Archive - November, 2010

Uber, FoundersCard, Evernote, Tablet Hotels, AirBnB, Rentalic – things that save me time and money

November 19, 2010 in Entrepreneurship, Leadership with 3 Comments

In addition to sites that you have all heard of, I use Uber, FoundersCard, Evernote, Tablet Hotels, AirBnB, Evernote, Rentalic – things that save me time and money that you may not have heard of. If you continue to read this, you owe me a comment about a tool or service that you use that I haven’t covered. If you can’t commit to this, then stop reading now. OK, I’m kidding but I know that you use stuff that I would benefit from that I don’t know about, so please leave a comment if you have one in mind.

Uber (formerly know as UberCab, I’m an investor) is a service on your mobile device that allows you to place an order for a limo that will arrive in minutes. It’s currently available only in San Francisco but will hopefully roll out to additional cities soon. I use it because it’s fast, efficient, friendly, reasonably priced, and I don’t have to deal with cash or tipping since my CC is stored online. It’s about 30% more than a cab but it’s well worth it for the time I save and the other reasons I mentioned. On one of the three rides I went Uber last Saturday, we had 7 passengers in the car so I actually saved a bunch of money.

FoundersCard provides discounts to everything related to travel and a growing list of businesses. There is an application process and fee but it’s well worth it. I would have saved $200 on StubHub service fees had I joined prior to the SFGiants playoffs and World Series. They have great hotel deals, event deals, business deals, and food and beverage deals. You just have to check it out as there’s too much to list. I’m certain that I’ll save more than $1,000/year with the service, and I’ll save several hours because I won’t have to search a bunch of sites for the best deals. If you do any traveling, it seems like a no-brainer to me. Some of the discounts that I’ll use immediately are for Uber, ATT Wireless, a Boston hotel, an upcoming tech event, winelibrary and others. These discounts alone will pay for the initiation and annual fee. They also have a social network as part of the service. I can see some real business deals happening through the site it since applicants are vetted, though they let me in so maybe that’s not the case ;) .

Tablet Hotels provides a paid service for additional discounts, free upgrades and other perks and special deals. I like it because it’s all about boutique hotels, the best deals online, last minute deals and member specials and they provide a great user experience. It saves me time and money. I’m pretty sure that I’ll only ever use tablet hotels, FoundersCard and Priceline to find my hotels for now on. When I can’t find something that fits my budget, which is unlikely to happen any longer, I’ll use AirBnB.

AirBnB allows you to rent one’s unused apartment or room. I’m not likely to use this too often in the future. The only time I’ll consider it is when I can’t find a room for under $250.  Though I’ve had mostly good experiences with it and recommend you check it out, it just takes too much time to secure a place and time is money. It’s a possible money saver but a potential time sync. Depending on your money/time and hassle/value curves, it’s worth checking out.

Evernote is like a second brain. It allows you to capture everything that you currently email to yourself, notes that you take but never revisit and tasks that you record but forget about. I just started using it and it’s awesome. I’ve captured photos of things I want to remember or follow-up on, voice recordings related to a project, written notes, web clipping (like a bookmark) and other stuff. It organizes everything for you and syncs your mobile to the cloud (this term annoys me). It’s a huge time saver. I’ve also photographed receipts, membership card numbers and other stuff that I don’t want to dig around for.

Rentalic (I’m an advisor and shareholder) is a peer to peer rental site. It allows you to post stuff to make money and find stuff in your neighborhood that you just don’t need to buy but may want to borrow. I like it because it saves me money and time. I don’t need to go buy something that I’ll hardly ever use which means that I don’t have to run to the store or have the item clutter my garage. It will save you time, money and decrease your carbon footprint by creating less junk.

I’m sure there are a few other things that I benefit from that may show up in an update. I would really appreciate it if you will add the tools and services that you benefit from.

Tell us – what are they, what do you use? Please share this so we get others to make us all more efficient.

how I work – from idea through execution to deliverable.

November 18, 2010 in Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Leadership with 0 Comments

Recently, a few people were asking me how I get stuff done. I have several projects going on that include a bunch of video interviews, writing, advising a few companies, investing and consulting for a couple of clients. In order to keep all this straight and make sure that stuff gets done I have to be pretty efficient. I should mention that I like to socialize, exercise and spend time with my family so I don’t work more than 50 hours per week. The only way I can do it is to be super efficient.

I look at everything as a project, large or small, and often bounce from one project to another based on what I’m really in the mood to do, given that I don’t have other time constraints. The reason that I do it this way, rather than set aside time for specific tasks, is because I can do a much better job working on something that I’m in the mood to do. That is, if I want to be creative then I write, think or draw. If I feel like being social then I tweet, make calls or take meetings. If I want to brainstorm then I do that, or do strategy stuff and if I want to be really tactical then I crank out documents, invoices, proposals, schedules or book appointments. This is contrary to what you may read by many others but it works for me. It not only makes me happy but it’s how I’m most productive. At this very moment, I should be reading a proposal but I’m feeling creative so I’m taking advantage of this creative energy and writing when it comes really easily to me. If I try to write while I’m not in the mood then I’m at about 30% efficiency.

So, for each project this is how I work. I often sketch out an idea. The example that follows is a video wall for a new website for my book.

This is a simple, hand-written sketch on my ideaboard (a whiteboard in my office that I created using ideapaint) or on paper. It makes it to the ideaboard if it’s a longer project and I want the daily or weekly reminder. Shown above is an example for a new website that I’ll launch for my book. I’ll sketch out the site and then fill in each box with the story. This allows me to complete the detail for each story and map out themes. It also allows me to look at things in one place and figure out loose ends. Once I can visualize the framework I can complete the detailed tasks, often writing or researching, and finalize and deliver the project. I definitely have some time luxuries that many don’t since I own my schedule 99% of the time. I realize that I may be able to work in a way that others cannot. In fact, there’s no way that I could have done things this way during the last 8 years of running Leverage. I’m not suggesting this as a best approach, simply the one that works best for me and the way that I plan to work through 2011. Most importantly, it’s a zero stress way for me to work – zero.

How do you get stuff done and shipped?

Food, Music and Sports – the business of Community.

November 16, 2010 in Culture, Entrepreneurship, Family, Inspiration, Life with 0 Comments

I can’t think of many things that bridge gender, racial, economics, age and religious groups like food, music and sports. Recently, I attended an off-the-grid food cart event at Fort Mason.  In addition to awesome food offered by 25 or so food trucks; my friends, kids and I enjoyed music by the Furious Few. I love these experiences. Not only did my friends and I have great conversation about our love for the food and music, but groups of people were drawn together and intermingled because our kids were dancing with each other like crazy. The night reminded me of how communities of all kinds are built around simple things – food, art, entertainment, sports, etc.

San Franciscans recently experienced the positive impact that sports can have on community with the fantastic accomplishments of the SF Giants. Without getting into the details of Giants love, I’m suggesting that you get out into the community and enjoy some form of outdoor local food, music or entertainment event. It’s not only good for the local economy, it’s good for the soul.

Enjoy!

9 reasons the San Francisco Giants won the World Series. Apply their recipe for success to your business today.

November 9, 2010 in Culture, Entrepreneurship, Generosity, Inspiration, Leadership, Life with 5 Comments

They shouldn’t have won, but they did. Player to player, they weren’t the most talented.  Statistically, they weren’t the best team in baseball. Not a single national “expert” had them favored to beat the Phillies or the Rangers. None of this mattered – they were the underdog and they loved it that way. The San Francisco Giants won the 2010 World Series because they had more passion, humility, leadership, teamwork, focus and confidence than any other baseball team in 2010.

This was a storybook year for the San Francisco Giants and their fans. As I watched them play 35 games at Pac Bell and an additional 35 on television, I couldn’t help but to compare the traits displayed along their journey toward success to lessons I have learned running companies and leading teams, and watching my friends and clients run their organizations or teams.  The following 9 traits enabled the Giants to win the World Series. Most or all of these can be applied to your business today.

Focus

The Giants; as a team, an organization and a group of individual players, had one goal for 2010 – to win the World Series. This may seem obvious but it isn’t. Unlike most other teams they didn’t care about individual achievements – they cared about winning as a team. During the 100 or so interviews I watched, they always spoke about winning or losing as a team, not about their individual performances. They were just happy to make a contribution. In fact, when they broke personal records, they deflected the interviewers comments to talk about the team performance. It’s about focus and teamwork.

Leadership

Bruce Botchy should win manager of the year. From one game to the next he evaluated his assets, his liabilities and his objective and fielded the best team for that particular day. He didn’t worry about the press or sunk costs (Barry Zito, for example). He simply fielded the team that he believed had the best chance of winning that day. He also made several changes throughout most games to maximize his potential. It’s easy to assume that the right person is the most experienced or highest paid but this isn’t always the case. Often times it’s the rookie that will pull through for you.

Rapid iteration and decision making

Larry Baer (President), Brian Sabean (General Manager) and Bruce Bochy (Manager) had to work through injuries, slumps and off-field legal issues. They didn’t dwell on the problems; rather, they focused on the solution and rapidly made decisions and stuck by those decisions. Examples of this include replacing Zito, their highest paid player by a wide margin, with the rookie Madison Bumgarner to field the first rookie battery (pitcher and catcher combination), along with Buster Posey, to start in a World Series since 1947, when Yankees pitcher Spec Shea threw to catcher Yogi Berra.  Seriously – 1947 – that takes guts and confidence.

Recruiting

This team all started with recruiting. If you read this weeks Sports Illustrated article, you will learn about the emphasis that this team has had on pitching, since 2002. Through scouting, farm teams and throughout the year, this team of misfits has been created through crafty recruiting with a focus on the notion that great pitching wins championships.  When you recruit, are you looking out for both the short term and long term as the Giants did? Perhaps you can build a program with top colleges to attract rockstars to your company.

Confidence with Humility

I’ve never seen the combination of confidence and humility play so well together as witnessed with this team. Whether Posey, Huff, Lincecum, Wilson or others; this team knew that they could beat anyone but they always respected their competition and the critics. They always shared the credit with the entire organization, their team-mates and the fan base.  I frequently heard players, coaches and team operations say “thank you” during interviews. They spent lots of air-time complimenting others, especially their teammates and fans, but also the competition and their management. A quiet confidence goes a long way.

Teamwork – doing whatever is required to win

Every player on this team would do what was required of them. Aubrey Huff, who was picked up by the Giants early this year, had never laid down a sacrifice bunt in more than 1,500 at bats. In September of this year, Bochy pulled Huff aside to tell him that he may need him to bunt in a critical October game. Well, November came around and Aubrey laid down a beautiful sacrifice bunt to move the runners during a critical inning of game 5. Aubrey had practiced for that very moment. Aubrey doesn’t bunt, but he did what he needed to do to win.

Hard work, preparation and determination

Brian Wilson epitomizes hard work. His preparation and workout schedules are well documented. He trained before and after workouts. His off-season workouts with his friend Barry Zito are also well documented. He simply worked as hard as he could to be prepared as possible. Drive and determination are so important to the Bearded one that his motto, and that of his clothing line One More Round is `No matter how deep I am in this fight, no matter how badly burned I am, I’ve got one more round in me.’ Sometimes you just have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and come up swinging.

Resiliency

It’s fitting that Edgar Renteria won the MVP. It wasn’t reported until the following day, but Renteria played the Series winning game 5 with a torn bicep. These guys persevered and were resilient. They played through pain, torture and torment.

Passion

I believe that the primary reason that this unlikely team won this year is simply because they wanted it more than any other team. They wanted it for Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepada and even Barry Bonds. They wanted it for the city of San Francisco, they wanted it for the fans and they wanted it for their teammates. I really believe that some of these guys wanted this World Series more for some of their teammates and former Giants players than they wanted it for themselves. To a player, they had the fire in their belly and the passion in their heart.

They became the 2010 World Series Champions by executing with the talent and resources that they had and they did it as a team. Can you do the same within your small business, company team or as the leader of your organization?

Get it done.