Interview with Zappos Shoes' CEO Tony Hsieh

Frequently, when you read an article about a business it focuses on “business” facts, such as earnings, future plans for expansion, and primary clients. Although you may find a few quotes from key personnel, you hardly get a feel for the executives who are often the driving force behind the business. This week, Xconomy interviewed Tony Hsieh (pronounced “shay”), Harvard graduate, and CEO of online shoe retailer Zappos. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/bpVycU)

Hsieh was in Boston promoting his new book “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose.” In the book, Hsieh talks about key events in his life, including his sale of Link Exchange to Microsoft and his sale of Zappos to Amazon.com, as well as his personal philosophy.

During his interview with Xconomy, Hsieh stressed the importance of “following your passions,” saying that, “The other stuff will naturally fall into place if you actively pursue that.”

Hsieh went on to explain that when you do follow your passions your personal life with become intertwined with your business life, evoking the adage “Find something you love doing, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” According to Hseih, he derives happiness from “anything that involves thinking outside the box, going against conventional wisdom.” Essentially, creativity is Hsieh’s passion.

Hsieh offered a particularly interesting response when asked what his biggest mistake was as CEO of Zappos. “I would say the biggest category of mistakes that I’ve made, and we’ve made at Zappos, has been in hiring,” Hsieh confided. “We’ve been around for 11 years. If you add up the cost of all our bad hires and the bad decisions they made—they also hired people, and so forth—over 11 years it has cost the company well over $100 million.”

On the same topic, Hsieh said that his one question to the metaphorical “God of Business” would be “Where are the good people to hire?”

“Ultimately, for Zappos, that has been the limiting factor--being able to hire people that are talented enough and fit our culture, and being able to hire them fast enough,” Hsieh explained. “If we could hire them faster than we can today, we’d grow really fast. A lot of businesses look at what their sales projections are and so on, and try to hire people into it. Whereas I think we really do it more as, hire the right people, and the sales will naturally be a function of how many great people you have. We’re about 2,200 people now.” (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/dsKnh3)

As a recruiting professional myself, it was validating to read that, even with all of Hsieh’s notable experience, he sees employees as the key to his success or failure. Hsieh has witnessed firsthand how much time and money a company can save by hiring the correct people upfront. He also understands that “correct” does not simply mean that a candidate is “well qualified,” but also that she will embrace the company’s culture. In Zappos, or in any company, it is the qualified and passionate candidates that will lead the way to success.

[Sources: Xconomy - http://bit.ly/aHhxHK]

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Tewksbury's TimeTrade Systems Looking to Hire

Although Massachusetts’ unemployment rate has been decreasing over the past several months, it will still take a substantial amount of hiring before unemployment returns to a desirable level. Tewksbury’s TimeTrade Systems Inc. has announced that it will be doing its part to help out by allocating some of the $5.6 million it acquired in a recent inside round of venture financing to hire sales and marketing personnel. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/aPJM1K)

TimeTrade Systems specializes in “web-based software products designed to support service appointment scheduling for large enterprises.” Including the most recent round of funding, TimeTrade Systems has raised over $18.7 million since its inception in 1999.

“I was pleased that we were able to raise substantially more than we targeted,” said Ed Mallen, CEO of TimeTrade Systems, in regards to this month’s new funding. “I believe this financing round solidly reflects the continued confidence and support of our investors and their belief in the growing role online appointment scheduling will play as a central element in the fabric of the Social Web and the increasing importance of online connections to how companies do business with other companies and with consumers.”

In addition to offering entry-level sales and marketing jobs, TimeTrade is looking to fill some senior positions. Currently, the company is seeking software architecture directors as well as senior account executives. Beyond hiring, TimeTrade plans to use its new funding to expand its software package.

“TimeTrade delivers tens of millions of appointments each year for our largest customers and we are excited about making this capability more readily available to more sales and marketing teams--to help them accelerate the sales cycle, while also improving customer satisfaction that will drive loyalty and repeat revenue,” CEO Mallen said. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/cbOPiy)

Exceeding its anticipated funding goal is great news for TimeTrade. Clearly, investors feel confident in the company’s future. TimeTrade will have to ensure it spends its funding wisely, so future investing rounds will prove equally as successful and the company can continue its impressive expansion.

[Sources: http://bit.ly/9J4m1l, http://bit.ly/baUMW0, http://bit.ly/aPJM1K]

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Dassault Systèmes Opens Expansive Waltham Headquarters

At the end of every month, as a new wave of leases expire, several stories of buildings in the Greater Boston area changing hands are released. Often, companies expand to fill neighboring square footage or relocate to larger facilities to accommodate new growth. This month, France’s Dassault Systèmes (DS), “a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management solutions,” announced the signing of the largest lease in Greater Boston for 2010: a 320,300 square foot campus, which spans 175 and 185 Wyman Street in Waltham, MA. The expansive buildings are composed of office space, technology labs, and a high-tech data center. (Image courtesy: http://www.3ds.com/)

“This outstanding new campus will enable us to consolidate our businesses and employees into a single, world-class, state-of-the-art Americas headquarters that truly reflects the vision of our company while allowing DS to optimize our operational effectiveness and efficiency as we execute our growth plans,” said Al Bunshaft, Managing Director of DS Americas. “The Boston area has been the birthplace of many of the world’s most brilliant high tech companies and we are pleased to announce DS’s commitment to this dynamic area for the long term.”

Before selecting the Waltham location, DS led a comprehensive search of over 20 locations “stretching from Boston to Route 495” over the course of a year. One aspect of the Wyman Street location that appealed to DS was that it was built to LEED Gold standards, as established by the US Green Building Council. Additionally, the location provides easy access to Boston and Logan International Airport and will be optimal for recruiting workers from nearby colleges.

“We are thrilled that global technology leader Dassault Systèmes chose to locate its new Americas corporate campus here in Massachusetts,” said Deval Patrick, Massachusetts’ Governor. “This decision speaks to the economic opportunity, world class talent, and innovation that are unique to the Commonwealth, and we look forward to a long partnership with Dassault Systèmes moving forward.” (Image courtesy: http://www.3ds.com/)

The motivation to move into a new facility rose from necessity for DS after the company “out-grew” its former Lowell and Concord Massachusetts offices when its workforce within the state surpassed 800. This time, DS has anticipated continued aggressive hiring by selecting a large building for its regional headquarters, which provides plenty of room to future expansion.

Perhaps the only ones likely to see DS’s expansion as negative are the company’s rivals. Of course, even then, a little healthy competition is great for keeping companies on their toes. The fact that DS selected the Waltham campus in part because of its access to recent college graduates is encouraging. Providing a solid supply of quality jobs to recent graduates is one of the best ways to protect against a “brain drain” caused when young professional leave the state in search of better opportunities. It will be exciting to track Dassault Systèmes’ progress in the Bay State.

[Sources: http://bit.ly/8XYpzJ, http://bit.ly/d5BBgH, http://bit.ly/dii68o]

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uTest Looking to Expand with $13M Series C Funding

New venture funding can mean many different things for a young company. Often, a fresh supply of money can allow for turning an idea into a prototype or spur taking a prototype to production. For Southborough’s uTest Inc., a software testing community, $13 million in Series C funding means expansion. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/emvhp)

“We’ll be rolling out programs, training, and things of that nature that help with the skill level and help identify promising testers and make sure they get onramped to the right project,” Matt Johnston, uTest’s Vice President of Marketing and Community, said.

Back in 2007, when uTest was founded, the company announced its goal of “assembling a global army of testers.” uTest works by encouraging people from all over the world with programming experience to create accounts on its website. Next, uTest matches software testers with interested clients. From there, software testers are paid for every software bug they discover.

Much of uTest’s new funding will be put towards hiring community managers and in-house software engineers. Two objectives these new hires will be tasked with will be improving the software testing tools uTest provides to its community members and integrating uTest’s software with several common programs already used by its clients.

“This was a highly competitive situation, which is a testament to our growth and execution, as well as our belief that all applications need to be tested in the wild,” said Doron Reuveni, CEO of uTest, in regards to his company’s recent round of funding. “By enabling software, media and retail companies to get their apps tested in as little as 48 hours – and for a fraction of the cost of traditional outsourced testing – uTest is leaving a lasting footprint on the testing industry.” (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/aZGA5k)

uTest’s business model seems perfect for moving towards meeting its goal of “assembling a global army of testers.” By only hiring a core of employees to improve infrastructure, and then matching online software testers with clients, the company truly can have a global reach without spreading itself too thin. Massachusetts is fortunate that uTest decided to employ its core of in-house employees here in the Bay State.

[Sources: http://bit.ly/98kuZ4, http://bit.ly/emvhp, http://huff.to/9iVJp0)

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Acumen Solutions Opens Boston Branch

Some of the most successful companies in the world, not to mention the wealthiest, have locations in Boston. Naturally, if you are a business-to-business consulting agency, the city is going to be a highly appealing destination. Recently, international leader in business and technology consulting, Acumen Solutions, announced the opening of its new Boston office.

Acumen decided to open the office in part because of a need for a support location for its New England-based customers, and in part because of a major deal the company signed with the City of Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development. Acumen will be implementing “a Salesforce.com cloud computing solution” to allow Boston’s Office of Business Development (OBD) to more easily and effectively connect with the city’s small businesses and to ensure enhanced transparency. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/9g94gR)

“By setting up a Boston office, Acumen Solutions is adding to the city’s already strong economy and bringing new jobs to the area,” Rafael Carbonell, Deputy Director for the Department of Neighborhood Development’s Office of Business Development explained. “The cloud computing work that they are doing for us will help us to better serve our constituents in Boston’s small business community.”

Once complete, the OBD will integrate its Salesforce.com data with the Salesforce.com data of Boston Main Streets and of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA). Saleforce.com is a subscription-based, customer relationship management (CRM) program, which is used to track and share information about current customers and potential leads. Once fully integrated, the program is known for its ease of use.

“Boston is a great city and we are proud to be opening a Boston office, which will strengthen support for our client base in the New England area,” said David Joubran, CEO of Acumen Solutions. “Boston has many Global 1000 enterprises in sectors that we serve such as financial services, insurance, healthcare, government, technology and education. In addition to creating jobs, Acumen Solutions will provide a breadth of business strategy and technology solutions for those large enterprises in New England who are leading the way in more effective IT delivery.(Image courtesy: salesforce.com)

Presently, Acumen is actively seeking to hire CRM Configuration Analysts to staff its new Boston location. Furthermore, the company has expressed that it will likely post additional jobs over the next few weeks as it becomes more established in its new location.

It seems that Acumen’s decision to open a Boston location will serve not only to strengthen its own infrastructure, but also that of the city, considering the company will use its services to integrate the OBD’s data with Salesforce.com. The new, leading-edge jobs that Acumen will bring with it into the Bay State are, of course, another great perk.

[Sources: http://bit.ly/csf0ch, http://bit.ly/99AoHk]

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Betahouse Closes Its Doors But Lives On Online

By now you have likely heard about programs like MassChallenge or maybe even DogPatch Labs, which are designed to build community among entrepreneurs and provide access to vital business resources. While the two aforementioned programs are running strong, another key player in the arena, Cambridge’s Betahouse, “Boston’s longest running coworking space” and a community for “creative types working in or around technology,” has closed its physical location in Central Square.

“The Betahouse community will live on virtually, and in some cases physically,” said Betahouse’s founder, Jon Pierce. “Basically I’m putting on the back burner, for now, getting a new space.” (Image courtesy: http://betahouse.org/)

If you have been following Pierce’s blog, this turn of events may have caught you by surprise. Pierce's last entry, posted just over two months ago, announced the anticipated move of Betahouse to a facility “twice the size” of the old one. Peirce has since told reporters that the lease on this new property fell through, leaving the group with no physical location as of August 31st when the lease on the group's original loft space ran out.

This original loft location only held fifteen desks and was zoned residential. This sparked several conflicts with neighbors when the group used to hold large, and relatively noisy, events at the loft. Eventually, because of complaints, Betahouse was forced to end all on-site events, which took away some of the group’s “forward momentum,” according to Brian Del Vecchio, former Executive Chef and Community Organizer at Betahouse.

Despite the closure of its physical location, Betahouse intends to expand its online presence. Already the group has a large, and growing, email list and a substantial following on common social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter.

“It’s easier for freelancers and consultants and people bringing in real money to rationalize that expense (of running office space),” Pierce said. “If you’re trying to create a community of startups and people doing something creative, it’s hard to keep the community focused on that in the face of mounting economic pressures,” Pierce explained, implying Betahouse may actually perform better without the worry of paying for a brick-and-mortar location.

“It was never about the space purely. Space is sort of a commodity,” Pierce said. “It was more about the community, and I think community can survive.”

Innately, it seems like a bad sign when an organization closes a location, but it may actually prove to be a wise decision for Betahouse. Piece expressed that the group’s previous space was too small and not appropriate for events. Now, with the money Betahouse will save from not having to pay a lease, it will have funds to put towards hosting events at more appropriate venues. I would not be surprised if Betahouse enjoys more success now that it has eliminated a substantial portion of its overhead.

[Sources: http://bit.ly/9dzvV4, http://bit.ly/bn3p2X, http://betahouse.org/]

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CLC bio Selects Cambridge for its North and South America Headquarters

Anyone who has walked the streets of Boston can see that the city draws people from all over the globe. Naturally, some of these international guests are there looking for real-estate. Recently, Denmark’s CLC bio, a “life sciences services company providing hardware, software, and data analytics,” announced plans to expand its Cambridge presence. (Image courtesy: http://www.clcbio.com/)

Last week, CLC bio purchased a new building on 10 Rogers Street in Kendall Square. According to the company, this facility will serve as CLC bio’s sales, marketing, and support operating headquarters for North and South America.

CLC bio’s President of the Americas, Dan Conway, expressed that the company will be actively looking to hire people with sales and life sciences backgrounds to fill newly created positions. Additionally, CLC bio will be seeking a handful of administrative professionals as support staff at its new location.

“Our customers and partners are clearly members of a global industry and we strongly believe that we need a significant presence in both North and South America in order to serve their interests,” Conway said in regards to CLC bio’s decision to open a regional headquarters in Cambridge. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/cxVXCL)

At just four years old, CLC bio also has sales offices in the United Kingdom, India, and Brazil, as well as a number of sales partnerships, which expand the company’s reach much farther. Presently, CLC bio is privately held and employs forty-one, although its headcount will be growing quickly in upcoming months as its Cambridge headquarters takes on new staff.

It is heartening to see that, out of all the possible cities in North and South America, CLC bio chose Cambridge, Massachusetts as the location for its regional headquarters. Furthermore, it is great to hear that CLC bio has decided to fill its new positions locally, rather than by relocating existing staff. Surely professionals in the Cambridge area will show interest in working at a successful and growing company like CLC bio.

[Sources: http://www.clcbio.com/, http://bit.ly/9n79xv]

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Decades of Hard Work Lead to Unica’s $480M Acquisition

Often, when a big acquisition is announced, you read a little about the company being acquired, a little about the company purchasing it, and maybe a few quotes from executives on both sides of the transaction. If you do not take the time to look beyond these quick facts, though, you might be surprised at what you are missing.

Last month, IBM acquired Waltham-based Unica for $480 million. During his life, Unica’s co-founder, Yuchun Lee, has done everything from participate in MIT’s now famous (or perhaps infamous) blackjack team, upon which the movie “21” and the book “Bringing Down the House” are based, to steer his company through four recession and finally an IPO in 2005. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/a7nO8E)

“The hardest thing is having the emotional fortitude to have conviction in what you think is the right path,” Lee explained. “It’s kind of like blackjack. You may get a string of bad hands, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have an edge on the market.”

At the age of 13, Lee moved to the United States from Taiwan. While still in high school, Lee launched his first software company in Houston, TX. In the mid-1980s, Lee moved to Boston where he got both his undergraduate and master’s degrees from MIT in electrical engineering and computer science.

Along with MIT grads David Cheung and Ruby Kennedy, Lee formed Unica in 1992. Initially, the company’s focus was on data mining and financial modeling. Gradually, Unica shifted into the marketing software industry.

“Marketing was not automated then,” Lee said, justifying his company’s change is focus. “We thought it was pretty interesting, and a big-budget item for companies.”

In between trips to Las Vegas, where he gambled on MITs Blackjack Team, Lee worked to keep his company in the black into the late 1990s. While Lee has not confirmed putting any of his winnings towards funding Unica, he ran his company for years without any funding from outside investors, leading some to believe it is likely. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/a7nO8E)

Unica brought in $48 million from its IPO along with $60 million in product sales in 2005. The company was growing, healthy, and appeared to be unstoppable.

“2009 was the only year in our history that we declined,” Lee explained. “Customers stopped buying.”

This setback in 2009 proved to be relatively brief. Just months into 2010, Unica was hiring again. Presently, the company has over 500 employees and more than 1,500 customers. Of course, this year Unica also caught the attention of IBM and is now owned by the company.

“IBM is in a really good position to shape the conversation in this market, to drive adoption in general… Marketing is undergoing a major transformation… through digital and social channels. The trend is very clear in our mind. The move is toward digital... even for smaller companies... My plan is to stay on. I’m personally very excited.” (Image courtesy: http://www.imb.com/)

It is clear from this summary of Lee’s accomplishments that he has worked incredibly hard during his life and consequently enjoyed many successes. While it has to be strange in some ways for him to hand over the company he started 18 years ago, I have no doubt that he will continue to grow and succeed as an employee of IBM. Finding a story like Lee’s makes you happy you took a moment to look a little deeper in IBM’s purchase of Unica.

[Sources: http://bit.ly/9QstIE, http://bit.ly/a7nO8E]

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