I read this post with some measure of amusement. We'll be unveiling 3 or 4 major initiatives before the end of the year, which really represent the first complete turn-of-the-crank for the Brickhouse / Advanced Products model. Brickhouse is thriving. You'll be hearing more about these soon, and though I'm quite tempted to crow about them now... I'll resist.
Regarding the departures, Pipes "graduated" from Brickhouse (and hence left my group) several quarters ago. (And Ed had actually moved on from Pipes months ago.) From concept to hand-off Pasha spent more than a year on the project - frankly longer than we generally plan for... Our model is literally based on the premise that the DNA required to innovate as a "founder" on a small team is fundamentally different than the DNA required to operate on ongoing concern within a big company. (Hence Brickhouse.) Hence this kind of turnover is not only expected, but anticipated and baked into the model. We definitely ask our "founders" to help with tech transfer and transition, which both Pasha and Ed did in a totally responsible fashion. I know they both want to see Pipes succeed.
Frankly, my group is almost designed for "churn." I've been psyched to have "spun in" folks like Marc Davis (into our Connected Life business unit), Cameron Marlow (into Yahoo! Research), Matthew Rothenberg (into Flickr), etc. It's definitely a drag when talented folks "spin out" of my group and leave Yahoo, but it happens. Sometimes they go to Google. Sometimes they come back from Google. In fact that happened to Pasha. ;-)
I've got nothing but respect and admiration for both Ed and Pasha, and definitely wish them well. We'll miss them, but Brickhouse is thriving. Go Fish!
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Great stuff Brad! Nice to see someone respond to the V-wag fishing!
[...] Earlier today, we asked about Yahoo’s Brickhouse — the ostensible incubator of innovation in San Francisco’s South Park charged with reviving Yahoo’s reputation for Web cool. Departures from the Pipes project, the only notable product release from Brickhouse, raised questions about the operation. Brickhouse head Bradley Horowitz thinks his group is “thriving,” but a recent ex-Brickhouse employee reports otherwise. His complaints range from the petty (the office “smelled like dirty socks”) to the more troubling (Horowitz, he claims, “suffers from god syndrome and needs to get over himself”). The full email, after the jump. I worked at Brickhouse and quit. The place smelled like dirty socks and had no ventilation. In general the building feels cursed, probably from the old Organic days. [Organic, an online ad agency, used to occupy the same building, which Yahoo now shares with Wired. — Ed.]I even question the seismic soundness of that building. Don’t take your kids there either, they could fall through the railings on the stairs. [...]
[...] Earlier today, we asked about Yahoo’s Brickhouse — the ostensible incubator of innovation in San Francisco’s South Park charged with reviving Yahoo’s reputation for Web cool. Departures from the Pipes project, the only notable product release from Brickhouse, raised questions about the operation. Brickhouse head Bradley Horowitz thinks his group is “thriving,” but a recent ex-Brickhouse employee reports otherwise. His complaints range from the petty (the office “smelled like dirty socks”) to the more troubling (Horowitz, he claims, “suffers from god syndrome and needs to get over himself”). The full email, after the jump. I worked at Brickhouse and quit. The place smelled like dirty socks and had no ventilation. In general the building feels cursed, probably from the old Organic days. [Organic, an online ad agency, used to occupy the same building, which Yahoo now shares with Wired. — Ed.]I even question the seismic soundness of that building. Don’t take your kids there either, they could fall through the railings on the stairs. [...]
[...] Earlier today, we asked about Yahoo’s Brickhouse — the ostensible incubator of innovation in San Francisco’s South Park charged with reviving Yahoo’s reputation for Web cool. Departures from the Pipes project, the only notable product release from Brickhouse, raised questions about the operation. Brickhouse head Bradley Horowitz thinks his group is “thriving,” but a recent ex-Brickhouse employee reports otherwise. His complaints range from the petty (the office “smelled like dirty socks”) to the more troubling (Horowitz, he claims, “suffers from god syndrome and needs to get over himself”). The full email, after the jump. I worked at Brickhouse and quit. The place smelled like dirty socks and had no ventilation. In general the building feels cursed, probably from the old Organic days. [Organic, an online ad agency, used to occupy the same building, which Yahoo now shares with Wired. — Ed.]I even question the seismic soundness of that building. Don’t take your kids there either, they could fall through the railings on the stairs. [...]
Current Brickhouse employee Tom Coates (who actually risked spending the entire day there, dirty socks and seismic danger and all!) agrees that Valleywag is loopy: http://twitter.com/plasticbagUK/statuses/292967582
God
(er, um, Bradley)
A part of me simply doesn't want to say anything because I'm just responding to trash talk but Valleywag has the story so wrong that I can't resist chiming in.
First, Brickhouse is easily the greatest office space I've ever had the pleasure of working in. Others can judge it for themselves (but it's awesome):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dpstyles/523838360/
Second, accusations of you having a "god syndrome" couldn't be more off. You've been the biggest fan and supporter of each and every project happening at Brickhouse.
You're not only familiar with everybody working there you're also genuinely interested in helping them, their projects and teams in every possible, positive way. I constantly hear you asking various folks "How is the project going?" Followed by, "More importantly, how are you doing?" And closing with offering to help out in any way you can.
I've said it before to you but it's been a pleasure working for and around you! I most definitely learned a ton. BTW, what's that about projects at Brickhouse being slow as molasses? Pipes was built in
hehe, got cutoff:
Pipes was built in
[...] Bradley, don’t let this get you down, keep on making Yahoo better! Glad to see you send VW fishing for a real story. [...]
Hi Brad,
This feels so stalkerish (readers, this has little to do with Brad's blogs). I was looking for Eve H.'s e-mail, just found her phone. I was thinking (and thinking in a very loose term of the word) of trying to make some kind of reunion of the '87 U of M, Psych 369 (369?) "culture" happen. Okay, it would be a year past 20 years.
Two things -- if you're interested, but 2000 or whatever miles is too far to come, maybe you could send some video, or a paper or song or something, and 2) Want to e-mail a bit? I am doing well and about to move back to my favorite home of the last twenty years, a groovy, west-side Cleveland suburb.
If interested, check out poemhunter.com, I have some poems.
(okay, if you're asking "who's marc mannheimer--U of M, SY, anorexic, not too happy a character, at the time)
take er care,
Marc
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