06-05-11

What Angel Investors can learn from the fail of Blippy

Blippy died. A horribly quiet death.

oh noes! yo

No one cared.

“So it turns out that almost nobody wants people to check out their purchases.” quoth the article here at TechCrunch on its recent official demise. And it was over.

The CEO shrugs his shoulders, kicks the ground with his shoe and says a timid “opps. my bad.”

No one cares.

But maybe, just maybe a few people cared. After all, Blippy was launched with over $13m in funding. That had to come from someone’s pockets, somewhere.

“We don’t think people want to share their purchases period,”  Swipely CEO Angus Davis told me after his service had pivoted, “I don’t know how to be more emphatic than that.”

The article discusses creating something a user wants. But what TechCrunch missed, the most crucial point of the whole, expensive experiment is this: that little fact about the business model not catering to a user need, yeah, that one… could have been figured out PRIOR to a $13m investment!

Expensive mistake.

How much money could investors have saved if they put, say 1/4 of that money into product testing and market research instead of just jumping in on the hype?

via SMI
Do you see him, in the corner? The ghost of the Pets.com sock dog is grinning at us again.

Kids, kids, settle down. Let me explain something to you. See this man:

If you keep throwing your money at every doe-eyed computer nerd with a dream that comes to your office with the next best thing, you will never be like him.

Here’s what you do: ask to see the numbers, ask to hear their process. How did they come up with the idea? Hype doesn’t matter. Anyone can come up with a delightfully intoxicating power point.

You don’t even have to pay Microsoft for the pleasure of making a power point in order to make a power point anymore. You can do it for free. Think about all the awesome people who like free shit.

So what does it boil down to? How do you stop yourself from blowing $13m in a company (unless it strategically makes sense to you and your accountant, of course)?

via iheartcharts
Look at the data!!!!

Don’t know how to do that? Hang around here for a bit. You’ll figure things out.
P.S. Is this explanation ok, or should I turn it into a power point just to be safe?

05-28-11

Generation Lost

This is the reality of our time. We don’t want pity and we don’t want to assign blame. I take exception to the simplistic view that Generation Y is optimistic because Cosby, Barney and Mr. Rogers taught our parents to make us feel special. We are optimistic because we don’t expect to be given anything easily and we’ve come to terms with that.

In Defense of My Generation by Jason Oberholtzer

05-26-11

Think about this…

“Instead, think about getting together with friends that you admire, or envy.  Think about entrepeneuring. Think about NOT waiting for a company to call you up. Think about not giving your heart to a bunch of adults you don’t know. Think about horizontal loyalty. Think about turning to people you already know, who are your friends, or friends of their friends and making something that makes sense to you together, that is as beautiful or as true as you can make it.”

R. Krulwich’s Commencement Address for the Berkley School of Journalism. Go and read it, journalist or not.

If you can… fall in love, with the work, with people you work with, with your dreams and their dreams. Whatever it was that got you to this school, don’t let it go. Whatever kept you here, don’t let that go. Believe in your friends. Believe that what you and your friends have to say… that the way you’re saying it – is something new in the world.

And don’t stop. Just hold on… and keep loving what you love… and you’ll see. In the end, they’ll let you stay.

05-24-11

Affective Engagement is Smashingly Good, Darling

My article on Emotional Engagement is up on SmashingMagazine.com, go check it out.

05-06-11

Swoon Awards: iPhone Apps

Instead of clogging up a friend’s wall on FB, I decided to list them here so that you, too could share in my daily love affair with my phone. You can tell a lot about a girl by the apps she has. Got a favorite I should try? Drop me a message below or via email. :)

Paid apps I love

Hipstamatic is not free but fun if you like photo apps. I think I like collecting the extension packs more than anything. It turns your digital phone into an analog vintage camera without the wait time for development. Thanks to San Diego who bought it for me for my birthday. :)

Viaden Yoga App saves me hundreds of dollars in yoga classes every month. Calendar, pre-created sessions, DIY sessions, pose base, videos. Swoon. Videos.

2.do helps keep my head on straight. Really, really straight.

Skeeball game. The only dates I can stand are my Starbucks and Skeeball dates that I take myself on from time to time.

Free apps I love

Scoutmob. A social buying app/website like Groupon and Livingsocial but not available in all areas yet. However, you can still use their awesome augmented reality mustachio photo tool even if they don’t serve your local. It’s mustachio and awesome.

Stanza is a free ebook reader, plus it gives you access to libraries like Gutenberg and Books from Munseys. It’s fun to go book shopping for classics at 2am instead of sleeping not to mention that vintage business books are always a win. I’m reading PT Barnum’s guide to economics now.




Foodspotting. Food pr0n. ’nuff said.

A friend just turned me on to Project Noah if you like gardening/outdoors…you’ll have to read up on this one. I haven’t played with it enough to give you a run down but it is worth looking into, TRUST ME.




Bluelight if you walk places in the city by yourself a lot. It will automatically send a text with your last GPS coordinates to an emergency contact once you set it if you don’t check in by the time you get where you are going.

Honorable mentions

Apps I use often and worth a head nod: Maps (i’m always using GPS and getting lost), Facebook, Twitter, email and calendar, dictionary.com, NPR news, FeedlerRSS. Apps I use to use but not so much anymore:

Mint is a good financial app, but has started getting too “let’s sell you a credit card” for my liking, so I am starting to look elsewhere.

Grocery IQ for shopping lists. You can take photos of barcodes and they get added automatically…HOW COOL IS THAT?

I’m a member of zipcar, their app is awesome b/c it let’s you unlock your car and honk the horn. I think car manufacturers are making similar apps for their cars now too, you can try looking for yours if you have one.

Kindle app. It’s only on my list due to the fact I have to test files I make with DRM (<-lame) at times.

Apps on my list to try

Tea App I haven’t tried yet but am pondering if I should. I’m more of the OCD kind of tea drinker, if I try something new and like it, I will remember it because I’ll drink it for the next year until I get sick of it…

Got a good one I should try? Let me know via email or twitter.

05-06-11

My Process

Today, I wanted to share my process with you. These are shots of extremely early brainstorming play sessions. Enjoy.

SEO-ing a website.

Vision boarding (or craving Skittles).

Creative block

04-19-11

Information is Beautiful Greatness

I got a feature (Link)… I just saw it in my Flickr analytics from early this month. Yay! I added it to my little growing list down on the side. I have a handful more over on my shellgreenier.com site.

04-14-11

Dear Panama,

Panama City IM’d me today. Poor, poor Panama. Our relationship was probably doomed from the beginning, we were both going through “new” in life, adapting to change. Neither of us probably needed a relationship at that exact moment. We both were tipping the Myers-Briggs scale when it came to stress. Ultimately things broke apart, we turned on each other when we should have been supporting each other, we couldn’t get into the groove of sustainable. It wasn’t healthy and, short lived, it wasn’t meant to be.

Immediately after the fact I felt like the hurricane that hit this peaceful island, embarrassed and ashamed of being the unstable element that brought us to our knees, but in retrospect I realize we both played out roles.

It was great catching up, though. Life is going great for him but he seems stressed by the pressure of his grandparents to “just get a girlfriend.” I, being super micro-manager gave him the same run down I give all my guy friends when it comes to problems talking to chicks: “just start with ‘hello’”. I didn’t think “compliment their nails” would work for him though. I don’t know if he actually wanted my opinion, lol, probably not as much as I gave him.

Flipping through my photos from long ago I realized how great of a person he is and ultimately wish him one thing: that he figures out what will make him happy in life and has the strength to pursue it. I think that will take him far.

04-08-11

RIP Mr. E. Toad

I have a horrible confession: I killed a toad today. I didn’t kill him, I maimed him. I was dragging a flower pot across the deck and he was under it and got hurt. And I couldn’t bring myself to put him out of his misery so I asked dad too and I cried. Like I was 5. I hit a bird on my way to Chicago ten years ago, ran a mole over with a lawn mower 12 years ago and maimed a handful of bugs accidentally when I swatted them away. I hate killing things. I refuse to move anymore. Can’t kill when catatonic.

04-02-11

90 Days of New: Day 2 – Yoga.

I’m doing a 90 day challenge to try something new everyday. I need to stretch my comfort zone. I need to grow.This is day 2. Day 1 involved gift wrap design, patterns and OCD. Swoon.

The strip mall was ancient, across from Space Center Houston. Probably built in the hay-days of NASA and the space program, much like the rest of the surrounding area, now worn down from the years and Ike. Still, it wasn’t old enough to warrant the temple-esque entrance to the yoga institute, complete with red doors and ornate brass handles. I stepped inside and was greeted by the ambiance of Nag Champa incense and serenity.

I filled out some paperwork, kicked off my shoes and made my way across the grey Berber carpet of the studio. I unrolled my mat next to an older gentleman who directed me towards the blankets, foam blocks and meditation pillows near the wall. People filed in, the floor filled up, we shifted, more people came in and soon the class contained $500 worth of people. Not a bad take for 2 hours on a Saturday. I was clearly in the wrong field.

The yoga guru, a middle aged woman with gorgeous curly brown hair that fell to her shoulders made her way up to the platform at the front of the room. She introduced herself, introduced the studio, introduced yoga and then introduced our first position: the cross-legged-geek-killer. “Sit up straight, align your chakras, cross your legs like this and enjoy the sensation of being. Focus on your breathing.”

My body screamed at me. My back thought I had lost my mind, “what is this ‘straight’ you speak of?” My thighs burnt and my feet fell asleep. I didn’t mind, I was counting my breathing, focusing on the sound of it and observing my “being”. Being, however, quickly caught up with me as the burn intensified and I thought my shoulder muscles would call it quits and abandon me. This is what I get from hunching over the computer all day. Finally it was over. Being is pleasurable, but I think I will leave it alone for now. “1 pose down, 11 more to go,” I thought. I realized how terrible the thought was immediately after it crossed my mind and hoped I would survive whatever this was I had gotten myself into.

Eventually I lost feeling of my body, not in a bad “my body is being consumed by lactic acid, get me a gun” way but in a way that said “you’re 28 going on 18″ which is the first I felt that way in a long time. Usually it’s 28 going on 58. This was good. I was rocking this. My muscles shook but they didn’t ache. I gained confidence and began throwing my leg into lunges other people didn’t quiet master yet. I grinned.

“Push your torso up with your arms” the guru said, I did it without hesitation. “Stretch this way.” Check. The lady next to me toppled to the floor. “Twist that way.” Check. “Straighten your legs, flat back, touch the floor with your finger tips.” Ouch.

My hamstrings laughed. They didn’t protest, didn’t argue…they just laughed. “You think your getting those fingers where without bending your knees? Aren’t you cute?” I didn’t think it was going to happen. My hamstrings are ornery. I remember trying out for cheer leading in second grade and those damn things refused to let me touch my toes then let alone to get down into a split. If I couldn’t do it at 8, I sure as hell wasn’t going to do it now at 28.

Long story short, I survived. I even liked it. Scratch that, I loved it. After each pose was over, I wanted to go back and do it again. It felt good. It made me focus on my body, which is something I never really enjoy doing (ask anyone who has tried to teach me dance in the past). It made me crawl out of my head and move beyond. Day 2 was a very successful introduction to yoga. I will be doing it more in the future.

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