PixInsight Forum (historical)
PixInsight => General => Off-topic => Topic started by: pfile on 2011 June 17 15:39:23
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looks like steve got a job offer in silicon valley and so he's selling his NM property and moving back here. even though i'm a relatively frequent customer, i somehow missed this news until just the other day.
http://www.lightbuckets.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1214
if you want to buy everything off of him:
http://www.rodeoskies.com/
oh well, it was a lot of fun while it lasted.
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That's a bummer but it was a tough business model. Price seems reasonable for what it offers but you'd need to start another corporation for something of that size. Best of luck to Steve.
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well, i'm not sure that he's giving up because it was costing him too much to run. sounds like he got an offer that effectively brought him out of retirement.
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I noticed the pdf brochure has a lower price for the whole package compared to when you don't take the astronomy equipment. Must be a mistake :)
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Yep, that was a mistake in the brochure. Everything is for sale (house, garage, barn, and all three fully-outfitted observatories) for $1,395,000.00. LightBuckets will be negotiated separately.
And, Rob is correct, it isn't about the money or the business model. The business model was actually decent but I was looking at changing it somewhat. I was also considering making another investment in the business. I had already put nearly $1M of my own money in so I was in the process of deciding whether I had the appetite to put in even more.
A major reason for the move is that my wife is a kindergarten teacher and there isn't a teaching position nearby any longer. She is very passionate about teaching and extremely good at what she does. Since there is declining enrollment in the local school district and she was the last one in, she was the first one not to get offered a contract next school year. The next closest school is 50 miles away and neither of us wanted her to make that drive so we decided to look elsewhere. Basically, as soon as I put paper on the street I had a number of offers and so we decided we would see where this new path would lead us.
I will be (well...I am) Senior Vice President, Strategy and Marketing at Symantec. When I left in January 2005, we were $2B and about 4,000 employees, now we are about $7B and over 17,000 employees...quite a different animal.
If anyone is interested, check out our property website at http://www.rodeoskies.com. We are motivated sellers...we have to get to the bay area soon.
Cheers,
Steve
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Hi Steve,
it must have been a hard decision to leave such a fantastic property behind. When are you coming to the Bay Area? I'll be there from tomorrow night till Tuesday of next week. Maybe we can get some people together for a drink at Faultline or wherever.
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although there have not been any announcements, there is some activity at LB. a new telescope is being installed in the french alps, at an elevation of around 1200m. this is good news!