<![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, rubicon project]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, rubicon project]]> http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/rubiconproject http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/rubiconproject <![CDATA[Inside the Startup Office from Hell]]> The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Frank Addante, the Los Angeles tech entrepreneur, has helpfully consolidated pretty much every terrible office idea and Web 2.0 startup cliché into one place: This video tour of his online ad company, Rubicon Project.

We actually stopped the video halfway through to make sure it wasn't a conscious parody, maybe a viral ad for some new Office-like television show. Nope: Addante is very real, and he and his videos have already earned more than his share of notoriety.


Here's quick tour of Addante's tour:


Above the reception desk are the first of many pointless flat-screen monitors.


The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.The office is built on the set of 24, which is a great idea if you value panic, screaming and torture in your place of work.


The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.These 11 cultural values shall "govern the behavior" of all who enter. Consider yourself warned.


The main penoffice. Rubicon has a "No Office Policy," because it is so egalitarian and communicative. This explains why Addante introduces the cofounder he sits next to, but not the random woman he also sits next to.


Addante is trying to ring the "Victory Bell" more frequently, probably because its clang is so delightful for employees trying to get work done at the surrounding desks.


This "countdown clock" is like the one in 24, except instead of nuclear apocalypse it counts down to something you don't care about.


Yes, you really work for a company whose slogan is "Make Mad Cash From Ads On Your Website." If you ever doubt this fact, just look up at the wall.


Yammer is like Twitter, except you read it by standing in the middle of the office and craning your neck to read another pointless, wall-mounted flat screen television.


Remember the room in 24 where they always torture terrorists? Addante thought it would be cool to hold company meetings there, and call them "boiler room" gatherings to boot.


It seems the employees gulped down the on-site alcohol much more quickly than anticipated. Go figure.


In 2009, being told your company "is managed like a financial institution" is not so comforting. Thank God there's another pointless, flat-screen television to soothe your pain.

[FounderBlog]

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<![CDATA[L.A. startup guy — the 1-minute version]]>
Here are the funny bits from that SoCal startupper's video, courtesy of my new obsession with video editing. I pasted "Frank Addante — Rubicon Project" into the first scene's lower third, because I couldn't remember his name or the company's after watching three times.

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<![CDATA[L.A. startup guy proves he's an L.A. startup guy]]>

Frank Addante, founder of the Rubicon Project, an online-advertising startup, disproves all the myths about tech companies based in Los Angeles. Except this one: Their founders are neurotically defensive about not being based in Silicon Valley.

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