Chronicles of a business owners' efforts to build a new business

9.29.00    How Did Our Staff Survey Go? Don't Ask
A long delay and lack of thorough preparation left some employees leery and confused

9.15.00    When Parting Is the Best Solution
Whether or not to shed a problematic -- but productive -- employee isn't an easy choice

9.1.00    How We Got eBay on Our Team
Negotiations with giant cyber-auctioneer were laborious and time-consuming ù but well worth it

8.18.00    In Partners We Trust
Reader agrees: Contract is almost irrelevant to success of working together

8.18.00    A Reality Check
Sometimes it takes a major event to put business in perspective

8.4.00    More to a Marriage than the Wedding
Making sure a partnership works takes plenty of work after the deal is signed

7.21.00    Publicity's Domino Effect
A story mentioning your business — any story — can lead to many more

7.7.00    Should zipRealty Buy into a Struggling Competitor?
Scott invites readers to weigh in on this major decision

6.23.00    Losing a Key Player
If we lightened his load sooner, maybe he wouldn't have opted for a career change?

6.9.00    Getting in Touch by Going Deskless
Being a corporate nomad gave me a different vantage point -- and helped me reconnect with workers

5.30.00    Not an Easy Move — Even for a Real Estate Company
Our fast-growing company can forget the June move-in date to our new headquarters

5.12.00    Real Estate's Old Guard Meets the New Kid on the Block
ZipRealty's founder survives a close encounter — and may even have won a few friends

4.28.00    On the Road Again
The worst part of expanding your business is the travel

4.14.00    Hunting the Elusive Recruiting Manager
It took nine months of searching and some creative thinking to find the right one

3.31.00    From Grubby Startup to a Night on the VC's Yacht
Glamorous investors' meetings are a surreal perk of the enterpreneur's job

3.17.00    Getting to Know My Staff Is Making Me Fat
I eat two lunches a day with new employees — and I end up digesting amazing information about them

3.3.00    Growth Is Making My Original Staffers Feel Like Strangers
What we have here is a failure to communicate — and morale is suffering

2.18.00    Now, Everybody Wants Stock Options — Even Landlords
It's really bad when a realty company has to fight to find space — but we're hanging onto our warrants

2.4.00    The Big Story Comes Through. Katy, Bar the Door!
Now that we're famous, can we handle the business?

1.21.00    Internet Commerce Is Easy Money — and Other Fables
Selling real estate can be a cinch in one city, full of hassles in another. Being online doesn't necessarily change that

1.7.00    My Recurring Nightmare: Every Few Months, We Expand Offices
It's awful. Everyone's late. They forget their supplies. The phones don't work.

12.17.99    Little Us! Courted Madly at Our Second Financing Round
The hard work starts to pay off as our national push finds the right funding

12.3.99    Pretty Please with Sugar on Top, Take This Job!
Why are we begging this guy to work for us?

11.19.99    A Company Is Its Culture
How we cultivate a climate of serious fun

11.5.99    My Analysts' Tour: If This Is Tuesday, It Must Be Stamford
The idea is to get your idea out there first

10.22.99    'Man Buys House Online' — News That Changes Our Lives
ZipRealty.com brokers its first deal

10.8.99    Raising Money Is Like Theater: You Better Have Your Act Together
ZipRealty's team tripped, goofed, and rambled before they got it right

9.24.99    My Life as a Stand-In Marketing Director
I had to learn about column inches just as our launch deadline loomed

9.10.99    ZipRealty.com Goes Live — and the Process Nearly Kills Us
Teamwork won out. It's a miracle our stressed-out crew didn't come to blows, though

8.27.99    Doc, I've Got This Pain. It Started When I Went to Buy Health Coverage
It's easy to go wrong even though you're trying to do the right thing

8.13.99    In This Chapter, I Learn To Love Shopping
An entrepreneur never stops buying stuff, I discover

7.30.99    Trade-Show Truths for Startups
The lessons from zipRealty's first event: Show up, strut your stuff, stay sober

7.16.99    A Day in the Life of an Netrepreneur
In the search for key staff, you can't afford to make a mistake

7.2.99    How a Chopper Pilot and Bike Maker Launched a Cyber Real Estate Broker
Introducing a new entrepreneur's diary