Escape from the Brickhouse
Earlier today, we asked about Yahoo's Brickhouse — the ostensible incubator of innovation in San Francisco's South Park charged with reviving Yahoo's reputation for Web cool. Departures from the Pipes project, the only notable product release from Brickhouse, raised questions about the operation. Brickhouse head Bradley Horowitz thinks his group is "thriving," but a recent ex-Brickhouse employee reports otherwise. His complaints range from the petty (the office "smelled like dirty socks") to the more troubling (Horowitz, he claims, "suffers from god syndrome and needs to get over himself"). The full email, after the jump.
I worked at Brickhouse and quit. The place smelled like dirty socks and had no ventilation. In general the building feels cursed, probably from the old Organic days. [Organic, an online ad agency, used to occupy the same building, which Yahoo now shares with Wired. — Ed.]I even question the seismic soundness of that building. Don't take your kids there either, they could fall through the railings on the stairs.
Old Horowitz suffers from god syndrome and needs to get over himself. It would help if he learned some of his team member names.
The old rumor is that Brickhouse is the last leg before good Yahoos die. Overall I found the pace like molasses and my compensation not correlated with performance. It was my last frustrating and annoying experience with Yahoo, thank god those days are over.
Surprised to hear about the Pipes team breaking up. Last I talked with them they had some pretty big "platform" plans and strong exec backing.
Yahoo might as well buy AOL and merge all services and change their brand too: "The worlds largest loser base!"