Alexander’s Blog – The Making of LetMeGo

We just released a new improvement to LetMeGo that allows lodging staffs to more specifically indicate how luxurious their lodging is.

This is how it used to work:

Previously, we would ask lodging staff members to answer the question “What are the target markets of this lodging?” when they were providing details for your lodging listing. They could select any and all of these options: Economy, Midscale, Upscale, and Luxurious. Thanks to their feedback, we recognized that this option was confusing for some of staff members, and might have also been confusing for travelers.

This is how it works now:

The question has been rephrased to “How luxurious is your lodging in relation to your competitors?”. Lodging staff members can now select only one of these options: Economy $, Midscale $$, Upscale $$$, and Luxurious $$$$. For lodging listings that had more than two options in the past, we automatically selected one of them.

If you are a lodging staff member, this is what you have to do:

Please review all of your lodging listings to make sure that the new value properly represents your lodging. You can do that by following these instructions:

1. Go to the “My Lodgings” area.
2. Click on the “Update Listing Details” link.
3. Click on the section called “Luxuriousness”.
4. Save your changes.

If you have questions, please contact us.

Alexander Torrenegra

When it became obvious that we would not be able to complete LetMeGo on schedule, we chose to move the entire development team into a round-the-clock “LetMeGo Immersion”, in which the team lived together in a single house, and worked essentially every waking moment for 90 days.

This post is a brief summary of the costs and results of this effort.

The Challenge

LetMeGo is an ambitious project. In terms of software, it will take almost 27,000 man hours to reach the beta stage. Our original plans called for reaching the beta stage of the application in May of 2009, but by January it became obvious that we would not be able to stick to this schedule.

Time Being Productive (green) vs. Time Wasted in Communication (gray)

Most managers would delay the release or add more people in order to cope with this situation. We didn’t think that would work in our case. In projects with complex frameworks, doubling the size of the team will not double its productivity. In fact, I have found that in some cases the combined productivity of a team of seven is likely to be higher than that of a ten-person team.

We needed to find an alternative approach that would allow us to get back on track.

The Premise

In January of 2009 I met Eric Litman, a serial entrepreneur. I learned that, in order to release his newest venture on time, he hired seven developers to work 24×7 out of an apartment for 40 days. The premise made sense: Most of us expend the lion’s share of our time on sleeping, eating, commuting, and enjoying ourselves with our families and friends. Eric had created an environment where people could forget about most of those tasks and simply focus on work. If we could do the same, we could increase our productivity several times, keeping the team small but working more hours per day and per week.

The software behind LetMeGo is quite complex, and we were well behind schedule, so 40 days would have not been sufficient. We guessed that 90 days of immersive work would get us on track to release the beta version. We then worked to convince the current development team and to hire new people. It took a significant chunk of money and effort. This was quite a gamble for all of us. After all, while we would likely reap significant productivity gains, we could not be certain of all of the follow-on effects that such an environment might produce in the team.

The LetMeGo Immersion team: Maestro, Lucho, Andres, NIckman, Henry, German, and me, Alex

The Execution

I wrote many posts detailing the execution of the LetMeGo Immersion, including these:

• Intro to the LetMeGo Immersion
• Back in NYC for just over one day and for a very good reason…
• Just Listed: The LetMeGo Immersion House

The Cost

The total cost per month was three times the amount we customarily invested into development. 75% of the additional cost went to salaries. 25% of the additional cost paid for the logistics (the house, food, the cook, tech support, cleaning, etc).

It is more difficult to quantify the human cost, though we are pleased to note that there were no fatalities due to programmer-on-programmer violence. Some of us paid a toll, though:

Andres before the LetMeGo Immersion

Andres after the LetMeGo Immersion

The Results

We didn’t reach the beta milestone completely, but we were able to release a limited beta version of the site. We are still developing some of LetMeGo’s traveler-focused features.

We found that the productivity of the team was also three times higher than usual. For those of you familiar with RescueTime, the tool we used, we measure productivity by multiplying average efficiency per week times the tracked time worked per week.

Productivity = Average Efficiency * Work Time

Productivity Working as Usual = 1.22 x 30.9h/week = 37.7/week

Productivity at the LetMeGo Immersion = 1.53 x 73.8h/week = 112.91/week

Ratio: 1:2.99

Given that the productivity and the cost increased side by side, we can then conclude that the biggest benefits is that we saved seven months of development. If it wasn’t for the Immersion, a limited beta of LetMeGo would have not been released yet and the full site would have not been launched until the second quarter of 2010.

Would I Do It Again?

Yesssss!

Alexander Torrenegra

P.S. I asked the team to write in one phrase what they think, in retrospect, of the LetMeGo Immersion. These are the answers I received:

The immersion was an strange experience mix, between ‘I must do it’ and ‘I will never do it again.’ I highly recommended it to single, work-addicted, geeky, and chatterbox men. German

The immersion was an experience that could have driven me crazy, but the great team ensured that I was just crazy enough to keep going and enjoy the most important challenge I have ever had. Lucho

A smile is drawn when you belong to an idea… Nicolas

The immersion was an excellent experience, with a high level of concentration, productivity, communication to solve issues, challenges, and desperation… I thank the Wii Fit for helping me alleviate tension and survive. Henry

At LetMeGo, we are fanatical about certain subjects. Specifically, we are obsessed with travel, customer service, and (of course) technology. Moreover, we are obsessed with bringing our vision for these three concepts, LetMeGo, to fruition. That is why, when saw that the software development for the site was getting behind schedule, we decided to move in together and work for every waking moment of the next 90 days, in order to get back on track. This effort, which we titled “The LetMeGo Immersion”, began in February of this year.

The location where the immersion took place was kept secret… until now! For three months we shared a cozy private home. It was a great experience for us, as “guests”–the feel was some combination of bed & breakfast, hostel, and five-star hotel. It was a lodging, and an experience, unlike any other, and served as a great inspiration in our efforts to facilitate the perfect pairings of travelers and lodgings through LetMeGo. Here are the details, including pics, of the place where many of the great ideas behind LetMeGo were born:

http://letmego.to/immersion

Alexander Torrenegra

Maria Velez, also known as Borito, died five days ago. She was my mother in law, coworker, and friend. I would like to take this opportunity to share with you some stories about this remarkable woman, and the huge impact she had on my life.

My first conversation with Borito took the form of a plea–specifically, I had just met both her and her daughter (now my wife and lover, Tania) at a networking party in Miami in 2001, and was imploring her to convince her daughter to stay at that party. Sadly, my charm was not up to the task, and both of these remarkable women left. It was months later, after my persistence had paid off and Tania and I were dating, that I had the chance to speak to Borito once again. During this conversation, I learned about her remarkable history.

Though I am sworn to secrecy as to the year, I believe I can safely say that Borito was born a number of years ago in the countryside of Colombia. She was in many respects a born radical, convinced from an early age of the merits of equal rights among the sexes, socialism, and social justice. She also, to the best of my knowledge, did not accept the religion of her forebears, or any other religion.

Eventually, Borito attended law school. However, unlike many lawyers, Borito was not focused on the potential payoff that the profession promised; instead, she became one of the first public defenders in Colombia, coming to the aid of dozens, or even hundreds of defendants who would otherwise never have been able to afford legal representation. She frequently took the side of the near-powerless, low-level, falsely accused revolutionaries and the like, standing up against entrenched interests including corrupt politicians. Her work defending these scapegoats led her to receive numerous threats on her life, though none were strong enough to overwhelm her sense of justice, or to force her to back down. After more than a decade in this pursuit, she moved, along with her family, to the United States.

After this move, Borito was unable to practice law–Louisiana is the only U.S. state that uses Napoleonic law, which is the legal format used in Colombia. Since she didn’t move to that state, she was unable to transfer her extensive experience to the practice of “common law”, which is used everywhere else. Instead, she became an entrepreneur–among other things, she became an independent, motivated, and passionate Mary Kay consultant.

By the time I met Borito and Tania, I had already founded Torrenegra Internet Solutions, though at that time it was still a one-man operation offering consulting services focused on Internet marketing. I was interested in expanding into web development, and I had the skillset needed to build websites. The problem was, I wasn’t good at selling those services. Having seen how well Borito handled clients, I asked her to act as my sales agent. She began selling pre-packaged websites to small businesses in the South Florida region, which I would then build. As the second member of Torrenegra Internet Solutions, she was integral to expanding the business, eventually selling dozens of websites. Many of the clients she originally signed are still clients, and these relationships have represented tens of thousands of dollars of revenue for the company.

Unfortunately, though, that long-term payoff didn’t immediately translate into short-term income. Needing to explore new lands and opportunities, she moved to Chicago in the second half of 2002. There, met Miguel, who would be her partner from that time forward, and they built a life together.

During this period, Tania and I moved to New York City, where we founded Voice123.com. It was a success, and our team grew rapidly. In 2004, we once again hired Borito to provide accounting services for our businesses.Then, in 2005, we asked her to move to the New York Metro area so that she could also take care of our paperwork. She did so, and brought Miguel with her.

It was during this period that I learned the most about my mother-in-law, and all of our shared interests. We both love classical music, cooking, reading, and coming up with conspiracy theories, among many other things. She was the only person I knew who could get more excited than I while watching a live performance of Carmina Burana, or enjoying good old fish-head soup (trust me–it’s good). She taught me to eat better (no french fries for me, please), to read traditional media with a grain of salt, and to embrace new styles of music (including Carlos Gardel, whose tango songs are so infectious that they can turn you into a fan in only a moment).

In 2007, Tania and I decided to go with our mothers on a road trip. We let them choose the place, and these two lawyers picked the birthplace of Western law, Greece. We flew there in November, landed in Athens, rented a car, and started driving. It was the most intellectually fruitful trip of my life, not simply because I was immersed in the birthplace of Western Civilization, but because the four of us could not stop talking about philosophy, religion, history, law, and, sometimes, just funny nonsense. I never felt sleepy while driving as there was always an interesting conversation going on. This trip is one of my most cherished memories.

In fact, the only thing that tarnishes the experience is the fact that one year before, Tania and I learned that Borito had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Though treatment started right way, and Borito received numerous types of chemotherapy throughout those three years, the cancer was already at an advanced stage by the time it was found. Though it continued growing inside her body, little by little, Borito never let it slow her down. Up to a week before she died, she was still writing checks on behalf of our businesses

I don’t want to spoil this remembrance by getting too bogged down in the sad details of her decline, as I want this to be the record of my experience of a remarkable woman. Suffice it to say, she endured incredible pain with an indomitable spirit. Borito breathed for the last time July 1st of 2009, at 12:51 PM ET.

….

Three days ago, I was buying lunch for the family with my best friend, Liliana. Knowing I’m an agnostic, she asked me the following question: “So, where is Borito right now?” This is a hard question for me to answer, though I know that the easiest thing would be to go against my own convictions and imagine that Borito is in another, peaceful place where we may meet her again after we die. That would be dishonest, though. I remained silent, not knowing how to answer her.

Later on, while writing this, I realized that I knew the answer to Liliana’s question. Borito had had a huge impact on my life, improving many aspects of it (beyond the fact that she had given birth to the love of my life), including the way I eat, the way I pursue fairness and justice, and the way I do business. The answer, then, was simple. Where is Borito right now? Here, inside me as I write these lines, a man transformed by the experience of knowing this remarkable woman. Inside my wife, whose very being was shaped by Borito, inside and out. Inside every man, woman and child she touched in her (too-short) remarkable life. Even though she is gone, she still influences the choices we make every day. She is still helping us to become better human beings every day. We, in turn, will pass on a little bit of her legacy to future generations. Thank you, Borito, and we miss you.

Alexander Torrenegra

From left to right: Mama Katia, Borito, and Tania, my lover, in our trip to Greece (2007).