[geremy]

Please share your thoughts on the portable line. It seems to get somewhat dismissed in the portable amp forum, and I can't figure out why. Maybe the corner connectors? Personally I like them.

BTW if we are going to talk motorcycles I have a Honda RC51 and a new KTM 690 SMC.

 

[Large4mat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyll Hertsens /img/forum/go_quote.gif I won't spill the beans yet, but have you ever heard the joke about the little boy shoveling the giant pile of manure in the barn? He says, "With all this poop, there's got to be a pony in here somewhere." The question is: did we find a pony?

Sounds bleak. Must be "One Trick Pony"..........

 

[kboe]

Good news please! In todays world I cant take any more bad news. On coffee cup 478, .... ...I am high as a kite... ...on caffeine.
Kevin

 

[pabbi1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vcoheda /img/forum/go_quote.gif interesting. how does the story end?

End probably isn't the right way to look at this - more like, how does it continue, or, more correctly, what is Tyll allowed to say, and, when.

 

[Tyll Hertsens]

Where were we?

Oh yeah, a board meeting. Well the actual chain of events leading up to, through, and after the meeting is complicated, so I'll veer away from a story narrative and talk about the gist of it:

First is a bit of business anthropology. Hard core business dudes have a whole different way of thinking about things. Not only do they have the learning of the industrial age in terms of financial accounting records and ratios, they've also got a record of the history of companies as they succeed and fail. While they have an astonishing ability to look at balance sheets and income statements to derive a snapshot of current corporate health, they also have nearly a century of narratives of how companies grow and thrive and die to draw from to understand where a company stands within the corporate life cycle.

Yes, there is a "Corporate Life Cycle." I suppose this is a good time to stop for a second and give you guys a chance to make a few guesses about where HeadRoom is on that chart.

I'm gonna write a some product page copy for a couple of new products (

) and will come back after we've got a few guesses.

 

[madmax7]

My guess is "stable" (sounds better than it is however)

 

[pabbi1]

"Founder Trap' FTW!

So, in a new role, Tyll becomes a Marketing Manager for the Headphone Delivery division at the newly merged NewHeadRoom, a wholly owned subsidiary of NewEgg.

 

[Jahn]

Sorry to hear of your troubles Tyll. Headroom's a great company and I know you'll all come out roses in a few years - hold on 'till then and take some bike rides when it gets hairy! Either that, or go HULK SMASH on some HD280s for old times' sakes. I just watched Ed Norton's take on the Hulk last night, and when he said that line, I instantly thought of you!

 

[Hopstretch]

I'd say both Headroom and its founder are currently slouching through Adolescence.

All the best Tyll. I hope you guys come out the other side in decent shape. I hope we all do!

 

[kboe]

I agree with Hopstretch. I would say Headroom has clearly defined itself as a solid company with a loyal customer base, HELLO THATS ME!!. Now it has a choice, to go one way or another. To expand its product line, reduce its operating cost or perhaps redraw itself into the market. All of these are possibilities when a company finally establishes itself and can take a breather to see where it is and what it wants to be. I have got a good feeling about where this is going.
Kevin

 

[kboe]

Cool graph by the way.
Kevin

 

[vcoheda]

it's like a serial novel.

 

[Tyll Hertsens]

Quote:

Originally Posted by madmax7 /img/forum/go_quote.gif My guess is "stable" (sounds better than it is however)

Oh how you overestimate HeadRoom!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hopstretch /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'd say both Headroom and its founder are currently slouching through Adolescence.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kboe /img/forum/go_quote.gif I agree with Hopstretch. I would say Headroom has clearly defined itself as a solid company with a loyal customer base, HELLO THATS ME!!.

To have made it to adolescence the market itself would have to be more mature than it is. That's the oddity here, we've been around for 16 years but in a way we're very young because the market itself is actually younger than we are. We essentially started the market so it could be argued that the market for higher than consumer grade cans is less than 10 years old. I'd set the beginning of the market as maybe the Sennheiser 600 and Shure's entry into IEMs, with a smattering of the iPod revolution thrown in there.

So we can't really be in adolescence when the market is still in its infancy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pabbi1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif "Founder Trap' FTW!

Ding, ding, ding, ding! We have a winna!

You see, running a business is a lot of work and it's a specialty all it's own. Me? Truthfully? I'm a headphone geek. I love audio in general and headphones in particular. But business? Meh, interesting, sure, but I don't have a passion for it. The truth is being CEO got in the way of me doing things audio as well as I wanted to, and being frustrated wanting to do things audio got in the way of being a good CEO.

I didn't know it, but I was limiting HeadRoom. At some point, you've got to have better chops running stuff both inside and outside the company than one head (or at least than my head) can provide.

As painful as it was to admit and see, HeadRoom needed a better boss than me.

So, there was this board meeting (I'm on the board with 3 others) where a unanimous vote was cast for a new CEO at HeadRoom.

 

[kboe]

As luis Black would say, "Sad but true, Sad, but #$%@&!% true". So if your not the CEO anymore, and you got your new dream job, that means... your now doing... what?

 

[Jahn]

Head of Marketing and Research would suit nicely!