Alan Lewis Has Joined Auctiva

I am happy to report that I have recently joined Auctiva as their Platform Manager. Auctiva has been in the business of providing software and services for eBay sellers for a decade, and I'll be leading their new effort to build a platform that powers new services for sellers off-eBay.

Why join Auctiva? Here are just a few of the many reasons:

• I have known many of the people who work here for many years, and I really respect what they have accomplished in building the company to where it is.
• Auctiva has a vision for online commerce that I can get behind. If I ever get back on the blogging horse in a serious way I will have much more to say about this vision, but in brief, Auctiva is building a powerful platform that will enable many new, uniques way to connect buyers and sellers.
• The people who work here are humble, and are willing to admit mistakes and reverse course quickly. Auctiva was recently forced by eBay policy changes to start charging for some services that were previously free. The original pricing that we came up with was a mistake -- too complicated, and too costly for many sellers. So we changed it, and every indication from our users is that this time we have got it right. Of course you hope to get things right the first time as often as you can, but any company will make mistakes, and what one of the things that makes a company great is how it acts to recognize and fix those mistakes.
• Auctiva has a very flat organizational structure. At Auctiva I am reporting directly to CEO Jeff Schlicht (and most other people in the company are also no more than 2 or 3 levels removed). This contrasts with a previous employer where the CEO was (no exaggeration) my boss's boss's boss's boss's boss's boss.

Although my new role is focused on Auctiva's off-eBay projects, I will be working on some eBay projects as well. I will be attending eBay's developer conference this week (which is literally being held down the street from Auctiva's new San Jose office) and I look forward to catching up with my eBay developer community colleagues who I have met over the years. I'll be sporting my new bright blue Auctiva shirt, so give me a holler if  you see me.

Comments

[Tony Hillerson]

congrats, dude. It sounds like this is a good fit for you and them.

[o.c.d.collectibles]

Boy, do I wish you could contact Go Antiques and do something with their site! They are trying hard to re-design for their sellers. Their site had just been purchased in Oct 2008 by Will Seippel (Worthpoint he is a sweetheart!!) and had not seen an improvement tech-wise, in 9 years!!, previously, so it's got lots of work to do on it..they are working feverishly on it, so.. us sellers are waiting so patiently, and we have such great stuff to sell! Many of us are ex ebayers!(antiques and vintage sellers)... we are used to being able to post lots of big photos and having nice layouts..well...you can see for yourself.....

[ocdgirl2000]

Are you still working 4 Auctiva?just curious. Wondering? re: pending plans 2 design templates 4 SELLING sites OTHER than "schmeebay".