Disqus - Latest Comments for michaelmayes

Re: Setting Up A New Phone

michaelmayes — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 11:33:15 -0000

Fred, I’d love to hear more about how you manage Contacts when doing this (and in general best way to manage?) - Google does a great job but I have issues with iOS and apps messing things up...

Re: No Stack Startups

michaelmayes — Thu, 14 May 2015 21:18:40 -0000

@aweissman love the phish quote opener... this seems to be a reframing of the "build vs buy" conversation that companies have, and a way to focus on your core - what is it that your company thinks about 110% of the time. why build a survey tool, a payment platform, an email system when you'll only worry about those features 5, 10, or 15% of the time, and you can leverage a partner/platform who worries and innovates ALL the time about those parts of the stack. As a product leader, I also think about it as "where do we emulate, and where do we innovate..."

Re: Fun Friday: A Blast From The Past

michaelmayes — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 12:10:35 -0000

Phish tour in Deer Creek, Indiana w friends summer of 2000. Thats me on my camper that we painted w the Steal Your Face.

Re: The Nature Of The Firm and Work Markets

michaelmayes — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 23:54:29 -0000

Zotium,

ODesk is more focused on 1-1 needs, like a one-off building of a website. They also focus on virtual out-sourced work that can be done from anywhere in the world. I've read that most oDesk customers spend $5-10k and that's the lifetime value. One project one time.

Work Market is an enterprise SaaS platform, like Salesforce is to CRM. Our clients manage 1000s of assignments every day. They run their business on Work Market, spending millions of dollars a year on contract labor. The lifetime relationship is different. the target client is different. And our users are different too. Over 90% of assignments on Work Market today are in person, on site. People get backgrounds checks, take tests and get vetted before working. You get to know these people and you build relationships. It's a key to running a model that leverages the power of the on-demand contract workforce.

Re: The Nature Of The Firm and Work Markets

michaelmayes — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:53:51 -0000

Work Market will launch in several other areas this year, rapidly expanding outside of IT services, initially focusing on North America, and then stepping into international markets as well.

I think we are more a facilitator of tools and data for buyers and sellers of labor. We're a thin layer between the transaction that helps make it more effective and efficient. We don't get involved, so I wouldn't say that we are the facilitator of the transaction.

We're looking forward to sharing a lot more about what we do throughout the Spring as we update our public website, onboard more users into new industries, and work with more organization to organize and manage their contractors and employees.

Re: The Nature Of The Firm and Work Markets

michaelmayes — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:27:35 -0000

To us, manage can start out as the simple work request and search for a resource to do the work. Basic project management concepts.

But we approach MANAGE as a most critical and customizable part of the flow. Templates, pricing models, custom fields. Projects, scheduling, document requirements, check in and check out, communication preferences, roles and permissions. We give our users deep control that works for sole proprietors through multi-faceted enterprise organizations.MANAGE is the meat of the relationship for a specific interaction between a buyer and a seller of labor.

Re: The Nature Of The Firm and Work Markets

michaelmayes — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:36:56 -0000

Mark, we are thinking a lot about this right now. The "gamification" and badging of a user's reputation management. There are so many things outside of one's skillset that are critical to a successful work management platform. Cancellation rates, on-time percentage, attitude, personality.

Working with someone is a human-centered interaction. Building a relationship takes time and effort. Work Market is focused on giving people tools and data to efficiently manage this interaction and to understand the reputation of both parties involved.

Re: The Nature Of The Firm and Work Markets

michaelmayes — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:31:03 -0000

Anne, you got it right. Work Market is all about communities. We talk about an enterprise's "vendor graph" or "work graph" as a way to think about who a company works with or works for.

We are not about isolated individuals hovering over keyboards in cafes or dark home offices. Most of what we see on the platform today is on-site work requiring one or more people to show up at an office, work site, or home.

Work Market is about enabling small businesses and independent professionals to build strong relationships with their clients (the "buyers" on Work Market). We are a thin layer - a platform of tools and workflow that enable a more efficient transaction and provide both parties with a dataset to better understand the work being performed.

Its the social nature of work that we are focused on. Ratings and reputation. Ease of invoicing and discussing payment. Customizing the interaction between a buyer and seller of labor. Helping you find work. Helping businesses find contractors, freelancers, experts, consultants - the right resource, at the right place, the right time, with the right attitude.

Re: The Nature Of The Firm and Work Markets

michaelmayes — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:18:56 -0000

Carl, our primary focus at Work Market is on enterprise, working with businesses who do thousands of assignments every week using on-demand labor and typically require someone to be physically present to perform a task. We think sites like guru.com or oDesk.com have created opportunities for the virtual web worker. It's corollary to what we do. But there's a huge market in IT service, Healthcare, Field Marketing, Legal, etc. for what Work Market is building at the enterprise level.

Work Market has created a platform that enables a peer-to-peer conversation between an enterprise business and it's network of contractor and employee relationships.

(PS: I head up product design for Work Market)

Re: Building The Best Java Team In NYC

michaelmayes — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:26:29 -0000

LE, We are on the same page. With our product up and running and clients using the site every day, we are learning more and thinking more about "public"-ness -- exposing contractor profiles, groups, jobs, etc on our public site and giving new users/ potential users a better sense of the breadth and depth of the marketplace.

We also have plans to help people "see labor" via map interfaces and geographic breakdowns (with near-real time location-based data as well) to let businesses find the right people at the right time and let contractors find the right opportunities at the right price.

Thus the need to hire more Java developers - we're solving difficult problems and building complex interfaces over here!

Re: Building The Best Java Team In NYC

michaelmayes — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:28:25 -0000

William, our focus right now is on US but we will launch in Canada soon. And from there, international. There are a number of labor law, tax, and payment issues to solve for because our platform handles all aspects of the contractor relationship and workflow. In the US, we manage the payment and 1099 process for example. In the UK or India, its a very different flow to solve for.

Our internal Java development team is based in NYC and our hiring is focused on top talent in New York.

That said, we are also building a network of global engineering talent available to extend the Work Market platform via our API. We envision a marketplace of Work Market apps that help customers integrate Work Market with their other enterprise tools (Salesforce, Netsuite, etc.) or extend the core Work Market functionality.

If you're interested in being part of that network, you can join us here: http://bit.ly/qCqu1v

Re: Building The Best Java Team In NYC

michaelmayes — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:14:52 -0000

Absolutely. I've used our site to pay designers and marketing consultants to work on logo design and email writing, and we've tapped contract developers to help us work on integrations to our customer's platforms. We also use Work Market to ramp up our employees with our learning management tools. And we've brought in contractors to help us recruit contractors into the network.

As the product lead at WorkMarket, there's no better way to understand how our customers will use our product than to use it ourselves.

Re: Building The Best Java Team In NYC

michaelmayes — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:10:25 -0000

Hi all. I lead product efforts for WorkMarket. Our focus is as a B2B enterprise platform for customers with large volumes of distributed contract needs. Where Guru is great for one-off freelance contract jobs, WorkMarket is a series of modular tools that help businesses find, engage, manage, pay and rate their networks of expert resources.

That said, anyone can use WorkMarket to quickly pay someone to do work. We're best at handling one hour to thirty day assignments for onsite work, but the platform is flexible enough to handle just about anything.

Re: http://www.mokoyfman.com/post/2167287158

michaelmayes — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 18:39:56 -0000

I guess we need to start a new countdown for when the doors open? The clock is ticking...

Re: Its time to raise taxes

michaelmayes — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 23:35:43 -0000

Jack, I agree whole-heartedly with you on that too. Downsizing federal
government and returning to a more state-governed approach for a
country as big as the USA is a logical and noble idea.

Re: http://fredwilson.vc/post/1016673094

michaelmayes — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:49:55 -0000

That's a great feeling when you don't have to take out the putter. And I'm sure even better with greens like those at Shinnecock. With my friends, that shot is called a "pants-dropper" - meaning you walk the 65 yds to retrieve your Eagle with trousers at the ankles.

Re: Product Management vs Product Marketing

michaelmayes — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 21:35:21 -0000

Thanks Sherry. Feel free to share or quote the post as needed. /mm

Re: Getting The Band Back Together

michaelmayes — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:37:58 -0000

I happened to be listening to Miles Davis while reading this post, so I thought I’d do a little research about the bands he recorded with from 1950-1970. Jazz may the best genre for this analogy as the artists explore relationships with other artists more than most.

In 1950, he worked with Bill Barber, Max Roach, and fourteen others on a pivotal early album, “Birth of Cool.” In 1957, on “Miles Ahead,” he brought Bill Barber back on Tuba, but introduced a set of seventeen new faces. Ten of these guys formed a “core team” that would continue on with Davis for the famous “Sketches from Spain” in 1960 (my favorite album). But he also brought in fifteen new faces to create the unique Spanish sound. And interestingly, in 1970 when Davis released “Bitches Brew” (my second fave), it was with an entirely new band - including Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, and Wayne Shorter to deliver a revolutionary jazz album. Davis continued on with other new and old faces, evolving his sound continually.

An innovative sound often comes from introducing new artists into the mix (and keeping the best bandmates onboard), much like Miles Davis did over his career. I see the same in startups - bring along the best tuba player or drummer, but as you migrate to an electric sound, find the new guitar or bass rock star.

(source: Miles Davis discography on wikipedia)

Re: neighborhoods

michaelmayes — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 22:39:28 -0000

We recently moved from the 'south west village' to 'north west village' and its a different world! New dry cleaner, wine store, coffee spot. The dog goes on different walks - its like a new city. I'd almost call them micro-neighborhoods, the way that New Yorkers hunker down in their little areas.

Re: Smart Swaps: Spread Your Bread With This Instead

michaelmayes — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 17:36:27 -0000

I am a big fan of spreading lentils on a cracker or toasted bread. And I tried the avocado idea recently, and spiced it up with a little cayenne and chili powder. Good eats!

Re: GSK Strengthens Global Vaccine manufacturing

michaelmayes — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:23:33 -0000

Testing out a comment on the new ExpertMatters site!

Re: Think Technology Trumps Content? Well, You’re Wrong | paidContent

michaelmayes — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:08:37 -0000

Wow - this was an enlightening article

Re: Timothy Leary At The Internet Archive

michaelmayes — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:27:21 -0000

I really need to start my blogging again. I can't believe my last post was back in February. OK, let's figure this out...

Re: If I Ran The Movies

michaelmayes — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:26:30 -0000

Interestingly, the Brits have both of your features at their movie theatres. Seating is reserved and tickets can be bought well in advance. It makes the experience of getting to the movies much less stressful, and they dont charge any more for that general feature.

What they've done is allocated certain seats - the best seats in the house, I guess - central and just the right distance from the screen - as premium seats and you can pay an extra £ or two for those.

Great commentary here - it makes so much sense to have variable pricing at the movies, and there's millions of dollars left on the table that 'active users' are willing to spend...Thanks for the post.

Re: Phish

michaelmayes — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:21:37 -0000

Glad you are past the hater phase. There is some beautiful stuff in the phish music and their resurrection was pretty tight - they had been practicing extensively and the technical jams showed it. I do love the 98-99 uber-funk, but it was awesome to see them take what used to be a 20 minute jam and turn it into a perfect 5 min segue.

And the free mp3 downloads- that is amazing and how it should be - those who didnt make it to the show could listen to the first set within 15 minutes of it being over. I remember the old days of meeting the phish tapers and getting DATs post-show to listen to on the drive to the next show. DATs!!! Ha, the old days...