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Yeah, we were trying to coordinate that. Jonathan was anxious to get me up there and thought I'd be a big hit with the Writely guys who he seemed to hold in ver

by jayro 16y ago

Yeah, we were trying to coordinate that. Jonathan was anxious to get me up there and thought I'd be a big hit with the Writely guys who he seemed to hold in very high regard. But he had to fly back to New York (we were in SF at the time for the conference), then he had some other trip and then it just got complicated. That's why he just decided to pass me up the ladder, but in the end that clearly didn't work to my advantage.

jonknee 16y ago
I think Josh's point was to not wait for them to fly you out, but to fly out yourself. As rokhayakebe noted, say you'll be in town in two weeks and set up a meeting. Perhaps Google has streamlined the process to fly you out, but it still isn't as easy as "Great, check in at the front desk on Wednesday at 2PM". If meeting is a much bigger deal to you than who you're meeting with you need to do what you can to make it easy for who you're meeting with.
- jayro 16y ago
  I do agree with Josh's advice (not that I considered anything like that at the time), but just to clarify, Jonathan was in New York with the rest of the Google Spreadsheet team, was due to fly somewhere else (I think it may have been Europe) and felt it was important to meet at the Googleplex in Mountain View with the Writely team. I don't think I could have showed up in Mountain View without him being there since he was the champion of the acquisition, and the decision makers weren't in New York so it probably wouldn't have helped much for me to fly there. Obviously, none of this matters now, but I just wanted to explain that the logistics weren't quite so simple. That said if you want to make something happen then you make it happen and I didn't. Fail.
  - joshu 16y ago
    People want to see a sufficient level of excitement. Maybe you should have headed to New York. I blew a deal like this once, myself. When I was in NYC, a big SV fund wanted to invest in Delicious, but I didn't bother to get on a plane and go visit them after several hits; I just kinda expected them to send me a term sheet without ever meeting me! Pretty stupid. Luckily I later met Fred and company. PS It's Joshua, not Josh

by jayro 16y ago

jonknee 16y ago

I think Josh's point was to not wait for them to fly you out, but to fly out yourself. As rokhayakebe noted, say you'll be in town in two weeks and set up a meeting. Perhaps Google has streamlined the process to fly you out, but it still isn't as easy as "Great, check in at the front desk on Wednesday at 2PM". If meeting is a much bigger deal to you than who you're meeting with you need to do what you can to make it easy for who you're meeting with.

jayro 16y ago
I do agree with Josh's advice (not that I considered anything like that at the time), but just to clarify, Jonathan was in New York with the rest of the Google Spreadsheet team, was due to fly somewhere else (I think it may have been Europe) and felt it was important to meet at the Googleplex in Mountain View with the Writely team. I don't think I could have showed up in Mountain View without him being there since he was the champion of the acquisition, and the decision makers weren't in New York so it probably wouldn't have helped much for me to fly there. Obviously, none of this matters now, but I just wanted to explain that the logistics weren't quite so simple. That said if you want to make something happen then you make it happen and I didn't. Fail.
- joshu 16y ago
  People want to see a sufficient level of excitement. Maybe you should have headed to New York. I blew a deal like this once, myself. When I was in NYC, a big SV fund wanted to invest in Delicious, but I didn't bother to get on a plane and go visit them after several hits; I just kinda expected them to send me a term sheet without ever meeting me! Pretty stupid. Luckily I later met Fred and company. PS It's Joshua, not Josh