• Playlist,  Posts

    “Gold Guns Girls” by Metric

    All the gold and the guns in the world couldn’t get you off
    All the gold and the guns and the girls couldn’t get you off
    All the boys, All the choices in the world

    I remember when we were gambling to win
    Everybody else said better luck next time
    I don’t wanna bend, Let the bad girls bend
    I just wanna be your friend
    Is it ever gonna be enough

    Is it ever gonna be enough
    Is it ever gonna be enough
    Is it ever gonna be enough

    Is it ever gonna be enough
    Is it ever gonna be enough
    Is it ever gonna be enough

    All the lace and the skin in the shop couldn’t get you off
    All the toys and the tools in the box couldn’t get you off
    All the noise, all the voices never stop

    I remember when we were gambling to win
    Everybody else said better luck next time
    I don’t wanna bend, Let the bad girls bend
    I just wanna be your friend
    Why you givin’ me a hard time
    I remember when we were gambling to win
    Everybody else said HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

    Is it ever gonna be enough
    Is it ever gonna be enough
    Is it ever gonna be enough

    Is it ever gonna be enough
    Is it ever gonna be enough
    Is it ever gonna be enough

    More and more, more and more, more and more,
    More and more and more and more, more and more,

  • Daily Life,  Food & Drink

    My Favorite Drink: The Kir Impérial

    Editors Note: A lot of you mentioned that I had a very strange glass for a champagne drink and you’re right – but usually I am drinking and working at my desk on the weekends when I have this… so the Bodum double walled tumbler is perfect. It keeps your drink cold much longer without ice. YMMV

    ———————-

    Want to know the fastest way to make my day?  Order me my favorite drink, or know how to make it.

    What’s in a Kir Imperial?

    • 6 parts Champagne or sparkling wine
    • 1 part liqueur framboise (raspberry)

    It’s really simple actually, and this picture should give you a sense of how pink it should be.  It should still taste like champagne, just with a nice juicy splash of fruit.

    Ingredients: Champagne

    This drink shouldn’t be pricey to make at home, but it is a treat so pick good ingredients.

    First, I like to select a good California or Washington State sparkling wine.  Mumm Napa Brut Prestige is great, and you can get it on Wine.com for $20.  Let me tell you a few important things about champagne/cava/sparkling wine.  Don’t just buy the “good stuff” for other people.  If you are going to bother, spend at least $20 when you buy it for yourself.  Don’t buy Korbel.  You’re ruining the whole point.  Think what the French would say.  Actually, they’d probably say go for the Korbel!  Such confusing people… (Benoit!)

    But in all seriousness, I love this sparkling wine because it is primary pinot noir grapes (did you know pinot noir is white until they add the grape skins in?!) and it has some good acidity which you’ll want to cut through the sweetness of the liqueur.  If you pick a syrupy sweet champagne, this will be an entirely different drink.

    Ingredients: Fruit Liqueur

    Next is the liqueur.

    For people looking to make the class Kir Royale you should get the classic creme de cassis, which is black currant liquer, is a bar staple and you can get it in Bev Mo or any liquor store.  Extra points if it is actually from the Dijon region of France (see below on history). If you are committing to make this drink part of your repertoire, then stock your home bar with a presentable bottle (read: NOT Monin or anything cheaper than that, and yes I am judging you).  But seriously, if you are going to bother with a bar please put some thought into it because this is a bottle that will last a couple years.

    Personally, I have experimented quite a bit and prefer raspberry liqeuer for my Kir, which is why it is an Imperial and not a Royale).  I am loving Alfred Schladerer’s Himbeer Liqueur – actually a German producer (natch! — see history again).  And yes, I just linked to an Amazon product that is out of stock, but you really should wishlist it.  I got mine at Bev Mo for $30, so I imagine it is in other liquor stores too.

    FAQ: History & Name

    This is a French cocktail that got popular after World War II by the mayor of Dijon, named Felix Kir, who served it to international delegations as he worked to rebuild his region.  Creme de cassis was a local product, and he let local producers use his name.  Wikipedia tells us:

    According to Rolland (2004), the reinvention of blanc-cassis (post 1945) was necessitated by the German Army’s confiscation of all the local red Burgundy during the war. Faced with an excess of white wine, Kir renovated a drink that previously was made primarily with the red.

    Pretty damn scrappy if you ask me.

    FAQ: What’s the difference between a kir and a kir royale?

    A kir is made with white wine, and a kir royal is made with champagne.

  • Video

    River

     

    River – by LIGHTS

    Out across cities I see buildings burn into piles
    And watch the world in wonder as mountains turn into tiles
    And trees losing their leaves, and our faces becoming tired
    I wish I could discover something that doesn’t expire
    Come and stumble me

    Take me river, carry me far
    Lead me river, like a mother
    Take me over, to some other unknown
    Pull me in the undertow

    Such are the things that make a kingdom rumble and shatter
    The same dynamic that another day would never matter
    It really just depends on who’s giving and who’s receiving
    And things that don’t make sense are always a little deceiving
    Come and stumble me

    Take me river, carry me far
    Lead me river, like a mother
    Take me over, to some other unknown
    Pull me in the undertow

    I want to go where you’re going, a follower following
    Changing but never changed, claiming but never claimed

  • Advice,  Startups

    500 Details: The Process of Mentoring Startups

    This morning I posted a link on Twitter & Facebook to How I Mentor Startups & Entrepreneurs.  After it went out, I realized it doesn’t tell the full story.  Where are the details of how this whole thing works.  I knew I’d written it down at some point, so I dug up this email I wrote to the 500 Startups list.  New personal rule: emails longer than 4 paragraphs might need to be blog posts.  Enjoy!

    ———

    As a mentor who has gotten involved in ~12 companies and ended up writing checks to 3, so far, I want to share a little about how I think about the whole process.  First of all, I love mentoring and it is one of the most rewarding things I’ve done with my free time.  Its teaching me a ton about myself, things I’m interested in that I don’t always get to think about in my day-to-day work, and I get paid back with data — either the advice I give helps the startup or it doesn’t.

    However, I don’t work with every start that approaches me.  For other startups/mentors here’s my process:

    0:  I get an inbound request/intro from a founder/startup/investor/etc. — my first question is, “can I help these folks?”.  If they have a startup in an industry or problem space that I don’t know anything about, or can’t find excitement for, or think is a dumb idea then I tactfully decline.  Those things make it impossible to become a “true believer” and every time I have gone against this I have regretted it.

    1:  I agree to meet up for coffee and find out my about the team, their vision, their execution so far, and how they think I can help them.  Usually they come to me for my broadly advertised skills in marketing, but often they find Ican help with a bunch of other stuff too.  I can usually tell if I am likely to invest in them after my first meeting, and this sets how much time I want to commit.

    2: Usually I find that there is a period at the beginning where the startup needs a lot of time and attention, and has a specific use for me as a mentor.  I like to commit to meeting a few times over the next 3 months for 2-3 hour working sessions, and if things are going well then I’ll usually write a check in the next 8-12 weeks.  If not, then I’ll usually wrap things up after the 3 month period and move on.  Some startups just stop using me, whether its because they’re busy or because I’m not helping I don’t know, but I am laissez faire about it.  If you keep asking me for my time you will get it… but don’t expect me to pursue you too much.

    3:  Writing the check.  Usually $5k and really I don’t worry about the valuation or think I’m going to get the money back (or care) - I’m paying to be at the table for the long term.  Its a way to have skin in the game.  I also have companies where I have a small % equity in return for my time… which is usually only something the really early stage ones can offer.  And yes, if one of these companies had a moderate return I would super happy — but the reality is that I’d probably just invest it in more companies (or maybe my own one day).

    4: The ongoing relationship - I block out time for my investments/mentorships on my calendar.  Sunday is my 500workday :)  I host an office hours at a local coffee shop doing 20 minute lightening mentor sessions, and I meet withstartups at their offices or at my house if they don’t have an office yet.  I work on them even when I don’t meet with them, doing research or catching up on their news.  They probably don’t even know how much I stalk them.

    And that’s how it works for me, I spend about 6 hours a week on it… so it will take me about 32 years to hit my 10,000 hours of mastery.  That’s cool, because my 58 year old self will be a really quirky and fabulous angel investor.  Here’s hoping  🙂

  • Lessons In Startup Marketing

    Close the Loop on Your SXSW Campaign & Leads in 5 Steps

    This is a followup to my post last week How to Hustle SXSW for Fun & Profit, which is part of my sporadically ongoing Lessons in Startup Marketing blog post series and its focused on what to do post-SXSW to make the most of all the hustling you’ve been doing.

    Please let me know what other followup tips you have for event marketing, and thank you for reading!

    —–

    Hello 500!  I hope your hangovers aren’t too brutal.

    I wanted to followup on my post about “How to Hustle SXSW for Fun & Profit” and make sure I also told you how I think about closing the loop on the leads and communicating internally about results, ROI, learnings, and expectations for next year. Just sat down in the airport (headed back to SF) and jotted this down, please let me know if I left out any important follow up steps that work well for you.

    Who Needs to Do This

    If you used more than $5,000 of your company’s money at SXSW you *need* to do this and be accountable for what went down.

    Why This Process Matters

    This is crucial for a bunch of reasons: it builds trust for the marketing function in your company, it recognizes the marketing team’s version of “shipping”, it increases the chances of opportunities resulting from the leads you worked so hard to collect, it sets you up to justify SXSW next year and understand the value you are getting from this event and events like it company-wide.

    Day 0 – Sleep

    After epic trips like this one, which involve getting up early, being “on” all day, and staying out late — you are going to be tired.  Rest.  Getting sick after this trip is likely, because if you hustled hard [link: ] you shook over 1,000 hands.

    Day 1 – Schedule a Post-Mortem

    This should only take 30 minutes, and should include the people who attended and those who were directly involved in planning/execution.  The post mortem with the events team can be a more private opportunity to talk through things that went wrong, and make sure to air any lingering frustrations so that you don’t bring them to the office permanently.  This isn’t a group therapy session though.  If individuals exhibited any inappropriate behavior, it is better to talk with them 1-on-1 about this.  Instead, focus on the goals of the event as a whole and the execution of each piece.

    Walk through each piece of the plan, and ask different people on your team to describe how it went, what they liked and the value they feel your company got, as well as what could have gone better.  Make a list of learnings for next year and a list of achievements to include in your email blast to the company.

    Day 2 – Distribute an Event Recap (Internally)

    While its still fresh on your mind write a recap for yourself, and then send it to your team (or entire company).  Make sure to show through stories how high impact the event was and also how much work it was – for those who stayed home and might resent not getting to go.  Make sure to thank people by name individually and call them out for specific contributions.  Remember, they worked extremely hard for you 14-16 hours each day and you want them to feel valued.  They’re also likely to be the same people who will attend SXSW with you next year.

    Its also helpful to be transparent and to share learnings company-wide, but don’t turn it into a laundry list of things that went wrong.  Inevitably things went wrong (I definitely have a list from our trip this year) but focus on just one or two keys things that had valuable lessons attached to them.

    Make sure to call out conversations you had that have a lot of value, opportunities that arose spontaneously, unexpected wins, and how your brand was received.  Had people heard of you before?  Did they have a positive impression?  What were the most common questions?  What was the elevator pitch that worked best?  How did you change your interpersonal style to adapt throughout the event?  Who did you feel you connected best with?  Encourage your team to reflect on the same.

    Day 3 – Send a Followup Marketing Email (Externally)

    Take all the email addresses on every business card, all the emails from your party RSVP list, and any other contacts you made and send a big email blast thanking them for spending their time with you and giving your company some of their precious attention at SXSW.  If you are getting a high volume of leads I hope you are using a CRM like Saleforce, or even a marketing automation and lead scoring tool like Pardot (we use both at Twilio) to capture and organize leads and associate them with a source.  It will be amazing to see exactly the $ amount in opportunities and revenue these leads have accumulated 6 months from now, and this is ultimately the most objective way to justify the trip.

    This email can be pretty HTML or just plain text – the most important thing is SEND IT WHILE SXSW IS STILL FRESH IN PEOPLE’S MINDS.  I know you are tired, but if you wait 2 or 3 weeks to send it then you are losing permission to contact these people.  Ideally, you should be ready to send this email by Thursday March 15th… and probably actually send it the following Monday morning at 8am PST.

    What should be in this email? Keep it simple, include some pictures if you have anything extraordinary to share, and focus on the person you met and how they can continue to build a relationship with your brand.  Provide only ONE link / call to action for them to click on.  This could be something like claiming a promotional code, viewing a more in depth blog post, entering a contest, whatever.  The key is to have just one and keep it focused around that.

    Day 4 – Finalize Your Accounting

    Invariably you spent additional money on food and booze, and this year things like ponchos and umbrellas were definitely on our list.  Take an account of all costs and finalize your total into a single Keynote slide, breaking out the line items.

    Day 5 – Be Accountable

    Make a 4 slide deck which includes:

    • Overview of activities and their total reach (# leads collected)
    • Accomplishments & Learnings
    • Final Budget slide
    • Callouts for each person in the team and their contributions

    This is how you will start the conversation next year about SXSW and whether you should go, what you should do, how much you should spend, etc.  You’ll be able to update these slides with ROI information as the leads you generated start converting into opportunities and revenue.  Send it to your senior management team (at least CEO & CTO if not more).

    You’re done.  Next big event for me is Salesforce’s Cloudstock on March 15th in San Francisco – hope to see you there along with 3000 developers!