What is Boo.com ?
Boo.com is aiming to build a global e-commerce platform that will allow to trade in multiple language and multiple countries. Based out of London, Boo.com will initially sell wares in the United States and in Europe.
For those of you who may be interested, the ad campaign is starting this month with print ad already being available in Details, GQ, ESPN magazine, Vogue, and Elle (those are the only ones I’ve heard about so far but I’m sure there’s more)
What will you do there?
As senior adviser to the CEO (a consulting gig for now), I will be helping the company build its backend infrastructure. On a day to day basis, it means I will run a team that will build a world-class E-commerce system (I hope). Once we have built the system, I will most probably start focusing on internal applications and general strategy (I figure that will be in about a couple of years as building the infrastructure will most assuredly be a long term project).
Does that mean you think Net Quotient has no future?
NOT AT ALL. Since I started here, I’ve seen the company change hands, helped it being split up and acquired, and helped transform it from a do-anything-to-pay-the-bills (hasn’t that been the case with every startup that bootstrapped?) shop to a stable project implementor. I would recommend it to anyone who’s looking for professional Internet systems integration work to be done and will probably use it myself in the future.
If you like Net Quotient so much, why the move?
If someone had come to you with a job that pulls not only from your Internet experience but also from other background stuff (like my knowledge of European culture), would you turn it down? If you could get a chance to build a multi-country, multi-currencies system, something that hasn’t been done before, would you do it?
In my case, those were the main issues. I have to admit that it is tough leaving Net Quotient behind but this opportunity ended up being too good to pass up. I’ll get to spend time in Europe, and I’ll get my hands back into back-end coding, which I really enjoy.
The company’s based in London. Does that mean you’re moving?
Nope. While I initially will be spending a lot of time in London, I will be working out of our New York office. Eventually, I’ll be back in NYC full-time only going to London a week every months.
So when is this official?
I am leaving Net Quotient on August 13th and will start at Boo.com on the 16th of August.
Q: So where do we reach you now?
You can always use my personal email address or check my web site for most recent contact info. I will have my new work contact info on there as soon as possible.
Q: Anything else?
Yes, as I customarily do when I leave a company, I’d like to recognize a few people that have definitely made my leaving Net Quotient a very difficult task. I have made some very close friends here and I hope I will remain so with them for many years to come.
First of all, I would like to thank Jonathan Wallace, Net Quotient’s president. I’ve learned a lot from Jonathan in my stay here, most of which is how to temperate myself. For those of you who’ve met me face to face in the past, you might remember an overly agitated kid who was going in a billion directions at once. Jonathan helped me focus more and for that, I will be forever thankful. Furthermore, he’s a big movie buff and we spent countless hours chatting about the latest flick.
Jon Davis, NQ’s big man in New York, is another friend I will regret no longer working with. He often was there as a cheerleader when, exhausted by hours of work, I would flinch and worry that I was doing it all wrong.
Harry Kapsales, one of our systems architects, was a close smoking and then non-smoking partner. Together, we manage to kick that nasty habit and became good friends along the way, trading jokes and views on the industry.
The rest of NQ’s management We went through two acquisitions together and, as is the case in such crazy times, ended up bonding in the process. From Chett Rubenstein (New York sales) who brought me up on all the latest sales theories, to Andy Galewsky (the Austin boss) and his Texan one-liners, I want to make sure that, if we’re ever in a war, I’ve got the whole management team of NQ in my foxhole!
The rest of the NQ New York office. There’s a little tradition here that we all go out at lunchtime to grab food, and bring it back to the office where we talk about news, movies, music, etc… as well as joke around (interestingly enough, the talk of sports is fairly limited). This combined with the office happy hour on Thursdays made for a very fun atmosphere and I will miss them all.
Anyway, I’ll miss working with those guys but considering how small our industry is, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before our paths cross again.