Aardvark

Convey Intensity

"Vark!"

That's the noise a little Aardvark would make if it was a computer program.
Aardvark is a social search engine. Google searches through information published on the internet to find an answer to your question. Aardvark, on the other hand, takes your question, such as:

"What are some activities to keep an 11 year old, 9 year old, 3 year old and 1 year old busy? I am babysitting these children this Saturday, and I am wondering what I can do to keep all the different ages entertained. Thanks!"

and finds a busy mother of four to answer it for you. Aardvark lives in your chat client, be it gchat, AIM, or what have you, always ready to take your questions. And if someone asks a question that falls into your area of expertise, it will ask you if you can answer the question.

Interestingly, Aardvark has just published a paper on the mechanics of social search. Part of their value as a business lies in the unique understanding they have of how to comb social networks for information.

I met with Timothy Bentley, employee #1 at Aardvark, and a Brown grad, to discuss the concept of Aardvark and my job search.

I have some concerns about Aardvark's business model. For one, there's very little revenue. However, at Aardvark they don't see this as a huge obstacle. They can sell the right to answer questions on a certain topic; for example, they can sell a law firm the right to answer legal questions, which might gain them some clients. They would also be an interesting acquisition target for Google or any of the other major search engines, who might want to incorporate social search into their products. Rumor has it that Google offered them $30 million, but I couldn't confirm that.

Tim gave me a lot of good advice for my job search, which sums up to: "Convey intensity." Tell your interviewer that you love to work and you pursue your interests with intensity and passion.
Demonstrate that you can manage yourself and find important work to do, without needing to be told what to do (like the vast majority of people). A manager's dream employee is one who he/she doesn't have to manage at all. Be that person.

Tim asked me to give him my shpiel. I started out, "I'm looking for a job as a product manager at a tech start-up because I'm interested in technology and entrepreneurship."
"Cut out the 'I'm interested in,'" he said. "You can be interested in a lot of things. Is it what you have a passion for?"
I realized that the way I present myself tends to be toned-down, modest. It's good to be modest, but you also have to tell the person that you can do the work, that you are a passionate person, and that you are a self-starter.

He also suggested that I help out other students looking for jobs in Silicon Valley, since what I learn in my meetings might be of some use to them. That was one impetus for this blog. Tim organizes brunches for Brown alums living in Silicon Valley, and I attended one, which was a lot of fun.

There is an email list for Brown alums living in Silicon Valley, so if you want to get connected there, it's a good place to start: http://www.SVBrownAlums.org

Arriving in Silicon Valley

I arrived in Silicon Valley on January 8, 2010, and stayed at my friend Allan's house. Allan is the trombonist in our video-game music ensemble, Octorock.
We started out by taking a tour of Stanford University's Arboretum:




And this is a statue of a weeping angel in the Arboretum, dedicated to Leland Stanford's mother-in-law. Supposedly, the whole family is buried in the casket.

We then took a tour of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. One of the highlights was the massive SAGE computer, probably the largest ever built (unfortunately they don't have the whole thing). SAGE was built to track and intercept enemy Soviet bombers during the Cold War. By the time the thing was done, bombers were no longer a threat, and the game had moved on to missiles and MAD.



From Wikipedia:

Each machine used 55,000 vacuum tubes, about ½ acre (2,000 m²) of floor space, weighed 275 tons^[1] and used up to three megawatts of power.

And by the time it was done, they had no use for it. Oh, well. At least it led to major developments in computer technology!

Another highlight was the original Google server, which Larry Page and Sergey Brin must have kept in their garage. It really is a hacked together piece of shoddy work, but it somehow managed to function. They just took the motherboards and chips out of PC casings, stacked them up, and wired them together. Humble beginnings. (My friend Allan is in the picture.)



The Computer History Museum showed how silicon ingots are refined and turned into chips through a long and complicated process (that I didn't understand). It also made me think about why this specific place became the country's, and the world's, center of technological innovation. Could it be, as Jared Diamond would suggest, that the geographic presence of certain resources can lead to the development of a culture? That is, it could be that the presence of silicon led to forming an innovative culture, because that is the type of culture that can best make use of the resource, once it's known how to make it into chips. Just a thought.

Networking Skills

Tap into your network

I was in Silicon Valley for only 10 days, but I managed to set up meetings with CEOs and top management at start-ups such as Playdom, Box.net, Square, TrialPay, Aardvark, iSkoot, Oodle, Thumbtack, and MyFit. How did I do it? I leveraged the power of my network. Here are some networking tips:

• First, try to clearly define your abilities and goals. Narrow this down into a short (4 or 5-sentence) self-description. If you can use bullet points, even better. You'll include this, along with an attached resume, to all your emails.
  
• Then start by setting up a meeting/call with someone you know who is connected to the industry you're interested in. Explain what you're looking for and give some examples of companies that interest you. Ask for any suggestions. Ask if they could introduce you to anyone. Make sure you follow-up with an email and thank them.
• Follow-up with anyone they introduce you to. Repeat the same steps, and ask for more introductions. If each person you talk to leads to 2 or 3 more contacts, you'll be full of meetings before you know it.
• Do you have a dream company? Check on LinkedIn if you have any connections to them. The steps above could help with that. If not, check out the blogs of some key people at the company. You should be able to find their email address and a hook of a common interest.
• Set up an information interview. These are often better than formal interviews because they are more low-key and cooperative. Tell the person that even if they don't currently have any open positions, you'd still love to meet them.
• Email them again a few days later if they don't respond. People get busy and emails get lost. As long as you don't do it every day, it will be seen as persistent, not rude. You can also try calling.
• Remember to send thank-you/follow-up emails after every meeting and thank-you cards.