Author: Christopher Carfi

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TypePad Hacks

John T. Unger gets a snowball rolling here. He’s started a website, “TypePad Hacks,” that is dedicated to user advocacy for folks using the TypePad platform. John says:

“I want to start with advocacy because I think it’s the most important part of what I hope to accomplish here. At least, it’s the one that means the most to me. Here’s the scoop: I freakin’ love TypePad. But I also get deeply frustrated when I run up against limitations to the service, or flaws, or bugs that make it hard to accomplish what I want to as a blogger.”

So, he went and did it. He launched the site 28 hours ago. Check out the response.

  • there’ve been 1200+ pageviews
  • 56 people have subscribed to the feed
  • lots of people bookmarked it at del.icio.us
  • Several people wrote to offer help writing and testing Hacks for the blog.
  • One person wrote to offer work designing blogs.
  • Two people have said they are willing to participate in the fundraising effort

I love this whole collaborative, customer-driven thing. When it works, it utterly rocks.

[Update: Hugh and Neville weigh in as well.]

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Boomer Venture Summit

Interesting times, these. We’ve got two generations of techno-savvy folks about to enter massive life changes. On one side, we’ve the boomers, who are starting to look at how technology is going to help them age “in-place” more effectively. On the other, we’ve got a generation that’s coming into the workforce that only knows a world where communication is instantly accessible through nearly every device imaginable. Been spending a lot of time thinking about both of these groups.

Others are thinking about this, too. Just got a note from Susan Ayers Walker, co-founder of the Smart Silvers Alliance, announcing the Boomer Venture Summit Business Plan Competition. The snapshot:

“The baby boomer market represents over $2 trillion in annual spending power. The first of 76 million baby boomers turns 60 in January 2006 and by the year 2030 there will be 71.5 million Americans age 65 and older, more than double the number of American currently within that demographic. A massive demographic shift means new opportunities for growth, service and profit. Do you have a business plan or startup venture that shows significant business potential for this burgeoning market?

The third annual international $10,000 Boomer Business Plan Competition aims to stimulate the best ideas from the best universities and tap into the business expertise and creativity of today’s entrepreneurs who are addressing the 45+ market.”

Related: Although a different event, it appears that Guy Kawasaki is looking this direction, too.

[disclosure: cerado is an advisor to smart silvers]

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Ciba Vision : Outlook Hazy?

Just received this note from grad student Luke Armour:

“I’m trying to spread the word about some incredibly poor customer service as well as an incredibly foolish communication strategy.

In brief, I use some contact solution that’s been unavailable for weeks, Clear Care by CIBA Vision. In late February I suddenly noticed that everywhere I went in NE Ohio, no product on shelves. I thought, “huh.” CIBA’s website was vacant on information regarding the recall/production/distribution problem or anything at all. I sent them an email via their website asking what’s up and why they weren’t communication anything. I got a vague, we’re sorry, we’re upgrading, find something else that will do. We should be up and running in APRIL. My wife – and apparently a lot of other people – use this product because they’re allergic to the typical contact solution.

So on March 3rd I blogged about it in disgust. And – to this day – am the only presence on the ‘net talking about this issue. I have, however, gotten comments from Texas, the SF bay area, Wisconsin, New England, Minnesota, Idaho and more from people thanking me for disseminating this information and indicating their frustration.

This tells me that it’s a nationwide problem and a lousy communication strategy for CIBA Vision. That’s the (relatively) brief version.”

Take a hop over to Luke’s post on the issue, and check out the comments. It appears that he’s not the only one who’s frustrated. Ciba Vision, are you listening?

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SXSW Coverage

A quick directory of the flurry of SXSW posts from over the weekend.

Bummed I’m not there for the Cluetrain: Seven Years Later discussion today…

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If This Is Monday, I Must Be In Washington DC

After the Henry Rollins session, had to go straight to the airport for a flight back to the Bay Area. (SXSWi goes on for two more days, and I’ll be trying to keep on top of the sessions via the blogging that’s going on and on Flickr.) Traveling on Monday from SFO to Dulles / Alexandria for a meeting on Tuesday, back to SFO on Tuesday night.

Anyone interested in getting together for beverages on Monday night in Alexandria, VA, drop me a line… ccarfi (at) cerado (dot) com…

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SXSW: A Conversation With Henry Rollins

Henry Rollins @ SXSW Henry Rollins PICT0711.JPG

Session description:

“Musician, author, actor, iconoclast, stand up/spoken word performer and host of IFC series “The Henry Rollins Show,” Henry Rollins will join us for a special, candid discussion. Rollins will sit down for a one-on-one chat with journalist Andy Langer (Esquire), to address his feelings on the current state of the media, pop culture, politics, education, and all the ties that bind them.”

Choice quotes:

“If any of you people are media people, I wish you’d get a backbone.”

“In my P-Funk/Ramones block party world that I live in, we don’t need a military. But then there’s reality.”

“[Traveling to entertain troops in Iraq, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Egypt with the USO] was completely eye-opening. I was not expecting the ultra-earnest 20-something, who hands me a picture of his kid, who he’s never met. They can’t wait to get through this to get to that. It’s very personal.”

“It’s that fog of war thing. It’s very confusing. Through the USO, it’s very personal.”

“Back in those days, with Black Flag, it was young rams butting heads. Now I’m old and grey…they’re like ‘give him prunes! give him fiber!'”

“Now my anger is civically rooted. It’s six months later, and there are still cars in trees [in New Orleans]. To be an American and not be angry, you’re kinda sleeping on the job.”

“I think education is the key. It eradicates racism, homophobia, and the things that hang us up.”

“People come up to me and say ‘It’d be an honor if you hit me!’ and I’m, like….huh?!”

“If you’re going to do what you truly want to do, don’t expect a placid lake to pedal across. You need to grow a thick skin, or a Mark Twainian sense of humor.”

“The music was done with me, before I was done with the music.”

“I have a three pythons, one of which is named Bunny. She eats rabbits.”

“If I shut up, I’m sleeping on the job.”

(more pics here)

(Of course, this post would be incomplete without a link to Leisure Time With Mr. Rollins, by Brandon Bird.)

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SXSW: Sink Or Swim-The Five Most Important Startup Decisions

PICT0693.JPGPanelists:
Michael Lopp
Cabel Sasser
Joshua Schachter
Joel Spolsky
Evan Williams

A number of interesting points raised. A few of the top ones:

Joshua Schachter, who developed del.icio.us was asked “Del.icio.us was a simple app, with a really simple interface. How did it end up going so viral, and become so popular?” Schachter:

“One of the things I did was put an RSS feed wherever I could in del.icio.us, so that people could access their information easily. They could take their information, put it in their blogs, share it, do anything they want with it.”

Question from the audience: “How do you turn your brand into users?”

Joel Spolsky: My blog, Joel on Software, has a big brand and a big reader base. Fog Creek makes bug tracking software, which isn’t something you buy every day. But it is important to our core audience of readers. So when they need bug tracking software, they think of us. When we’ve tried to develop things that were less applicable to my readers, those products didn’t catch on as well.

Question: How do you hire?

Joel: The one thing that works for us it to have summer interns. After the end of three months, we know if they’re going to be good or not. If they are good, we make them an offer that’s going to be the best offer of anyone in their graduating class. We can do that because there’s no risk…we know they are going to be good, and that it’s worth it. Also, your first five-six-seven hires have to be generalists…they need to be able to design, to build, to market, to do Quickbooks for a couple of weeks. After that, you can get specialists.

Evan Williams: In venture funded companies, there’s a situation where you hire too fast. You have to be careful of timing…your VCs, your board may be putting pressure on you to hire fast. When you have more than the two or three founders, and things are uncertain, and you have a dozen or twenty or more people to get up to speed when things change, it can be deadly.

Schachter: With del.icio.us, we did a variant on the intern thing…we’d hire consultants. My first hire was a guy who kept sending in bug reports to my code. He worked for us for six months before I ever met him…he lived up in the boonies in Toronto. The other thing is to get an office assistant…all that stuff that’s “not the product,” and I was wasting my time on stuff that wasn’t part of our core.

Question: What if you have a great idea, but aren’t technical. What do you do?

Joel: Get a co-founder. Ideas are easy. It’s the execution that’s hard. Get a co-founder…if you can’t find at least one other person who is will to devote themselves to the idea, it’s probably not that good.

Sasser: Keep whittling down that idea, to it’s simplest form. Make sure you can explain it.

Question: What’s the mistake you made that almost sent the whole company down the tubes?

Schachter: For me, it was almost not-doing-it. I was on the fence for about two years. I was lucky…it seemed I made a lot of good choices.

Joel: One thing we did was an affiliate program, and all sorts of promotional efforts. None of those things ever worked. The thing that worked? Creating improved versions of our products. When we come out with a new version, our sales double.

Question from the audience: Did anyone on the panel have a business plan?
Panel: ::crickets::

Sasser: Make things that you want to use. Your heart will be in it, your passion will be in it.