The Kalakala Ferry leaves Seattle, March 2004

A piece of Seattle history is likely to finally meet its end in what has been a long and sad decline. The Kalakala, a beautiful art deco ferry, served the Seattle to Bremerton route for decades. After being rescued from live as a fish canary in Alaska the many rescue attempts have all been fruitless in their attempts to return the ship to it’s glory. There is news that she has now been battered by the recent storm. When she was towed from Lake Union in Seattle, people turned out in droves to see the ferry go through Ballard Locks to see a bit of Seattle history. Many were sentimental remembering when they rode the ferry. While I never did, I will admit to getting caught up in the nostalgia.

Two worthwhile recent articles on the Kalakala:
Three Sheets Northwest: Storm-damaged Kalakala close to sinking

NPR: Sinking Ship? Saving The Historic Kalakala Ferry

Big thank you to Steve Hall for speaking at a pre-Snowpocalypse Rock Star Venture Capitalist on Tuesday, January 17. Steve brought a fresh perspective and practical advice in his “A VC’s Guide to Joining the Right Startup” presentation.

After a brief introduction, Steve jumped in with why joining a startup is like being a VC. In his view, both VCs and those thinking of joining a startup eed to look for the same things. Here are the highlights:

1 Execution over ideas.
Ideas do not make a great company, but execution does. Think Facebook, not Friendster.

2 Due diligence is critical.
Understand the market and the competition. If you are not willing to pay for the product or service, why would anyone else? There will always be gaps in due diligence, but minimize them.

3 “Know where the puck is going” ~ Wayne Gretzky
Some great local examples of Gist and Redfin. Be sure to join the company for what it will be tomorrow.

4 Understand valuation and stock option value
This resonated the most with me. Startups are typically not prepared to deal with sophisticated questions around valuation. If you are willing to take the risk, they should provide a picture of the value of options as compensation.

5 Diversify
Time is capital. Give an opportunity 2-3 years, if it is not there do not be afraid to cut your losses.

Thanks again, Steve, a true Rock Star!

This is a Kodak Brownie No 2A, Model B that my great-grandmother purchased sometime around 1920. It still works. I was able to find some 116 film for it a few years ago and took this timeless picture of the Space Needle.

Much has already been written about the demise of Kodak and their likely impending bankruptcy filing. Many focus on the “cash cow” of film and how while Kodak invented many of the critical elements of digital photography they never capitalized as they should have. These articles are missing a critical piece to understand the long, slow death of an American great. Kodak had started to abandon and alienate even film customers as early as 1984.

What happened in 1984? Kodak eliminated the dated 116 and 616 formats used by my Brownie above. But that is not the real reason. Truth is that Kodak was starting to feel the heat of true competition from Japanese rivals like Fujiflim. How it responded is why the company failed. The company had twice been slapped with antitrust consent decrees. Kodak litigated its way to having those decrees removed in 1994. Later, Kodak attempted to inflame US-Japanese trade tensions with filing a Section 301 petition against Fujifilm. At the time, then CEO George Fisher had had success successfully used legal and political leverage to alter market behavior in Japan when he ran Motorola. The trade dispute was pre-emptive. Kodak’s never filed its concerned with the Japanese government before filing this petition. Amazingly the company disregarded that at the time it was being outspent in the Japanese market by a ratio of 10:1 while charging more for its own film. Somehow, Kodak was still able to have about 10% of the Japanese market. While the company sought to litigate in the US and Japanese markets, it failed to keep pace with innovation in film. Two examples where Kodak did not live up to its comparative advantage. First is the one-time use camera. Fujifilm introduced the one-time use camera that thrilled the Japanese public. A camera could now be purchased cheaply just about anywhere from a department store, drug store or kiosk. The product became an immediate hit. Kodak did not respond to this new product development for two years. Second is high resolution ISO 400 film, a technical breakthrough that addressed the image quality issues. It was a huge success. Again, Kodak did not respond to this new product development for two years.

Kodak consistently choose to cede two years of first-mover advantage to Fujifilm. This is not the Kodak you will read about over the coming days. This great American company lost its way long before the advent of the digital photography. Kodak lost the innovation edge and resorted to attacking the nature of free enterprise to protect its markets. As a result, it lost in the long-term.

That should be a lesson worth remembering today.

In the past 24 hours, I have had two diametrically opposed customer experiences. One was delightful, the other made me cancel my account.

I used to bank with a large national bank. When the wife (Disclosure: the wife works for Amazon but does not read my blog) and I married, we consolidated accounts to another bank, but kept this account to have a local presence. This arrangement worked for the last 7 years. Yesterday, I received my statement which included in my opinion ridiculous fees. Now, I was never informed that these fees would be incurred. The statement was the only notification. I am sure that there was some fine print that I missed; however nearly $20 for a “free checking” account is just poor business. I went to the local branch to close the account and they did do their best to try to keep my business. Given how these fees were incurred, large unnamed bank did not want my business any longer, so I was happy to oblige.

This afternoon, I re-started working on a project to extend a WiFi antenna into my attic. This has long been on my to-do list. During the basement remodel when I wired the house with coax and Cat 5e, I even ran a 50 ohm coax cable into the basement to extend the antenna. I never finished the project. Recently, I purchased what I believed to be the correct TNC connectors. Well, I goofed. I bought the wrong ones. The return process from Amazon (Disclosure: the wife does not work for the retail side of Amazon) was dead simple. I was not even required to return the connectors. Amazon just gave me the refund! While I may be a great customer, the shipping and restocking costs were likely more than the cost of the connectors. Not only does it make good business sense, it is an incredible customer experience. Hey, I am even blogging about it.

So who are you, large unnamed bank or Amazon? Can you delight customers while still making sound business decisions? How will your customers rate their experiences? Keep these questions in mind and stay customer obsessed in 2012!

Water Temp: 48, Air Temp: 46. Clear and sunny weather at Golden Gardens this morning. This was much warmer than my Thanksgiving swim. Could have done some yardage if I had brought goggles.

Lots of people out there today, so my kind of crazy has company. Just remember this can even be healthy. All the best in 2012!

Happy New Year and best wishes for an amazing 2012!

This is a view of the start of the Space Needle fireworks from a few years back with my trusty Xpan. It is one of my favorite images since the Space Needle was encased in smoke about 2 minutes later.

You can check out my entire portfolio at Salmon Bay Photography.

You shall hold cherished places in our Christmas hearts, an by our Christmas fires; and in the season of immortal hope, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!
~ Dickens
Paraphrased from “What Christmas is as We Grow Older”

Two of my favorite coffee info-graphics:

Coffee Drinks Illustrated by Lokesh Dhakar is an impressive illustration of the variety of espresso drinks. He is channeling his inner Edward Tufte.

Check out Caffeine and Calories. True coffee aficionados will be towards the espresso/double espresso side of the buzz versus bulge equation. Like I am doing right now…

The United States entered the Second World War seventy years ago today. Both my grandfathers served in the Pacific. The courage and sacrifice of the nation as a whole at that time was unparalleled. Sadly, it has never been seen since. You will be humbled and likely cry like I did on the USS Arizona memorial’s sacred ground.

Ron Santo was finally elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame today. It should have happened a long time ago. Growing up in Chicago, Santo’s legacy loomed large over the very unremarkable Chicago Cubs teams of the late ’70′s. Now with Ernie Banks and Billy Williams, he will be a part of Cooperstown. He was a workhorse playing the hot corner and hitting with power. He was an All Star nine times.

Santo also has the distinction of being the best player ever from Seattle.

I never got to see him play and I never met him. When he passed away around this time last year, this article was the best read on the man.

Also worth reading is Larry Stone’s fine article.