A single product created by an enterprising staffer at Sanjay Singhal's previous company eventually became Graboid, a video search and playback browser with more than three million users worldwide. The browser formed the basis of the initial creation and growth of Fusenet Inc., Mr. Singhal's latest venture.
Graboid was created by Ryan van Barneveld, who is now a partner of Fusenet and owns half the company.
"Because of the way the company was formed we realized we wanted to give employees the right to [their work] and have it enshrined in their employment agreements, and not as a benevolent gesture of the CEO or the board."
Fusenet Labs was born. When employees think they have ideas with commercial potential, they submit a proposal, which leads to a personal pet project, or P3. "If you have a P3 idea, for Fridays off, basically you submit the idea to the director of the lab, who then sits down and discusses it. It's not an approval process so much as it is a process of asking, 'Do you know what you're getting yourself into?'" Mr. Singhal said.
Mr. Singhal joined us to take your questions about Fusenet and Fusenet Labs. View an archive in the box below.