Lijit

Today, we gathered as a company for one of our regular brown bag lunchtime meetings. The point of these brown bags is for different people to share their area of speciality at Lijit, helping to keep us all informed of what everyone else is working on. We also wanted an occasion to celebrate our newest publisher, a little site that you might have heard of, and there was really only one way to do that properly.

Cheeseburgers all around! Luckily, our CEO was feeling especially sentimental and did a great job of recording the event for posterity. Thanks for the pictures Todd!*

*Although if some of us had known you were taking pictures, we might have tried a little harder to look awake…no offense, Shawn.

The best part of Todd documenting our cheeseburger feast? Getting to watch Walter, our COO, really enjoy his burger. We’re talking edge-of-your-seat excitement here people.

See? We do know how to have fun without alcohol.

Before Mark joined Lijit, we were having problems with numbers. The kind of problems that only a really good finance guy can solve. Especially a really good finance guy with a real live calculator. So, we were really excited to have Mark (or Chess as he’s called by some around the office) come aboard. Not to mention the fact that when he started here, he had the added benefit of already working with a bunch of us in the past.

However, you probably don’t know him, so I managed to strongarm him into answering some questions for me. Those finance guys…they just don’t know how to arm-wrestle. Enjoy learning the ways of the Mark.

What is your Lijit contribution?

I am the OFG (only Finance guy)- I am responsible for the Accounting and Finance functions at Lijit, which involves producing timely and accurate financial statements, handling a variety of financial analyses, and managing company financial planning.

What is your favorite word and why?

Consistency - because it is a foundation for success both personally and professionally.

What turns you off creatively, emotionally, or spiritually and why?

Lately, I’ve been turned off by the overwhelming negativity of the mainstream media. I notice this especially in business and sport coverage because I follow those areas the most closely. As an example, sports coverage used to focus on individual and team achievement, now it seems like it’s all about manufactured locker room controversies, nasty salary negotiations, brushes with the law, etc.

I think there is some carry-over to our society in general or maybe society is driving the demand for negative news? Either way, I think the pendulum has swung too far to the negative slant in reporting.

What profession, other than your own, would you like to attempt and why?

College football offensive coordinator. There are a few reasons I would like to attempt this. First, it involves complex decision making based on analysis of both real-time and historical data for play calling - in a way, it’s very similar to business decision making. Also, the results of your decisions are known right away, allowing for a constant flow of new information that can be utilized immediately. I think the coaching/teaching aspect of it would be rewarding as well. On top of the specifics of the job, what could be more fun than being directly involved in college football?

Something you’re guilty of…

I am guilty of being a college football addict. (See answer to #4). I have gone to or watched on TV nearly every single University of Colorado football game for the last 15 years, including traveling to at least one away game per year.

 

Mark looks really happy in the above picture because just a week or so before it was taken, his wife gave birth to twins. So that smile is really a slap-happy grin due to lack of sleep. Whatever the reason, we’re all smiles around the Lijit office having Mark here. And when our company starts making large amounts of money, he’s just the one to trust to count it all.

(Side note: Don’t you enjoy the fine artwork that Mark has hanging in his office in the above pic? Yes, it is a post-it note with an outdoor scene of mountains drawn on it.)

(Last side note: When I asked Mark if I should link to his blog in this here profile, he said that it was less a blog and more a “static webpage”. That means he doesn’t update his blog. For shame, Mark…)

This post is courtesy of today’s birthday girl, Grace Boyle. Besides being an under-appreciated Gen Y blogger, she’s now 23 and most definitely appreciated around the Lijit office.

You never know what kind of shenanigans or *surprises* are going to come your way here at Lijit. One such surprise I received recently was from a loyal Lijit user, Andy Nulman. He is a fantastic, blogging entrepreneur from Montreal, but he is also an author and released his book Pow! Right Between The Eyes! Profiting From the Power of Surprise not long ago.

This is how Andy describes his book:

“Pow! is three things in one: the name of the world’s most entertaining business book, the sound your brain makes while reading it (akin to 1,000 lightbulbs over your head going off at the same time) and the difference between Holy Jeez! and Who cares? when it comes to your projects.”

Since he has many tricks up his sleeve, in January he offered 200 free copies (pre-release) of his book to anyone who requested via blog that they wanted it. Of course, I had to indulge, so on my personal blog, I sent a shout-out and a month later, I received his book.

Great idea for a book promotion, right? But wait…there’s more. I opened up the book and inside was a certificate to be the next literary giant, entitling me to the services of book agent Bill Gladstone, of Waterside Productions. Just a small sampling of Andy Nulman’s POW! Surprise tactic.

So, thank you Andy. Congratulations on your book release this month. All of us here at Lijit wish you the best of luck. You can follow Andy’s book release excitement on his blog and to check the book out yourself, it’s available at Barnes & Noble, Borders, 800 CEO Read, Books-A-Million, and Amazon.com.

Before Shawn graced us with her presence at Lijit, we didn’t have a QA team. Okay, we had one, but it consisted of everyone already employed by Lijit coming in for releases and doing lots of late-night testing. So you can only imagine how happy we were when Shawn was hired. As it turns out, not only is Shawn awesome at what she does, but she’s also a wonderful person to have around. Plus, she was game enough to answer the questions that I ask of everyone in this series.

What is your Lijit contribution?

Bringing more quality to the company and the features we release to our publishers by noticing and squashing bugs in Lijit’s offices before they crawl outside.

What turns you on creatively, spiritually, or emotionally and why?

Experiencing that you’ve done something good by seeing things come full circle. In July 2002, I had to put my Australian Cattle Dog, Kaena, down after a hard fought battle with a nerve sheath tumor, a low incidence type of cancer. It took 2 years to be diagnosed however, after the diagnosis, his lame limb was amputated and he lived a happy 18 months as our “tripod”. Knowing that this type of cancer was rare, I vowed to donate him to research when the time came. My personal loss became a gain for science. The lead veterinarian on Kaena’s case at Colorado State University wrote me a note expressing gratitude for the immense knowledge that Kaena’s case provided to all the veterinarians, both seasoned and new, that were present during his autopsy.

What sound or noise do you hate and why?

2 things…breaking, slamming and banging things in anger. It’s wasted energy, you’ll need to use more time and energy to fix what you’ve broke, and you can’t take back the impression you just made. Plus the high-pitched shrill of screaming people hurts my ears.

What profession, other than your own, would you like to attempt and why?

Barrel Racer. I marvel at the teamwork, speed, control and athleticism that exist between horse and rider in professional barrel racing.

Something you’re guilty of…

Having too much fun on hockey road trips.

How can you not love someone with a name that’s as fun to pronounce as Shawn’s? Don’t believe me? Say her name a couple of times and appreciate the way it rolls off the tongue. And let’s not forget about the fact that she’s a hockey mom from Hawaii. We love having Shawn as part of our team and hope we don’t scare her off anytime soon. (And she looks fab in her Lijit vest!)

You can read the guest post she wrote last year about why she enjoys working at Lijit or check out her blog to find out more.

Next weekend, I’m heading to Nashville for the Blissdom Conference and am most excited to be going. In addition to speaking on a panel about blogger outreach, I’ll also have the chance to meet lots of bloggers getting their bliss on. The conference has sold out and the list of activities is impressive. I took a quick look at the attendees and can’t wait to meet the following Lijit users in person…

Her Bad Mother
Complete Organizing Solutions
The Bean
Velveteen Mind
The Inspired Room
Successful Blog
Blissfully Domestic
DesignHER Momma
Alex Year Two

…not to mention having the opportunity to evangelize Lijit to many other bloggers. If you’re going to be at the conference, be sure to send me a note and let me know your t-shirt size. You know I’ll be packing some serious swag with me.

Okay, okay, to start with…Jackie Jo isn’t really her name, but it is the sweet nickname that we gave her shortly after she started working here. (Blame our CEO.) It took Jacqueline a while to warm up to everyone, but once she did, she never looked back. Whether it’s never wearing socks in winter, sending IMs with many typos or pushing out emails to the entire company warning against the dangers of putting your hands in the M&M jar, she has made her mark here at Lijit. Especially when she represented us at the Blog World booth in Vegas…

Fortunately, when I told her I was resurrecting the “Get to Know Lijit” series, she was game to answer the usual five questions. Enjoy getting to know one of our Community Catalysts.

• What is your Lijit contribution?

I am on the reactive end of customer support. I work with potential and current Lijit users to ensure they’re happy with our search, in addition to helping acquire new publishers through biz development strategies.

• What is your least favorite word and why?

Frustrated…because I can’t seem to pronounce it and then I just become “frustrated”.

• What sound or noise do you love and why?

The sound of fireworks…it’s just spectacular.

• What profession, other than your own, would you like to attempt and why?

Relief aid worker because I’m passionate about helping others or owning my own bookstore because I love to read.

• Something you’re guilty of…

Spending money on Tory Burch shoes, eating red meat when I say I don’t, and sticking my hand in the M&M jar.

And just so you don’t think Jacqueline is all serious business, here’s an awesome image I captured outside of our office building when she just happened to match all of the construction that was taking place on our sidewalk. Notice her yellow shoes that blend right in with the caution tape.

If you’d like to get to know Jacqueline even better, feel free to follow her on twitter (JMalan) or check out her blog (A Cowgirl’s West). Big thanks to Jacqueline for making our office an even better place to work!

While Tara was at Chicks Who Click ‘09, I was out in Las Vegas speaking at WordCamp Las Vegas (which occurred during CES, which Todd Vernon, our CEO attended).

Whew!

WordCamp Las Vegas was a wonderful event, where Wordpress users and developers get together to discuss all things Wordpress.

This WordCamp was a bit different in that there was also a good discussion around the business of blogging and social media.

The speaker list was quite the who’s who of social media. Chris Brogan (Lijit User), Liz Strauss (Lijit User), Warren Whitlock (Future Lijit User), Jim Turner (Lijit User), Jim Krukal (Lijit User) and Dave Taylor (Lijit User) all gave highly interesting and informative talks.

My presentation, You Are The Center of Your Universe can be found here.

Luckily, our host, John Hawkins captured it all on Ustream here.

It was great to hang out with Matt Mullenweg (who celebrated his 25th birthday) and the couple of hundred folks the came to the conference.

I am planning on speaking/attending about 4 other WordCamps this year, including Chicago, DC, San Francisco and Denver (I might head down to Dallas as well). Let me know if you are planning on attending a WordCamp and I will bring you a Lijit T-shirt!

This is a guest post from one of the newest players to join our team, Perry Quinn. In addition to being our VP of Market Development, he’s also an avid skateboarder whose claim to fame is that he rode mountain bikes in Nepal with Dan Cortez on MTV Sports in the 90’s. Yep…he has the pictures to prove it.

I went through about a hundred thoughts (slight exaggeration) around what I wanted to write on the Lijit blog. I am not one of our stronger bloggers, but will definitely be kicking in hard in 2009.

I thought about “big to small company” stories…New Year’s resolutions…even began writing about “commitment to blogging.” All met with a not-swift-enough death.

Then I started thinking about what I truly liked about Lijit…and as cliche as it sounds, I realized it was the people. Straight up.

Keeping with this theme, I wanted to write a few words or a sentence about each person that works here. Not anything special or endearing, just the first thing that popped into my mind.

A list of Lijit folks and my random thoughts about them…

Todd Vernon–Rush, cars, being only children

Walter Knapp–I hope he does not get back in shape…will be too much pressure on me.

Micah Baldwin–Old soul. Indian food. “I did not say you are wrong…”

Dan Jones–I can’t have conversations with Dan…I have to use spell check just to get his title right…smartness beyond my grasp.

Leslie Osborne–She owns her own racing helmet (and shoes)!

Mike Meredith–Kicks serious tail on the bass.

Emmanuel Puentes–Daughters that thankfully look like their mother.

Dave Ferro–Has a rocking Bronco and ingests fair amounts of supplements.

Mark Chessler–Head of the OFG group.

Bill Marcum–My future cycling buddy…maybe running buddy too.

Derek Greentree–Became a Rock God on December 16th, 2008. The world, and Derek, are changed forever.

Ningsheng Liu–Is currently becoming a MySQL expert (whether he wants to or not)!

Mike Pritchard–Pip blushes when I use American words that have different meanings in the UK.

Charlie Wanek–I am scared to ride with Charlie…he breaks bike parts.

Doug Farmer–Lijit South–hope to get to know Doug better in 2009.

Jeff Kriese–Also Lijit South–also hope to get to know Jeff better in 2009.

Zach Conger–Quite possibly the most patient person at Lijit…at least with me.

Daniel Weiss–King of all things to be known (he is my answer man).

Ryan Peterson–I hope to learn every tea secret that Ryan knows.

Shawn Tanaka–Has a cool name…and works QA magic through even the toughest sicknesses.

Tara Anderson–Stand-up comedian, seventh grade teacher, evangelist, marketing queen…and she had to sit by me all day long!

Jacqueline Malan–Sockless J, the Tri-State Spelling Bee champion.

Grace Boyle–Fearless future life coach.

Colleen Clair–Knows about 4WD (and sports car) suspensions…more organized than anyone (yes, anyone) I have ever known.

Aditya Kaundinya–I vow to learn how to (properly) say Aditya’s name in 2009!

Julie Penner–Not last on the list on purpose…I am just jealous of her trip to Patagonia!

[Insert witty ending here.]

You would think, that with all the good things happening here at Lijit, we couldn’t want for anything more. While basically true (we’re healthy, have funding, and mostly like one another), there’s always room for dreaming. And after asking around the office, it turns out there a few things that Lijit wants for Christmas. File these under “publishers we want to be using our search” and enjoy the list!

Design*Sponge features the absolute best in home and product design, including product reviews, new designer profiles, trend forecasting, student design and global design shows. Lijit could help Design*Sponge by searching everything they’re doing so wonderfully on the web: their press and accolades, their Flickr photos and featured podcasts, each contributor’s content, and their newest video collaboration via YouTube with the New York Public Library. Not to mention, with design in mind, they can use our WordPress plugin and not change their current blog design and layout.

Alex, the author of Blogsessive, is “obsessed with blogging” and covers all the tips, plugins, themes, coding, etc. that goes along with blogging. His site is a mecca for the blogging expert to the first time blogger, however, the one missing tool he hasn’t featured or tried out is Lijit’s search. We see this as a holiday win-win, because his reader base will learn another Lijit blogging tool while he could increase his reader’s engagement, pageviews and searches done on his blog.

If Geeks are Sexy, then those of us working at Lijit have got it going on. However, we would argue that using Lijit makes you even sexier. We couldn’t agree more with the blog’s mission to provide “up to the minute tech news, reviews, and tutorials.” So why not include Lijit’s search and help out your readership of “IT professionals and computer enthusiasts”? Don’t they deserve a good search option as well? Plus, we know that Yan who runs the blog just loves our “Too Lijit to Quit” style.

Ken Rockwell is a go-to source for reviews on photographic equipment and advice. While Ken is currently using Google’s site search, we’d really love to see him using Lijit, if only to see the valuable information contained in his network! In many parts of his blog, Ken says that he supports his family with his site’s revenue, so he might be interested in ways to increase his ad revenue (Lijit can do that!) and since his site winds up as a destination for many Google searches, we also know he’d see the real value keeping searchers on his site longer (Lijit can do that, too!).

The Talking Points Memo is high on the list of favorite political blogs amongst Lijit employees and has organically grown over the past eight years into something of a blog network. It’s also the epicenter for a lot of original reporting that pushes the mainstream news cycle. All that political coverage demands a better way of searching through it, in order to receive trusted and relevant results. Memo for the New Year, Talking Points: Install Lijit.

We wish Political Wire was Lijit because many in the office consider the site’s author to be something of a political guru. Taegan brings current, up-to-date information to readers on the hour and the site’s breaking news aggregator provides quick insight about what’s going on in the world of politics. Also, with a blogroll like the one on Political Wire, doing a Lijit search of their trusted network would bring back a wealth of information. Here in the office, we’re hoping Taegan will vote for a change…in his blog’s search tool.

We enjoy a good laugh around the office and Stuff White People Like delivers the goods every time. Besides being funny, it’s true. Unfortunately, this blog is hosted on a wordpress.com site, which means that they can’t use Lijit. So, I guess what we really want for Christmas is the ability for bloggers to use our search on wordpress.com sites. (Hear that Automattic, you can make our holiday wishes come true!)

From all of us here, we hope you have a wonderful holiday celebration and that you find all you’re searching for! Also, if you see yourself listed on our wish list, please understand that we mean it as the highest form of flattery and are keeping our fingers crossed that you might be susceptible to a little holiday guilt. Hey, a startup can dream, right?

This is another in our series of guest posts written by Lijit employees. Mike Pritchard is bestowing the honor on us this week and if you like what he has to say, you can find more of his writing (and photography) on his blog.

So, what is a day in the life of Lijit like? My name is Mike “Pip” Pritchard, I’m the tech lead for the ad server team, and if you’re been following the blog here, you’ll realize that we’ve been pretty busy. Crazy busy, in fact, but we’re excited that we’re working on projects that are helping grow Lijit and create revenue for both Lijit and our publishers. And we have some great projects in the pipeline that you’ll get to hear about as we roll them out!

I’ve been at Lijit since October and I came to Lijit from a non-traditional background for a web startup. You see, I’ve come from a strong AI background and have spent most of my career building robots for either the DoD or NASA! Weird, but true.

I’ve built tiny robots, flying robots, crawling robots, industrial robots. So how did I end up at Lijit and why? Well, I love working in the AI field. The more we learn about biological intelligence the more it seems to be incredibly parallel in nature, the human brain seems to be a vast collection of independently functioning systems (structures of neural networks) working together in a fairly chaotic way, with the emergent behavior being intelligence, or at least what we think is intelligence. Almost like if we were to throw billions of computers together all connected to each other something would emerge from the chaos, something very unexpected. Sound familiar?

Well, that is for the future, but for today humanity has created this vast connected mass (or mess) of information and computers that we’re only beginning to organize. Maybe we’re not organizing it, but its organizing itself. Just like many complex biological systems we see in nature, it is perhaps a self-organizing system and it seems to be organizing itself around structures like social networks.

This, of course, is why Lijit is so important. Lijit is the natural evolution of this process, and allows us to search through these social networks in a more meaningful and useful way. This is why its an exciting time, and Lijit is a cool place to be…

(Photo used with CC license courtesy of: Dan Coulter)