Mahalo founder and serial entrepreneur Jason Calacanis has some interesting tips up today about how to squeeze every single last thing from your startup employees.
Helpful advice includes (our interpretation):
- If you do meetings, have them over lunch, because you shouldn’t let your employees eat alone
- Don’t provide people with phones, they can always use their own cellphones, and this saves money
- Buy a decent espresso machine and provide food in the office, because you don’t want your staff to ever stop working, this way you keep them in the office every minute of every day
- Buy people who work hard a computer for home, so they can work after hours, on weekends and public holidays
- Urinary catheters are cheap, hook each employee up to one so they don’t waste minutes going to the restroom
OK, so I made the last point up. Here’s my favorite one though (direct quote):
- “Fire people who are not workaholics…. come on folks, this is startup life, it’s not a game. go work at the post office or stabucks if you want balance in your life. For realz.”
Apparently having a life isn’t “for realz” in Calacanis’ playbook so a note to possible Mahalo employees: expect to check your family at the door if you want to go work for JCal. Up to 18 hours a day for $30-35,000 (what I’ve heard is the going rate for base Mahalo employees) , you’re never allowed to go outside during this time or have a proper break…. sounds like a great place to work.
Update: via Stilgherrian, 37 Signals responds to Jason’s post by suggesting you should fire the workaholics.
Update 2: Allen Stern at Centernetworks makes some strong points about the need for personal space and breathing time here.
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“Up to 18 hours a day for $30-35,000 (what I’ve heard is the going rate for base Mahalo employees) ”
I paid my employees more than that. And that is REALLY saying something.
Jcal, meet Craigslist.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sof/
Your employees can now free themselves from your iron grasp forever.
“Buy people who work hard a computer for home, so they can work after hours, on weekends and public holidays”
It really says something when you hire software developers that don’t actually own a computer. Which probably explains the salaries as well.
If this is true (I understand that he is joking to some extent), then Mahalo is doomed. The company forces it’s employees to work like slaves for a dime a day. That’s okay…Mahalo will lose it’s best staff to a better company.
Make good money,
Clive dollars a day,
If I made anymore,
I might move away!
Some of the ideas are pretty extremel, but he does have some decent other points:
5. Don’t buy a phone system. No one will use it. No one at Mahalo has a desk phone except the admin folks. Everyone else is on IRC, chat, and their cell phone …
9. Use Google hosted email. $50 or free per user…. how can you beat that?!?! …
…
Why the hate, Duncan?
William
base pay jobs and you expect them to work executive hours, and you put everything in place to stop your employees having a break ever (which I’d note in every other civilized country would be illegal anyway)…I’ve go no objections to the concept that you have to work hard in a startup, but you’re expected to give up your life and that (and this was the insulting part to me) if you want to have a life you should work at Starbucks. F*ck that on every level. We have names for people like Calacanis is Australia, none of which are fit to use on TC.
Just another delusional moron. At the end of the day when I believe I have done something negative to affect employee moral, I can always look to morons like Calacanis to make me feel better about myself.
For a guy who has “no life” he surely has time to fart around with his cheesy Corvette. Shouldn’t he be at work?
http://www.fastcompany.tv/vide.....irst-tesla
This is also the same guy who was just the keynote speaker at the Affiliate Summit two weeks ago who insulted every person in attendance, calling them LOSERS.
I want my son to grow up to be just like him, NOT!
btw- many people would say that owning one of the newer Corvettes is for people who go are going through a mid-life crises. Case closed.
Calacanis, or if you prefer, the anti-google. This guy got the whole productivity thing wrong.
Another point to add:
* Pay your developer by line of code.
On Twit Calacanis talked about how hes famous for paying his employees extremely well. $35,000 a year is extremely well?
I am going to have to agree with Duncan on this one…these rules are really depressing and point to a deeper problem within Mahalo. If your employees are passionate about what they are doing and morale is high, you SHOULD NOT NEED draconian bullsh*t like this. In a passionate, purposeful company, people motivate themselves. Rules like these only need to be in place when you suck as a boss and the only conviction your company holds is to enrich the CEO.
After his speech at Affiliate Summit, this doesn’t surprise me!
Chris,
I don’t think anywhere does it state that Calacanis is paying $30-35,000 to developers. What kind of developer would work for 35K, unless there was some equity on the company?
Calacanis is an idiot. Unless he is giving his employees some equity in the company how can you expect so much and give so little?
I’m surprised this whole post was sanctioned by Arrington…
Jose
I didn’t say developers, I said base employees, or in Mahalo speak I think they call them guides.
Zach
why? besides, we don’t get permission to post, we simply post, and I think this is an interesting topic.
Big Boy 8
totally agree. Happy employees will go the extra mile, if you’re imposing rules on them like this…..
Yeah this is pretty crazy, but I am guessing most employees at this company a) knew what they were getting into and b) they are not indentured servants and are free to leave at any time.
This guy doesn’t even realize how stupid this sounds and especially in California his ideas are probably border line illegal treatment and misclassification of exempt status and violating all sorts of over-time and time off Laws.
Obivously an evil and very little man who gets off pushing around people.
Duncan,
Right. You didn’t. I specifically mentioned Chris.
isn’t mahalo in santa monica? the job market down there is more stupid than silicon valley. cost of living is bad but it’s not as bad as silicon valley either.
and is there any confirmation on giving percentages of the company to the employees? for 1% of the company and 30k doing stupid stuff like finding links, that’s not all that bad.
Calacanis looks like he has down syndrome
@16,
Sorry, I just always assume everybody at a startup is a developer. I’ve been in tech-broke Canada for so long I forgot what a real technology startup looks like. The funding is so low here that there are no other types of employees at the startups here. IE, when you walk up and down the halls in our building. But that’s why I’m leaving.
Sorry about the assumption.
he go and fuck himself
Jose
apol.
This is so SF circa 1997-2000. Is SoCal this out of touch?
I’m seeing far more start-ups who are open and flexible and WANT their employees to have a life. Why? Because they’re happier and work harder. It’s about working smarter, not longer.
Does a ‘chain your employees to a desk’ culture make any sense given the ‘open’ environment of Web 2.0? If you don’t grok this, then what does it say about the strategic direction of Mahalo?
truly pathetic.
is Mahalo a Chinese company?
“This is so SF circa 1997-2000. Is SoCal this out of touch?”
As I understood it, historically, Steve Jobs started the 60+ hour week at Apple in the 80s.
I some how didn’t find the original post as pathetic as much the author made it sound. Techcrunch is slowly turning into a typical news paper. Over hyping things!
Can have a nice life if I paid my folks 30k. What a loser…
Calacanass not look like a douche — see the pic above, but is a douce. Problem mis that the valley is full of them, fueled by even greedier VCs. This may work on kids just out of college or B-School, but no seasoned workers are going to fall for the promise of stock-options. Please, rarely does anyone make enough on options (except the founders and VCs) to justify busting your ass for them. Most of these Valley CEO’s deserve little more that the 40 hours a week they are paying for. Respect is a two way street.
Two words: stock options.
Working like a maniac for a startup is a choice people make, but it is *not* the only option in life. It’s certainly not for everyone. Clearly there is a lot of space between a year one startup and Starbucks (think post-IPO tech companies like Yahoo, Google, AOL, etc).
Chris - before my time, so I can’t speak to 80s, Jobs, Apple. (I was in some ugly Jams and rockin’ out to Big Country at the time.)
I just know what it was like during the first Internet heyday. Some still want to do the sleeping under your desk gig, but there’s plenty out there for folks who want a life.
I work there so I have a little more experience than some of the usual anonymous troll comments you find here. Duncan you trying to Valleywag it up or just a slow news days?
Look at our traffic growth and daily output, this wouldnt be possible in the fantasy unicorn powered startup you all apparently work at. This isnt 5 guys in a garage, this is 50 people in a factory. Its a fast based and challenging environment, why would you want to work in anywhere else?
Someone with 50+ employees please chime in and tell us your thoughts. Here are mine:
1. company lunch, no meetings: free food? saves employees around $160 per month, pretty standard for a good dotcom but the lunch meetings are invaluable. keeps the entire company on the same page. No private meetings cut down on the high school cliquey type environment which always develops.
2. no phones: I’ve had tons of web/IT jobs, never used the phone. In fact it was more of a pain to keep on the desk and deal with the voicemail etc. Modern communication is email and cell, dont give me tools I dont need.
3. fancy coffee machine: i dont drink the stuff but it seems to be a hit, the literal fuel of the company. saves employees a fortune (although some still opt for starbucks).
4. workoholics: why hire lazy people? if you are not losing sleep over your project it’s just not that important to you. Jason told me in my interview if you are good you get fired, great you can stay. Bold but upfront and honest, someone please tell me they have never worked a job where at least 1-2 employees did nothing but phone it in. For those who actually cared and put forth the extra effort this is beyond discouraging.
5. salary: Not going to comment so much here, beyond the number there are lots of other variables involved. Actually to even post such a thing is bad form, how much does mike pay you? If you are looking solely at this number you are missing the bigger picture.
Also, those quotes up there are NOT what I said! You changed my quotes and presented them as mine dude! Not cool!
here is what i said about he phone system:
Don’t buy a phone system. No one will use it. No one at Mahalo has a desk phone except the admin folks. Everyone else is on IRC, chat, and their cell phone. Everyone has a cell phone, folks would rather get calls on it, and 99% of communication is NOT on the phone. Savings? At least $500 a year per person… 50 people over three years? $75-100k
i never said this: “Buy people who work hard a computer for home, so they can work after hours, on weekends and public holidays”
wtf duncan?!?!
here is what i said about the espresso machine: save you employees money!
“Get an expensive, automatic espresso machine at the office. Going to starbucks twice a day cost $4 each time, but more importantly it costs 20 minutes. Buy a $3-5,000 Jura industrial, get the good beans, and supply the coffee room with soy, low fat, etc. 50 people making one trip a day is 20 hours of wasted time for the company, and $150 in coffee costs for the employees. Makes no sense.”
you said: “Buy a decent espresso machine and provide food in the office, because you don’t want your staff to ever stop working, this way you keep them in the office every minute of every day”
How could you spin buying people great chairs, expensive espresso machines, and lunch four days a week into a bad thing is insane.
Why would you present such false quotes as mine?!?! really duncan, this is techcrunch not valleywag.
Headline: Calacanis makes another idiotic post to win links and gets to the frontpage of TechCrunch.
Meanwhile hundreds of worthy web companies would kill for a mention but are ignored and quietly cry themselves to sleep.
This guy is probably breaking the law if he’s not paying his workers overtime. California labor law that computer professionals, unless they have management responsibilities and earn over the equivalent of approx $50/hr, have to be paid on a per-hour basis, including overtime.
Here are a few points of reference that I googled:
http://www.harriskaufman.com/c.....als-ca.htm
http://www.management-advantag.....xempt.html
http://www.ck-lawfirm.com/unpaid_overtime.html
What a fokkin jerk,,,he made baby Jesus cry!
I was there in the 80s and I can assure you that sleeping under the desk became a “job skill” in the 95-2000 internet boom. Hard work has always been a hallmark of Silicon Valley but it has normally been complimented with Hard Play too. Jimmy Treybig started that at Tandem, the first big tech company to have aloha shirts and Beer busts on Friday afternoons.
“18. Outsource to middle America: There are tons of brilliant people living between San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York who don’t live in a $4,000 one bedroom apartment and pay $8 to dry clean a shirt–hire them!”
I’m actually moving to the area soon, and I found a gated apt for $800/mo. I guess I got really lucky. Of course you would never want to let your employer know that you pay little for rent, because they would use it as justification to exploit you further.
After reading the whole thing, I don’t see anything extraordinary. I only see a guy trying to justify his own actions as being smart. They’re actually pretty obvious and not unusual.
Well, I guess the horse’s mouth doesn’t have a problem with employees not having a life. However, in California you are not exempt from overtime unless you’re making low six-figures. If you aren’t, then you have a claim against your employer. Start documenting!
#31
Despite your entrepreneurial desires, which I commend and admire, based on my experience as a manager of people, a company can’t have employees working 60 hour weeks without being paid for their time. I don’t necessarily agree with the law, but if they are employees, the company is obligated to pay. I am not an attorney, and this is based on my experience as a manager of a software team. Perhaps someone who is a lawyer can provide feedback on the topic.
How did this make it on to TechCrunch and does the site plan to post an apology? This isnt the first misleading or off topic post by Duncan. Is there any internal review before a post goes up? Unless Calacanis went back and edited his post…Duncan’s post is tabloid fodder.
Yeah…because so many people find Mahalo useful and use it on a regular basis <— sarcasm
Another Mahalo guide here checking in to add some context.
Jason expects a lot out of people who work for him, but there’s actually a lot less micromanagement and clockwatching at Mahalo than any other company for which I have worked. The fact is, the vast majority of Mahalo’s guides are passionate, we do want the company to succeed, and we are self-motivated, so the espresso machine and comfy chairs and free lunches feel like perks, not some form of cruel exploitation. (Giving someone a free soda to save them a few minutes? HOW DARE HE!)
Typical penny pincher slave driver. Guys like Calacanis are leeches, don’t expect to develop any lasting relationship with that kind of management style.
#32… summed it up…. i was disappointed cuz i read this on jasons blog and thought, wow this guy is where is he is for a reason… a smart entrepreneur. I know it’s trendy to shit on Jason Calacanis.. when I was first exposed I had the wrong impression, too. But I’ve since learned that he’s one of the most real people in the industry. I’m really disappointed in this post Duncan… I also used to come to this blog and give you shit like a trolly little prick… and have since learned to appreciate the hell out of you also…. So it’s strange to try and sound in… i’m not doing the “let’s troll Duncan Riley because we don’t understand his style” thing, but I do gotta stress the valleywag of this piece… it’s a groaner, man.
it’s okay if he is going to make every employee his partner and give equal amount of share when he sells his company.
wow, is this valley wag, it should be. I work 8 and skate. That is it. I don’t gaf if it is a startup. I doubt this guy is seriously this crazy. I think this is more about techcrunch getting hits ect…kind of like national enquirer for fan boys. I would take anything I read on the web , especially tech crunch, with a grain of salt. Gigaom would not do this kind of crap reporting, would they?
Bad form Duncan.
This post borders on defamatory.
I find people like to dis Jcal as he is usually more honest about the shit that happens in business. Taking it out of context and putting it in a bad light like this is a sign of questionable journalism.
If this post is easily questionable. How many more are also questionable but less obvious?
Arrington, time for an employee review….
James
is this valleywag .i must of clicked on the wrong link. great journalism dr
how much you make? mike should fire you for this and i dont even like jc
This post is really making me think twice about supporting TechCrunch in the future.
It was very obviously inflammatory and outright slanderous.
I don’t know Jason personally, as I have never met him (and thus I can’t vouch for his character and I don’t know what he is like.) I am also not a Mahalo user, and thus not biased on loyalty because of one of his products. I was also not very familiar with him in this industry until very, very recently. I didn’t even see what ever it was (if there really is even anything) that was being quoted… and despite all this, I was able to tell that this post by Duncan was very inaccurate. This, I can say from first hand experience.
I recently started to listen to Steve Gillmor’s new NewsGang netcast and I was listening to a recent show where Jason was discussing a portion of his ideas about meetings and lunches in the work place. (Last Friday’s show, 02/29 I think. I’ll check when I’m done here…) and what what he said about employee meals and meetings sounded wise, innovative, and very beneficial do both the company and to the employees. Sounded like a really nice place to work.
Completely opposite that this post had said.
Perhaps this post was ment to be humorous, a jab among friends… but it didn’t seem to read that way, and the negative responses back that up.
I really feel that TechCrunch has lost a lot of credibility with this post.
Louis M. Privette III
Yeah - typical “Hey ! we are cooler than anybody” startup attitude. sean percival says that there is SOMETHING ELSE besides salary, which keeps people motivated. I’ve heard this kind of BS bunch of times.
They usually sound like:
“Hey! join our stupid little company - we don’t pay almost anything, but check out our cool presentation!, and look here - we got someone to write about us on some sh*ty blog! - we are cool and the fact that we are even talking to you is already a great achievement. Us hiring is already A GREAT COMPENSATION !”
I agree with somebody who wrote that only top people in company make money from stock options - for the rest of us it’s just a pleasant little addition to the salary and benefits.
Why all these start up CEOs so F-ing sure that they are going to succeed? If you such a great business man - why would you expect people to work their asses off? Where is business planning and professionalism?
Why is it good for developer to loose sleep because of something he already thinks about at least 40 hours a day? This is sick! It shows that there is something wrong with that person!
I am a programmer and I DONT work at home, unless there is an emergency. I like to play with my own little projects, discover new technologies, develop tools for myself and my boss appreciates that. And I appreciate him for that.
I remember once one such a startup didn’t hire me because I demanded well written job offer with my rate and all benefits clearly outlined. They told me: “We dont like the attitude you have towards this position. You think of it as a fulltime job, you don’t seem to be PARANOID enough”. I told them to F*** themselves.
All such businessmen should realize one simple thing: professionalism drives quality, quality drives everything else. Professionals don’t sleep under the desk while being paid close to nothing.
Professional knows his price, (s)he gets in, gets the job done clean and fast, gets out, gets paid.
If your boss doesn’t share this perspective or can’t build business around it - just quit.