Geoff Graham

I am a husband, father, son, brother, urbanist, anarchist, and aspiring minimalist. I make a living with GuildQuality, I'On, and a handful of other fun real estate endeavors. I am the founder and CEO of GuildQuality. Hundreds of North America's best homebuilders, remodelers, contractors, and developers rely on our customer satisfaction surveying and web-based performance reporting to help them monitor, improve, and articulate the quality of their service. I am a partner in the ongoing development of I'On, an internationally acclaimed community in Mount Pleasant, SC. I am a part owner of Ignition Alley, an Atlanta coworking space where freelancers, developers, creatives, marketers and entrepreneurs all come together to start something big. Follow me on Twitter or connect with me on LinkedIn.

[ggraham]

Neighborhood regulations and some alternatives

Neighborhood regulations and some alternatives

Community activists in my in-town Atlanta neighborhood are lobbying to designate our neighborhood as an historic district and introduce extra scrutiny and prohibitions on the modification and demolition of homes built prior to 1967. Additionally, they seek to introduce significantly higher hurdles on the subdivision of lots in an effort to “keep density in check”. I would, of course, like to see…

View On WordPress

[ggraham]

Our Fantasy "Intellectual" Team dark horses

Our Fantasy “Intellectual” Team dark horses

My dad and I have one of the ten teams competing in Arnold Kling’s “Fantasy Intellectual* Team” challenge.Arnold has published a list of the drafted “players” and two picks (from among 150) seem to have raised the most eyebrows, both of which “belong” to our team, Clan Graham: Joe Rogan (our 1st pick)Donald Trump (our 3rd pick)What were we thinking? Well, I’ll answer that with a quote from…

View On WordPress

[ggraham]

More bad news for colleges

More bad news for colleges

Google is launching affordable Career Certificates. From Inc.

Although traditional degrees are still deemed necessary in fields like law or medicine, more and more employers have signaled that they no longer view them as a must-have—Apple, IBM, and Google, just to name a few.

So, if you’re an employer or hiring manager, ask yourself:

Is it time to rewrite our own job descriptions, to eliminate…

View On WordPress

[ggraham]

Coronavirus daily deaths trend

I couldn’t find any trend information comparing nation-to-nation on Covid-19 cumulative deaths per capita, so last weekend, I built a simple spreadsheet with Coronavirus deaths based on data from Worldometers. A few days later, I added trend lines for Japan with data from Covid19Japan.

The charts show deaths in 10 nations, with each nation’s trend line beginning on the date of the first death…

View On WordPress

[ggraham]

Why I'm being especially careful about Covid-19 (and you should, too!)

Why I’m being especially careful about Covid-19 (and you should, too!)

I haven’t read a succinct explanation for why one should take the Coronavirus seriously, so I thought I’d take a shot at writing one.

I have heard this a lot: “Over ten thousand people have already died from the flu this year. Coronavirus is nothing compared to the flu!”

I sincerely hope that Covid-19 turns out to be no big deal. That would be great! However, there is a meaningful chance that is…

View On WordPress

[ggraham]

Ambition, Brutality, and Perseverance in the Khan Dynasty series by Conn Iggulden

Ambition, Brutality, and Perseverance in the Khan Dynasty series by Conn Iggulden

Imagine Game of Thrones, without dragons and zombies, and spanning 100 years of actual history. That’s about the simplest description I can offer for Conn Iggulden’s Khan Dynasty series. The five book historical fiction series begins in the late 1100s with the desperate and brutal childhood of Genghis and ends a century later with the ascendency of his grandson, Kublai.

For the sake of…

View On WordPress

[ggraham]

$400 snack closets

My new co-working neighbor’s $400 per month snack closet

If I launch another software company in which remote work isn’t a big part of our culture (I don’t think I’d do this, but if I did), I’d be looking to the South’s secondary and tertiary markets: Greenville, Rome, Chattanooga, Birmingham.

Why would I look elsewhere? Because I have always had an odd interest in the expense side of a startup’s…

View On WordPress

[ggraham]

What works for big doesn't always (or often) work for small

What works for big doesn’t always (or often) work for small

Early in my career, I thought seasoned executives from especially big companies could really help small companies become big. I assumed the systems and processes—from the software they used to how they recruited and hired to the manner in which they built their products—must naturally be better because the company was so big. Surely that must have been how they got big! Through painful (and…

View On WordPress

[ggraham]

Kid ventures

Like most young people, both my kids enjoy building and creating things, and they often enthusiastically pursue various entrepreneurial projects. In the last few months, they’ve each launched a website featuring very different things.

Dual Blade Games

With dualbladegames.com, my son Alex unveiled his first publicly available video game, Testing Cube. Testing Cube has been called* “the greatest…

View On WordPress

[ggraham]

Passing the torch Yesterday, I shared this on the GuildQuality blog and thought it appropriate to also post it here.

[ggraham]

Building a mountain lodge in Western North Carolina

Building a mountain lodge in Western North Carolina

Following the sale of GuildQuality, I’ve turned my attention to a handful of ventures that have been on my back burner for a long time.

The first new endeavor is the development of Big Ridge, a mountain lodge in Western North Carolina. Big Ridge will offer family and friends a simple and gracious home away from home, opportunities for convivial fellowship and quiet reflection, and a home base…

View On WordPress

[ggraham]

Meaningful milestones

Some milestones that receive too much attention:

Closed an investment round

Cleared 100 employees

Leased new office space

Some milestones that receive insufficient attention:

Closed the first customer

Closed the 100th customer

Closed the 1,000th customer

Generated first month of profit

Generated first quarter of profit

Generated first year of profit

1st distribution to owners

100,000th dollar…

View On WordPress

[ggraham]

Cultivating a culture of empowerment (podcast interview)

Cultivating a culture of empowerment (podcast interview)

Earlier this year, Victoria Downing and Mark Harari interviewed me for the Remodelers Advantage’s PowerTips podcast. Though PowerTips is intended specifically for owners of remodeling businesses, Vic and Mark were gracious enough to let me spend the entirety of the interview discussing leadership philosophy (one of my favorite topics).

View On WordPress

[ggraham]

Unintended Consequences of Land Use Regulation Arguably, land use controls have a more widespread impact on the lives of ordinary Americans than any other regulation.

[ggraham]

GuildQuality Crew: Highlighting the talented people in the building industry

GuildQuality Crew: Highlighting the talented people in the building industry

For the last year, the GuildQuality team has been building a new product called Crew. Unlike our core offering (which is for companies—specifically remodelers, homebuilders, and home improvement contractors), we’re building Crew for all the people who work in the field—skilled laborers and trades. Our plan is to give every person working in our industry a free profile with which they can post…

View On WordPress

[ggraham]

Five not-so-business books that informed my perspective on business

Five not-so-business books that informed my perspective on business

Jaywalking came up in conversation recently, and reminded me of a wonderful book that devoted an entire chapter to the subject: James Scott’s Two Cheers for Anarchism. That got me reflecting on all the other non-business-y books that have informed my thinking about business. The Valve Handbook for New Employees Through their employee handbook, Valve introduced me to the idea that an empowered…

View On WordPress

[ggraham]

On Doers: My interview with Michael Tavani

Last week, Michael Tavani (of Switchyards and Scoutmob) visited GuildQuality’s headquarters to interview me for his On Doers series. I’ve known Michael via Twitter for years, and this was the first time I’d met him face to face. What a super guy. Thanks Michael. I am honored to be a part of this.

http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F190779689

View On WordPress