My Thoughts

Hokies Love Virginia Tech

Today I watched the convocation at Virginia Tech from the football field in Lane Stadium with several Webmailers. It was such a surreal experience, especially watching the presidential motorcade zoom through the corporate research center, watching President Bush speak from Cassell Coliseum, and hearing the "Let's Go Hokies!" chant after all the speakers finished up. Like I said yesterday, I do believe that our tight knit community and prideful university will come together and get beyond this unbelievable tragedy. We may even come out stronger than ever. I think we're already starting to see that with the optimism in all of the media interviews, the convocation earlier today, and the candlelight vigil that was held on the drill field earlier this evening. Hokies love Virginia Tech and Blacksburg—there is no doubt about that.

I'd like to thank everyone who has reached out and contacted all of us down here to make sure we're all okay. As many of you know, our company is filled with Hokies—founders, full-time employees (graduates and almost-graduates), and lots of part-timers that are still enrolled. Everyone at Webmail is in fact okay although it seems that almost everyone at least knows someone that was directly affected.

A couple of donation funds have been established to help the families of the victims in the Virginia Tech shootings. The Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund and the United in Caring Fund for Victims of the VA Tech Tragedy have both been set up and are both run by great organizations.

Hokie Hope: Orange and Maroon on Friday

A Hokie Nation, Devastated

Today has been absolutely unreal. My deepest sympathies go out to the friends and family of those involved in the Virginia Tech shootings.

It's amazing to witness something of this proportion happening right here in Blacksburg. But I do believe that our tight knit community and prideful university will come together and get beyond this unbelievable mess.

Today is obviously not a good representation of Virginia Tech or the Blacksburg community. I hope this senseless tragedy does not come to define either one.

Q2 Goals

Q1 is over and Q2 is off to the races. Let's see how I did against my Q1 goals:

My top five Q1 goals were:

1. Eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner, at least once, with every employee

- No, I didn't quite achieve this one. I was pretty aggressive but nevertheless, I didn't each with everyone.

2. Call every customer that gives us a bad score on our customer loyalty survey

- Yes, I did achieve this one. Luckily there weren't too many.

3. Review every employee that reports directly to me

No, I didn't quite achieve this one.

4. Attend at least one out of state tradeshow or networking event

Yes, I did achieve this one.

5. Confidential

Yes, I did achieve this one.

So I hit 3 out of 5. Pretty good by some measures, pretty bad by others. As we move into Q2, I plan to pay more attention to my goals and make sure I hit them. I also need to make them more achievable from the get-go (I would argue in hindsight that the breakfast, lunch, dinner goal was close to unachievable). And finally, I will circle back and make sure I finish up my Q1 goals in Q2.

Here are my Q2 goals:

1. Commit to the best financing path for our company

2. Integrate our newly hired Vice President of Marketing into the company; I want to be able to fully hand-off at least three marketing functions where I currently spend my time.

3. Eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner with every new full-time employee at least once

... and finish:

1. Finish reviewing everyone that reports directly to me

2. Take everyone I didn't take in Q1 to breakfast, lunch, or dinner at least once