---
title: You are hired as CEO of a Silicon Valley Startup
date: 2005-05-04T17:40:20Z
modified: 2005-05-04T17:40:20Z
permalink: "https://redmonk.com/jgovernor/you-are-hired-as-ceo-of-a-silicon-valley-startup/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 205
categories:
  - Uncategorized
timestamp: 2005-05-04T17:40:20Z
tags:
  - Uncategorized
---

What is the first thing you do? Why [start a blog](http://palamida.blogs.com/) of course. Mark Tolliver, lately of Sun, is taking on Palimida, a company focusing on IP Integrity issues; with automated analysis of open source code signatures to ensure an organization understands which bits of code it has written, and which it has begged, borrowed or stolen…

I really like the fact Mark is so concerned with language. He wants to establish a context and frame in which Palimida’s products will be used, rather than worrying about widgets. Also the fact he is doing open source marketing – his blog has some ideas for what language to use, and asks for input from readers. This is not a broadcast but a conversation. My own thoughts are that compliance is too broad and too abused a term for what Palimida does. Palimida is about broad IT governance rather than compliance.

At the moment a Google search on IP Integrity shows up Palimida as the third entry. By the end of this week or next, i would expect it to be at number one.

One relationship Mark has that could help in his ambitions to span proprietary and open source code management and due diligence issues – he has [Bill on his rolodex](http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/003464.html) after helping Microsoft and Sun kiss and make up.

And back to my original point – Mark started the blog _before_ Palimida sent out a [release](http://www.palamida.com/newsevents/press_050205_2.html) announcing his hire. Blog first, do “corporate PR” later… Of course its a little more complex that that, but the world of corporate communications is changing fast.