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Inbox Zero update

September 26, 2007

I promised an Inbox Zero update. I’ve been using the system for about two weeks now. My inbox still has zero items in it after I process it. The system is working easily for me. My task list from emails has about 25 items in it, all stuff that will take me 10-90 minutes to knock off. I’ve averaged about 121 emails per day since I adopted the system. I feel approximately 2-3 times more productive with the biggest impact coming from not “multi-tasking” - mainly from setting my email auto-check timer to 60 minutes instead of 1 minute.

That’s the update. I’m a believer. And I’m never going back.

Written by David Cohen · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

Overheard

September 18, 2007

Written by David Cohen · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

Kerpoof at TechCrunch 40 tomorrow

September 17, 2007

The TechCrunch 40 conference is underway and TechCrunch is liveblogging it.

I’ve been acting as an occasional advisor for Apictura for almost a year now, which makes the very fun site Kerpoof.com. I was pumped a while back when Krista told me that Kerpoof was selected for the TechCrunch 20 conference (before it was renamed to the TechCrunch 40).

I had understood that I was not allowed to blog which Boulder company had made it in to the TechCrunch 40 until they presented. But since TechCrunch 40 has now made the list public, I decided I wouldn’t wait. Congrats to Krista and her team at Kerpoof.com for being in the TechCrunch Twenty, um, Forty. Good luck tomorrow - we’re cheering for you!

It looks like the new Kerpoof will be unveiled tomorrow morning during the presentation. They’ve come a long way since I first covered them here. I’ve seen the new stuff and I think you’ll be impressed. If you’re reading this on Monday the 17th, remember to check back on the new Kerpoof on the 18th or later. If you have kids from 7-12 years old, you’ll want to tip them off as well.

If anyone is on site at the conference, please comment on this post and let us know how she does on Tuesday morning. I’m expecting it to be great.

Written by David Cohen · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

Inbox Zero is for me!

September 16, 2007

On Wednesday, I decided to get on top of my email once and for all. I’m using a system now known as Inbox Zero, which is one of dozens of interesting things I’ve discovered as a result of listening to the tweets of my friends.

I’m five days in now, and I can already feel the increased productivity in a major way. I was in inbox hell, hearing my name being called nightly by hundreds of emails just sitting there. What was I forgetting to do that was important among all that low priority stuff that was just sitting there?

Now I find myself processing my email two to three times per day, instead of reading it fifty times a day.

Now I find myself working my todo list instead of searching for tasks I’ve forgotten to do in my inbox.

And I’ve found it to be very easy once I committed fully to a simple system.

The mess is in order. I just feel better each night. Wouldn’t you love to go to bed each night knowing your inbox looks like this?

inboxzero.png

It’s much easier than I thought it would be to get there. It was about 2 hours work, including watching a one hour video about the process and one hour processing my backlog of emails for the last time.

The details/tools I’m using are here.

Written by David Cohen · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

Is Startup Weekend the new BarCamp?

September 15, 2007

The first Startup Weekend here in Boulder (eventually) produced VoSnap. This weekend in Toronto, it looks like Startup Weekend will attempt to create something called “Lobby Them” according to Joe Scharf and various tweets. This appears to be some kind of community to support people who want to affect change, with over 100 people participating there. I’m anxiously watching to see how Startup Weekend in Toronto does things differently than what the original group did in Boulder.

With upcoming startup weekends in New York City, Germany, Houston, Indiana, Boston, DC, Atlanta, London, Ireland, Austin, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle, it certainly looks like this is going to have staying power.

Andrew Hyde, the creator of Startup Weekend, Joe Scharf, Erica O’Grady and many others made the trip to Toronto this weekend. I’m excited to see that Steve Poland (the idea guy behind Techquila Shots and a TechCrunch contributor) made the trip as well. The whole list of attendees is on the left sidebar of the Toronto blog.

So, is Startup Weekend the new BarCamp? I started comparing Startup Weekend to BarCamp a while ago. I think it’s too early to tell if Startup Weekend will catch fire in the same way as BarCamp, but it’s certainly off to a good start.

Good luck Toronto! Make us proud!

Written by David Cohen · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

The Angel Capital Summit

September 14, 2007

The Rockies Venture Club is accepting applications for companies that would like to present at their Angel Capital Summit on November 13th. Applications must be received by October 1st.

Written by David Cohen · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

New blog feature: books

September 13, 2007

I’ve added a new page to the blog called Books. You can access it from the top menu at any time. The page shows you books I recommend and books that I’ve read. You can click to access my opinion and rating on any of them. I haven’t put in all of the books I’ve read due to lack of time and energy, but I hope to add more historical ones and all of my future ones. You gotta love widgets.

I’m using Shelfari. If you’re using it too and would like to be my friend there, here’s my full Shelfari page.

All Amazon affiliate proceeds go towards my Kiva loans, as with all ad revenue from this site.

Written by David Cohen · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

Overheard

September 7, 2007

  • LgDB (covered previously) has recently completed their Series A funding round led by eonBusiness. I see that the mysterious 5280 angel has participated as well. Congrats to Scott Yates and the LgDB team.
  • I love Lijit. Every month or so they rip out some ridiculously cool new feature, like this. Stan - you’re a madman.
  • I recently stopped into a local Subway and saw that I could pay by cellphone on Mocapay. I figured, uh-oh, a competitor to Feed Tribes (covered last year). Turns out Mocapay is Feed Tribes, just renamed.

Written by David Cohen · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

mShopper - Get confidence and buying options from your phone

September 7, 2007

mshopperlogo.pngWe’ve all been there. You’re about to buy that nice new TV from Best Buy, but you wonder to yourself… is this a good price? Then you buy it anyway because a) you just want the damn thing, and b) you’re already in the store. The alternative of going home to use your broadband connection to research prices, or to make a call to someone who can, or to fire up your iPhone to try to do an e-commerce price search is just too painful. It’s Best Buy, so it’s going to be a good price every time, right?

Wrong. This happened to me. I bought a Sony Bravia TV, then saw it for way less a few days later in another store. Same TV.

mShopper gives you confidence. Just fire up your cell phone and key in the first few letters of the manufacturer and model. You’ll get a list of credible vendors offering that product and where to get the best prices. You can even order it to be delivered, right from your phone. This is super handy while you’re in the store, considering a purchase. If you can get it delivered for less money, that’s good to know. It’s also useful when trying to get a better price in the store.

mShopper’s premise is that people still like to go to stores to compare the products. That’s why I was in Best Buy that day - I wanted to compare the pictures side by side. So physical stores aren’t going away. Using mShopper from the store is a cool experience. You get confidence in a “close enough” price quickly if you really want to take the product home today. You get the ability to show the salesman the price they need to beat. And you get the ability to instead have the same product shipped right to your home for less money. In short, you get information and options.

And mShopper is not just for consumer electronics. They’ve got an impressive list of merchants already signed up and providing their product catalogs.

I also think it’s really great that mShopper has donated 10% of their stock to a non-profit that it has created called 2B. In addition, users can choose to donate a portion of their savings to charities which they selected with each transaction. Pretty cool.

One advantage mShopper has over the other guys is ease of use. Other services make you key in a SKU (how the heck do you get that while you’re in the store?) or make you jump through similarly annoying hoops. The usability of mShopper is well thought out, as you can see here.

mshopperui.png

You can get a much better feel for the usability of mShopper by clicking on the demo link on their home page.

But how does mShopper make money? In theory, they drive sales and collect affiliate and referral fees for those transactions. The consumers pay nothing. Since I first met the founder (David Gould) last December and saw the product, I’ve said that I have concerns with this model. This is because I think the primary use of this product will be as an information tool. In other words, I don’t expect it to drive sales directly from the mobile phone on a large scale basis. I think most users will use it to gain confidence or to learn about options. But will they actually pull the trigger and purchase right from the phone? I had my doubts when I first tested mShopper last year, and provided this feedback to David. They’ve taken that advice and mShopper now effectively mitigates this risk by doing things like automatically sending the user an email that is waiting at home in the users inbox for each item they search on. That way if they don’t buy the product in the store, the affiliate link is still alive and well on the desktop where the real research will be done. They’re also dealing with this by offering a live voice connection to someone who can help you complete your purchase, but I’m also unsure of this aspect of the model at scale. There are probably also good white label opportunities for the company that can drive revenue for them. Overall, I think mShopper has good access to multiple revenue models and plenty of potential users with cell phones in their pockets. It will be interesting to see which model works at scale.

Rumor has it that mShopper is also close to announcing a major deal that will provide strong distribution for their product with a wireless carrier. I’m curious to see if mShopper will keep it’s brand in that channel, or if it’s more of a white label deal.

I had the honor of being the first outside beta tester for this product back in December of last year. Congrats to David Gould and the mShopper team for their progress on this interesting product. It’s come a long way in a short time, and I’m excited to see where it goes now that it’s out in the open. Give it a whirl and let me know what you think.

Written by David Cohen · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

Give it up

September 6, 2007

Brad and Amy invited Jil and me to the Community Stars event held by the Community Foundation Serving Boulder County today. This event recognized some amazing non-profits in the community, as well as some special individuals who have given their time, money, and energy to the community. It really inspired both of us to read and learn more about these organizations who do so much to make Boulder a better place.

A while back, TechStars committed 1% of its equity to the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado. This is such a easy way for startup founders to institutionalize a commitment to giving back to the community which helps and nurtures their business (explained really well here). You can do it early in the life of your company and when you’re successful, you help your community to be more successful as well.

It’s not just giving money that matters. It’s thinking of ways to include giving back in your overall business or life plan that matters. For some that might mean volunteering. For others it might mean donating. Or it could just mean building your startup to be as successful as it can be and donating a portion of it to causes you believe in.

Another great example of this way of thinking is the recently launched mShopper site. When I first met David Gould six months ago, I was impressed by his commitment to not only build a great product, but to institutionalize giving back in the business plan in a way that makes sense for his customers as well as his company. I’ll cover mShopper a bit more in an upcoming post.

Ask yourself - what can your company do to give back to your community or to any causes worldwide that you want to support? How can you improve your personal and company mensch-factor? Then build it in. Examples like what mShopper has done, or what the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado enables are great options that I hope you’ll consider exploring.

Written by David Cohen · Filed Under Blog, Startups |  

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