Business on Justin Carmony

How I ate a salad, met Ed Catmull, and had an epiphany

Fri, 22 Sep 2017 17:00:23 +0000

Today while eating my sweet pork salad at Costa Vida my coworker leaned over and asked me “hey, is that Ed Catmull?”

I looked up, and sure enough, there chilling in the middle of the room was Ed Catmull, President of Pixar and Disney Animation. He was dressed in jeans and a faded Pixar sweatshirt, looking like a totally normal guy. He was watching one of the TVs where Costa Vida shows surfing clips, waiting for his family to get through the line for food. Everyone in the restaurant was unaware that one of the most successful studio presidents in history was just chilling there. Well, everyone except my co-workers and I.

Startups and a Reality Check

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 01:03:53 +0000

I read an article about startups that just really just summarized one of the greatest struggles that they face, and how so many of them are oblivious to the problem.

Here’s some stunning, Earth-shattering news: You know all those hundreds of incredibly stupid startups that have been raising seed money in Silicon Valley despite the fact that the people running those startups have no experience doing anything, ever, and have no idea at all how to generate revenue (let alone profit) with their lousy ideas, because, in fact, there is no way to make money with their lousy ideas, because in fact their ideas are lousy?

A Different Kind of Tech Company: Families First

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 17:33:42 +0000

I’ve been lucky to work for several successful startups. Granted, they weren’t Facebook or Twitter, but almost all of them turned around good profits and/or were bought. I’ll admit, working at a startup is, well, a lot of work. There are articles written about long hours and hard work. Even articles about telling people to quit whining about the hours.

Now I really appreciate my opportunity to work with the companies I did. I remember working long hours, even 80+ hour weeks during crunch time. I remember sleeping 3-4 hours a night and working pretty much every waking moment. This culture is pretty pervasive in the tech industry, and working 40 hours a week for many companies just isn’t enough. Even outside of a company, there is a feeling of pressure for programmers to spend most of their free time working on their skills.

Making a Distributed Workforce Work

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:30:16 +0000

I’ve been mulling over this blog post in my mind for quite awhile. I’ve been working exclusively for distributed companies since 2008. Also know as telecommuting and virtual workforce, it basically is when you have employees working for you regardless of location. Whether it is home, a co-working space, or another office space they prefer, its when an employee can work for a company other then the office.

I’ve met and talked with several companies that have had a great success with this approach. Toni Schneider, CEO at Automattic, has written about the 5 reasons why your company should be distributed.

On the Eve of Modern Warfare 3

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:39:12 +0000

While I do work some in the Video Game Industry, I don’t write about it very often. However, I thought I would write some thoughts on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3:

Ultimately, I’m approaching it with a great deal of hesitation. Here is why:

When you start up a Video Game, much like watching a Movie, you will see some credits. In Modern Warfare 2, you’ll see Activision’s name, which is the Publisher, and Infinity Ward, which is the Game Development Studio. While the publisher can be involved in making (or ruining) a game, ultimately its up to the studio to produce a high quality game.