I am the AOL squatter - AMA

Hey guys, I live with the OP here is one of the more flattering pictures of the mastermind. http://i.imgur.com/5cfkTZn.jpg

damnit this is on the internet now

Did AOL have 1-ply or 2-ply?

1-ply :(

1-ply?! My god, you have got to be one of the most committed entrepreneurs I've ever read about. I don't have what it takes to make it in the world of start ups as I demand Charmin when I squat.

Don't underestimate chafing

[deleted]

Professor Plum, with the candlestick, in the conservatory.

What was your 'closest call' of being found out during your stay? Also, thanks for doing this.

No problem! There were a few times when security was sweeping the entire floor and I would leave my laptop open on my lap to make it look like I fell asleep coding. When I heard someone coming near me, I would "wake up" and mutter how I had to keep on coding to hit "my boss's deadline" haha

[deleted]

Yup - the guards were all really nice

Except that last one.

He wasn't a security guard, he was the building manager (the boss of the security guards)

Seems like for the building manager to come in and bust you, they were onto you. So anytime before then you think you might of slipped up? Or do you think it was more cumulative? Or were you just damned unlucky that night with him coming through?

I think it was cumulative (I posted in a few of the other comments about this in more detail if you're interested!)

Quick, pretend to be asleep!

zzzzzzzzzzZZZzZZzzzzzzZ

Did you get anyone from security fired over it?

This was actually my biggest concern. To my knowledge, no one was fired from the story leaking. The higher ups at AOL thought the story was hilarious, which probably prevented the lower management from firing anybody.

Honestly, based on the article you linked, the way AOL handled it really pleases me. Where most companies would have most likely made comments about tightening security, "it won't happen again!", plan to take action on security guards involved, etc, AOL almost seemed... HAPPY about it. For a company that is no longer on the cutting edge and lacks innovation, at least they can still acknowledge the relentless spirit of a young entrepreneur.

Well done, AOL.

I agree - they handled it so well. I had to talk with a few of the higher level execs, and they were really nice and understood where I was coming from. A++ would squat again (JUST KIDDING)

[deleted]

Technically, I "squat" in my startup's office. Less security guards though

can i squat there too? sharing is caring? :3

Sure! PM me :)

Dude, awesome story.

"Yeah, save money whenever possible, and use all the resources you can," he said. "And don't die. That's basically my motto."

ADD is the new YOLO?

Haha ADD, love it. A few startup founders have told me that they have "And don't die" written on the walls of their offices now :)

Would you still like to get that coffee I promised you? Feel bad not taking up that offer...

If I would have known your situation I'd of invited you to our meals on the 2nd floor :)

YES! I still wanna come visit you on the 2nd floor :) you still have my number, right?

Now kiss.

nonononononono we're just bros

Cute :)

STOP IT

did what i think just happened really just happen?

probably not

Wait a minute, second floor as in Disney interactive?

correct!

How do you know what's on every floor? Do you like, live here, or something?

Nah man, I just work a lot! Haha! Yeah, that would be hilarious if someone lived out of here, right? ...right?

Hi! Couple of questions:

• How did you interact with the other people there? Make any friends? How about friends?
• Did you ever go out of the building?
• Whose/what computer did you use?
• Did you still talk to/meet up with your outside friends?
• Can you describe the person that found you out, and what was their reaction?
• Can I have your autograph?

Thanks in advance!

I did have a few friends (maybe 5 or 10 at most), and I dated a few girls during that time as well :)

I tried to get out as much as possible, but I probably only left a max of 3 or 5 hours per week.

I had this really crappy Dell laptop that was five years old, but it pulled through!

I'm from Chicago, so I didn't really have any outside friends at the time (except for one guy that I knew from Chicago)

The person who found out was the building manager, and he was really pissed. I had gone to sleep at 5am because I had been working really late and then he busted open the door at 7am and started yelling at me. I don't remember much of what he said, but I do remember him saying "this isn't a dorm" and "get out". I was half asleep the entire time and trying to figure out what was going on lol. He did shake my hand and wish me good luck after 20/20 filmed a segment about me, so I think things ended well.

Depends on what you want me to autograph...no body parts :)

How did you have time to date multiple people of you only left the building for 3-5 hours a week?

Over the course of two months, I dated two girls and I would only spend and hour or two a week with them (outside of the AOL building) at most.

haha no I don't want my body autographed, a piece of scrunched up paper will do :) ty for answering btw

haha of course :)

How has AOL treated you since you got Internet famous? The news article I read made it sound like they were being suprisingly cool

They've been awesome. They let 20/20 come and film me in their HQ reenacting living out of there (should be airing next month!). Apparently I'm still not allowed in the building though :(

Someone better post the video when they release it.

The preview is available right now here: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/simons-eric-office-live-squat-squatter-aol-live-tips-home-2020-17659266

When did you start learning coding and how did you do it? What advice would you give to people who want to learn coding but get frustrated easily? Also, what inspired you to work on a startup for educators instead of chasing the money in software engineering?

For my 13th birthday, I asked my parents to buy me three programming books instead of an Xbox (much to their surprise). I spent all my free time after school teaching myself from those books.

Being frustrated is par for the course when learning to code. It really helped for me to focus on the end result instead of the specific bits I was having trouble understanding. For example, I was hell bent on creating a blog for myself as my first project. If I hadn't set that objective, it would have been much harder to push through and learn everything that was required.

For me, running this startup isn't about the money - it's about the impact. One of the key realizations I made when I was living out of AOL was that life isn't about what you have, it's about what you leave. I want to leave our next generation with easy access to high quality & engaging learning resources, because it really shouldn't be so hard to learn about new things.

Your story kind of reminded me of the Apple contractors that had their project cancelled but kept sneaking in to work on it anyway. Had you heard that story and ever thought what you were doing was similar?

I only read about the Apple story after I had squatted. I really appreciate the hustle those guys had - even cooler that their software ended up shipping at the end of the day!

My dad is an elementary school teacher that has really awesome, creative ideas for lessons . For example, he once made his classroom into a pinhole camera to teach his kids about light. Right now his students are gardening in the school courtyard to learn about photosynthesis. However, his lessons are increasingly limited by standardized testing, which frustrates my dad to no end.

Do you feel that standardized testing in schools will limit the potential creativity of lesson plans that teachers will share on your site? Are you interested in using Claco to push for creative, hands-on learning over teaching to the test?

YES and YES! The problem is that the government wants data on what's happening in their schools, so they test like crazy and "assess teacher performance". This actually has a negative impact though, because the teachers have to focus on fixing the wrong things if they want to keep their job.

My goal for Claco has always been to help teachers do what they do best: teach. We fight for the teachers because they fight for the students. I would love nothing more than to see the government take this approach as well.

What was the best thing you ate while living on AOL dining? Worst?

Best thing: a full Thanksgiving meal (turkey, gravy, mashed taters, etc). No joke. It was just sitting out for anyone to eat.

Worst thing: stale bread w/ cheerios on top for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The weekends were really, really bad when looking for food (they would throw out all of the food in the fridges on Fridays)

When I used to be a janitor for an office building, fridge cleaning days were the best! As a broke college student, nothing was actually thrown away

LOL nice :)

your article said you went to boston market for thanks giving.

-_________________-

AOL had a company wide Thanksgiving meal the Friday before the actual holiday.

What was the biggest lie you had to tell to a person?

"Haha no way man! I may work here a lot, but I don't live here..."

Would you rather have one inch long nipples or a one inch long dick?

Edit: Grammar lesson by /u/goshdarnyou

nips bro

You can always snip the nips.

exactly

Did they offer you a job?

One of the guys insinuated that they would be happy to have me as an employee, but no formal offers

Did you follow this up, or just let it go? The ball is in your court to try to make that kind of thing a reality....

In a related question, has anyone else offered you a job/ squat space since you made the news?

I didn't want the job - I'm all in on my startup :)

I've had a ton of people try and poach me from my own company. It's really annoying. I have at least 2 or 3 people a week try and do this.

That's awesome man, it's good to be in demand. Hope the appeal stays with you past your startup/ helps the startup. Love to see the creativity, all the best in your endeavors.

Thanks!! Best to you as well :)

[deleted]

By vetting only the highest quality teachers, we can seed our system with the best educational materials. We're betting that great materials (that are publicly available) will lead to mass spread of our product (and it's working really well: https://twitter.com/TeamClaco/status/314567697000173568/photo/1).

The big idea with Claco (our lesson plan system) isn't actually about lesson plans: it's about building an identity system for teachers. In the same way that Github has become the identity system for developers, we envision Claco will become the identity system for educators.

What compelled you to do this?

I had failed, and I was willing to do anything to turn it around.

When I first came out to California to start my company, three of my friends joined me as cofounders and we worked (literally) 14 hours a day building our first product. We did this for four months straight. Finally, the day came to launch our product that we had dumped our hearts into...and it flopped. After a few weeks of scrambling to fix things, my cofounders ended up leaving and going home. So the company was just me, a worthless product, and no money.

I spent a week figuring out what I wanted to do. At the time, a company had offered to acquire us (me) for a decent chunk of money. I knew I wouldn't enjoy working at that company though, and I would be stuck there for at least 2 years. It was a really tough choice, but I decided to risk it all and restart the company alone from scratch - because I believed that I could pull it off. The craziest part is that I actually executed my plan: I built, designed, marketed, and raised venture capital for my product over the course of six months.

What was the "Decent chunk of money" if you don't mind me asking?

I can't disclose the exact number, but I would have been able travel to Hawaii, get a place on the beach and browse reddit all day long for years.

Dear redditors, if your going to ask a question please read the article that details the event. The facility had showers and a laundry machines, that is how he maintained himself. Stop asking please.

thank you thank you thank you :)

Has your story of living there helped propel you in your career at all?

Definitely. Out here in Silicon Valley, almost everyone I run into knows my story and it's a great conversation starter. The most annoying thing is when I visit other people's offices and they say "lets get the couches out of here, otherwise Eric might sleep on one of them"...or other related jokes that were funny the first 100 times

Interesting... Follow-up:

• So in Silicon Valley, people recognize you as the AOL Squatter and come up to talk to you about it?
  
• Have you ever used your pseudo-celebrity squatter status to pick up a girl (or guy)?

People have approached me multiple times about it (this actually happened when I got my haircut last week lol)

A few days after the story broke in the newspaper about me living in AOL, we threw a pretty big party at our house. One of my friends would wait for me to talk with girls and then come up with a newspaper and say "ERIC! Dude, you didn't tell me you were on the front page of the newspaper today!" and every girl would be like "OMG!!1!1". It was a very successful night :D

Talk about a good wingman. I hope you returned the favor somehow

I know right? I actually just hooked him up with some really awesome Swedish girls that hang out with us, so I think we're even now :P

Do you have an AOL account?

I did, back in the day when AIM was the hip thing to use

One of the articles states you slept on couches that weren't on security rounds - How did you go about discovering security routines and all that stuff? Where was safe and when it was safe?

It was just trial and error. A lot of nights I would be woken up by security guards walking by, so I changed my sleeping location daily for a while. The best place I found to sleep was a room called "Napquest" - a room where AOL employees could take naps (sleeping is just an overnight nap, right?). They had a lavish couch and vibrating chair, and the windows were blacked out so no light could get in. Security guards almost never bothered me in there (but that's where I was sleeping the night they kicked me out)

Why didn't you just sleep during the day in the nap room and stay up all night?

A lot of people want to use the nap room in the middle of the day, so you'll be woken up and discovered more quickly than doing it at night,

Did the AOL gym have a squat rack and barbell with weights and plates or did it just have a bunch of cardio machines?

It was a full featured gym - squat rack, barbell, weights plates and all different types of cardio machines.

What are your thoughts on Khan Academy?

Khan is great! He's a great teacher. I really respect all of the work that he and his team do. It will be interesting to see how their strategy works in the long term.

I love stories like this. Wish you all the best.

Thanks so much, I really appreciate it!

Is Claco hiring at all?

Yup! PM me if you're a developer looking for a job :)

Want to grab a beer sometime?

I would love to - PM me!

Since everyone thought you were just another employee, did you ever work with anybody? Steal their ideas?

Lol no, I was more of a loner. I made some great friends there though, and some helped me brainstorm strategies for marketing, engineering, and fundraising.

Did your friends know what you were doing in there?

My closest friends did, but most people I talked with did not.

How were your interactions with the regular AOL staffers if you did interact with them? Did you venture out ever?

My interactions were great, I became good friends with a handful of their employees (I even dated one for a bit). When I ventured out, I was limited to walking distance - there was a park, restaurants, and a train station that I could hang out at.

Protip: taking girls on walks at the park yields the best bang-for-buck, great for when you're broke and have no money :D

What is one of piece of advice would you tell yourself back then with the knowledge you know now?

Treat your body and mind well. Get out and take breaks. You are more important than your purpose.

Two questions:

• It must have been a nightmare to be on your guard at all times; how did you keep yourself motivated?
• Why is a raven like a writing desk?

Pulling off my plan was what kept me motivated. I had to win.

I have no idea...

One more question: If you had to describe Claco in 9 words or less, what would you say?

Hand crafted by Chuck Norris

What is your favorite way to use those AOL trial discs they give out for free still? I prefer frisbee, myself.

I used to put them in my CD player as a kid and see if they played music. Version 5.0 made a growling noise, no such luck on any of the others.

How many times has this story gotten you laid? It almost worked with me... :p

Maybe we can add one more to the list :P

I basically have not heard anything from AOL in 8 years. I don't mean this in a bad way, but the picture of the pretty AOL campus has me wondering...

What do AOL employees do? What did the people sitting next to you work on?

AOL is actually working on some interesting stuff. They were overhauling AIM, Mail, and some other stuff while I was there. Their employees are nice and seem to work really hard during the day.

How's the company going?

What made you finally decide on your concept/idea and take the plunge?

What piece of advice would you recommend for someone technical starting their own company?

Good! I'm actually working on another product right now, but Claco is growing like crazy and we have tons of happy users :)

I decided on Claco's concept/idea because of the biggest frustration I had in school. The materials my teachers were using to teach us (worksheets, textbooks) weren't engaging or relevant to me, and I knew that really awesome online resources would make my experience at school way better. Claco is a place where teachers can find & share engaging, relevant resources that they can use in their classrooms. More of the backstory can be found on my bio here - http://www.claco.com/about/team

Focus intensely on providing value to your users. This is the best way to create a successful & awesome product/company. Do anything it takes to make your company succeed and don't be afraid of pushing the envelope.

So how many hours of sleep did you actually get each night?

Not many - anywhere between 3 and 6 hours. And then I would get up and work for 12-14 hours. Repeat process.

Living out of AOL was one of the worst experiences I've even been through, but it really shaped my character and taught me how to focus.

Can you please elaborate on the anxiety issues you are faced with now? I am recovering from starting my own business and barely slept for many months and have had horrible consequences that have not gone away and it's been months since trying to give up the dream and focus on myself.

I posted this in another comment, but I'll say it again here: You are more important than your purpose. That was a really important fact that I had to accept before I could better myself. Focus on making yourself healthier, happier and more energized and the effects of that will permeate throughout everything that you do.

Do you feel that your high school experience prepared you adequately for entrepreneurship? What do you think about high schools in general preparing people for "off-the-beaten-path" careers? (ps I went to your high school ;D)

My high school did not. It's hard to teach entrepreneurship in high school, much less in any school. I think it's important that our education system encourages students to find their perfect career - and sometimes that means not going to college. Sadly, this is very taboo right now, but visibility into non-college options are becoming more apparent.

What's your favorite song?

Right now? Or of all time?

Right now I'm digging "Living on a Dream" by Empire of the Sun

All time: "The Adventure" by Angels and Airwaves.

Great story. You have serious balls! I read your story and just thought to myself, "Hey, why not? It's free."

On a more serious note, where do you see yourself 10 years from now? What are your stretch goals professionally?

Thanks!!

Gee, 10 years from now...I want to be doing what I'm doing today - improving the way we educate. I'm not sure what that will look like, but I'm sure it's what I'll be doing. It's important to me that I leave amazing things for the next generation.

What do you do for a living?

It depends on how you define "living" lol. I run a startup, but I don't pull a salary because I would rather pay my employees more and keep more $$ in the company's bank account. The company does pay for my rent and food each month though.

Any secrets about AOL you are willing to share with us that won't get you into trouble?

I wasn't an employee, so I don't have any secrets about AOL :(

How do you intend for Claco to develop high quality materials? Will it be entirely community-monitored? Also, do you intend to present Claco to teachers through conferences/professional development or are you hoping word of mouth will be enough?

Community monitored seems to be the best way to scale quality materials.

Word of mouth is our primary growth strategy, but we also crash conferences and do PD from time to time :)

What are your thoughts on the Burger Rat?

RIP Gilroy :(

How did you not go stir crazy? What did you do to let off steam, for fun?

Where did you sleep?

Was all the food free there- do they just give their employees free food like google does?

A month or two after I left AOL, I had two crippling panic attacks that landed me in the hospital and it took me a while to learn how to deal with anxiety. People, be careful with how far you push yourself. Don't learn it the hard way. I didn't take nearly enough breaks while I was working on my startup and I regret not taking an hour everyday to focus on myself.

I slept on couches and chairs throughout the building (but usually in rooms where I could close & lock the door)

They don't have nearly as many choices as Google does. It was limited to cup-o-noodles, cereal, cheese sticks, and whatever was left over from teams that ordered in food.

How did you do laundry while there and get other essentials? Toothbrush, toothpast, shaving razor etc. ?

Toothpaste, mouthwash, shower gel, and shaving cream were provided by AOL. There was a laundromat on campus for towels and there was another one down the street that I would use for my clothes.

What were you expecting to be the eventual outcome? Did you plan on never getting caught and just living it out until you wanted to leave?

It was honestly meant to be a temporary thing until I could find somebody who would let me sleep on their floor/couch. Since I didn't know many folks out here at the time, it took months to find a place for me to stay.

What's your stance on charter schools? Do you support public schools?

Generalizing here, but charter schools are great. I wish public schools weren't so limited by the government. I've talked with a handful of admins and teachers that would love to innovate within their school, but laws & regulations are more or less prohibiting them from doing so.

Can you recommend a few steps to take, or steps you could have maneuvered around, when forming your company? Is your company aiming to have an IPO in the long term? Thanks for answering questions. Also, you still working out?

When starting a company, the biggest lesson I learned was to choose the right people to start it with. This also applies to new hires. A great company is simply a reflection of a great team.

We would love to IPO in the long term, but we'll see :)

I am still working out. It's important to treat your body and mind well - if you don't use it, you lose it!

How did you sneak food in on your birthday? Did you ever have friends round to party?

Thankfully I wasn't there over my birthday! Some of my friends that worked out of AOL would play board games on Thursday nights and (the people over 21) would drink beer :)

You mention this site is geared towards the highest quality educators. Would you mind sharing how you distinguish a high quality educator from a low quality educator? Also, great story man, your drive is inspiring!

We personally vet our educators, and we look for teachers that are tech savvy and already putting their lessons online. These types of teachers aren't solely putting standardized test prep, worksheets, etc online - they're also using videos, games, and interactive applications. We want teachers that are on the bleeding edge of making their classrooms engaging and relevant.

I currently work at that AOL palo alto office as a high student and that place is nice! Did you ever go to the gym there? What floor were you on?

I frequented the gym quite a bit (as that's where I took showers in the morning). I was on floors 1 and 3, but halfway through my stay they revoked my 3rd floor access :(

Awesome story man!

With standardized testing taking so much of teachers' time and energy, do you think your product is viable? After all, you don't have to sell the teachers on it, you have to sell the administrators and politicians on it. Teaching seems like a profession that leaves little room for creativity or flexibility these days. How do you (realistically) plan on overcoming this?

Teachers love our product, but the government's current initiatives aren't aligned with our end goal. We're actually working on another product right now because of this exact problem. Claco is growing quickly though (as are many other great edtech companies), so perhaps there is a chance that someday in the future admins & politicians will listen to the masses and change their policies.

Did you ever have to bribe someone to keep your secret?

Nope, no bribes

Did you make friends with any of the employees that worked at AOL during the time you were squatting there? If so did any of them know what you were doing?

I did make friends, and almost no one knew I was living there. I intentionally didn't bring it up much because it could have blown my cover.

Did you get paid throughout your stay?

No, I was living off of my own money (or lack thereof). I spent a grand total of $100 over six months.

did you ever pull pranks on employees?

I was woken up by a Megaphone multiple times. (I worked for Claco for 8ish months :P)

I can verify that this is true. We basically put Jack through company hazing last summer :P

What are you wearing? ;D

http://imgur.com/QF2VyQe

Take it off, boy.

oh god

I'm fe om chicago too. What highschool did you go to? Schools here in illinois are horrible. I too have similar feelings about our educational system

I went to Naperville Central, 2010

Interesting, Naperville has some of the higher regarded schools in Illinois.

Source: I am from Lisle, next city over from Naperville and many friends who went to Naper Central or Naper North.

They do, and the school was good in relation to the majority of schools in the US. The problem is with the way our education system is designed in general.

Naperville Central huh? You guys kicked my schools ass in all sports. (West Chicago)

Sorry about that :P I played football for a year there, but I probably didn't contribute all that much to our win

A/S/L?

21/M/CA, u?

Have the higher ups at AOL contacted you since?

Yup! They've been awesome. You can read more in one of my previous comments :)

I came to this thread expecting some information about squatting with weights. Do you even lift?

I do, bro

have you ever thought of partnering with the Khan Academy, they seem to have similar goals as yours and a wide variety of topics.

We've actually been chatting with them! A lot of our teachers use Khan's stuff, so it would be great to have an easy way for them to find & use his content on our site.

[deleted]

Thanks for commenting. I was requested to do an AMA multiple times, so I decided to do it (after a year of people asking me). I'm sure that it could be easily misconstrued as looking for attention/marketing myself, but it really isn't. Looking forward to answering any questions you may have!