, and (c) better ergonomic health.
So what *is* most important?
Noise.
When we bought our first machines, we asked for a case that's really quiet. Our vendor recomended an Antec Sonata II "Piano Black" Mini Tower. We were stunned by how quiet they are.
I can't tell you the number of times we've had to ask, "is that computer on?" Despite some major cooling for the big CPUs and graphics cards, they are quieter than a whisper.
The insides look like a high-tech jet engine, and boy do they work. (And as a side benefit, they do have a cool, black, Darth-Vaderish design look, with a glowing blue front port panel.)
Why is the sound level so important? Because we're in a single, open, large, partition-less room, with (so far) 6 workstation computers and a few laptops, and the room is utterly, peacefully quiet. By comparison, my home spare bedroom with a single 3-year-old PC is bathed in "fan roar" white noise.
Just to make sure we weren't wasting money, I went to Costco to consider buying a spare machine for the office. It was hard to tell amidst the clamor of shopping noise, but I put my ear up to all the HP, Gateway, and eMachine boxes there, and they're all loud noise generators that would be driving us crazy by now.
We don't have private offices with doors, but we do have peace and quiet. It's one factor in making our office a place where we all enjoy spending time. When it comes to computer fan noise, you won't know what you're missing until it's gone.
One of Krillion's founding principles is the belief that design is a great differentiator. Everything we do, create and touch should be infused with that core value, but living up to the goal can be challenging for a startup with limited resources. Case in point; our office space in downtown Mountain View comfortably situated on the residential/commercial boundary had great natural light from a bank of front windows and skylights, but little else going for it. The one-time grocery store turned mosque turned ISP looked tired and run down. Here's what we did to make it an inviting workspace that would improve our chances to hire great people.
1. Clean. The windows had accumulated a patina of grime that Dickens might have written about and our overhead lighting was an entomologist's dream. Whoever said the Amazon had the world's greatest diversity of insect life never saw our fluorescent fixtures before we cleaned them.
2. Paint. This gave us the most bang for the buck. It would have been easy to skip this step and just bring in furniture. We resisted and painted the place ourselves using a paint sprayer and over 900 yards of 3M blue tape. Cool, clean colors.
3. IKEA. We could quite easily hang a sign in the window announcing ourselves as a local IKEA showroom. They're all family. GALANT (desks), MIKAEL (rolling files), JOAKIM (task chairs), JULES (reception chairs), LACK (coffee tables), KLIPPAN (loveseats), FLYTTA (kitchen cart/printer stand), MAGIKER (shelf units), GRÖNÖ (lamps), KLUDD (notice boards), KLYKA (uplights), KOLJA (mirrors). Assemble these in any combination and you'd have a nice setup.
4. A little Imagination. After the fresh coat of paint the walls still needed a some visual interest, so we decided to mount our own architectural panel design. Spaced two feet apart these 4' x 8' panels of veneered pre-finished plywood were a good match for the birch IKEA furniture. To make them functional we added two KLUDD tempered-glass notice boards to each and gave the piece some dramatic punch with a KLYKA uplight. Not including our considerable sweat equity the ten panels cost $100 each. If we'd hired an architect or consultant the cost would easily have been ten times that much. We'll update this post with some more detailed notes and pictures soon.
5. Weird Stuff. This Sunnyvale CA outfit is an amazing source for the technological detritus of companies big and small. Not only does it warehouse a fabulous collection of cables (network, power) at great prices but it also has a fascinating assortment of items useful and useless that reminds us not to get too hooked on the latest gadgets. Sooner or later they all end up in a bin at Weird Stuff.
We're not done yet and continue to add new details to the space to make it comfortable, useable and fun. Next up is a coffee bar for informal meetings and lunch. It's part of the overall vision of an open, multi-purpose space that encourages collaboration; and that's by design.
When a friend mistook our office for a furniture showroom our IKEA pedigree was assured and a Krillion tradition was born. You see, the Swedish giant's desks, chairs, tables, and accessories feature heavily in the mix and every stitch was hand assembled by the team. Generally we made quick work of it. The universal instructions weren't always clear but we had the Birch on the run until we met our match in Mikael. Whoever said good things come in small packages has never assembled a Mikael.
Staring at those 843 parts, allen key in hand is when it hit us. Google is reputed to have a tough, quirky hiring process but they don't ask new hires to assemble furniture, do they? Well we do. No employee is truly part of the team until they pass this critical test and build a MIkael on their first day. It's there waiting for them that first morning and nothing else happens until a finished, fully functioning unit rolls off the assembly line. To date, no one has failed the Mikael test or refused to take it, but that day may come. You might want to think about that as you look over our job postings.
Krillion founders Joel Toledano and Roger Spreen put nearly two years of thought into their new search venture before a partnership with Hummer Winblad set the wheels in motion in early May. Now the duo has been joined by a small staff of heavy lifters stoked at the prospect of building a thriving business and making Krillion a hub for consumers and advertisers alike. Krillionology hopes to chronicle that journey and perhaps share a little of the excitement that propels us.
It wouldn't be a stretch to say that we're seldom at a loss for words when formulating ideas and discussing what needs to be done, and that should translate into some interesting posts. Whether this finds an audience outside the team is anyone's guess, but we're going to have fun telling the story. That's how all rumors and legends get started.
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