Spindl3top.org - What Happened.

[Lucas Wagner]

Hi guys,

There were really no problems and there is no spectacular flame-out story.  
It also wasn't that we couldn't sell Blackbirds, because I still get people 
e-mailing me to this day wanting one.

Similarly, there are no stories of excess.  Spindletop was based on money 
that I got through prudent investing over the years.  I put it away for a 
rainy day, grew it, took it out, and made good use of it.  What we were able 
to do for little, dot-coms did for $1.5M.  We did *everything* ourselves.

Josh and I decided to call it quits late August.  And, yes, Spindletop LLC 
was for-profit and was *profitable*.

The nonprofit Spindl3top still exists... I'm waiting until my work schedule 
dies down a bit and then I want to have one of our famous get-togethers.

Why did we walk away from a profitable thing?
---------------------------------------------
There were several factors that influenced our decision:

1.  Our third ISP (and last) went out of business and then (to make matters 
worse) the office flooded severely on 9/11, destroying crucial equipment, 
including a crucial router and several expensive components.  I'm not sure 
what happened because I was taking my father to Logan on 9/11 when we 
learned what happened and had to get out of downtown.  Instead of suing for 
damages as many would have done, I decided to eat the loss and use it as an 
omen to stop.

2.  We were getting about $10 - $20 net per Blackbird.  The amount of time 
and effort we spent on making the "perfect box" wasn't worth $20 because 
building a Blackbird, testing, installing, etc. took all day.  Someone can 
say, "oh, sure, I can build one in a couple hours".. yeah, you *could*, but 
not like we did... and you wouldn't want to do it over-and-over again.  We 
didn't have the money to really automate more of it, so that was a pain.  In 
the old days, you could just throw them together and turn it on... that's 
not the case anymore, particularly with GNU/Linux boxen where there are 
sometimes hardware/software issues that take a while to resolve.

3.  I bought a house and felt the need to move to stable ground and a 
long-term career.  Once you take on a long-term debt like a mortgage, it 
makes you much more concerned about stability in the future.  I'm sure many 
of you have felt the same thing if you own a house or have a child... or 
both.

4.  FedEx and UPS kept repeatedly breaking our stuff at the end.  We'd never 
had a problem until the final three months of building Blackbirds when, even 
putting several inches of foam coupled with peanuts, something would 
inevitably break from them dropping it or kicking it... or maybe just 
drop-kicking it. :-)

5.  Support.  If you're going to sell GNU/Linux boxes, you can either try to 
handle support issues or have a support staff.  We didn't have the money for 
the latter and there were issues (like the AMD CUV4x Northbridge revision 
problem) with the kernel that were out of our power.  Some people just *had* 
to have Debian and wouldn't use anything else -- ok, we'll install it as a 
favor....  only to find out they knew *nothing* about Debian and the caveats 
therein.  No offense to legit Debian users, of course.

6.  Maintenance.  Between the two of us, we did everything from accounting 
to building to inventory to website updating.  It was too much because I 
would be spending entire nights just getting caught up.

7.  Order sizes.  We would get calls from struggling dot-coms who tried to 
muscle us around and play hardball.  "We want you to build 900 for us in a 
week and we'll pay you well"  We would never be able to do that, so we had 
to turn it down.  They also wanted special "perks" which we were not willing 
to do because they would invalidate some of the things we stood for.  In an 
all-or-nothing game, if you're not Dell, you don't get the order.

8.  Distributor X = Retailer X.  Basically, the distribution system has 
flattened out in computing goods.  We could find *significantly* cheaper 
Pentiums through other businesses than through Intel's established channels. 
  This isn't a few bucks we're talking about -- it was, like, a $100 
difference.  It's the same for other companies' goods.  I still haven't 
talked with anyone who has been able to come up with a solution except 
excessive S&H or other hidden fees which I am totally against.

I really liked the LCWproc program I customized from LCDproc to display 
HAL-9000-esque screens of CPU histogram, load, ps, etc.  If there was one 
thing I thought (and still think) was really cool, it was that.

You only get to do this stuff once, though, so I'm glad I did it while I 
still could -- I was right out of college.  I saved up the money for a rainy 
day and used it for a good purpose.  I'm glad that people still want 
Blackbirds because it means that I ignited some sort of inspiration... a 
sort of nostalgic look back to when computing was a little more 
intimidating, a little more geeky.

I have thought about licensing the brand for a minimal amount if a company 
or an individual wants to build them.  The reason I might like to license it 
instead of give it away is because a.) the brand means something to free 
software and I want it to continue to mean something to free software and 
b.) I want to make sure people aren't buying crap.

What are we doing now?
----------------------

On October 17, I began studying for the licensing exams to become a 
financial planner and advisor for American Express.  It gives me an 
opportunity to get out of the spotlight for a while and start helping people 
do what I do (and have done)... investing for the long-term and getting 
their finances in order.  I enjoy working with fellow geeks because I can 
get into detail about stuff like the theories behind growing wealth, 
reducing taxes, and basically how they can keep more of their money... 
because wealth isn't about what you make, it's about what you keep.

I have had an advisor since I was 18 and it has obviously been beneficial to 
me, so it is an honor for me to be able to do for it for others.

Josh took a sales management position at a local moving company here in 
Boston.  We went out to dinner a few weeks ago and he is doing well.  We 
talked about what we would and wouldn't have done differently; basically, we 
would have done everything the same except that we would have been a little 
less flexible in terms of what people wanted (eg. the Debian story above) 
because it became a nightmare to support.

As I said, the nonprofit still exists and hasn't died.  I took the website 
down because I didn't have time to maintain it and I didn't want to have to 
monitor it.  I was tired of having my systems hammered on by random .kr 
hax0rs and having to make sure things were patched.

I've made a timeline detailing things month-by-month.  In the near future, 
I'll post it because it is very interesting to read as a chronology of the 
1999 - 2001 tech industry... particularly in free software.

Have a great new year & I look forward to seeing everyone again at meetings 
in the future.

Lucas

P.S.  If anyone has any questions about anything (including financial 
planning/advising), you can always give me a call.  I'd be happy to talk 
with you and see if I can help.  781-684-3743 (Waltham)


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