Every few days, I read something new about start-ups going under or being acquired (but not in a good way). Pownce.com, iwantsandy.com, and (maybe) jpgmag.com are examples of sites I used shutting down. In the last few weeks, a few of my friends have pointed out sites they used getting shut down. Companies that are not throwing in the towel are tightening up. Many people are being struck by lay-offs. I read about rumors that large companies and start-ups alike are cutting people to try to stay lean during this weak economy.
My employer, BitGravity, is changing just as rapidly as many of these companies I read about. To be honest, it’s hard for me to keep track of how many people are at the company. When I landed at SFO on my way to our Burlingame headquarters, I checked my email on my phone finding several emails starting with “Re: Welcome ____” where “____” was one of three different names. I visit the main office once a month and it seems every time I show up, there are 1-4 new employees. We would probably be growing even faster if the start-up community wasn’t struggling to stay afloat.
Seeing the company thrive despite the difficulties of a recession is great. Of course, there is a focus on staying lean, watching expenses, and every effort is being made to make sure we only hire people who will be a good fit.
A project I worked on during 2008 was called Multiview, which is featured on our site at BitGravity.com/Interactive. It was a challenging project, and in some ways, surprisingly grueling, but the community reaction was amazing and made the whole thing worth it. As a Flash developer and a tinkerer, the thought of working for a company that will invest in ideas like Multiview is extremely appealing. Since we launched Multiview, I have been trying to come up with ideas for new ways to interact with video using a high performance CDN like BitGravity. If you have any thoughts, feel free to drop me an email!
It really is a joy working for BitGravity. One thing I have noticed my coworkers and bosses do very well that I personally need to work on is giving positive feedback and complimenting others. Sometimes I’m taken by surprise when someone seems blown away by something by something I made. When asked if I enjoy working there, I don’t hesitate to say yes. However, I haven’t — and feel like I should have — proactively given them positive feedback. Part of the motivation for this blog post was the desire to share with the world how I feel about the company, which is in some ways more of an endorsement of the company than a one-on-one conversation with the same feedback.
I understand what its like to be with a good company at this economic time. Its a great feeling isn’t it? This is when you should really feel appreciated and accepted as an employee of a company. Thanks for talking up bitgravity, I’m sure they deserve it 100 percent!!