Happy New Year! I had the opportunity of taking a long vacation over the holidays and taking a rest from the hectic day-to-day of it all. There’s nothing better than spending time reflecting to truly assess where you’re at.
In addition to the “veging” out, I got to spend a lot of time in Hatian Refugee camps helping out and experiencing extreme poverty first hand. A life changing experience to say the least. I am going to put up a post later this month to share the experience in detail.
Lastly, while I was gone some great things happened at Curve. In December we had a huge feature in Dental Products Report, were featured in the New York Times and had our best sales month ever. A big thanks to the Curve team and our customers for believing in us!
That’s all for now!
Okay, this is a reputable company that sells software and services to ensure mission critical SaaS applications have increased data integrity and availability… really?
Woah. Time seems to have sped up. Lately I’ve been laboring in the details and sometimes when you’re deep in the trenches it’s difficult to smell the roses… or blog.
Speaking of details, I wanted to share a new job posting we’re putting up for our Director of Infrastructure role. It’s a vital role because it relates to data security and server uptime. And, we all know there’s nothing more important than nailing those two things in a web company.
I like to think we try to take different approaches to things at Curve whether it’s small stuff or big stuff. It’s just part of our culture, and we certainly try to do that when we’re looking for new talent. Most job postings are uninspiring and don’t really tell anyone about the type of person they are looking for. They reference skills, etc., but it’s really attitude and character that determine whether or not a candidate will be the right fit for your company. Take this snippet from a typical job posting for example:
- Creates and executes development plans and revises as appropriate to meet changing needs and requirements.
- Keeps project manager well informed of status of development effort and serves as liaison between development staff and project manager.
- Ensures technical teams are contributing to our code library.
- Owns the development lifecycle and is responsible for managing technical risks throughout the project.
- Communicates and enforces coding standards
- Performs code reviews and mentors junior developers.
- Manages technical resources within budget and project schedule.
- Consistently delivers high-quality services to our clients.
Despite it being boring and uninspiring, I don’t even know what much of it really means.
If people are the most important part of any organization (which they are), then let’s start putting more company culture and clarity into what type of people we’re looking for.
P.S. Now that I’ve ranted, I really hope this post lives up to expectations :|.
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Director of Infrastructure
Elevator pitch
Hello. We’re looking for someone who can be responsible for developing and maintaining our production servers.
It’s a big responsibility.
We’ve built an award winning web application that dentists all over North America rely on and there’s nothing more important than making sure it’s available 60/60/24/7/365/100^928293.
We’re bringing the web to dentistry and as users begin to abandon their ball and chain desktop systems questions like: What if your servers go down? Is your application secure? Do I own my data? Is it slow because it’s online? … are among the most asked by our current and future customers. It’s vital that we can answer these questions truthfully by providing a best in class application architecture and production environment.
Customer up-time and data integrity is the most important thing in our company and we need someone who has the experience, depth and skills to lead this area of our company.
So, if you’ve got the chops and aren’t afraid of being responsible for something as important as a NASA space launch, come talk to us and lets see if there’s a fit.
Some key attributes of someone who would be awesome for this role:
“Experience is having screwed things up personally” There’s a big difference between knowing something and actually having walked the path. We want someone that’s had experience scaling an important and highly-complex web 2.0 application.
Spiderman said that with great powers come great responsibility. There’s a big difference between having a job and having a responsibility. Your peers and customers count on you to ensure the most important thing is always up and running.
You’re okay with sometimes not getting the credit you deserve because you know most people just aren’t capable of seeing what you do. Your contribution is less visible because you’re constantly playing defense, fixing problems before they happen.
You care about up-time and data security more than our customers do.
You watched the x-files a lot as a kid. You question everything and trust no one. You build contingency plans for contingency plans, spend too much money on disability insurance and paid to have your first will written when you were eleven.
The Flintstones were popular a long time ago. You continue to recognize this by automating absolutely everything. You despise the Flintstones.
If you were hit by a bus tomorrow it wouldn’t matter. Well that would suck (luckily we don’t know you yet), but, regardless of what happened, our infrastructure would continue to tick like clockwork with or without you.
You once read the American Declaration of Independence because of your passion for documentation and policies. If government wasn’t so ineffective at making stuff happen you’d probably consider a career there due to the mounds of documentation and policy.
Sometimes it takes more time and energy to point fingers than to just get your hands dirty and fix it yourself. Beg for forgiveness instead of asking for permission. You take initiative at big and small levels because at the end of the day you just care about making things better.
Despite being slightly unpopular in high school due to your role in the chess club, you were never afraid of sticking up for your beliefs. You are to the point, articulate and tell it as it is, even if it’s not great news. For example: It’s Tuesday AM. Your boss is upset. Things are delayed again, emotions are running high and you stand to be publicly ridiculed. Instead of wimping out, you give the straight goods and paint a realistic picture of what’s going on. In the end he respects you for it, you hug, and fix the problem. Yay.
You started playing Halo 3 on legend mode right out of the gate. You know life’s short and that solving simple problems only gives you a false sense of achievement. So instead, you spend your time working on stuff that is interesting, complicated and challenging.
You allocate part of your annual salary to speeding tickets. Despite being a cautious and meticulous driver, you realize that life is short and speed is important. You know application speed and performance are essential to making people happy.
You’re capable of managing projects && humans. Even though you know humans aren’t rational, you make due and try your best to keep your team passionate and thriving. You’re a good mentor, teacher and leader in your area of expertise.
You counted cards to help get you through university. You are a data junkie. You put processes in place to give you real-time visibility of what’s actually happening in order to improve your chances of making the best possible decisions.
Things we’re looking for in terms of more specific skill-sets and experience:
Bachelor in Computer Science or equivalent experience
Masters in Computer Science or engineering degree is an advantage
8 + years relevant experience
Experience overseeing a highly sophisticated and critical application infrastructure in a previous roleExperience maintaining and scaling a significant web application:
Experience or familiarity working with virtualized cloud services like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure
Experience with AWS cloud resources (EC2 virtual machines, EBS data stores, Amazon S3, etc.)
Scripting and automation of AWS cloud operations (scaling, networking, etc.)
Experience with hands-on management of backups, fail-over systems, and high- availability infrastructure.System administration of staging and production servers:
Management of Linux operating system, packages, and updates
Installation of new server software
Administration of security and system access
Hardware training and/or certification in systems and storage management is a plus (Red Hat Linux, Sun Microsystems, Hitachi Storage Solutions, EMC, Dell, Solaris, etc.)
Solid networking experience - TCP/IP, administration of networking hardware, and load balancing
Firewall/security experience - access control list management, secure remote access management practices, etc.
Experience building and configuring major Internet host/network services including but not limited to: Web (http, SSL, etc.), Mail (sendmail, etc.), DNS, NFS, NIS/NIS+, databases (PostgreSQL, etc.) and JavaProgramming and scripting experience:
Programming and scripting experience in Python, Shell, Perl, C, PHP or Java
Knowledge of object oriented design and application architectureApplication and server monitoring:
Experience with enterprise monitoring and management frameworks (Nagios, etc.)
Experience monitoring Apache logs,
Security, Backups and Data Integrity:
Strong general security background
Experience with networking, cryptography, PKI, authentication systems and logging infrastructureDatabase and web server experience:
Extensive Apache experience
Experience with database design, improvement and maintenance. Expert knowledge of MySQL or Postgres
Experience with detailed data analysis including SQL databases and log filesApplication profiling and performance measurement:
Web server performance profiling, configuration and optimization
Database performance profiling, configuration and optimizationDeploying Patches and Releases:
Experience with management of schema changes and mass-data updatesWork with customer implementation team to deploy solutions for new customers:
Assist with import and export of data for new customers
Develop tools for non-technical implementations and support staff
Provide second-level customer implementation supportSetting up policies for off-hours server support
Get in touch with us!
If we haven’t scared you away yet then go ahead and send your resume to devjobs@curvedental.com with the subject line: Director of Infrastructure! Don’t forget the exclamation mark :).
If you prefer a more natural approach to communication, your carrier pigeon will find a handsome roost on the roof of our building. We’ll be sure to refresh your bird prior to responding to your message.
Our exact GPS co-ordinates are 40°18’47.86” N by 111°42’22.48” W at an elevation of 4,757’ (according to Google Earth).We have no reason to believe that these co-ordinates are the target of any rogue missile. Our offices are quite comfortable, appropriately appointed and you’re welcome at any time.
Everything You Ever Wanted To Know Is In A Book Somewhere
One of my life long goals is to build one of the world’s most amazing public libraries that’s dedicated to getting to your greatest self. I think I’m off to a decent start; every month I try to buy and read as many books as I can that can help me with the current challenges I’m facing in business and life. I usually don’t get a chance to read them all, but by buying more books than I’ll ever be able to read I’m just accepting the fact that knowledge is infinite.
People talk about the importance of education but sometimes forget that education comes in many different forms; conversations, traveling, life experiences, schooling etc. My favorite form of education happens to be reading a great book. To me, there is no better way to learn and grow than to vigorously read. Any questions you have, challenges you’re struggling with and virtually everything you ever wanted to know about our world has been written about in a book somewhere. And, the great people and leaders that have walked our earth haven’t been afraid to share their knowledge and life lessons. The Martin Luther Kings, Ghandis, Richard Bransons, Warren Buffets, Benjamin Franklins, etc. have all written books outlining what they did right, what they did wrong, their opinions, beliefs, etc, and what is reading a book other than just having a conversation with the author?
At the end of day people might have a bunch of fancy degrees and expensive pieces of paper hanging from their walls, but I’ll take paying $23.95 at the local Barnes and Nobles and hearing it directly from the source over that stuff any day of the week.
Standing on The Shoulders of Giants
Just got back from an amazing short vacation in Quebec and Halifax for one of my good friends weddings. I’m not going to lie, after my first adult wedding I’m pretty stoaked for the string of weddings to come - good times. During the trip I had a lot of time to reflect out in the woods, went sky diving, lobster catching in the Atlantic ocean and almost got arrested for busking in streets of Old Quebec (apparently you need a permit to play guitar outside; oh well, the $18.75 was worth it :) ).
Anyways, one of the things that I wanted to talk about was the importance of surrounding yourself with people that make you better. I think it was Newton who said: “in order for us to see further, we must stand on the shoulders of giants”, or something like that. I think this must have been break-through number two after gravity.
In the book Good To Great, Jim Collins categorizes leaders from level one to level five. In his extensive research on what the differences are between good companies and great companies, he found that the great companies had level five leaders at the helm. What was unique about level 5 leaders? He found that the level five leaders weren’t afraid to hire people smarter than them and didn’t care who received the credit.
It’s amazing what you can achieve if you don’t care who gets the credit.
Most people’s egos are too big to have people around them all day long that are smarter, more capable and more experienced than them. Don’t be! It’s essential to getting where you want to go and becoming a great leader.
Lets face it, the people we choose to spend the most time with eventually define us and our organizations, so choose wisely!
Clarity Precedes Mastery.
Hanging in the Auckland airport eagerly waiting for my connecting flight home to Calgary. For the past two weeks I’ve been at Curve’s New Zealand office planning new feature designs and working on the early stages of new product we’ll be releasing code named “social butterfly”.
I love coming over here because it gives me an opportunity to temporarily get away from the daily chaos of being in a fast-growth company and regain clarity around why we’re doing what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.
Clarity is power, and taking genuine time to reflect on where we’ve come and where we’re going is the first step to realizing that power. Clarity is at the root of any great achievement, no matter how small or large, and in many cases is more important than luck, skill or talent. As human beings we have the remarkable ability to achieve nearly anything we set our minds to but many times fail to do so because we don’t choose to set our minds to anything.
Clarity is really a dream on steroids. It is the ability to take an intention, dream or idea and articulate it in a way that is so precise it might as well be real. It’s the process of defining exactly what you want, how it will happen, and when.
So on that note, lets chill out, put down our blackberries, iPhones and twitter for a second and take some time to reflect on exactly what it is we want in our lives and organizations.
The last thing any of us want to do is find out we spent our lives climbing to the top of the wrong mountain.
On my flight home from Toronto to Calgary tonight I read an amazing book by Tony Hseih, the CEO of online shoe retailer Zappos.com.
Zappos is one of my favorite Internet companies and it’s no doubt that Tony is one of the truly great entrepreneurs of this generation. At 24 he sold LinkExchange for $265 million to Microsoft and then became the CEO of Zappos.com, where in 10 years he grew revenue from next to nothing to over $1 billion in sales. Recently they sold to Amazon for $1.2 billion; it’s a pretty amazing story to say the least.
In the book, Tony breaks down how they built Zappos.com from the ground up and argues that their chief competitive advantage was their unique company culture all around giving customers an unforgettable experience. He talks about how the core mission of the company was customer service, and how customer service shouldn’t just be the responsibility of a division, but should be the responsibility of every employee in the organization.
He talks about their unconventional hiring practices and how they indoctrinated people into the culture by focusing on employee happiness and development before anything else. Most companies focus first on looking after their shareholders, then customers, then employees. In Zappos case, they focus on things in the exact opposite order: they focus first on looking after employees, who in turn look after customers, who in turn look after shareholders :).
To back it up, here’s some interesting best practices that Zappos uses:
— After they hire someone, the new hire is given an opportunity to take a $2,000 cheque to NOT join the company. This ensures people aren’t just coming to the company for a paycheck.
— Salary raises are tied to a structured personal development curriculum which include internal courses on zappos culture, customer service, business development, etc.
— Zappos employees are trained to find and direct customers to competitive sites if a customer is looking for something that is out of stock at Zappos.
— Zappos regularly surprise upgrades shipping for free so customers receive their shoes in under 24 hours. Imagine ordering shoes at midnight and having them show up at your door in the morning.
— Zappos pays for shipping to and from the customer and has a 365 day return policy. Customers regularly order 4 or 5 shoes, try them on and then send the ones back that don’t fit.
— 75% of Zappos daily sales are from existing customers. For this reason, they take what they would normally spend on marketing and put it into customer service. Tony argues that the best form of marketing is providing great service to existing customers who go on to tell their friends and family about their amazing experience. Zappos mostly achieves this through telephone support; building customer relationships one customer service call at a time. Call center employees don’t have a script and are empowered to do anything to ensure the customer has an amazing experience.
50 years ago, building a brand was about deciding who you wanted your company to be, what you wanted your company to stand for, and then spending as much money on advertising to make sure consumers got the message.
Times have changed, with how connected we are to each other we’re moving closer and closer to an open and transparent society. We’ll all soon be completely naked. It doesn’t matter what your advertising says about your company. Your brand is the bi-product of the thousands of conversations customers, employees, vendors, etc. are having about your company.
So what can we learn from this little shoe company? Caring about customers can make a difference. In Zappos case it was just a little over a billion dollars worth of it :).
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I was talking to one of my good friends today who’s been thinking of leaving his job to start a company. He’s got all of the ingredients he needs to build something great but is afraid of taking the leap… come on!
In my opinion, the best way to achieve anything is to create an environment that forces you to do what’s necessary to be successful. Human’s are naturally lazy and sometimes need dire circumstances to reach their true potential.
In any worthwhile endeavor, there’s going to be a period of discomfort, there’s going to be a period of risk, but the best way is to embrace it and not put it off. Tomorrow never comes and there will never be a perfect time to do anything; there’s no better time than RIGHT NOW.
In 1959 a Spanish Conquistador named Hernando Cortez landed in Mexico to sieze the greatest known treasure at the time which was under the Aztecs control.
The funny thing though, was that Cortez’s army was much smaller than the Aztecs. But Cortez was a smart dude. When he landed on the shores of the Yutcan he burned all of his mens boats; retreat was not an option.
So yes, they won.
So if you’ve got something you want to do but haven’t pulled the trigger, don’t be afraid to be like Cortez and burn your boats.
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As Curve continues to get more traction I’m surprised at the small number of people that are uncomfortable with our public image. I guess some think our marketing is too edgy, some think our orange shoes are too loud, and some think my infamous “kill dentrix” t-shirt is maybe taking things a little too far.
Entering a professional field like dentistry and trying to go against the grain is tough. Early on I very consciously considered what I wanted our public perception to be and after lots of thought decided that being authentic out-weighted the potential risks of being perceived as different or unprofessional.
America is filled with corporations that talk a good game but aren’t delivering on what really matters. They’ve become purely motivated about making a profit and have forgot that companies exist to SERVE their customers. There’s neatly designed mission statements hanging on boardroom walls around corporate America that ring empty: integrity, professionalism, innovation, blah, blah, blah, yeah right. No one reads this garbage and no one cares.
Take this image for example that I took at the grocery store the other day:
Well I can tell you that wasn’t my experience at the grocery store.
Life is too short to live according to what society thinks is proper; it’s about living according to what is right in our hearts. If we try to be everything to everyone, we’ll be nothing to anyone.
Maybe instead of standing for everything, CO-OP should stand for one thing and scream it at the top of their lungs.
At Curve, I’m less concerned about delivering on ten picture perfect values that corporate America thinks is right, and more concerned on delivering on one thing: REAL VALUE. It’s simple: Curve exists to deliver the best possible service to our customers. That’s it! Who cares about the rest.
So to that end, we will continue to show off who we are, and while it may make some hate us, that’s a risk we’re willing to take to find the people that will love us.
Had breakfast in Brooklyn, NY this morning and noticed someone with Orange shoes; I just had to stop her and take a picture. She’s part of a dental revolution and doesn’t even know it. 
Chilling in our Utah office board room talking about changing the world… I mean dental industry :) .