Colin Steele's Blog
Nice hat!

Nice hat!


You’re an adult. You know how to prioritize your time to do your job. So why should your company ration out vacation reluctantly and monitor when you spend it? Wouldn’t it be nice to do away with vacation-day limits entirely, so you could leave work whenever you want for as long as you feel you need?

I’m pushing our company to move to address issues like this, which have a significant impact on my ability to acquire the talent we need.

When I left Microsoft 8 years ago, my wife expressed only one concern — losing health benefits. At the time, I told her that it’s just a matter of paying those costs directly. The reality has been that it’s been a significant hassle and cost that we’d rather not deal with.  The excitement of working with startups has outweighed that hassle, but even to this day it remains a burr in the saddle. Periodically, I will get an offer to join some company and her first question is “how are their health benefits?” Startups have repeatedly shown an ability to outmaneuver the behemoths we compete with but this is one area where the behemoths still have an edge.  It’s time to turn the tables with what I call Do-it-Yourself (DIY) Healthcare Reform.


At hotelicopter, we’ve long figured that HTML5 is the way to go for mobile.


Keeping my eye on this “Internet of Things” thing.


IMG_0538 on Flickr.Ain’t she sweet?

IMG_0538 on Flickr.

Ain’t she sweet?


I’m in the individual market for health insurance, too, and let me tell you: it’s a jungle.


Our latest Charlottesville IT job posting!  We’re hiring!  


Gorgeous!!

Gorgeous!!


Cuuuute!

Cuuuute!