Free Food and Foosball
Adventures of a high school intern navigating the startup world
The elevator doors open on an endless, sterile hallway. I step out cautiously, but the sound of my shoes touching the floor sends echoes rippling down the silent corridor. I approach the end of the hall and a glass door grows in size until it dominates my vision. To my left, a small gray button is mounted on the wall. My heart is exploding in my chest. Should I ring? I put my finger on the plastic … and push. When I look up, a pair of bulging eyes and a slack jaw stand at the door.
“What are you doing here?”
As you can probably tell, I was scared out of my mind on my first day of work two summers ago at Xobni, a software startup based in downtown San Francisco. Jeff Bonforte (the CEO) seemed friendly enough during our conversations, and who could resist great free benefits like catered lunch, transportation, and Kit-Kats? However, upon entry, I found myself in a tank where fish casually threw around terms such as BOOM (Mobile Out-Of-Box backwards) or Elcaro (Oracle backwards: the brain behind Xobni’s software). I guess my cordial introduction, painless application process, and amiable interview did nothing to prepare me for feeling as if I were dog-paddling in an ocean intended for much bigger swimmers.
Despite my intimidation, I did rapidly catch on to one tradition: post-lunch foosball. After gorging ourselves with delectable Iraqi salmon or southern comfort food, my co-workers and I each day took to the wooden field. Very quickly, I also discovered some of my associates’ less savory expressions. When one scores a goal in foosball, the ball rolls to a pocket on the scorer’s side, but the team that was last scored on is required to start the next round. If one team is handily beating another, all of the balls will have rolled to the winners’ pocket, leaving the losing team with none. Being the adult, middle-aged engineers that they were, my co-workers insisted that the losing team declare proudly, “We have no balls!” to continue play. When you consider my abysmal foosball skills and my colleagues’ regular practice, you can likely imagine the number of times I admitted to my inferior manhood during the summer. However, learning that these incredible professionals had the maturity of hormonal adolescents did help me establish some sense of belonging.
As the balmy weeks flew by, my assigned projects evolved from repetitive copy-pasting to intense technical research and product design—ventures that involved increased interaction with the ‘big fish’ of the tank. Armed with my newfound knowledge and tentative social toehold, I mustered the courage to inquire about ugly null pointer exceptions and challenge my superiors’ design choices. By the end of the summer, my colleagues’ expressions no longer read, “What is he doing here?”; instead, “What does he think about this?” became their default. Towering six-and-a-half foot tall Frank didn’t faze me as we debated the feasibility of native contact-sorting functionality. Mark’s outrageous intellect now welcomed my inquiries, rather than discourage ‘stupid’ questions. When I left at the end of the summer, I had completed vigorous technical research, prototyped a new service, participated in the brainstorming process for a new product, and established myself as a member of the Xobni community. Later that year, I laughed, ate, and solved puzzles with my friends until almost midnight at the company’s school-night holiday party—much to my mother’s dismay.
Fast forward 9 months, and I was once again knocking on Xobni’s door, this time equipped with significantly improved coding abilities. However, as soon as I set up my desk, I was told that Xobni was in the process of being acquired by Yahoo!, and that I likely couldn’t come with them. Rather than turn me away, my mentors decided to make the most of our limited time together, involving me full-on in the merger process. I was tasked with the creation of a post-acquisition roadmap for existing products and users, and I got to work with the engineering team on documenting and revamping Xobni’s API in preparation for a new home. I even helped design Xobni’s post-acquisition website—A nostalgic and quirky walk down memory lane. Our sprint to the finish exposed me to the stressful ins and outs of the rollercoaster that is the merger process, an experience I’m extremely lucky to have had so early.
When the time came for our bittersweet goodbye, my co-workers tried to pack me in a moving box—I guess they didn’t want me to leave either:
After a late night celebrating in a San Francisco sports bar, I moped home, resigned to the fact that my fairy-tale summer was over. Little did I know that my friends weren’t done with me yet.
While I couldn’t officially do work with Xobni after their move to Sunnyvale, I ended up collaborating with the engineering team, who wanted to capitalize on my outsider perspective and experience with their API. While investigating streamlining opportunities, a long-lost server feature caught my eye, inspiring a month-long project. Advised by my Xobni mentors, I ended up turning my work into an open-source protocol called JSON Filtering Language, or JFL. Shameless plug: go check it out!
The past two summers, I had the privilege of immersing myself in life at a well-managed startup. I conducted and applied interesting research, witnessed vigorous product design debates, published open-source software, and worked with knowledgeable colleagues who generously shared their valuable wisdom. I not only learned about the topics I investigated, but also acquired many skills necessary to be successful in a startup work environment. While I will no longer knock on Xobni’s door every morning, the memories and lessons of my time there will come with me wherever I go. I can’t thank them enough for all I learned, the relationships I forged, and the fun I had.
The elevator doors open and I march down the bright hallway with a spring in my step. As the familiar glass door opens, I’m greeted with sun shining through floor-to-ceiling windows and the pleasant aroma of morning coffee. I hear Josh’s timid, yet genuine “Hello,” and Eirik’s jovial grin sends a smile onto my face. I’m taking it all in when suddenly I’m tackled from behind by Zoe, the company dog. In one slobber-laden moment, I am home.
