June 23rd, 2010
On Monday, June 20th the amazing folks in our New York City office hit the pavement in their neighborhood to volunteer with One Million Trees New York City. Here is a post from our *awesome* team member Mike Baumwoll about the event:
This community service event was particularly interesting and educational. We were partnered with with two One Million Trees NYC reps who have us a background of the organization and explained their goal to plant an additional one MILLION trees in the city. The majority of the trees will be planted in the city parks and along the city streets (for every 25 feet of city block, a tree will be planted on the streets). We were taught the proper ways to care for the trees, which included aerating the soil and watering techniques.
It was a great event and we are looking forward to adopting two trees in our neighborhood and tend to them regularly. Hopefully that noisy neighbor who was really concerned with the watering of trees in front of his house leaking into his apartment and drowning his pets doesn’t sabotage the trees! He was wearing a Mets hat afterall 
June 21st, 2010
tRP team post Mud Run
MUD. Lot’s of it! That’s what the team of 8 Rubicon Project team members from the LA office experienced on Saturday, June 18th at the Camp Pendleton Mud Run.The Mud Run is a 10K race through mud, water, and obstacles. All proceeds go to the YMCA Armed Services- nice!
After a 5:30 am wake up call, we met at the office and piled into cars to carpool down to Camp Pendleton (close to San Diego). When we arrived, we joined 5,000 other trail runners, military personnel, people in costumes, and lot’s of smiling faces ready to get dirty! In the “chute” (the area where we all gathered waiting to take off on foot) there was a huge dance party and our energy was alive and kicking. After taking off, some of us ran for fun and others ran to compete (nice job Bill Willits who took 7th place!) but we all met up at the end to congratulate one another and relax.
It was a great bonding day for us and honestly, a ton of fun! The best part was the lake swim and the 30 foot Mud Wall crawl. Boot camp? Here we come…
If you or anyone you know is interested in doing the Camp Pendleton Mud Run, you can sign up here : www.camppendletonraces.com/. A great way to support our Armed Services!
May 27th, 2010
Tuesday, May 25th was a big day for us here at the Rubicon Project. It marked the date of an expansion of our family, in people and in location. SiteScout, a malware security technology provider based in Seattle, joined us in our quest to build a complete publisher technology platform. By joining our Rubicon Project team, they are leaving behind a lot of great memories and joining 150 tRP team members who are very happy to have them here! The whole team erupted in applause when their team walked through the door and into our office- now that’s not a bad welcome .
Since communication and transparency are cultural values for us (and something we live, breathe, and do) we called an All Hands on Deck team meeting the morning of the acquisition. It was a chance to introduce our new team members to the entire global company and learn the value that SiteScout is bringing to our business. People were able to ask questions of the SiteScout team and everyone left feeling positive about the partnership. While the new team members were kept extremely busy during the day (back to back meetings makes you tough!) we did take some time Tuesday night to have a happy hour event here at the LA office, so folks could meet the team and get to know their new colleagues.
Acquisition’s can be challenging. Great companies have suffered after not putting in the time and resources necessary to make sure things go smoothly. Here at the Rubicon Project, we are all committed to making sure our new team members feel welcome and can hit the ground running. Tuesday was, in all honestly, a huge celebration for us and a chance for the two teams to come together- a reward for a lot of hard work and great dreams for the future.
So, Seattle here we come! We will have a Rubicon Project office located in Pioneer Square- close to QWEST field and the home of the very beloved Seattle Sounders. We will be spending the next couple weeks getting the office “Rubiconized”, teaching our new team members how we communicate and get stuff done, and working on integrating the product and doing what we do on behalf of our publishers and partners! If you would like an invitation for our welcome shin dig in Seattle on June 24th email: events@rubiconproject.com
May 20th, 2010
Our tRP team watching Engineers demo their brilliance
On Wednesday, May 19th the Rubicon Project hosted it’s first internal project building and coding event called HACKDAY. One of our brilliant Engineers, Sam Tingleff, came up with this idea for an all out, no holds barred, frenzied coding day- all driven by our awesome Engineering team.
In the weeks before HACKDAY we solicited ideas for projects from our entire company. Everyone came out of the woodwork with creative ideas for features, products, or reports that would make their lives better or that would be downright cool. There were over 50 projects for our Engineers to choose from- representing all sides of the business. It was a really great thing to see the entire business get involved and passionate about HACKDAY- it shows how much we support our team and our technology!
So the morning of HACKDAY, we got the entire company in our big meeting room (conferencing in satellite offices all over the world) and let HACKDAY commence! The Engineers picked their projects to raucous applause and they were off and running. The plan was to meet back at 5:30 for them to demo and submit their projects before a panel of judges (leaders from all across the organization). So between 9:30 am and 5:30 pm there was a lot of building, coding, solving problems, status updates, group thinking, loud music playing, just straight getting stuff done. At 5:30, the whole company reconvened in our meeting room and the Engineers got to demo and show off their “babies”. We were all there to support them and celebrate! Afterward, a fiesta (tacos and beer!) took place in our courtyard- complete with *funny* awards for the HACKDAY participants. Overall, this was a huge success for us- something we can’t wait to do again next quarter!
We don’t like rules much at the Rubicon Project but HACKDAY had the best one: “There are no rules! Oh, except no crying.” HACK IT UP!
May 11th, 2010
Our Rubicon Project team at the Golden Heart Awards benefitting the Midnight Mission
On Monday, May 10th a group of Rubicon Project team members headed to the Beverly Hilton Hotel for the Midnight Mission’s biggest gala of the year- the Golden Heart Awards. Used to heading to their headquarters on Skid Row, this venue was much a different experience for us! It was quite a memorable evening for all of us. As a whole Rubicon Project team, we are proud to support the Midnight Mission and all the amazing work they do within it’s walls and out on the streets.
We joined hundreds of other civic minded folks who came from all across LA (plus we had one from NYC!) to honor the work of the Midnight Mission and the people who go above and beyond for the cause. The evening’s special honorees were Anthony and Stella Hopkins, who have truly been huge supporters and volunteers of the non-profit. Also honored that evening was the Nestle Corporation, who have put a huge focus on community outreach and volunteerism as part of their corporate values- a huge inspiration to us.
The best part of the night was hearing from a recovering homeless mother with 3 small children who came into the Midnight Mission’s family housing program with barely any clothes to wear, food to eat, and living in fear of losing her 3 children to social services. Throughout her time there, she received a roof over her head, job training, and a new chance at life for her family. Two year later, she is an accomplished mother with a full time job at a family legal practice and a place for her children to call home. Her quote “thank you for believing in us before we believed in ourselves” will stay with us.
We had a great Rubicon Project showing at the event- all of those who went walked away with a new found appreciation for the work the Midnight Mission does and ideas of how we can contribute. While Craig Roah, our COO, was devastated by his loss in the last round of the silent auction, we truly all walked out of there winners. Speaking of winners- maybe the Rubicon Project will win a golden heart award one of these days? Here’s hoping!
If you are interested in volunteering or putting together a corporate program (like we did!) with the Midnight Mission email Mai Lee at mlee@midnightmission.org.
May 5th, 2010
Our London rockstars hitting the lanes for quarterly team night
Our Rubicon Project London office will soon be turning one year old! In celebration of this important milestone, we want to take a moment to reflect on the last year and how exciting it’s been. In May 2009, we were an American company with our heart set on global expansion. With our strategic plan in hand, we hired a few key team members to build out the team and hit the ground running in London. After painting walls, Rubiconizing the office, and exploring the neighborhood- doors were open for business!
Over the past year the team has grown to include seasoned industry veterans, folks with tons of energy, and big wins happening every week. While the winters might be dark, life in London is an exciting experience in the growth of what is now a global company- the Rubicon Project! As we continue to build our team, we are outgrowing the current office space and looking forward to a near future move to a bigger office nearby. Cheers to London!
April 26th, 2010
Keeping up to date on what is going on in the organization can be tough, especially when you take into account the fast pace at which we do things. Back in 2009, we wanted a way to stay connected as we opened offices all over the world. After debating the use of several different systems, we finally decided to use Yammer (www.yammer.com). Similar to a Facebook news feed, our team can post updates on Yammer about what they are doing and what’s going on in the office. With a mix of useful information and entertaining observations on the feed, Yammer creates a communication vehicle and promotes transparency within the company, both endlessly pursued goals of ours.
Consistent interaction with Yammer makes work easier in a number of ways:
- Brainstorming: Team members post a question and get immediate thoughts, ideas, and feedback
- Collaborating: Another team member might be able to contribute to a project someone else been Yammering about (i.e. a graph or a customer quote)
- Instant updates: Yammer provides access to the most up-to-date information within the company
- Feedback: Our team members can see what our customers or press are saying about the Rubicon Project
Frank said it best: “Active communication is one of our culture values. Yammer gives us the ability to communicate in real-time with our entire team in NY, LA, San Francisco, London, Hong Kong, and Sydney. We’re able to share more “raw” information, which has already increased our internal efficiency quite significantly. It also makes information sharing fun.” We highly recommend Yammer to any company hoping to encourage “by the people for the people” communication in the office!
April 19th, 2010
Our spring 2010 kickball team
Two of our cultural values are competition and fun. Some people don’t think these two go well together but we do! Here at the Rubicon Project, we have several different sports teams that play in local leagues. Anyone in the company who is interested can play and it’s all in the name of some good competition and a fun time.
If basketball, soccer, kickball, or softball is your thing- we’ve got you covered! With sports teams in Los Angeles and New York City, our teams share battle stories with the rest of the company as we go out there and try to make everyone proud. Not only is joining a sports team a great way to spend time with our co-workers, it’s a really great bonding experience for all of us. Our friends and family also are invited to play, which makes our Rubicon Project family even larger.
Note: If you would like to play in the Venice kickball league (pictured) please sign up at www.planetsocialsports.com! We love new competition
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On Monday, June 28th 80 volunteers from our LA office and 120 kids from the South Los Angeles after school program 