Watching Brief

Impressed with this - Minority Report on a Mac

He missed out 'meandering' but otherwise spot on

Last week Sky, for no apparent reason decided to give my phone (and therefore my broadband) away to somone else. I can't tell you who, because when I asked they didn't know either. They'd had a request from a company to transfer the number and so they did. I however, had not made that request. 'Slamming' is the coined term for this, it's a problem and apparently Ofcom were dealing with around 700 requests a month from people who had seen thier landline's incorrectly transfered to another supplier or to someone else completely.

Anyway - with the frustration mounting with Sky's inability to do anything to solve the issue - I decided I wanted to get away from Sky completely. I work in Digital, why am I not looking for alternative ways to get Cbeebies, Game of Thrones, In Treatment and Match of the Day?

I see that this sort of thinking is quite rampant in the US. This beautify annotated graph shows how there's some real commercial dangers for Comcast (and I'd say Sky will be facing similar soon if they're not already) as we see an infrastructure shifts to support streaming video. 

I'm also taking note of where the programmes I like come from. BBC and HBO mostly - so the intermediary is actually providing little evidence of adding value (and in my case actually causing problems), so is it any wonder that people like me are motivated to seek alternatives. 

So I'm considering super fast broadband from Virgin, getting Apple TV (Netflix), and going down the pub to watch the odd F1 race or football game that I'm motivated to watch.  All of which will save me about 50% on my current Sky package…

Anyone facing the same problems? Let me know what you did as I'm very open to suggestions.

This caught my eye - a piece on the Copa Del Ray. The good bit? Reading this on an iPad or iPhone - it gives fast, impactful user experience combining images with linear, as-it-happens copy. It's a compelling way to consume sport content, will be interesting to see if they start using it on broader news topics.

Recruit away our team. I dare you. Heck, I encourage you.

As Fab.com has been growing like crazy, recruiters have invariably come calling trying to recruit away key team members.

Thanks for the flattery.

I encourage anyone and everyone to please come and try to recruit away our Fab.com team members. I dare you. Heck, I encourage you.

A roster of our team members can be found here.  We update that list twice per month with new members of the team. Most of our team is also on LinkedIn.  Need their phone numbers?  Just email me at jason at fab dot com and I’ll gladly get you in touch with them.

What’s this all about?

It’s simple. We believe that we are building the best company in the world to work for. But, in the end, everyone has a choice as to where they want to work. We want people who choose Fab.com.  Fab.com is a career lifestyle decision. We’re confident about our ability to attract and retain the best.

May the best team win. (And ours is awesome!)

p.s. want to work for Fab.com?  Our current openings can be found here.

p.p.s.  FYI, this isn’t hubris, this is reality.  For our company to succeed we need people who want to be with us, no matter what shiny new offer comes their way.  And it’s our job to create the most attractive work environment possible. That’s the point.

Last week's post on valuation brought a couple questions about EBITDA. The first of which is how do you pronounce that acronym? The answer to that question is e-bit-dah. The second of which is what does it mean? The answer to that is Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization.

The way I like to think about EBITDA is the pre-tax cash earning power of the business. It is not much different than the notion of Operating Income which is revenue minus cost of goods sold and operating expenses. But it takes out the two big non-cash items in an income statement, depreciation and amortization.