Life in a start-up

So I work in a start-up.

I actually founded it 4 years ago, we’ve been doing pretty well, but we’re still small enough that I still get the fun calls in the middle of the night that the server is down.

Last night was a night like that.

3am wake-up call, servers are not responding. ISP claims no knowledge until I’ve escalated 2 levels to get to someone who actually knows what they’re talking about and admits they’re having an issue with a router.

Make a big pot of coffee as I realize this is going to be a long morning with only 3 hours of sleep.

We’re a real-time business, tying into shopping carts all over the place so all of our customers are affected by this, of course.

I wake up the infrastructure team (eh…guy) and he helps me troubleshoot. One of the developers was up working still from the night before helping me out as well. I think he passed out though, because he’s no longer responding to IMs.

Packet loss goes up & down and all I can do is stare at it, send out notifications to customers and pray that the ISP networking team actually knows what they are doing. I have my doubts.

After no word from the ISP in question for 1 hour, I get mad and email the CEO/Chairman. He calls me back within 15 minutes, telling me that he’ll have an answer for me within 15 minutes.. (pretty impressive, actually, but he’s new, so I’m sure he’ll get over that in a few months).

15 minutes later, the CEO calls back with no answer and is begging for another 15 minutes. Left with no other choice, I say yes.

5 cups of coffee and 6 hours later, the issue is resolved.

It’s 9am in the morning and I’ve been working for 6 hours. The sales guys just got to the office and are calling me with questions.

It’s going to be a long day.