Netscape Documentary

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Actually most most software companies are one-hit wonders They have one product tha akes

them very big they think that this one hit that
meaning theyve got the off
is skills to bring

number of hits and then they crash Forland had number of hits ut lost the formula

thinkandt \2\
Engineers work on product They dont work on work
for company generally They on on

deliverable which is product And companies based on of products

are series so ..the

success is based...you often dont have continuity between one release of and the next
product

release of product Sometimes youll often know when you release from
get...you get...a the

same person over and over again because the product feels consistent sometimes the

product will feel inconsistent between releases and often the engineering team has switched

between them
1/ \-i

think the biggest

you have do be
.1 is
misconception that all to is in successful company to

succeed and thats just not the way it works whats that that
important is
you figure out

your compensation model...at Netscape in particular we had think one of the biggest

detriments to Netscape was the stock

that price went so high so early Because what ended up

happening was that people were really good also really knew how to be compensated and its

very hard to hire people in when the stock price is very high because it can only go

down. .if you have slow steady growth of your stock price its much better model for your

company

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Tape 56 Il ii

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actually think its an excellent model The stock option models an excellent model the

important thing is to know how to compensated in that model

get if companys just gone

public it
may not be the best place to go

What happens is that when you go to in stock or stock

start-up you get paid options

fl .when you go to company you get paid in stock options and generally you can exercise

those options and buy the stock low price

at very if the companys successful the

company will
go public and then therell be public market for your options.and at that

point thats when you hear about the Silicon Valley people getting know
you getting wealthy

The...generally theres excitement about the there

though...if company like is at Netscape or

Yahoo or lot of the big names that we hear about...theres value of the stock
over and the stock

generally will go up and then and then come down The once youve
problem is that
gone

public its very hard to attract because

really good people they recognize that that getting in

c8
early is important
ts

Its very different than the of Netscape

beginning days At the beginning days of Netscape we

had bunch of very talented people who knew what do There werent
exactly to lot of people

standing around telling people what what their job was wedecided we needed an editor

and went off and did it. .and that was. .the worked back then
way Today we have were

we have to move together more the are smaller Back then

opportunities

---the
opportunities were very large We. .just simply writing word processor an editor was

successful because
product there were brand-new product categories being defined and

iSw...were out niches. and customer needs

filling refining .the level of granularity...to

meeting our customer needs..is lot smaller its more labor-intensive and...its different
just

/\
Good engineers think about business they really understand the model in which their

software is going to be sold and the compensation to the

company Its very important

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Netscape Documentary
Tape56

There are actually different kinds of engineers there are and there
thinkers are applied

people. .1 view myself as an applied person...I think ..in terms of how affects
product people

and also its very important that it does it well so...it doesnt take back from the fact that...it

doesnt do it well its that the abstract

just problem.. .solving problem in isnt that interesting

unless it has some And dont know how

application so. .1 to finish that sentence

...its just so well into

fun...unicycling fits
my life in terms of my kids and in getting aerobic

exercise and intellectual stimulation in terms of when Im riding down the trail have

to be focused on being on the

very trail so in that way it
might be related to programming but

Is unicycling some kind of metaphor for what youve been through over the last few

months

Theres no metaphor there ousc

Well was was one of few ..

it
interesting it the times...not few times

it was one of the occasions where management said were to do this and engineers
going

figured out exactly what to do.W they set out the direction that we were going to release the

code it was announced to the world...we all learned about at the same time the
it
rest of the

world did anda the engineering organization formed to make this

happen And it that was it

was very interesting

Is that different than how it usually happens

yeah Most of the time

somebody comes up with an idea for and
feature sells it to

management.. .this case actually was direction picked by management and we went there

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Netscape Documentary
Tape 56

Whats particularly gratifying about that

Its just different

What do you think the response will be

believe were going to lot of people the source code and therell be of
get downloading lot

questions about actually how to

get it built and itll be good to be on the
newsgroups

answering those questions and then having what ends answer them
up happening is
you once

and then people who are interested in the

subject will end up repeating what you and
say over

over again Urn and so well be refining how the how the product gets built and how the

distribution works Um and thatlI happen in the next couple of weeks urn dont anticipate

getting anything interesting back for at least month

Do you think this will be as dramatic move for Netscape as releasing the browser

The release of the browser was...I wasnt here obviously wasnt

..I here at the release of the

browser urn but knew the chan the was world and
way it
going to affect the that was...it was

more the way the world was going to change than the was going be affected
way Netscape to by

it fl saw Mosaic and said every business is going to have to have an address thats going

to be URL Andand if just that

happens its going to be huge.1nd of course more

than thats happenedS the release of the source code is is new business model for the

Valley and thats how

interesting.a..well see that plays out but uh its the first time

commercial company has taken risk and. .of this kind to see what what happens when you

\open up your developrnent staff and its risky and interesting well see how it
pays

hat are your impressions of the

Valley

The Valley is really capitalism at its best what ends up happening is that with
people

talents figure out how them

to apply to their benefit and um people with money find people

with talent to make good happen and its

things think its really an amazing place...I moved

out here from the East Coast and. couldnt

.1
imagine doing business not in the Valley

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Netscape Documentary QL cl
Tape 56

Oh it still does money money definitely goes through management to get to engineers

engineers arent often the

founders...theyre usually the founders but theyre not the people

who run the companies Ande the important thing about company is really...your

opportunity what opportunity youre going to seize S...the off in the

Valley goes wrong

direction often And...in scale whichS is

pretty amazing Pen Computing came and went

there were large companies ..that went that came into being and. .had lot of people working

for them on Pen Computing and but disappeared and then

it all small company .. like US

Robot-S Pilot -5 actually Pilot

Computing came up with the the Pilot and...had the little

so. .the technology...excites into seize

people trying opportunity but it takes urn but

usually theres there are few winners \2

wouldnt say that engineers...that good managers have to be. .Ill say that again cause you

wont take that one

st\
fT wouldnt say that thatS all good managers were once engineers there are people that

Ive met that are excellent en who who have

managers are not been engineers but as rule

good engin good managers come from being engineers....their backgrounds are

generally more engineering-specific. .The people who arent engineers are generally very good

people people mean theyre very good with knowing what people need and...getting those

needs fulfilled.fl find that do

engineers will the
right thing if
you let them And so great

engineering manager the whats important

lights up target says this is this is whats supposed to

happen and lets the engineers be creative to do the job

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