GetAFreelancer Sucks! oDesk Doesn't Suck!

I know you've been missing my "... Sucks" postings, so here you go. I decided to try two outsourcing services to get a side project done for our website. The big firm, oDesk, I've actually done some work for as a service provider. I wrote up some economic analysis of the G7. I think my macro professor, Andy Rose, would be proud. oDesk is a site with great usability and great design. It provides the ability for extensive project management and easy communication - along with a strong feedback model. Definitely best of breed. Then there's GetAFreelancer.com on the other end of the spectrum. I should have been skeptical, but it's been around for a while and there are tons of people who have successfully used the service, so I figured, why not give it a try? Their design is terrible and their feedback system leaves a lot to be desired.

I posted the job in both places and awaited the responses. I had quite a few in a short amount of time. There was quite a big price differential between the two. This was a small project, and GetAFreelancer sourced me some offers at almost half the price. I figured there wasn't much to lose using the service since you don't pay until your job is complete. Though you do have to deposit money on their site (through Paypal or several other ways)

The candidate on GetAFreelancer was incredibly responsive, answering emails several times a day for days on end. So I chose him and began the project. Well, it's now been 3 weeks and I haven't heard a peep from him since he won the job. He doesn't respond to emails and has pretty much disappeared.

I tried to reopen the project to get other talent, but the hoops you had to jump through were enough to make me leave. You had to send emails back and forth to support, which extended the project constantly. Part of my issue was getting this done quickly, which wasn't possible.

After finally getting my project reopened, the service charge wasn't refunded. And while they were responsive, I had to jump through hoops to get that taken care of. Long story short, I closed the project and went to oDesk. But... it wasn't over. My deposit (the amount I had to put in my account) is still sitting with them. And to withdraw it takes two weeks, in addition to a service fee. So they take money from you up front when you hire someone and then they take money from you when you withdraw money. And I didn't even use them. I hate schemes like this. Now, in fairness, many people probably have great experiences. I just wouldn't use them again. I'm using oDesk now and am very happy with the project. The developer rules. And I still can't leave negative feedback for the guy on GetAFreelancer! COME ON!

The Cool Thing About an MBA

I went down to Google yesterday to participate in an information session for Haas. It was somewhere in the middle of the question and answer session where I spoke about how great it was to be an alumni of Cal and how it really opens doors for you everywhere you go. In addition to all of the great people who have helped us out with Vyoo so far, last week was yet another case of this in action.

I sent a few email to some math professors at Berkeley. I wanted someone to take a look at what we were doing with our algorithm and to help us design a more efficient approach to running this algorithm in real time. The calculations get pretty computationally intensive and grow more so quite dramatically as new users are added.

Professor John Strain met with me last Thursday. His specialties are: Applied mathematics, Numerical analysis, Fast algorithms, and Materials science. It was the numerical analysis and fast algorithms that really interested me. But anyway, he was a Math professor at Berkeley so I knew he was brilliant. Just spending time with people like Professor Strain is rewarding in itself.

He ended sitting down with me for quite a while, looking over what we were doing, explaining the intricacies of the calculations, and presenting me with a solution to how we could improve the speed of what we were doing. While I had read a bit about what he was showing me in advance, I had a difficult time understanding. He walked me through it, showing great patience. I can imagine how difficult it must be to have to walk someone through something you can see so clearly. But alas, I got it... and what he showed me made great sense. I've always had a passion for math. It's one of those cool properties that guide a great deal of life on this earth.

In any event, he was a great teacher and an excellent person and seems truly interested in our approach. We ended up chatting for quite a while about all sorts of interesting things: travel, linguistics, Asia, recommendations... definitely a cool meeting.

World AIDS Day 2008

Today is World AIDS Day. Doesn't it seem like every other day is a day that represents a cause? It does to me.

I'm happy that people are taking a look at AIDS again. It seems like the disease has slipped under our collective radar. I remember being petrified, constantly thinking about contracting HIV when I was younger. I think there is this misguided assumption that it's a disease that only affects certain people, but that's not entirely true. Sure, there is a disproportionate number of black people who have contracted HIV in this country. More than half of the just over 1M people who have it. And sure it affects the homosexual community more than the heterosexual community. But that sure as hell doesn't mean you can't get it. I can't tell you how many of my friends have unprotected sex. It's really mind boggling.

You can read more about World AIDS Day 2008 here: http://www.worldaidscampaign.org/static/en/

What I'm Not Thankful For...

Now that Thanksgiving has passed, the next logical step is to post what I'm not thankful for. Actually, I was trying to wrap my head around writing a Euclidean Distance calculator for our algorithm when I decided to take a bathroom break. The seat was down on the toilet in the men's room. And yea, I know you don't want to hear it, but the person who used it last didn't need the seat down, but felt no need to put it up. So... I began to wonder why some people don't think about anyone but themselves.

So here are some of my pet peeves, in no particular order:

1) Leaving the toilet seat down and peeing all over it (this bathroom peeve includes people who don't wash their hands when using the restroom)
2) Not using a blinker (this is probably near the top of the list)
3) Not saying thank you
4) People who can never accept they're wrong
5) eBay ;)
6) Constant negativity (caveat: while I complain a lot on this blog - I assure you I pass along a good bit of positivity here and there)
7) Not taking out the trash (when it gets to the point of stinking)

Happy Thanksgiving To All, From Vyoo!

It's time to look back at the last year and think about what we're giving thanks for today. Here's my quick list:

1) Family. While I'm not with them today, I'm thankful for a happy, healthy, and supportive family. They've been behind Vyoo, well, not since the beginning, but they've come around.

2) Friends. We all need these. They too have been supportive, in both my personal and professional life. My good friend Nader Ghaffari always tells me, "surround yourself with good people, it serves to make you that much better". I think I'm doing a good job of that, which is more a testament to my friends than to me.

3) The end of an era. Thank you Mr. Bush for not increasing term limits. It'll be nice to see some positivity coming out of the States going forward.

4) Turkey. I love Thanksgiving dinner. It's my favorite meal! Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes. Apple pie. Mmmmm!

Are Unions Good or Bad? It All Depends...

In my post about the government bailout of the auto industry, I made a crack about unions. I'm not a fan of unions. Let me explain.

My memories about unions start back in 4th grade (give or take). I remember reading about the Industrial Revolution in our history book and seeing the squalid conditions that workers had to endure in the little pictures accompanying that chapter. It sticks with me today. And every time I think about unions, the pictures come back. Long work hours, crappy living conditions, unfair labor practices. People stacked on top of each other in makeshift communal living. I couldn't really grasp what it was like during the days of the booming tanneries in Lynn (the town next to where I grew up) and Lowell, Massachusetts. It seemed dreadful. And finally, the workers began to unite. They protested, picketed, and finally unionized behind a central leadership to force changes in the industry. It worked. Albeit slowly. And it achieved its goals. And worked well during the Industrial Revolution and even beyond.

Today, things are a lot different. Unions have incredible power and leverage in their respective industries. They force labor issues often. France, a model of labor strife, has their transportation shut down intermittently. I was stuck on a train for 48 hours because of this back in 2001. Yes, I could get off, but the train wasn't moving. Shut down on the Spanish border because the French workers struck.

Now I ask you to take a look a little deeper into unions in the States. It's the larger unions I'm most concerned about. The airline and auto labor unions for example. Take a look at the auto union's wages above. There are stories littered across the web about forklift operators making over $100,000/yr (here). And you want me to feel bad for these people? When a union gets big enough it becomes a danger unto itself. With the clout of these unions, the automakers and airlines are at their beckon call. If the unions shut down their industries, this stands to bankrupt the very people they work for. These workers aren't clamoring for improved conditions to unbearable circumstances, but they're working towards higher pay, more benefits, and less labor. At what cost?

These unions are making American companies uncompetitive. You wonder why manufacturing is getting outsourced? Why would you wonder when a line worker is making $30/hr (a staggering $65/hr cost to the employer considering benefits). Or that forklift operator? You wonder why the airline industry is suffering and cutting benefits to the people paying for their services? Because their workers keep asking for more. Why can international airlines still serve food (and Continental airlines I might add), especially airlines from weaker economies (sure there are some where there is government intervention), but their workers aren't unionized.

Now here's a case where I think unions are still necessary - or at least some sort of organization: eBay sellers. Their sellers are getting raked over the coals and they have no recourse. Maybe they stop selling, but then their livelihood shuts down. Or how about doctors? They're prevented from striking, for obvious reasons, but they have very little voice in the changes that are occurring in their industry. Sure there are physician lobbies - but they don't work very well. Less care, less reimbursement, no recourse. That's what's been happening for the last 15 years. During the discussion to socialize medicine, it's interesting nobody talks about the current state of medicare and medicaid and the continual cutting of reimbursements to physicians. I guess your poor grandmother doesn't need that extra test ordered to save her life. And if she does, I guess doc should pay up.

Jim Hornthal and Triporati

Two years ago, right around now, I went to meet with Jim Hornthal. Jim was the founding member of Preview Travel, one of the first online travel companies. He became the first vice-Chairman of Travelocity when the two companies merged. He left when they were acquired by Sabre. I met with Jim to discuss working on a project during my final semester at Haas. I wanted to research a travel project and Jim was the ideal person to speak with.

I can't say the meeting went well. At least from my perspective. He was straightforward and honest and gave me the rundown on the difficulties of getting into the travel space. In fact, he told me if I had anything else worth doing, I should do it. I was a bit deflated, but it really helped me evaluate the idea and work on improving my approach.

I was excited to see Jim holding office hours this week and wanted the chance to catch-up with him. Both to let him know I forged ahead anyway, despite his best efforts, and to discuss our new business with him to get his perspective. Jim is also working on a new business, Triporati. While his tag line shares some similarities with our approach, we're tackling the problem from different angles.

"We help you discover great trips - for your unique travel interests" - Triporati

Jim was more forgiving this time around and was genuinely interested in what we were doing and how he could help. We spoke about the difficulties we had in attempting to solve the problem of efficiently delivering and personalizing content. We talked about Dr. Stanley Plog's BestTripChoices website. And how it's difficult to bucket travelers because people have different reasons for traveling. That's why I think Dr. Plog may fail. We also shared our skepticism of semantic search, with sites like UpTake. The semantic web is good for objective data, but in order to deliver more subjective content, like reviews or recommendations, it's necessary to find out more about the person searching than the content. People have different ideas of what they think is "cool" for example, so if you and I search for a "cool" hotel - we'll expect different results. Semantic search doesn't account for situations like that.

My two biggest takeaways from this were:
1) We're trying to tackle some important issues. Problems that have a long way to go before they're solved but that provide quite a bit of business opportunity.

2) Partnerships will be difficult in this economy as the first thing to get cut are budgets aimed at trying new things. As Jim said, most stagnant companies won't try to innovate during tough times, but they will hope their results change. And unlikely expectation.