No Snivelling

Labels: clinton, george bush, jibjab, nixon, reagan, star spangled banner

I've been trying to start this company by working out of coffeeshops, but I'm happy to have discovered early on that that just isn't going to work. I need a whiteboard, a printer and a place to leave "my stuff". I think we all aspire to the exposed brick and timber ceiling'd loft, but at this point, I think I'll settle for a spot with a lock on the door!

If you know of anyone in downtown Seattle who's got a few hundred square feet of sublease space (or coworking space like OfficeNomads is contemplating), please let me know ASAP -- I really need it starting Wednesday of next week!

Dave

Labels: co-working, coworking, seattle, startup

Last week saw the launch of another stuctured database play, and I love it. This one is Seattle's Avvo founded by a cadre of Expedia expats -- it's goal is to help consumers by creating an easy way to "Find the Right Lawyer" for their needs. They do this primarily by gathering a bunch of information including (a) years licensed to practice, (b) infractions, if any (c) reviews from peers and customers and other bunches of information. They then use this, in a black-box style, to generate a 'rating' (ala Zillow's oft-discussed Zestimate)

So... who wouldn't like such a wealth of information, you ask? Hmmm... let's think about that one... hmmm... I'm just stumped. Wait... wait... I have a guess... maybe "Lawyers with Dubious Pasts, Alex?" Bingo, you get the prize, fella!

So, within days of launch, Avvo's being threatened with a Class Action Lawsuit by a John Henry Browne -- he's an attorney with a slightly low Avvo rating -- it looks like that's being influenced by an Admonition from August of 2005 where was scolded for overcharging a client.

Now, there are probably many legitimate reasons for that overcharge, and I can't believe that any of Mr. Browne's loyal clients would leave him because of it, if he could explain those reasons. But, I think it's totally legitimate for this information to be available -- else, how can unassuming customers make truly informed decisions? It's akin to "trusting a car salesman", isn't it?

All I can say is, "Go Avvo", "Go Redfin", "Go Underdogs!" -- keep shaking up those unquestionable practices!

p.s. This lawsuit threat is another example of "there is no bad PR". Not only is John Henry Browne going to blast his past out for all to see and look like a litigious lawyer (which consumers detest), but it's going to make Avvo look like the white knight... awesome!

Labels: admonition, avvo, john henry browne, lawyer, redfin

It's a rainy Saturday in Seattle -- this enjoyable rendition of "All the Things You Are" just crossed my feed reader. The performer is renaissance man, Adrian Holovaty -- not only is he musically gifted, but he's also a badass programmer. He's the lead developer behind Django (Django's a Python framework that makes building database-backed Web sites fast and easy)!

Labels: acoustic guitar, adrian holovaty, all the things you are, django

Seth Godin hit on a topic that I've thought about a lot over the last few months during my back and forth trips to Santa Monica -- it's complaceny, lack of initiative or downright zombiness.

He talks about the state of affairs at the Javits Center around conferences -- that there's never enough seats, and the garbage cans are always overflowing. Now, if this happens once or twice around an unforseen event, everyone is quite forgiving. The trouble is that Javits holds massive conferences EVERY DAY! So, that tells us not that they were caught off-guard, but rather that no one gives a rat's ass about fixing the problem!

Some other examples of this:

• When airline security ramped up, and we were all required to take our shoes off, I was irked, but OK, with the fact that most airline TSA locations didn't have a plethora of chairs for people to use to put their shoes back on -- however, it's now several YEARS after the fact, and it's still very common (in Seattle, LAX, and many others) to have 3 chairs for the 1,000's of customers streaming through
• My webhost (Globat... avoid them...) had some problems about 8 weeks ago with keeping their stats updated -- for some reason, the daily online metrics stopped refreshing. I submitted a trouble ticket the first time and received a polite email and prompt resolution. That was fantastic. What hasn't been so great is now I need to submit a trouble ticket EVERY TIME I'd like my metrics updated, and I get a similar reply.

What this tells me is that these people don't use their own products, which is fair I guess, given the cost of them. But I don't think you need to be a heavy product user to be aware of your customer's pain and suffering, or likely issues.

You just need to care.

Labels: airport, javits center, seth godin, shoes, tsa

I admit that I wasn't really liking ooGooRoo -- it was pretty much a placeholder from the start, that I thought I could keep there for the forseeable future. Try again, Mr. Smartypants.

I've quickly learned that for me, it was imperative to pick 'the name' early on, because you:
a) want to create logo, color palate, and landing page (to solicit interest, recruit from, etc.)
b) need to file for trademark protection for the name, logo, taglines, and such
c) can excite people about your business by evaluating the verbal description and business plan against the 'Surname'
d) find whatever name you use becoming more permanent every day, despite your best efforts!

So, on Wednesday night, we pulled together the 'company staffers' and a few other creative folks who haven't been in daily discussions -- I wanted to gauge some excitement for our overall idea, and also try to go in different directions and avoid concepts that had begun to set in stone.

To prepare for the meeting, I sent out some pre-reading of favorite Naming Resources -- I've presented them below to save my competitors some time ;-)

If you're interested in learning more about Company Naming, check these out:

The first three come from the Name Inspector blog, run by a Seattle-based blogger with a PhD in Linguistics):

1. 10 Tips for Naming Your Company, Product or Service
2. 10 Company Name Types
3. Visual Thesaurus
4. Seth Godin's naming rules
5. Guy Kawasaki's naming rules

The name must pass some simple 'viral/passalong' litmus tests:
a) "Is this a name you'd want to tell your friend when you're out having drinks and you tell them about your experience with this website?"
b) Would one of your customers feel silly referring other customers to a company with this name?"


p.s. Thanks to Bruce and Vicki (for not only their help with the naming exercise, but also for the most excellent accomodations!), Michelle the GooRoo, Karen, and Katie!

Labels: guy kawasaki, name inspector, nameinspector, naming, seth godin, viral, visual thesaurus

Spicing things up a little with this 80's-esque music video that I found out about from Very Short List (one of my favorite daily emails) -- I think the artist's name is Fujiya and Miyagi -- I loved it!

Labels: fujiya miyagi, music video, very short list

It's a small thing in the bigger picture, but I'm excited to note that I ooGooRoo, actually hired a lawyer today -- I'm particularly excited because:

a) he was referred by a friend who I really trust
b) we've had a number of extremely positive working sessions already, and
c) I think he's going to teach me a lot about the startup/fundraising/business building process -- I'm expecting that he'll serve more of an advisor role vs. simply a legal resource

We closed the deal with a mixture of equity and fee smoothing, and it was sealed with a handshake -- I'm happy with it, and I think he is as well.

FYI -- his name is Chris Hurley -- he's a Principal at Beacon Law Advisors.

Labels: beacon law advisors, chris hurley, lawyer

My good friend Sang opened his second gym location in Seattle yesterday (Denali Fitness -- first location in Madison Park, second in Interbay). I stopped by for the grand opening and was totally blown away by the job they've done. Seriously, they so exceeded my expectations that it warrants a full post... but I'll hold off on that until I get some good photos (I didn't have my camera with me).

But, I digress... the visit to the gym reminded me that I truly need to start exercising. There are many reasons for that:
a) I'm overweight (I weigh 195, and have wanted to weigh 180 for the last 2 years!)
b) I love how I feel when I'm near 180
c) I have so much more energy when I'm regularly exercising
d) It's fun (once I'm finally there...)
e) It's a nice motivator to get the important work stuff done, and then LEAVE WORK
f) Zach the Dog immensely enjoys jogging

So, why is it so darn hard to actually do? Why so many excuses? I'm not sure... I'd love some thoughts and encouragement. I actually did get out for a run with Zach The Dog today... was an awesome day in Seattle, if not a little too warm. Zach fared better than I did :-)

Labels: denali fitness, exercise, overweight, sang kim, zach the dog

My friend Karen celebrated her birthday today, and we were talking about how old we are, how old we feel and wondering about how old OTHER people think we are.

I know that I feel like I look quite young and in my mind believe that I could pass for a 29 year old, but I'm starting to realize that the world has different ideas. I said, "It would be a cool 'Hot or Not' type service if you could upload your photo and have people guess at your age, and then see how old you actually are."

Well, of course, someone already built this exact site -- check out my page here, and let me know how Old (young!) you think I am!

Labels: age, daveschappell, old

I wrote the other day about my trials and tribulations with my HP G85 Office Jet printer -- they no longer support updating their drivers to enable elegant MacBook support, so I went out and bought a Canon MP530 replacement. They had a chance to wow me and win over an HP customer. They did a great job with nice packaging, ink cartridges and fairly good documentation.

Then, I got to the point where you hook it up to your computer, and I read "USB Cable not supplied -- purchase that at your retailer at length not to exceed 10 feet". Excuse me -- how could they not supply the USB cable?!?

That's like selling you a TV and omitting the power cord (please purchase separately) or the remote control (we recommend that you purchase an all-in-one remote at your local retailer)! Instead, they lowered their product cost, and then put the onus on the customer to know that the cable was needed, at which point most people had to make another frustration-laden drive to the electronics retailer. They took a potential wow moment and came up with a fat zero. I assumed other customers were probably irate too.

I then went back to Amazon's website to see if I was the only one complaining -- in the first 30 reviews, only one person mentioned that it really irritated them too. So, that just goes to show that our collective expectations have lowered just one more notch.

Good news is that it opens the door for the above average experience -- heck, the new guy doesn't even have to be super -- just back to delivering "what would be expected" ;-)

Of course, this opens the door for Amazon to add a new customer-ecstasy feature -- collect the solvable gripes from purchasers and provide a "warning" to buyers that they should strongly consider purchasing the cable, because the manufacturer doesn't supply it... probably able to do that in a scalable way using collective feedback.

Labels: cable missing, canon pixma mp530