Day: February 22, 2007

Cisco buys Reactivity for $135 Million

/ Adam Nash / 1 Comment

Super quick post this morning, but I’ll flesh this out later today.

However, I had to say a big Congratulations to the entire Reactivity team, and in particular, the close friends of mine who are founders. John Lilly, Brian Roddy, Bryan Rollins & Mike Hanson, a very special congratulations. Mike & Brian, I think this means your going to be working for Cisco for a while. 🙂

Here is the official press release from the Reactivity website.

Reactivity was in the XML Gateway market, which means that they made a secure, fast box that would allow the routing of XML messages. For modern distributed development, which involves exchanging messages in the XML format, a new level of security and management software is needed.

I feel very close to Reactivity, even though officially I was never an employee. The company was founded while I was roommates with John Lilly, and I even attended one of the earliest (if not the earliest) classic Silicon Valley lunches where the model was sketched out on a napkin. The idea was to build a technology business around the very best people coming out of top schools – people who wanted to start their own companies, but hadn’t found the right mix of people or ideas to get going.

Reactivity’s original mail server was my old PowerMac 8500, and I believe my old color laser printer went into the company as well. Later in life, as a venture capitalist, I was able to consult and help advise structuring during their Series B. I always felt good when I could be helpful to my friends and to the company.

Reactivity went through several generations. It began as a stand-alone product consultant and innovation factory, incubating people and startups. They were the hot place to work in the late 1990s for smart, savvy Stanford & MIT engineers and entrepreneurs. Zaplet came out of the company, as did Raplix (which became CenterRun). They became VC backed, getting funding from Peter Fenton and Mitch Kapoor at Accel. In the downturn, the company re-started with a focus on product, and their new product and platform was born.

A special congratulations to the team again. What a great way to start a day. I’m going to have an extra spring in my step all through the week.

Update:  Some nice words from John Lilly, on his personal blog, about the acquisition and about this post.  Funny.  I forgot the laser printer was called the 800 lb. Gorilla.  It was an Apple Color Laserwriter 16/600.  It was HUGE and LOUD.  Funny.

Fun Facts from the US Mint Website: Job Openings!

/ Adam Nash / 2 Comments

I don’t why I like the US Mint website so much. It’s so archaic and poorly organized.

And yet, I find myself clicking around, looking for undiscovered gems. For example, it wasn’t so long ago that I discovered the US Mint website had a whole section that outlined production numbers for all normal coins that the US Mint produces. Interesting information that is hard to find elsewhere. Where is it hidden? Underneath the “About Us” link… who would have guessed?

I have made money, in the past, by buying coins directly of the US Mint website, and then turning them around and selling them on eBay. It’s always surprising to me how many coin collectors know enough about online shopping to buy on eBay, but don’t necessarily know that you can buy coins from the US Mint online.

Well, here is my little find tonight. Not that I’m looking to move to Washington, D.C., but I guess the job market is getting hot. The US Mint now has a link to some very strange government website where you can see all the jobs available at the US Mint.

There are some fun ones here that you just don’t find elsewhere. Like this one, as a Lead Transfer Engraver. $26-$30 per hour. I clicked through, but I have no idea how you’d become qualified for this … my university didn’t offer courses in numesmatic engraving. Budget cuts, I guess.

But, as I scan the list, there are some surprising high paying jobs for the US Government. A few Project Management roles, and an Accountant position or two.

The highest paying role? Supervisory Business Management Specialist. $110K – $143K per year. This is actually quite high for a government job – it’s almost as high as the salary that a US Congressman makes!

I can’t make heads or tails of the actual requirements, but it sounds an awful lot like a general marketing management role. I love how the combination of Human Resources and US Government regulations leads to requirements for this role like:

To be eligible at the GS-15 [level for this role], candidates must have been a GS-14 for fifty-two weeks, when applicable.

Well, that clears everything up now, doesn’t it? 🙂

So, coin lovers out there, ask yourself – are you willing to move to Washington, DC? Your dream job may be out there, waiting.