8 ms·

Why I Quit Intuit and Started CompanyLine

42 points by bretthellman 16y ago

espadagroup 16y ago
Congrats on getting such early feedback and vetting. In fact hearing your story about an internal award/competition just added +1 to Intuit's cool points in my books.
- bretthellman 16y ago
  Thanks espadagroup. Intuit is a great place to work, learn and practice skills including design thinking.
mmmmax 16y ago
How did you protect your IP from being claimed in part by your previous employer? Are you the only one who ever touched the code?
- jeroen 16y ago
  From the article: I decided to leave Intuit and fundamentally improve communication in a way that would obsolete notebox. Sounds like notebox and CompanyLine are two different products that don't necessarily share code.
  - bretthellman 16y ago
    The two product are not related. Every VC/Angel so far has asked about that topic. Thanks for reading the post!
    - chrisaycock 16y ago
      It sounds as if CompanyLine was the product "you really needed at your previous employer". This is exactly what PG recommends for startup ideas. Good luck!
      - dhugiaskmak 16y ago
        How can you tell? All I can find on the website that even comes close to explaining what it is/does is: "CompanyLine is fundamentally improving the way companies communicate." and the even less helpful: "CompanyLine enables conversations that solve real business problems." What does that even mean?
bretthellman 16y ago
Turns out Tumblr's having some downtime... Post can be viewed here: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=159265784121760&comments http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=159265784121760&#38...
scsmith 16y ago
Great post Brett. Really interesting to hear a little of the motivation behind you getting Company Line started.
kschua 16y ago
Nice one Brett. Congrats. The notebox is one of those nice ideas that goes to my "I would love to use that, but why didn't I think of it?" categories
- bretthellman 16y ago
  Thanks kschua. No worries - there are still tons of amazing opportunities out there.
duinote 16y ago
I like your css. very clean.
- bretthellman 16y ago
  Thanks duinote. Is it www.companyline.com or the blog.companyline you like? just curious...
leepnet 16y ago
Great to see what you learned from Intuit and why you cut the cord when you did. It's been a thrill watching CompanyLine come together!
megaman821 16y ago
Every company with developers should be in the business of productivity tools for their devs. Even if there may never be a real money-making business there, those tools can be contributed to the open source ecosystem.
rgrieselhuber 16y ago
Brett is doing really impressive work and is on to something big with CompanyLine, IMO.
- bretthellman 16y ago
  Thanks Ray! Looking forward to more of your feedback soon.

42 points by bretthellman 16y ago

Congrats on getting such early feedback and vetting. In fact hearing your story about an internal award/competition just added +1 to Intuit's cool points in my books.

bretthellman 16y ago
Thanks espadagroup. Intuit is a great place to work, learn and practice skills including design thinking.

mmmmax 16y ago

How did you protect your IP from being claimed in part by your previous employer? Are you the only one who ever touched the code?

jeroen 16y ago
From the article: I decided to leave Intuit and fundamentally improve communication in a way that would obsolete notebox. Sounds like notebox and CompanyLine are two different products that don't necessarily share code.
- bretthellman 16y ago
  The two product are not related. Every VC/Angel so far has asked about that topic. Thanks for reading the post!
  - chrisaycock 16y ago
    It sounds as if CompanyLine was the product "you really needed at your previous employer". This is exactly what PG recommends for startup ideas. Good luck!
    - dhugiaskmak 16y ago
      How can you tell? All I can find on the website that even comes close to explaining what it is/does is: "CompanyLine is fundamentally improving the way companies communicate." and the even less helpful: "CompanyLine enables conversations that solve real business problems." What does that even mean?

bretthellman 16y ago

Turns out Tumblr's having some downtime... Post can be viewed here: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=159265784121760&comments http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=159265784121760&#38...

scsmith 16y ago

Great post Brett. Really interesting to hear a little of the motivation behind you getting Company Line started.

kschua 16y ago

Nice one Brett. Congrats. The notebox is one of those nice ideas that goes to my "I would love to use that, but why didn't I think of it?" categories

bretthellman 16y ago
Thanks kschua. No worries - there are still tons of amazing opportunities out there.

duinote 16y ago

I like your css. very clean.

bretthellman 16y ago
Thanks duinote. Is it www.companyline.com or the blog.companyline you like? just curious...

leepnet 16y ago

Great to see what you learned from Intuit and why you cut the cord when you did. It's been a thrill watching CompanyLine come together!

megaman821 16y ago

Every company with developers should be in the business of productivity tools for their devs. Even if there may never be a real money-making business there, those tools can be contributed to the open source ecosystem.

rgrieselhuber 16y ago

Brett is doing really impressive work and is on to something big with CompanyLine, IMO.

bretthellman 16y ago
Thanks Ray! Looking forward to more of your feedback soon.