University of Washington alumni and Decide.com co-founders Brian Ma, Hsu Han Ooi, Ian Ma and Hsu Ken Ooi spell out "UW" in their West Mercer Street headquarters. Decide is a company that helps consumers to shop smarter with science and technology.
(Left) Ryter von Difloe, Ian Ma, and Hsu Han Ooi take a break from work at Decide with a set of Pingpong in their office.
Four UW alumni are trying to give students what they want.
Brian and Ian Ma, along with Han Hsu and Ken Hsu, all UW alumni, started Decide.com after dreaming up an idea several years ago in between their day jobs at Google, Zillow, Microsoft, and Zaaz, respectively.
“I noticed my girlfriend went back dozens of times a day to check prices on websites,” Brian Ma said. “I thought that was such a waste, so why not build something that could help the consumer out?”
With that kernel of an idea, the four went to Oren Etzioni, professor of computer science at the UW and noted Internet entrepreneur, who had recently sold Farecast, an air-ticket search service. Etzioni’s enthusiasm and the shaping of a plan for a startup resulted in all four quitting their jobs.
“I called up my parents and told them I had good news,” Ken Hsu said. “And when we met, I told them I had quit my job; my parents were like, ‘Well your brother still has a good job.’ … And I told them, ‘Well, he has some good news too.’”
From there, it was a marathon of coding in Ken Hsu’s basement, eating only pizza until they had a viable product. Months of research followed, with numerous trips to Costco and countless boxes of ramen noodles.
“People get worked up and think you have to have some genius idea,” Ken Hsu said. “It’s almost paralyzing, I think. When you’re young, you have to take some risks.”
On the wall of the West Mercer Street headquarters, two clocks show times at Decide locations and one clock is left permanently at 2:30 p.m. for group coffee time.
It took terabytes of data to construct the algorithms that track prices. Eventually, the set of brothers discovered cycles in product prices. For example, new TVs generally hit the market in March, so the prices of most TVs drop in February.
“Certain TVs even go up in price,” Brian Ma said. “Prices are incredibly volatile; they change 20, even 30 times a day.”
With that discovery, the team had something concrete to present to investors, as well as a viable business opportunity. Overall, they have raised $8.5 million and now have an office in Queen Anne.
“Having an office is a real milestone … a status symbol,” Ken Hsu said. “It’s a legit thing.”
They also hired new team members, upping the total staff to 29, including CEO Mike Fridgen, an industry veteran who most recently worked with Bing at Microsoft.
“What’s interesting is, we’re a company where people can decide what they work on,” Brian Ma said. “Everyone chips in their own special way.”
Decide.com also expanded its range of consumer services by using not just price cycles, but also user and expert reviews, forecasts, and type of product in its data mining. Decide.com informs consumers on every aspect of a purchase and recently unveiled its Decide Score, a feature that rates products on a scale of one to 100.
“Frankly, the biggest challenge is accuracy,” Brian Ma said. “We have people still working on accuracy.”
Within the range of 77 percent accuracy and with the average consumer saving $101, team members are still tweaking the formula, constantly updating it with real-time data. Decide also receives advice from industry veterans and other mentors, as well as a network of consultants built up over the years.
“It’s a social-media community of roughly 500 people,” said Shauna Causey, vice president of marketing. “They advise us externally. … We essentially found Decide.com’s biggest fans, and ask them for their advice.”
The collaborative nature of the team is apparent; the office space is equipped with rows of long desks, each person’s space adjacent to another team member. A ping-pong table, a Zen room, a kitchen, and multiple open conference rooms encourage an easygoing atmosphere.
“I joined because I don’t know of another startup team in Seattle that is as humble, talented, [and] collaborative,” Causey said.
Both Brian Ma and Ken Hsu cited the computer-science department at the UW as a major factor in their success. Decide has more than 10 UW alumni on its staff.
“The CS department is simply amazing,” Brian Ma said. “Oren [Etzioni] is the smartest, most intelligent guy.”
Decide members’ next steps will include continual tinkering with their models as well as expansion of the Decide score figure.
“What to buy, and when to buy,” Brian Ma said. “We’re the consumer reports of our generation.”
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