Naptime

Mr. Garfield emailed me and told me it is okay to nap, based on my comment at the end of the last entry. Naps are something I used to always take. When I was at the Oregon Extension in 1988, 3pm became the official time of "all those worthy of the name student" to curl up on a couch with a book and a couple friends and then fall asleep. Whoever woke up first was the dinner maker. Doug's roommate Andy started this tradition, and we used it many times through that fall semester, sleeping on the couch like a pile of puppies.

I think of Andy whenever I do get a chance to nap. Which isn't too often. I miss Andy sometimes. But that's a story for another day...

Yesterday afternoon. Interview. It was a momentous occasion, in that I got to drive the truck solo down the infamous highway to a west of Boston suburb (must find easier alternative route to Watertown instead of taking Rte 128. Could take Rte 1 to Rte 16 and cut across that way, but not sure it'd be a good move...)

Driving the truck is a pleasure. I cranked up Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds "Live at Luther College," and rocked down the highway. Found the location easily enough. They are a start-up company and a friend of mine works there, so he got me the interview.

This company is starting to grow, and needing desperately to pull people into the fold. I interviewed not necessarily for a job, but to figure out where my skills would fit into this growing company.

They basically said they'd want me to be doing web/print writing for technical documentation and user training, which sounds fabulous to me. They liked the samples of the work I brought. They liked me and told me they'd want me to come back in and meet the two chief dudes, one of which I met in passing and the other is out of town.

They are very flexible with work schedules. Most of the employees work from home or come into the office for a few hours a day. Others come in first thing in the morning and stay until all hours, working and working. Quite like Microserfs.

(In fact, I couldn't help but think of Microserfs when I was interviewing with the first guy because he kept talking about Look and Feel for web design. Look and Feel were the names of the gerbils or hamsters or whatever small furry they had at the Oop! offices in the book. I laughed. Look and Feel).

Anyway -- it'd be a dream job for me. But there is one problem.

They don't have money. So the employees are currently working unpaid...

The way it works is everyone keeps track of his or her hours, and are granted future stock in the company when the company goes public OR they are bought by a competitor.

Scenario 1 is: when the company goes public, and person A has 50,000 shares of stock, he can sell that day to make some money, in part or in full, whatever he needs. Or, he can just hold on to the stock and wait and see what happens (me, I'd be selling 25,000 shares that day so I can pay my bills!)

Scenario 2 is: if and when the company is bought by a competitor, they will arrange for all the stock granted to date to be converted to the new company's stock and given to the employees right then. So then everyone will get paid. So if say Microsoft buys them, person A gets 50,000 shares of Microsoft right then. If the company keeps all the employees, they go on the Microsoft payroll.

So there are no salaries as of yet, until they sell several versions of their software and service out in the world and established, with income to pay people before the IPO. They have one customer they are doing an installation for right this minute, another that was just signed up, and two more that are in negotiations. They aren't using Venture Capital funding (VC) but are using Angel funding, which I know nothing about. I don't know how it works. I don't know what the deal is with how the investment gets paid back. I just know they don't pay money.

They have about 15 people working there, for future stock. My friend has been there a year. The founders -- three years, with no pay. I asked the guy interviewing me how people make their Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab Truck Payments if they are not getting paid.

His answer -- most of the people there are married, and live off their spouse/partner's income. Others who are single and unsupported by another individual's income have sidejobs that they do in the form of consulting, contractor work. So they sometimes scale back what they're doing for this company for a few weeks, still working on their projects of course, but they focus on the moneymaker for a while. And the owners have no problem with that. They know what they have to do to get the company going, and they're very close to their big launch, and they seem incredibly willing to work with anyone's situation.

So.

I'm sure they want me to work for them. I'm sure I'd succeed and do a very super excellent job. But. I have a truck to pay for, and not enough Life Energy to be a mom, work a side contracting job, and work for these guys. Hmmm.

The college I applied to work for sent me a letter letting me know they'd received my information and are putting me into the interview pool, and they asked me to fill out an optional EEOC form (are you white and male? yes? seeya!) and requested my transcripts. So those are en-route. I'll keep you posted there too.

What else to report -- not much. Can't really think of anything. I had something on my mind that I was going to write about, but can't recall what. I'm sure it will come to me when I'm not able to access this machine. I have work to do for CM and MF today, and more cateringman menus. They liked the menus I made and then came up with other ones that they weren't going to put into the format I designed, but then thought better of it.