First day on the job - Internet Image

In April 1999, I left my small apartment on 49th Street in Oakland and headed to the second adult job I ever had - to be a developer at Internet Image. I drove the one mile to MacArthur station and took BART to Fremont. I then walked the 1.5 miles to the office arriving around 9am. In another life the office could have easily been a dental office or an escrow company. There was no one at the front desk, and no one in the office I could see at all.

I had been in the office once before, when I interviewed. I was nervous about the interview since I had not interviewed in 11 years. I don’t remember what questions they asked but I think I won them over with “I’m not that smart, but I work hard.” And I’m sure it helped that I was cheap - I accepted an offer for 60K USD.

Back to my first day, I walked down the aisle and found the office IT guy. Quite a character. Older, white beard, would later introduce himself at a post acquisition kickoff as “down to party”. I don’t remember the details, but he showed me my desk, in an office I would share with our frontend developer, Howard. People started showing up in the office around 10am.

My boss was Bill Li, I don’t remember specifically if he was around that day or not. At some point that day, the owner of a customer computer maker upstairs (back when such companies existed) came downstairs with a desktop for me. I would later marry his younger sister, Yang, and have three children together.

Later in the day, someone introduced me to the rest of the employees. I had come from a company where I spent 10 years in the same group and was still the “new guy”. Here, six months at the company was a long hauler. It was, after all, the eastern edge of silicon valley in the boom time of 1999.

I don’t remember much else about the rest of the day. I remember it was a big deal when they told me they serve free dinner - chinese takeout. I told them I would not need any dinner. Then, like my entire career, I reserved dinner for when I got home. That first day, I left around 7pm - trying to embrace the demands of a startup. That was generally my schedule - 9am to 7pm with a commute each way. I’d later cut down on the commute by driving the wicked 880. I’d hit the Fremont or Oakland 24hr fitness gym after work. And I’d also go in on Saturday afternoons, embracing the start-up work ethic.