Changing Rides

For the last four years, our family has ridden the roller coaster that is entrepreneurship, with exciting highs that take your breath away and scary lows that make you want to close your eyes.  My husband is a remarkable man, gifted with the confidence to make every twist and turn smooth and carefree.  His capacity for learning new things, solving hard problems and negotiating relationships keeps him ahead of the game.  And though his capacity is far beyond what anyone else I know can absorb, he too has a limit.  You can read his own words about leaving Snoball on his blog.

So we found ourselves stepping off the self-employment roller coaster and settling into more of a traditional ride.  He didn't have to search long before companies started lining up to interview him.  I'm not the only one that recognizes something special in him.  At the end of November, he started a new job with Indeed.com.  I had never even heard of them, but they are apparently the largest job search engine on the web, even surpassing monster.com.  Shows how long I've been out of the loop.

His title is "labs hacker."  Doesn't that sound like him?  If I understand it correctly, his team comes up with new solutions to site-wide problems, and makes sure they work on a small subset of the traffic.  Then they pass it off to the development team to make it work site-wide, and start on a new problem.  So he gets to learn new things and solve hard problems without the CEO-ness that never really fit comfortably.

We were riding the roller coaster together and I was excited with him, but I felt the weight of it too.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a smidge relieved to step off.  I know we'll take that ride again sometime.  He has way too many incredible ideas to not try it again.  But we all need some time to recuperate. And I'm equally as excited to see him have the opportunity to decompress some and get out from under what was never intended to be a burden.

Only God knows where this new adventure will lead.  But I don't think it will be quite so white-knuckled.  I'm honored to be a passenger with the man that is immeasurably more than I could have asked or imagined when I prayed for a husband.

More Great Press

How about The Boston Globe for a little Snoball.com love?  And a great interview on our local ABC affiliate just this morning.  So exciting and surreal!!

Up Early

J's alarm went off at 2:20 am this morning.  He was out the door shortly after 3am, on his way to the local NBC station in downtown Austin for a live interview on CNBC.  The spot was due to come on at 4:20 am, so I set my alarm for 4:15 am and went downstairs to catch his two minutes.  It was a two-hour show that started at 3:00 am, so I fast-forwarded through the majority to get a feel for what kind of show it was.  It was "Worldwide Exchange" with an anchor in London and another in Singapore (I think).  So J was piped in via satellite.  It was a very stock-exchange heavy news show, so I wasn't sure how Snoball would fit in, but they requested the interview, so we were excited for the incredible opportunity.

Here's what he saw....at the studio...quite a bit different from the local show's set-up.  And here's what I saw from my couch....Snoball on CNBC.

It was a bummer that the interview got interrupted by breaking news, especially since the breaking news was the result of an Italian bond auction.  J said they had prepped him for a possible interruption.  Apparently, the mediocre results of the auction are strong enough to keep the Italian economy from collapsing, so you know....I guess that's breaking news.

He still got in a really great explanation of Snoball and lots of exposure for the company.  Then he was back home and in bed again by 5:30 am.  But not before driving through on his way home to bring us all a special breakfast.  I just saw it in my fridge.  Not only is he a genius nerd leading an amazing team to becoming a household name, he's also thoughtful and considerate.  And mine (smitten sigh).

This is the last interview that we know of for right now.  It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks with all the great press.  This just means the Snoball Christmas party next year is really going to be surreal.  To God be the glory!

Makin' News!

Look who got up early to make news - Snoball on Good Day Austin!  Crazy, surreal cool!

Here's what he saw....
waiting his turn
on the couch
scary teleprompters

That's My Man!

As I was reading the latest article on Snoball, I got to the middle part where the writer talks about the qualifications of the person he interviewed and realized, "Holy hippies and nerds, Batman!  I'm married to that genius!"  (You have to read the article to get the reference.)  I'm so proud of you, J--every little hippy, nerd, genius bit of you!!

It's a God Thing!

Last night we had the profound blessing to have dinner with about two dozen people who are now part of the Snoball fort.  The original four founding families kept looking around and at each other, repeating the same word, "Surreal."  Our little company is up to 15 employees now and they gathered with their significant others for a Christmas party last night.  Best office Christmas party ever!  Every time I shook a new hand and tried to remember a new name, my heart praised God for the answer to prayer that that individual was.  We have prayed and prayed for the right people, in the right time and God is answering in ways that are more than we could ask or imagine.  I even heard it from several of the employees, "This is just such an amazing team; I love working here!"

Another comment I heard a lot last night was how great a boss these folks have.  It was so good to be in J's world and hear what is going on and swim in those frenzied waters for a few hours.  He is doing an a-ma-zing job at the helm of this speedboat.  His capacity for keeping up with the high-level strategy while also managing the day-to-day operations continues to mesmerize me.  I don't give him nearly enough credit for being able to switch gears from CEO of a fast-growing start-up to wrestling-on-the-floor daddy.  I am more and more convinced that he has super powers.

Because we have such an awesome team with an amazing leader, look what Snoball's been up to...Unleashing the Snoball Effect.  That's right!  Snoball's on Forbes!  Recently, it was the Austin American-Statesman (two times) and the Examiner.  To me, this is some crazy confirmation that this is a God thing and I better hang on for a great adventure.  Woo hoo!