The Xpree Party

In the heart of Palo Alto, California stands a house, garage and shed. Now a historic landmark, the house marks the birthplace of Hewlett Packard, and has been designated the official birthplace of Silicon Valley.



In August 2007, when Xpree was 3 weeks old and we were busy "cranking" (as Mat likes to say ) out a prototype for EA, our mutual friend Jenny Middleton visited from London, and we took her on a walking tour of Mat's neighbourhood. We visited the HP house, but were confined to the outside facade and the plaque for visitors, describing the house as a historical landmark and the birthplace of Silicon Valley. We read the plaque together in wonder at the brave pioneers who had started their company in a garage and made sacrifices in order to push an idea that we believed in through. Never did I believe that we'd have our first party in the HP house.

Left to right: Simon, myself, Leslie, Walter, Mat, Vahe and Mike Pliner (advisor)




Leslie made this all possible, through her friend Sid Espinosa, who works for HP and is head of the HP foundation. And also lives on the top floor of the HP house (where Mr Packard (the "P" in HP) and his wife lived in the 1930s.

The house was rebuilt from the ground up in the 1990s, from only 6 photographs, faithful to the original design and details. The living room and kitchen are museum showcases, with the original Oscillator that Hewlett and Packard built, beautifully showcased, as well as the original giant oven and rusty kettle that Mrs Packard cooked their meals in. The kitchen is also the place that the cofounders interviewed their salesman, who stayed with the pair for 45 years.

Here is a picture of the original garage, restored to its former glory. Credit to our friend Simon for all the excellent photos. I don't know how he did made evening seem like daytime.



Here are Mat and Sid Espinosa, Leslie's dear friend from HP who is soon to be Mayor of Palo Alto. Mat, against his will (Leslie and I had to beg!), gave a speech welcoming the guests to the party and, with great humility, explaining how thankful we were and lucky that we had succeeded this far in the HP tradition.



The children watching TV. It's clear that Sid has held parties here before! The two boys are Huck and Hobie Jamison, and on the far left is Miko.



Walter "Mr Skibus" and "Mr Motorcycle", our dear friend who helped us in our early days, and Julia



John (former CEO of TellMe, friend of Mat's mother and Angel Investor in Xpree), our fearless CEO and Jim (our VP of Sales)


There was plenty of Jamaican food:



Left to right:
John, Stewart (our VC), Greg (our Legal Counsel), myself and Gary (our advisor)


The famous "money shot" captured by Vahe, Leslie, Ed and Mat:

Andres' dream

Over lunch yesterday, I met Andres, our building Maintenance person at Plug and Play Tech Center. Andres has an interesting story. His brothers and two sisters are with him in the United States.
His other sister and parents are in El Salvador.

In 2001, Andres played for the El Salvador national soccer (football for us) team. He was a star, and on the news and in the newspapers. He was a recognizable celebrity throughout the country. Girls asked his parents for his autograph (I don't remember that happening to me too often). He left his stardom to come to the United States, where he'd always wanted to be. His sister works as a rocket scientist for NASA in Mountain View. His brother is a building contractor. Andres is married and lives in Menlo Park. His dream is to go to England and watch Manchester United play. If he can't do that, Real Madrid will do, he says. I hope his dream comes true.

So, what's it like to be back?

An historic election, an excited team, a gloomy recession, a menu of wind and sun, a move to another office, an intense spate of hiring. That's what it's like to be back!

I spent a week getting over the jetlag (Going to bed at 9pm, waking up at 4am feeling exhausted), but people around me had no time to wait: there was just too much going on.

In the space of 2 short weeks:

1. America has elected Mr Obama. No news yet on T's nomination, though it seems to be on the cards. At least from what the media report, the country seems to be doing better. I remember the last time I experienced such euphoria was in 1997, when the British Cricket Team started winning their test matches, and everyone wore a smile. For a few years at least...

2. We are hiring a Product Manager, Senior Engineer and TS/Operations Manager

3. We are moving office, with all the planning that comes with it...

4. We are having our Xpree Got Funded party on Nov 15. Our angel investors, Stewart, and all our friends are coming.

5. I am changing. I am throwing away things about myself that I don't like, and attempting to re-invent myself.

We are finally free.

Here's the fun part (as Vahe would say): driving to work or going out to run, I keep on groping for my camera, hoping to snap whatever I find interesting for this blog. But I'm at home now, and a tourist no more.

Here are some learnings from my trip:

People
Smile at everyone. You're a visitor. People like happy visitors.
Listen more than you talk.
Spend time with children. Ask them what they like, and what their friends like. Ask them about their favourite stories. Don't try and teach them new tricks. Until they trust you. Wait up to a year for this, and you'll know when they ask you.
Spend time with people who were good to you in the past. Remind them of this.

Flying:
When flying long distances, take daytime flights. Night flights will damage your stamina.
When flying anywhere, exercise vigorously on the morning of your flight. It's good for your circulation and will help you endure the flight.
When flying anywhere, share your food with the people sitting next to you. You never know who might be sitting next to you.
Don't travel business class. Real leaders travel Economy. Look, and you shall meet them.
Be prepared to find your new best friends on a flight. I did.
Don't yell at check in staff. It makes them feel even worse about their jobs, which they already feel bad about. Smile, and praise them. They'll do you whatever favours they can for you.
Buy your favourite foods before you fly and take them on board. Ask for some fresh fruit and water from the cabin staff, but refuse their cooked meals.
Don't drink coffee, tea or alcohol on board. You'll be dehydrated for days. Drink these (if you must) in your own home.
Bring your own earplugs. Forget the gimmicky $200 Bose noise-cancelling headset. 20 cent foam earplugs are much better.
Use your flight to think about your life. Forget reading, writing and working on your computer. You can do these when you're more productive on the ground.

I'm back

I ended my holiday on 1415 on October 29, arriving at SFO airport. The questions I was asked at Immigration made me reflect on my trip:

• Where have you been for 23 days?
• Why did you go to each of these countries?
• How long were you at the job that gave you your Green Card?
• What are you doing now?
• How long have you been doing it for?
• Do you have any food in your luggage?
• Not even English tea?
• Are you going to vote for John McCain, and if not, why not? (no, not really)

Tasneem and I, 2 hours before my departure from Aix, to London

Jed, Alexis, Rob, Sahar, Colette and I went to the Glasshouse in Kew Gardens on the Monday night, just before my departure:

Ryan Air seatbacks. In order to save weight, and clean up costs, RyanAir is configured with no seat back pockets and overhead life jacket holders. The RyanAir staff still attempted to sell loterry tickets on board. But they allowed me to take my carry on on board with no quibbles.

A pain-au-chocolat, NOT a chocolate croissant. As I slowly ate mine on the Cours Mirabeau, the flavours of butter, melting delicate layered pastry and rich dark chocolate brought me back to 1981, where I had tried my first, fresh from Paris. Here is my personal league table of Pain-au-chocolats:

1. Paris

2. Pret-a-Manger, Heathrow airport (actually a chocolate croissant)

3. Aix-en-Provence (the one below)

4. Aix-en-Provence (Monoprix bakery)

100. Whole Foods, San Mateo, California (pain au chocolat sold as a "chocolate croissant", doughy, not flaky, not buttery, chocolate stops halfway through the pastry, etc)

The one below was purchased at Bechard, on the Cours Mirabeau, for 1 euro. Notice the smooth glazed, flaky top, and my thumb print as I tried to hold it:

Mushrooms in the market:

Canteloupe melon in the market. We bought one of these:

View from my sister's window:

Entire duck liver:

Brunch I cooked for my sister and myself (don't laugh): pasta, tofu, tomatoes, egg.

Aix at night:

Ealing, the town I grew up in. My Uncle still lives here, so does my friend Chris Dabrowski:

This is the train that took me to the airport

La foire d'Aix en Provence

My brother's appartment entrance. I left at 0620 on Tuesday Oct 28, and there were still stars in the sky. I think I woke up Alexis on my way out. The building used to be a convent, where you were sent if you were a bad girl. I'm not saying that Alexis is a bad :-)

Adnan's Audi A8. Felt like travelling First class when you were used to United Economy. If it were any bigger, it would have flight attendants...

A lone leaf on the streets of Aix on a Sunday morning:

Did I say that Aix was known for its fountains?

Daybreak over Hounslow. I decided to take a train to the airport, and save 17 GBP:

The US is accused of terrorism. Wonder whether the NYT will report it this way:

Frost over an Ealing park, seen on the way to the airport. I used to play football on fields this frosty, and come home with blue fingers:

Barclays has trademarked the phrase "Hole in the Wall" for use on its ATMs:

UA955, gunmetal grey like the clouds I was used to, growing up in England, but which I never saw on this trip. On the flight, I was seated next to Aza Raskin, who works for the Mozilla foundation. He's a serial entrepreneur, and founded Humanized and Songza. Please check out Songza, it's one of the coolest sites, with the most appealing interface I've seen for a long time. Mozilla is apparently launching Firefox for mobile, in much the same way as Opera has. The only difference is they will have a team of 10, with hundreds of community developers on the project, rather than a team of 500 like Opera does! The flight was uneventful, uncomfortable and extra long. But I was lucky to get to know Aza, and we talked for over 6 hours. He had plenty of tips on how to meet with Walt Mossberg, and how to grow a company. 

Speed dating

Not that much time to write, but here's an elevator pitch:

• Arrived in Aix-en-Provence at Tasneem's place on Thursday afternoon (after a long delay)
• We went to her classes, on British Civilisation and English Conversation on Friday (the theme of the class was "Speed Dating", and I was assigned to be Hillary Clinton - more on that story later!) (Poor Tasneem ended up having to be W)
• Tasneem invited her friend, neighbor and occasional English tutor (Carina) for dinner on Friday
• Today Walked around Aix en Provence as the city opened (photos below)
  
• More soon, we're off to have a pizza
• She lives above Shannon's Irish pub: they're rowdy until 5am unless you call the police (like the neighbour did once) or wear earplugs (like I did)

Shopping for the dinner party (76 Euros)
My lovely sister:
A church (somewhere)
heavy balcony above some kind of tribunal. The French take administration very seriously
Stone, blue skies, very "rustique"
On our walk, we crashed a wedding:
My first meal in Aix, cooked by my sister. Yummy
My ride over. I'll share the letter I wrote to Stellios and Andy later.
Style:
My sister's favourite bookshop, the "Book In Bar" that serves coffee and scruptious cakes (to your table) while you browse the New Yorker, Longman's Thesaurus or a wide selection of Obama books...
The Vietnamese restaurant below her appartment. The shutters shown are Carina's.

I was wearing a pale blue T Shirt. But no dog collar.
Dinner my sister cooked for Carina:

Note the cat on the roof:
Le Cours Mirabeau, main thoroughfare through Aix en Provence:

The Beach or Bust