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We vist two dot.com survivors in San Francisco CA,
and two friends in the Bay Area - April 2001.


The famous Spenger's Fish Grotto in Berkely, CA.

The weekend of April 13, 2001 I flew with my son, Stefan, to San Francisco to meet with a couple of firms -- Buzzsaw.Com and TenLinks.Com -- who survived the dot.com collapse, as well as spend time as tourists while northern California is still green. "Another two or four weeks," says long-time friend Jerry Bragstad, "and it all turns brown." Plus, San Francisco is my favorite American city, the one I've visited the most.

Friday
To take the 6:10am YVR-SFO flight, we gotta get up at 3:00 a.m. American Immigration hassles me, concerned I might earn money while in the USA. Could've been worse: in front of us, an American Customs agent leads away a rigid-with-fear businessman, drug-sniffing dog at his side.

Arriving in downtown San Francisco an hour before our 10:30 appointment with Buzzsaw, we park our rental car and stroll over to the TransAmerica tower, then climb the hill to Chinatown, where I know from past experience to get the cheapest souvenirs. We will need the savings to pay for the US$10/hour parking fee.

In Buzzsaw's 5th floor offices, pr director Gabrielle Friedly introduces us to product manager Jason Pratt. We get an overview of Buzzaw, its 250 employees, its new ProjectPoint 2.0, and other software. After having launched itself by offering free disk space and project management software to anyone, Buzzsaw wants to become profitable by two means: the free disk space offer is being shunted to Autodesk's PointA Web site, while Buzzsaw pursues the large, corporate customer. They've landed some, such as Toys'R'Us and Williams Energy Services. And, instead of concentrating on just AEC, Buzzsaw is expanding into the pipeline sector and facilities management.
    A year ago, Buzzsaw purchased PageMasters, and now its Specs & Plans makes printing services available via the Web. Buzzaw has written a driver for AutoCAD that exports drawings in LDF (layered document format) that specifies the order, size, binding, and quantity of prints for each drawing -- data that a reprographics house needs to know. LDF is based on DWF, with extra data in the header; it may make an appearance in a future version of AutoCAD. The DocServer software is US$50,000, plus monthly charges. After being exported from AutoCAD, the drawing's LDF file is FTPed to a participating reprographics service, and stored in an electronic "vault." Contractors then order drawing sets, which are printed locally.

Update 1 (August, 2001):  A year after our visit to Buzzsaw, the company failed to obtain an additional US$10 million in financing. and Autodesk agreed to purchase the remaining 60% of the company it didn't already own. That 60% was at one time worth US$54 million; Autodesk bought it for just US$15 million. Autodesk had previously invested US$22.5 million in the company.

Update 2 (May, 2002): Autodesk spun off some of Buzzsaw's software to Oce, where the plotter manufacturer purchased the exclusive worldwide rights to develop, distribute, and support Oce Plan Center software (currently known as Plans & Specs) and Oce Repro Desk software ( known as Apprentice). In May 2003, Oce has the option to purchase the two products from Autodesk..

We grab a take-out lunch from Noah's Bagels (whose marketing gimmick reads "Statue of Liberty ditches stupid torch for roasted turkey on corn rye") and drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, eating our lunch high up in the Marin Headlands overlooking the bridge.

After checking in at our home-for-two-nights hotel, we meet up with Roopinder Tara of TenLinks.Com. We discuss the world of ezines and highly confidential stuff. Roopinder takes us on a quick tour of Marin County, including a photo stop at Autodesk world headquarters in San Rafael, and a stop for salmon at the Safeway in Novato.

Saturday
Roopinder Tara takes us and his son to the Exploratorium for two-hours of hands-on science -- I wonder if kids learn anything or are merely entertained -- followed
by a rush ride to Fisherman's Wharf to pick up pre-booked ferry tickets. Good thing I bought the tix to Alcatraz Island a week earlier over the 'Net, since now they are sold out 'til Monday. On Alcatraz, I wonder if all those green EXIT signs existed in the days of the prisoner.

Following the visit to Alcatraz, we fight our way through the crowds on Fisherman's Wharf, saying "No" to the kids a lot of times, and watching the fat sea lions push one another off wooden docks. Roopinder patiently inches his minivan up the traffic jam where too many other tourists also want the thrill of driving down the twists and turns of Lombard Street. Dinner is at Spenger's Fish Grotto restaurant across the Bay in Berkley, where the adults order seafood and the kids order cheeseburgers. Now, I'm not big on bluegrass and I loathe country music, but the guitar-picking duets of Dix Bruce and Jum Nunally (the warm-up band who did the music for The Sims) and Eddie and
Martha Adcock (the main attraction) are awesome. Concert is at the cavernous Freight & Salvage Coffee House.

Sunday
Jerry Bragstad guides our rental car to the lighthouse at Point Reyes (no whales seen), followed by lunch in the village of Point Reyes Station at The Station House restaurant.

In the afternoon, we spend too little time at Portuguese Beach -- one of many along the California coast with broad sandy beach and huge rolling waves -- before hustling off to SFO and a perfectly dreadful flight on an ex-Canadian Airlines International 737 operated by Air Canada: a half-ounce of potato chips for supper, one bathroom for all of economy class, and a crew that forgets to turn on the ventilation.

Oh, and the electrical power problems that devastate California? All we met told us they'd been inconvenienced by an hour's outage at most, in total, all year.

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