Getting moved to Gmail

July 12, 2006 By

Mark Cuban said it first: the Internet is boring. But working at a startup isn’t.

But, working at a little startup after working at two of the world’s biggest companies (I worked at NEC, which had twice as many employees as Microsoft had before moving to NEC) it’s interesting joining one of the worlds’ smallest companies.

Patrick sort of nailed it when we walked in and said “Microsoft is bigger.” That was before he realized that Podtech only occupied about 2,000 square feet in the middle of one of USVP’s plush offices (he kept thinking that Podtech occupied the whole complex we were in, not just one small office). Podtech is in incubation space right now. Basically we have a couple of more months to find offices before they kick us out of the nest to see if we can survive on our own.

Oh, but talking about this stuff is making the natives, er, at least the skeptics, restless. Hey, Skeptic, didn’t ya hear that the Internet is boring?

Oh, anyway, one thing that’s different? This is the first time in years that my corporate email is not on Exchange. Turns out Podtech is hosting all of its email on Gmail and all of its calendars on Google Calendar. It’ll be interesting to see what moving over is like.

What else is different about a startup? Too fast growth. We are already out of places to sit and work. That took me back to my first job after college, at Fawcette Technical Publications, where we had people working on the table that also held our coffee machine.

Anyway, I’m wiped out. The day, the 13-hour drive (we got in at 2 a.m.), and another long drive to drop Patrick off at his mom’s tonight have wiped me out.

One thing that Irina already tapped me into is San Francisco’s strong social scene (there’s a raft of things this weekend to attend). She showed me how Upcoming.org lists all the coolest stuff. Like the ValleySwag Hoedown. This company has made a whole business out of getting people the latest swag.

OK, now I’ve heard everything. So long from the boring Internet!

Update: Maryam wrote about her first day’s impressions too.

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  • http://www.softwareandtools.com/ Tejas Patel

    Ha Ha Robert. I am sure you are going to love it. I look forward to seeing your suggestions for Gmail and Google Calendar seeing that you have used corporate applications all this long.

  • http://www.softwareandtools.com Tejas Patel

    Ha Ha Robert. I am sure you are going to love it. I look forward to seeing your suggestions for Gmail and Google Calendar seeing that you have used corporate applications all this long.

  • http://drumsnwhistles.com/ DrumsNWhistles

    Last week I would’ve been singing the praises of Gmail. This week it’s been a complete nightmare, since I can’t access it at all and there aren’t any bodies at Google willing to actually help troubleshoot it.

    So be careful…use Gmail, but back it up with Outlook or something to your own computer or you could find yourself without your email and without a way to fix it, too.

    It’s a pity that they have such a great product but do not support it in any way, shape or form.

    Congratulations to you and Maryam on your move to Podtech…you both sound very happy. I’m looking forward to meeting Maryam in person at Blogher…will you be there too?

    DnW

  • http://drumsnwhistles.com DrumsNWhistles

    Last week I would’ve been singing the praises of Gmail. This week it’s been a complete nightmare, since I can’t access it at all and there aren’t any bodies at Google willing to actually help troubleshoot it.

    So be careful…use Gmail, but back it up with Outlook or something to your own computer or you could find yourself without your email and without a way to fix it, too.

    It’s a pity that they have such a great product but do not support it in any way, shape or form.

    Congratulations to you and Maryam on your move to Podtech…you both sound very happy. I’m looking forward to meeting Maryam in person at Blogher…will you be there too?

    DnW

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  • http://www.jwalkerlive.com/ John Walker

    If you still like Outlook as you Email client, Gmail supports POP3, so you should be good there. I like Google Calendar, but I wish they supported synch to Outlook Calendar. I may have to develop something up to do that.

  • http://www.jwalkerlive.com/ John Walker

    If you still like Outlook as you Email client, Gmail supports POP3, so you should be good there. I like Google Calendar, but I wish they supported synch to Outlook Calendar. I may have to develop something up to do that.

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    Drums: yeah, I’ll be there!

  • http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/ Robert Scoble

    Drums: yeah, I’ll be there!

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  • http://nortel.wordpress.com/ nortel

    so why is the internet boring? your statement looks like a nice trick to techmeme-ed to be honest.

  • http://nortel.wordpress.com/ nortel

    so why is the internet boring? your statement looks like a nice trick to techmeme-ed to be honest.

  • http://peterdawson.typepad.com/ /pd

    Robert , is this gmail hosted services ?

  • http://peterdawson.typepad.com /pd

    Robert , is this gmail hosted services ?

  • Sam Davyson

    I look forward to seeing your suggestions for Hotmail once you have played with Gmail.

  • Sam Davyson

    I look forward to seeing your suggestions for Hotmail once you have played with Gmail.

  • http://spanningsalesforce.com/ Charlie Wood

    Is Podtech using Salesforce.com (yet)? If so, I have something that’s going to blow your mind. (But I won’t plug it here.)

    -Charlie

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  • http://spanningsalesforce.com Charlie Wood

    Is Podtech using Salesforce.com (yet)? If so, I have something that’s going to blow your mind. (But I won’t plug it here.)

    -Charlie

  • William

    I’ve been using the Gmail hosted stuff for a while for my family mail/calendars and it’s been great. I use Outlook for mail most of the time but find more and mroe I’m just using the gmail interface. My wife still likes Outlook Express but that’s another story.

    Calendaring, something I never used to use outside of work, has totally changed my life. I’m one of those people who often forgets not just what they have to do, but what day it is. Having a shared calendar allows my wife and I to put up events which we’ll both see. And SMS reminder, including a daily agenda, help me stay on top of things.

    Now if only Outlook 2007 would let me subscribe to a iCal calendar without using the dopey webcal WebDAV protocol.

  • William

    I’ve been using the Gmail hosted stuff for a while for my family mail/calendars and it’s been great. I use Outlook for mail most of the time but find more and mroe I’m just using the gmail interface. My wife still likes Outlook Express but that’s another story.

    Calendaring, something I never used to use outside of work, has totally changed my life. I’m one of those people who often forgets not just what they have to do, but what day it is. Having a shared calendar allows my wife and I to put up events which we’ll both see. And SMS reminder, including a daily agenda, help me stay on top of things.

    Now if only Outlook 2007 would let me subscribe to a iCal calendar without using the dopey webcal WebDAV protocol.

  • Dmad

    Geez, Scoble, you really don’t know how to comprehend what you read, do you? You apparently missed Cuban’s point completely.

  • Dmad

    Geez, Scoble, you really don’t know how to comprehend what you read, do you? You apparently missed Cuban’s point completely.

  • Dmad

    Geez, Scoble, you really don’t know how to comprehend what you read, do you? You apparently missed Cuban’s point completely.

  • http://www.blockrocker.com/ Rod Edwards

    Mapped events in the valley from upcoming, eventful, and Expo:

    http://blockrocker.com/categories/events/37.1756/-121.6846/9/Map

  • http://www.blockrocker.com/ Rod Edwards

    Mapped events in the valley from upcoming, eventful, and Expo:

    http://blockrocker.com/categories/events/37.1756/-121.6846/9/Map

  • http://www.blockrocker.com Rod Edwards

    Mapped events in the valley from upcoming, eventful, and Expo:

    http://blockrocker.com/categories/events/37.1756/-121.6846/9/Map

  • http://patrick.geek.nz/ PatrickQG

    Going from a large company to a small can be quite disconcerting – I recently made the move from a 12 person team in a 100 person department in a 4,000 employees university to a 6 person office that’s part of a 25 employees (across 3 countries) company.

    There’s fewer people to have water cooler type discussions with, that’s for sure!

  • http://patrick.geek.nz/ PatrickQG

    Going from a large company to a small can be quite disconcerting – I recently made the move from a 12 person team in a 100 person department in a 4,000 employees university to a 6 person office that’s part of a 25 employees (across 3 countries) company.

    There’s fewer people to have water cooler type discussions with, that’s for sure!

  • http://www.zoliblog.com/ Zoli Erdos

    Robert, check out : http://www.plugandplayrealestate.com/.

    Pay-as-you go, month-to-month space, you can grow (shrink?) as business demands.

  • http://www.zoliblog.com/ Zoli Erdos

    Robert, check out : http://www.plugandplayrealestate.com/.

    Pay-as-you go, month-to-month space, you can grow (shrink?) as business demands.

  • http://www.zoliblog.com Zoli Erdos

    Robert, check out : http://www.plugandplayrealestate.com/.

    Pay-as-you go, month-to-month space, you can grow (shrink?) as business demands.

  • http://www10.wordpress.com/ www10

    So, was it easy making the switch to using GMail? :) It’s definitely a great place to outsource your email needs to.

    Do write more about life in a startup! See ya

  • http://www10.wordpress.com/ www10

    So, was it easy making the switch to using GMail? :) It’s definitely a great place to outsource your email needs to.

    Do write more about life in a startup! See ya

  • http://www10.wordpress.com/ www10

    So, was it easy making the switch to using GMail? :) It’s definitely a great place to outsource your email needs to.

    Do write more about life in a startup! See ya

  • http://www.msmvps.com/bradley Susan

    Sounds like someone needs a SBS 2003.. has exchange you know … and it can even be hosted ;-)

  • http://www.msmvps.com/bradley Susan

    Sounds like someone needs a SBS 2003.. has exchange you know … and it can even be hosted ;-)

  • http://www.msmvps.com/bradley Susan

    Sounds like someone needs a SBS 2003.. has exchange you know … and it can even be hosted ;-)

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  • Guest

    I tried moving off a hosted Exchange solution to Gmail last month and it was terrible. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I hadn’t been used to Outlook 2007. The attachment preview in Outlook 2007 is a huge time saver if you review a lot of attachments each day.

    I eventually moved off the hosted Exchange to just regular POP/SMTP solution through the company that hosts my blog/website. Hosted Exchange was sweet but not worth the $25/month.

    Good luck moving off Outlook. No way in hell could I do it at home or at work.

  • Guest

    I tried moving off a hosted Exchange solution to Gmail last month and it was terrible. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I hadn’t been used to Outlook 2007. The attachment preview in Outlook 2007 is a huge time saver if you review a lot of attachments each day.

    I eventually moved off the hosted Exchange to just regular POP/SMTP solution through the company that hosts my blog/website. Hosted Exchange was sweet but not worth the $25/month.

    Good luck moving off Outlook. No way in hell could I do it at home or at work.

  • http://blog.nordquist.org Brett Nordquist

    I tried moving off a hosted Exchange solution to Gmail last month and it was terrible. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I hadn’t been used to Outlook 2007. The attachment preview in Outlook 2007 is a huge time saver if you review a lot of attachments each day.

    I eventually moved off the hosted Exchange to just regular POP/SMTP solution through the company that hosts my blog/website. Hosted Exchange was sweet but not worth the $25/month.

    Good luck moving off Outlook. No way in hell could I do it at home or at work.

  • http://www.dead20.com/ Skeptic
  • http://www.dead20.com/ Skeptic
  • http://www.dead20.com Skeptic
  • http://rexruff.com/ dg

    I’ve been using Gmail for domains for a couple months and really love it. Great to go from computer to computer and access to the same stuff. I prefer to anything I’ve used before.

  • http://rexruff.com/ dg

    I’ve been using Gmail for domains for a couple months and really love it. Great to go from computer to computer and access to the same stuff. I prefer to anything I’ve used before.

  • http://rexruff.com dg

    I’ve been using Gmail for domains for a couple months and really love it. Great to go from computer to computer and access to the same stuff. I prefer to anything I’ve used before.

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