玩魔兽的独角兽Glassdoor创始人Robert ---How playing World of Warcraft every day for a year led Robert Hohman to found a $1 billion startup以下由AI翻译完成：
Glassdoor联合创始人兼首席执行官罗伯特·霍曼（Robert Hohman）是第一个承认自己是主要的极客的人。
直到今天，他还是白天经营着450人的创业公司，并且在晚上仍然亲自编码。Hohman告诉我们，他的工程负责人“跟我来”，然后解释说他仍然是“一名优秀的软件工程师”。
当没有经营公司或编码网站时，他正在和两位专家级的儿子玩“星际争霸”。事实上，如果不是“星际争霸”的姊妹游戏“魔兽世界”，Glassdoor甚至不会介入。
我花了一年时间玩魔兽世界。每天。我会每天早上拍拍孩子们的底部，送他们去学校，然后我会主宰一个兽人战士。
那是因为在2006年，霍曼辞去了Hotwire的总裁一职，除了玩游戏之外别无选择。全职。一年。
而第二个他击中最高的水平，痒的发挥被抓，他需要一个新的东西来迷恋。所以他启动了一个创业公司
用他的话说：“我花了一年的时间玩”魔兽世界“，每天早上我都会把孩子们拍到底，把他们送到学校去，然后我会主宰一个兽人战士。
他补充说：“我玩了一年不停，然后在魔兽世界达到了最高水平，我疯狂追逐这个目标，直到第二天我创办了Glassdoor公司。
“社区”的含义
魔兽世界的一年帮助他决定了
他想要建立的那种公司。
“我从玩魔兽世界了解到了社区，这是我第一次真正感受到网络社区的一部分，我早上起来，看到我的公会很兴奋，不是那么讨厌吗？他笑了。
他发现，网上社区与现实社区有不同的特点。
他说：“有一个空间和时间的转移。“真正的”社区是由时空的正常规则来管理的，但是网络并不是这样，它发生在世界各地的日夜之间的所有时间。
罗伯特·霍曼（Robert Hohman）和他年轻的家庭在这一年中担任全职兽人兽人战士（WoW Orc Warrior）。 罗伯特·霍曼
现在，他转到了“星际争霸”，而现在他与两个未成年的儿子竞争。
“我和我的孩子们现在都玩，我们刚刚从比赛回来，我的儿子们相当不错，想成为职业电子游戏玩家，现在这是一件事情，”他说，显然希望这是“一件事”他花了一年的时间玩。
如果他的儿子选择成为职业电子游戏玩家的话，“我绝对支持它，我觉得它太棒了，星际争霸就像国际象棋，每小时十万公里，我12岁的时候比我快，他处理战略信息的速度比我，“他说。
作为微软的早期日子
当霍曼离开火线成为全职兽人战士时，他可以“负担得起”，他向我们承认。
罗伯特·霍曼和他的家人。他十几岁的儿子梦想成为职业电子游戏玩家。 罗伯特·霍曼
他从大学直接加入了微软。
“22岁的时候，我去了微软工作，当我告诉年轻人今天，他们看起来好像对我很尴尬，而且我必须告诉他们：不，不 - ，或Facebook，这是1993年。“
这些都是微软全盛时期，1986年上市后不久。微软的股价暴涨， 它的早期员工变成了百万富翁。
在微软，他加入了建立Expedia的团队，这个团队开始成为微软公司内部的旅游网站。
Rich Barton。 Rich Barton / Twitter
微软将Expedia分拆出去，然后在网络泡沫时代的高潮中把它公之于众。它仍然是唯一的微软公开上市。
在IAC拥有的一段时间之后，Expedia再次独立出来，并与IAC的其他一些旅游网站（如Hotwire）一起脱身。
Hotwire被送到了Hohman担任总裁。
总而言之，Hohman在微软，Expedia，Hotwire及其相关网站工作了大约十年，然后才放弃了全职玩WoW。
受乔布斯启发
但是，霍曼告诉我们，他的真正梦想始终是成为一名创业CEO，这个梦想始于16岁，受到乔布斯的启发。
Glassdoor员工在加利福尼亚州米尔谷的总部工作。商业内幕/ Julie Bort
霍曼告诉我们：“我读了约翰·斯卡利（John Sculley）关于史蒂夫·乔布斯（Steve Jobs）的一本书。（1987年出版的史考“ Ø dyssey：百事苹果：冒险，思想之旅，以及未来的危机 ê ”。他在其中谈到了乔布斯如何引诱他从百事到苹果）
他说，这本书使得霍曼希望“成为一家公司的明星”。“我喜欢从零开始创造东西的整个想法。”
所以在WOW获得最高分的那一天，他和理查德·巴顿（Richard Barton）进行了一次对话。
巴顿是Expedia的首席执行官，也是微软时代以来的朋友。（Barton同时也是Zillow的创始人之一，此时正在担任Benchmark的VC。）
霍曼告诉他，有了Yelp这样的网站，人们可以分享有关牙医和水管工的各种信息，但是仍然没有办法分享关于更重要的事情的评论：他们的工作。
他想为求职者建立一个Yelp。
转折点
霍曼说，当时的大恐惧是企业如何应对一个让人们谈论薪酬和工作环境的网站。
他精心策划了很多其他的细节。比如，为了给这个网站带来一些初级工资和审查数据，创始人给每个他们认识的工程师打了电话，并向他们询问他们的工作，为他们提供了一个赢得免费iPod的机会。
Glassdoor创始人Robert Hohman，Tim Besse，Rich Barton。玻璃门
在霍曼和巴顿之间，还有他们的第三个联合创始人Tim Besse也是来自Expedia的，他们知道很多工程师。
他说：“工程师会告诉你任何一件免费的电子产品。我们发现这一点。
最大的困难是搞清楚商业模式。最终，霍曼和团队发现招聘人员是他们的目标市场。事实证明，向已经研究贵公司的人展示招聘广告的广告成功率很高，他说。
当他知道Glassdoor取得成功的转折点时，一位首席执行官亲自发电子邮件给他，反驳他在网站上的低“CEO评级”。CEO不高兴，希望改变。霍曼婉言拒绝。
这些电子邮件现在快速而愤怒。
“你会惊呆了，有多少”财富“500强CEO给我发电子邮件，他们会质疑CEO的评价，我们正在计算它的错误，因为它不符合他们自己的内部分析，我必须向他们解释我们有我们的自己的内部算法，“霍曼说。
快速增长
今年早些时候，根据comScore的数据，Glassdoor在通过美国网站访问者方面超过了CareerBuilder，成为另一个里程碑。它 说，它现在是网上发展最快的职业网站 。
霍曼和他的魔兽杯。 商业内幕/ Julie Bort
谷歌资本（Google Capital）领导的1月份投资7000万美元。该公司估值接近10亿美元。（迄今为止共募集了1.6亿美元。）
Glassdoor现在有36,000家公司积极参与该网站（在该网站上市的40万家公司中），超过2100家付费雇主客户使用该网站进行招聘（包括约三分之一的“财富”500强），3000万注册用户190多个国家共享了800多万份评论和薪水。
目前，霍曼甚至与白宫合作提供就业数据。
而且他还有他的魔兽杯。他把它放在他的办公室里。
Glassdoor cofounder and CEO Robert Hohman is the first to admit that he's a major geek.
To this day he runs his 450-person startup by day, and still personally codes for it at night. His head of engineering "puts up with me," Hohman tells us, and then explains he's still "a good software engineer."
When not running the company or coding the site, he's playing StarCraft with his two expert-level sons.
In fact, Glassdoor wouldn't even be around if it weren't for StarCraft's older, sister game, World of Warcraft, he tells us.
I took a year off and played World of Warcraft. Every day. I would pat the kids on the bottom every morning, send them to school and then I would dominate as an Orc Warrior.
That's because in 2006, Hohman quit a fabulous job as president of Hotwire to do nothing but play the game. Full time. For a year.
And the second he hit the highest level, the itch to play was scratched, and he needed a new thing to obsess over. So he launched a startup.
In his words: "I took a year off and played World of Warcraft. I would pat the kids on the bottom every morning, send them to school and then I would dominate as an Orc Warrior."
He adds, "I played for a year nonstop and then I hit the maximum level in WoW. I was maniacal in chasing this goal and literally the next day I started a company, Glassdoor."
The meaning of 'community'
The year of WoW helped him decide the kind of company he wanted to build.
"I learned from playing WoW about community. It was the first time I really felt part of a online community. I'd be up the morning and be excited to see my guild. Isn’t that nerdy?" he laughs.
An online community has different characteristics than a real-world one, he discovered.
"There's a space and time 'shift,'" he describes. "A 'real' community is governed by normal rules of space and time, but online is not. It happens across all hours of days and night and across all parts of the world."
Robert Hohman and his young family during his year as a full-time WoW Orc Warrior. Robert Hohman
These days he's moved on to StarCraft, which he now plays competitively with his two pre-teen sons.
"My kids and I play now. We just got back from a tournament. My sons are pretty darn good and want to be pro video-game players. That's a thing now," he says, clearly wishing it was "a thing" when he spent his year playing.
If his sons choose to become pro video gamers, "I support it absolutely. I think it's amazing. StarCraft is like chess at 100,000 kilometers per hour. My 12 year old thinks faster than I do. He processes strategic info at a speed faster than me," he says.
Early days as a Microsoftie
When Hohman walked away from Hotwire to become a full-time Orc Warrior, he could "afford it," he admits to us.
Robert Hohman and his family. His pre-teen sons dream of being professional video gamers. Robert Hohman
He joined Microsoft straight from college.
"At 22, I went to work at Microsoft. When I tell young people that today, they look as if they are embarrassed for me. And I have to tell them, 'No, no — it was like getting hired at Google back then, or Facebook. This was 1993."
These were Microsoft's heyday years, not long after its IPO in 1986. Microsoft's stock was skyrocketing and it turned 10,000 of its early employees into millionaires, the story goes.
At Microsoft he joined the team that built Expedia, which began life as Microsoft's in-house travel site.
Rich Barton. Rich Barton/Twitter
Microsoft spun out Expedia and then took it public in the heady pre-internet bubble days. It is still the only Microsoft spin out that went public.
After a stint owned by IAC, Expedia was again spun out on its own, along with some of IAC's other travel sites like Hotwire.
Hotwire was handed to Hohman to lead as president.
All told, Hohman spent about a decade working at Microsoft, Expedia, Hotwire, and its related sites, before he quit to play WoW full-time.
Inspired by Steve Jobs
But Hohman tells us, his true dream was always to be a startup CEO, a dream that started when he was 16 and was inspired by Steve Jobs.
Glassdoor employees at the Mill Valley, California, headquarters.Business Insider/Julie Bort
"I read a book about Steve Jobs by John Sculley," Hohman tells us. (In 1987 Sculley published "Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple: A Journey of Adventure, Ideas, and the Future" in which he talks about how Jobs lured him from Pepsi to Apple.)
The book made Hohman want to "star in a company," he said. "I loved the whole idea of creating something from nothing."
So the day after achieving the highest score in WoW, he had a conversation with Richard Barton.
Barton was Expedia's CEO, and his friend since the Microsoft days. (Barton also cofounded Zillow and was working as a VC for Benchmark at about this time.)
Hohman told him that with sites like Yelp, people could share all kinds of information about dentists and plumbers, but there was still no way to share reviews about a far more important thing: their jobs.
He wanted to build a Yelp for job seekers.
Turning point
Hohman says the big fear back then was how companies would react to a site that let people talk about their pay and work environment.
He had meticulously planned out a lot of the other details. For instance, to seed the site with some starter salary and review data, the founders called every engineer they knew and asked them about their jobs, offering them a chance to win a free iPod.
Glassdoor founders Robert Hohman, Tim Besse, Rich Barton. Glassdoor
Between Hohman and Barton and their third cofounder, Tim Besse, also from Expedia, they knew a LOT of engineers.
"Engineers will tell you anything for a free piece of electronics. We found that out," he said.
The biggest struggle was figuring out a business model. Hohman and team eventually noodled out that the recruiters were their target market. It turns out, showing ads for job openings to someone already researching your company has a high rate of success, he says.
The turning point when he knew Glassdoor was going succeed came the first time a CEO personally emailed him to dispute his low "CEO rating" on the site. The CEO was not pleased and wanted it changed. Hohman politely refused.
Those emails come fast and furious now.
"You’d be stunned how many Fortune 500 CEOs email me. They’ll dispute the CEO rating, dispute we’re calculating it right because it doesn't match their own internal analysis. I have to explain to them that we have our own internal algorithm," Hohman says.
Growing fast
Earlier this year Glassdoor passed another milestone, surpassing CareerBuilder in terms of US website visitors, according to comScore. It is now the fastest growing career site on the net, it says.
Hohman with his WoW mug. Business Insider/Julie Bort
This growth is fresh off a $70 million infusion of capital in January, led by Google Capital. The company has close to a $1 billion valuation. (It's raised $160 million total to date.)
Glassdoor now has 36,000 companies actively involved with the site (out of 400,000 companies listed on the site), with more than 2,100 paying employer customers using the site for recruiting (including about a third of the Fortune 500), and 30 million registered users in more than 190 countries who have shared more than 8 million reviews and salaries.
These days Hohman is even working with the White House to provide employment data.
And he still has his WoW mug from his year off. He keeps it in his office.
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