The best part of coming home is the over-excited welcome from my two-year-old one-member fan club…

She rocks.

It’s a great way to end a great trip…

P.s. Thanks to the entire team of monkey wranglers that kept her amused while I was gone…

Categories: Old Posts
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Just sitting here in Logan Airport having wrapped up my trip to Boston. The fog is rolling in and flights are all screwed up, so I have just a little spare time on my hands… I thought about throwing some milk in the harbor to go with all that tea, but I’m not sure the Queen would approve of my actions, so I’ll behave…

It’s been a great trip with some solid meetings. Thanks to all the folks I met with and to the guys at the ever-wonderful Square 1 Bank for helping to facilitate some of those meetings.

As my last meeting of the day, I got to meet up with Will Herman, the author of the 2-Speed Blog. If you don’t read it, you should. Will is (a) very smart, (b) very successful and (c) a fun guy to talk to. He has a ton of posts on the nuts and bolts of running a business, in particular how to address problems and deal with difficult situations. He was also an early investor in Harmonix, the company that made Guitar Hero, and how cool is that!

Will’s responses to comments I left on his blog were also what inspired me to start writing this blog. I suppose that could be considered a detriment to his credibility, but I’m grateful for his feedback.

The other good news from this trip is that we finally have a clear pitch that people seem to understand. Of course, that means I’ll be re-writing the beloved business plan one more time, but that’s okay. This time, I’m really really ready… So bring it on.

Categories: Old Posts
70No Comments »http://blog.nicholasnapp.com/2007/09/21/wrapping-up-my-merry-jaunt-to-boston/Wrapping+up+my+merry+jaunt+to+Boston...2007-09-21+23%3A41%3A20NickN

I’m up in Boston this week meeting with various folks and telling them about disruptorMonkey.  One of my days is mostly in downtown Boston, so that’s where I wanted to stay.  I thought I’d share some entrepreneurial joy with you all while I travel

I use Priceline a lot for hotels — I’ve had some great deals and mostly good experiences.  Different story altogether on flights, but for hotels and rental cars, it’s great.

However, finding a hotel in downtown Boston is tricky, especially if you’re a cheapskate like me.  After many attempts, my wonderful wife scored me a room at the Back Bay Hilton.  Great location.  As you’ll see from the image below, it’s wallet-clenchingly expensive:

Yes, $533.01 after tax, per night.  Now I am only paying $185, thanks to Priceline, but you get the idea.

I’ve traveled a lot all around the globe.  For $500 per night, I have high expectations.  In Kauai, that gets you an Ocean View and some serious kissing up.  In Hong Kong, it gets you harbour-side in Kowloon with a view that will keep you up at night.  Even in L.A. or N.Y. you’ll get some serious hotel room for your money.

I took the train from Providence (visiting a customer) and called the hotel for directions.  They had some trouble with that.  When I finally spoke to someone who knew how to walk, the directions they gave were awful.  Thanks to Google Maps on my phone, I got there in the end.

On check in, I was given a room on the 8th Floor.  Despite clearly stating non-smoking on the reservation, they gave me a smoking room.  I went back down and asked for an alternative room.

Now I’m on the fifth floor.  The room is fine, but the carpet is chock full of stains.  Big (12" across) and small, and obviously here for some time. 

I wondered initially if I just had the shitty Priceline suite, but then I noticed the elevator has big stains in the carpet too.  I’m no Monica Lewinsky stain expert, but they look like stains that would shampoo out pretty easily to me.

For your viewing pleasure, here are some highlights:

The little pink stains…

The crusty brown stains…

And the giant something-exploded-in-my-room stain:

Yes, that is a standard sized pen in the photo…  Ay caramba!

So all in all, I’d say not worth $185, and for sure an utter rip-off at $533.  I can’t imagine how pissed off the full price folks are when they get here.  But I thought I’d share the joy of budget business travel with you all…

Maybe Paris just hates me and it’s all a revenge thing…

p.s.  Dave: thanks again for dinner

Categories: Old Posts
693 Comments »http://blog.nicholasnapp.com/2007/09/20/the-450-stain/The+%24450+stain...2007-09-20+20%3A06%3A00NickN

The other day, I read an interesting article about an outfit called Thrrum (no link on purpose).

Here’s a quote from their site:

Checking out a book?
  Curious about the product on a billboard?
  Want to learn more about a wine while at the grocery store?
 

With
Thrrum Visual Browser on your cameraphone, point your phone at any
text, click, and the information you need is displayed right on your
phone.

Experience Cameraphone Search™
Books, billboards, product labels, restaurant menus…. With Thrrum
Visual Browser and the included Cameraphone Search service, you can
search and browse information related to the world around you with your
camera phone. Thrrum Visual Browser provides 1-click access to the Web,
comparison shopping, and more.

Sounds interesting, no?  I’ve done some work in/around recognition before, so I was intrigued.  What’s more, it’s for Sony Ericsson phones, and I own an 810i.

So I went to the site.  No preview, you have to buy the product.  It’s $6, so I impulsed it.  As part of the signup, you identify your phone, indicate where you live and who your provider is.  It then sends you a text message with a download link.

Sounds good so far…

I look at the list and the 810 is supported.  I double check the pictures and the 810 looks pretty similar to what I have, although it’s a small pic.  I purchase the product and get the link on my phone.

Download, install, try and run.  Kzzzt.  "Application Error".  Nice and specific error.  I change the app’s permissions on the phone.  No luck.

Fine.  I’ll delete and re-install.  But wait, the link has expired…  Log in to the site again, spent 10 minutes hunting down the "re-activate your download" button.  New text.  Try the download again.  Kzzzzt.  Error – file not found.

Joy.

I email tech support.  No autoresponder set up, so maybe they got the message.  Maybe they didn’t.  I get a response a day and a half later (not that slow, but remember I paid money and had nothing to show for it).  Here’s their response:

  Hi Nicholas:

  Please make sure you have the right phone model. We support only Sony
  Ericsson K810. Some other Sony Ericsson models (e.g. W810, W800) may
  look alike.

  Please check your phone model and let us know. We will be happy to help
  you out.

  Thank you for using Thrrum.

  Thrrum Support

So they know that there are visually identical models with very similar model numbers that will not work with their product, and yet this is the first time they mention this…  What’s more, my carrier (AT&T) doesn’t even OFFER that model, and I had to tell them which carrier I used as part of the purchase.

Gee, I wonder what the bulk of their support calls will be about????

I emailed them immediately and asked for a refund.  Funny thing is, I’ve had no response yet.

This product could be upgraded to make me breakfast, raise money for my company and change my daughter’s diaper, and I still wouldn’t endorse it (well, okay, maybe if it did the diaper thing).

C’mon folks.  There are some obvious critical and glaring errors in your business processes here.  It’s a simple choice: fix them or you’ll die.

1.  Don’t ask me to enter data you’re not going to validate
2.  Make sure I understand that there are identical models that don’t work BEFORE I hand over cash
3.  For the love of &^%, set up a darn email responder so that I at least think you care about my problem
4.  Tell your perky support folks to check the customer account.  2 seconds would have told this guy that I almost definitely had the wrong model, and he/she should have just offered a mechanism for a refund.

Coming tomorrow (if I get time)…  The $450 stain…

Categories: Old Posts
68No Comments »http://blog.nicholasnapp.com/2007/09/19/how-to-lose-me-as-a-customer-and-fast/How+to+lose+me+as+a+customer...+and+fast%212007-09-20+04%3A41%3A42NickN

I think a lot of areas around the country have Silicon Valley envy.  Quite rightly too — it’s an amazing and crazy place.  But like any icon, just because it’s been successful doesn’t mean it is the right choice for everyone to follow.  Smarter folks than me seem to feel the same way about Silicon Vally envy.

RTP is well behind the curve in comparison to Silicon Valley.  We’re behind the ball in comparison to NY and Boston too.  But there is a ton of potential here, and I for one am determined to see what can be done.

My point is that there are more appropriate models than Silicon Valley for us to try and follow.  Ones that would fit RTP much better and have a far greater chance of success.

And I’m saying that the answer is to look at Colorado.

Don’t know any companies in Colorado?  Try Photobucket, Me.dium, Lijit and most recently MadKast (the latter two are both in use on this blog).

When I first started looking at something new back in early 2006,
Colorado was just beginning to see some activity.  In the 18 months
since then, the area seems to have exploded with innovation.

As an outsider looking in, much of that seems to have been created directly or indirectly by
the efforts of a small core of folks like David Cohen and his co-founders at
Techstars (David Brown, Brad Feld, and Jared Polis).

Through Mr Fancy-Pants (kept anonymous to preserve his dignity), I was recently introduced to David Cohen, and I had the pleasure of speaking to him by phone last week.  In addition to being an interesting guy to talk to, David is (and I quote): "a serial entrepreneur, investor, and technologist living in beautiful Boulder, Colorado."

He’s also the guy that runs the Techstars program, which "provides seed funding, mentoring, advice, and connections to ten new companies in Boulder, Colorado each summer."  You may be thinking that Techstars sounds like yCombinator, and to a degree, it is similar.  The program provides micro-funding to a small number of software companies each summer, but they also seem to be much more hands on in their mentoring process, which I think is the way to go.

The funny thing is that the other startup idea I had begun to flesh out before disruptorMonkey was quite similar to Techstars done on a year-round basis, but that’s another story.  David was also involved in Startup Weekend, which is something I’ve talked about before on this blog.

I think there is an awful lot to be learned from David, the intrepid group he works with and the Colorado scene in general.  They’re not looking for state handouts or big money, nor are they chasing elaborate plans and absurdly lofty goals.  They are out pounding the streets at a grass roots level.  They had a vision of what Colorado could become and they’re working magic to make it happen.

It seems as though they took a lot of little steps to coalesce and solidify the startup scene in Colorado, and it’s paying big dividends.  I believe we can do the same thing here.

So in conclusion:

(a)  A large, oversized, Colbertian tip-o-the-hat to David, David, Brad, Jared and everyone else moving and shaking the Colorado scene.  Keep up the inspiringly good work.

(b)  If you want to be a part of Coloradofication, send me an email.  Let’s see what we can do.

Categories: Old Posts
671 Comment »http://blog.nicholasnapp.com/2007/09/18/rtp-ignore-silicon-valley-look-at-colorado/RTP%3A+Ignore+Silicon+Valley.++Look+at+Colorado.2007-09-18+23%3A50%3A00NickN