gdp's Comments

Bill Flagg : Free Your Teams from Bureaucracy

Thu, 23 Jan 2014 16:31:08 +0000

Bill, this sparked a great discussion amongst the team. I quoted this section to the team – we are facing the exact same issue at our weekly meeting and our customers and prospects are asking similar, basic questions that could be answered by FAQs and other online resources we haven't found the time to write. "This month at SurveyGizmo, SnapEngage, and PosterBrain we added something new to discuss at our weekly all-company meetings... "What are the most common questions our prospects and customers have asked us in the past week?" We started doing this because we realized that our weekly meetings were focusing on US (revenue, customer count, expenses, profit) and not enough on our CUSTOMERS. At PosterBrain today, the most common questions customers asked in the past week were.... How will my picture look?, Where are you located/shipping from?, Do you dry mount?, etc.. I suggested rather than making people contact us to get those answers, how about we put a FAQ on our homepage? Our customer service superstar laughed and said "Then what will I do with all my time?!" :-) I said how about those outreach emails you've been wanting to make for weeks to attract new customers!"

Bill Flagg : Let Your Customers Fund Your Software Startup

Fri, 13 Dec 2013 20:16:36 +0000

Bill, I've been fascinated with Ramen since Ryan told me about it. When I heard Niel was involved, I was excited as his experience is invaluable. Now that you're involved too, this is going to become big on Colorado's tech radar. Congrats. I'll be following along.

Bill Flagg : Minimum Viable Partnerships

Thu, 5 Dec 2013 18:13:31 +0000

Great article Bill. I haven't spun up any huge partnerships, but the more experienced I become in business, the more I believe in MVE... Minimum Viable Everything. Walk before run is almost always a good idea! That said, I'd love to know why you think you haven't found a profitable partnership yet. You're a smart guy. If you've tried so many and have failed, why are you still holding out hope? Could it be that 99% of partnerships are a waste of time and most businesses shouldn't even attempt a Minimum Viable Partnership? Or is there something elusive worth holding out for?

SendGrid : SendGrid Expands to Denver

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 18:31:57 +0000

Congrats, really excited to have you guys down here in Denver! The Denver startup scene is really starting to take off. And when you run out of SendGrid t-shirts, now you don't even have to drive to get new ones!

Daily Camera.com: : Sean Maher: Does Boulder really need Trader Joe\'s? - Boulder Daily Camera

Mon, 6 Feb 2012 19:29:00 +0000

So true. I lived in Boulder for a year (last year), the hypocrisy is ridiculous. Save the earth, one range rover at a time. Let's raise taxes, because I can afford it and I don't work. Shop local, at our new SuperWholeFoods. Couldn't take it, moved back to Denver. I'm a yuppie too. I'm not poor. But I don't pretend to actually care about buying local. I'm going to buy from whomever has the best price/ quality/ value local or not. I love John Mackey and I love how he's a hardcore, atlas-shrugged-reading libertarian. Maybe all this new corporatism in Boulder will make it a bit less liberal, a bit more libertarian. Welcome Trader Joe's! Wish you would have setup shop down here in Denver.

Bill Flagg : Built for Life

Mon, 6 Feb 2012 18:36:52 +0000

John I agree with you about not being passionate about the "stickers". I'm also not passionate about t-shirts all that much. Which is okay, because this is akin to being passionate abou the "what". You also have a "how" and a "why" (the most important). Have you seen this TED talk? http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_le... Basically what you're saying is you are passionate about the "why" of helping others, and helping yourself, build a great business. And I think stickers (your "what") do that too. So your product and your purpose are aligned, which is great. I believe more entrepreneurs need to think about their why. It's the first step to realizing your passion and being able to communicate it. And if you understand your purpose, you're less likely to want to sell out in the first place.

Bill Flagg : Expansiveness

Mon, 5 Dec 2011 08:26:27 +0000

Wow, great article! Thanks!!

Bill Flagg : Expansiveness

Sun, 4 Dec 2011 01:28:38 +0000

I'm a huge fan of Whole Foods and especially John Mackey. It's awesome you got to meet him and ask a question, that's on my bucket list! One thing I respect most about you Bill is the fact your role models and the companies you follow in the spirit of building greatness are all over the map. While you've mostly focused on tech companies yourself, your inspiration comes from every corner of the business world. This is something I think more tech CEOs and leaders need to learn, especially in the "startup" scene. Too many people are too focused on the latest greatest within their industry and don't look outside their industry to find the great ideas and great leaders to follow. Going on these "growth" trips are a great way to cull this knowledge into your brain. Once again, you've picked trips from all walks of entrepreneurship, which is why you're so qualified to build great companies. Let's keep evangelizing this throughout Colorado and get more of these tech-nerds to realize Warren Buffet and John Mackey are probably better role models than Mark Zuckerberg or Drew Houston!

Bill Flagg : Own it

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:23:43 +0000

Great post! We do the same thing when someone new registers on our site. They get a "welcome" email right away, and then the next day an automatic email from "rachel" who is their account rep, introducing herself and asking if there's anything she can help with. But we dont' currently do the same thing for purchases -- I love the PosterBrain example, we'll have to implement something like this. It's amazing the replies we get to that "rachel" e-mail though, just showing the human touch really differentiates yourself from the pack! Would love to have a guest post from you sometime for our blog, this content is awesome!

Online Aspect : Goodbye Boulder. Hello Mountain View.

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 20:54:24 +0000

Good luck Josh - we'll miss you back here in Colorado - excited for you and I'll take you up on that extra bedroom sometime!

Bill Flagg : Pile of Money or Creative Platform?

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 15:32:04 +0000

Eric when you say "if it's happiness you are trying to buy"... I have to ask, what else do people try to buy besides happiness? I can't think of anything.

Bill Flagg : Pile of Money or Creative Platform?

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 15:29:33 +0000

Reminds me of Gary Vaynerchuk's quote "legacy is greater than currency".

Bill Flagg : Pile of Money or Creative Platform?

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:42:11 +0000

Bill, I love your viewpoint! So often you are the voice of reason in a room full of kool-aid drinkers. These six entrepreneurs are smart for consulting with you. It's so valuable to surround yourself with people of differing viewpoints, different jobs, different social circles, different ages, etc. In the Boulder Bubble, you're one of the few people I know who truly thinks different and lives your life by your own rules, clearly thought through from the ground-up based around your own DNA and what actually makes *you* happy. Buying into the American "dream" as an entrepreneur is BS. The "dream" was fabricated to motivate the 9-5'ers living in the burbs. Someone who busts their ass for years to build a business worth millions should really think about what's going to make *them* happy and really think about why a company would buy you in the first place. The only reason someone buys something is because they think they can make a profit long-term. That means they'd be paying a discount because they are taking the risk. If you're great at running your company and love to run it, why would the 3rd party buyer be able to make a higher return than you could yourself? If you're a first time entrepreneur and want to diversify, you could always sell a minority stake for cash. I think the Wordpress guys did this, same with 37signals? That makes more sense to me than selling the whole pie. Another interesting thing to look at is all the entrepreneurs that have "cashed out". What are they doing now? Almost zero of them are sitting on a beach sipping margaritas. Most entrepreneurs are not wired this way. Most of these guys are back at it, trying to create that creative platform they sold years ago. If you've got something great, why sell it and try to create it all over again? I agree- money is not the end-all be-all. Regardless, it's awesome you were able to ask the right questions and influence half of the entrepreneurs into not selling. Your contributions to the community are so important and under-appreciated.

ChrisMoody.com : Boulder & Me

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 16:47:13 +0000

Chris - this is great. I lived in Denver for 8 years before moving to Boulder, and felt how you felt in Denver. Very isolated, not a lot of like-minded people doing startups, etc. Then I slowly started attending Boulder tech events, became good friends with a few people from the first class of TechStars, and eventually ended up moving to Boulder last year. It's been awesome ever sense. I've become a bigger part of the community and feel a part of something, even though we recently got rid of our office and started working from home! Boulder is a great place. The only issue I have with Boulder, as a 26 year old, is the "age gap" - there's hardly any post-college young professionals here. Everyone is either still in college, or 30-something married with young kids. I suspect this is because Boulder is insanely expensive, and doesn't have a lot of employers that hire young people right out of college. This makes it very hard to meet "normal" friends outside the Tech/ TechStars bubble. And if you're a young tech founder with a significant other, she probably doesn't love Boulder because it will be hard for her to meet like-minded friends here (as compared to larger cities/ more "normal" cities). When you go out for drinks on the weekend, for example, it's kindof depressing to be the only person (or couple) aged 25-30 in the entire place. The tech scene is the one exception to this, but there's really only a handful of 20-something tech people in town, especially compared to larger cities like Denver, Seattle, Chicago, Austin, SF, Boston, etc. If we could solve this problem Boulder would be perfect! Thanks for sharing. Great story.

Bill Flagg : 6 Bootstrap Traps

Thu, 3 Mar 2011 15:06:46 +0000

Wow, great list. I have been, or am at risk of falling into traps #1, 2, 4, 5, and 6! Kinda depressing. But a great reminder to focus on the core! Here's somethig interesting we're debating now. Re:#2 - Is there ever a time when an offshoot idea might be worth persuing, say after many years of persuing your core, original idea? Or if the original core customer group's growth has slowed and appears very hard to grow 3x? And if it is, how do you balance spinning up that new offshoot (new product, new brand, etc) while still giving your core idea/ customers the attention they deserve? Is it ever possible? Examples?

ChrisMoody.com : Startup Culture: Values vs. Vibe

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 23:48:27 +0000

This is refreshing to know I'm not the only one that seems to fight complacency. And that this is okay. I don't have any posted values for my company (yet), but I definitely fit along these lines. I'm always trying to make everything better and sometimes "focus on the negative" but really I just am never satisfied with the status quo. We also don't really celebrate big wins too much as a team, but everyone seems fine with it as we are all like this. I do remember once though when we launched a major website revision one person "insisted" we celebrate because we never do :)

one : Want An Independent Board Member?

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:09:27 +0000

Great perspective and advice. While we don't have a board, I'm starting to warm up to the idea of more external resources to help and guide our progress. Plus, it's just more fun to learn from more smart people at all levels.

one : Software & Remodels

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:04:23 +0000

Totally agree on both the software and remodeling fronts. My parents own a very high-end remodeling company in Madison, WI. They do the best work in the most expensive neighborhoods in Madison. Obviously you pay for 30 years of experience and top-notch, problem solving carpenters who have been there and done that. But over the last few years as the economy has tanked, their business has suffered because even the wealthy are trying to cut back and think they can now get cheaper prices in this economy. And they can, except they are getting every tom dick and harry who used to do new construction but now since the new construction has dried up, they are calling themselves "remodelers" but don't know jack about remodeling! Slowly but surely they (wealthy clients) are learning, but in the meantime a lot of crap is being built and my parents have even got a few calls to repair the shoddy work of these underbidding new home guys! Funny how software and construction are related!

Bill Flagg : The Magic of Conscious Capitalism

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 22:00:39 +0000

I love your party idea, what a great concept. The conference sounds like it was a blast, I love the container store and whole foods so much!! Would have been great to learn from their executives. Nordstrom would be another one on the top of my list. We're experimenting in this area as well. The other day we sent our email newsletter with a little one-liner at the end, small text, that said "You're hardcore! Thanks for reading to the end. Want some free swag? Reply and it's yours." Of course we actually read all the replies people send us b/c we don't use a noreply@company.com (terrible idea!). Surprisingly, we had 90 people reply to the email. Previously, with the same email list, we'd get no replies. And they didn't just want free swag. Many of them wrote paragraph after paragraph about what they thought of our newsletter and our company and gave us a ton of super valuable feedback. It was awesome! One guy actually made a YouTube video showing him unpacking the free swag we sent him. Check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEAywkbIILU Obviously this didn't result in any short-term profits, but I think just like you we're building long-term value and really trying to reward and build connections with the people around us who make our business a reality. I'm really getting fascinated by all the weird ways you can do this and how it actually really works and delivers a huge ROI. I intend to build an entire company around this concept. Instead of just creating one or two companies with these values, why not create a company that helps other companies think like this and take action? We gotta talk again soon!

Robert Sandie : Staying Sharp with This Week In

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:09:18 +0000

Awesome post. I love podcasts too- haven't listened to any of these. Are you familiar with Stanford's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Podcast? If so, how does it compare to these ones? The Stanford podcast is one of my favorites thus far.