Punchbowl Blog

This post written by Stephanie Fader, Marketing & PR Manager

We’re hiring! Punchbowl is looking for a few new people to join our fun and casual start-up culture. We’d really appreciate if you could spread the word about these positions - we’ve had great success hiring through word of mouth. Thanks in advance for spreading the word!

Positions open in our Framingham, MA office:

Senior Product Manager
The Senior Product Manager will be responsible for analysis of customer needs and market trends as well as identification of new areas for product development. A key aspect of this position is to monitor progress of products through the product development life cycle. This position works closely with engineering and marketing teams to execute new products and programs.

Experienced Ruby on Rails Developer
We are seeking to add another accomplished Rails developer to our growing team. The ideal candidate is extremely talented in Ruby on Rails and has been using Rails extensively in consumer-facing web applications for more than a year. Expert knowledge of Javascript, HTML, and CSS and previous TDD experience is also required.

Product Specialist
The Product Specialist position is a hybrid role of QA and technical support. We’re looking for an excellent, web savvy communicator who enjoys problem-solving and is eager to learn. This role will provide high quality support to Punchbowl users as well as product testing. Product testing or quality assurance experience is ideal, but not required.

Office Manager
We’re looking for a part-time Office Manager who has raw intelligence, a superior memory for details, and a great sense of humor. The ideal candidate will be available from 11am-2pm every day of the week. This position reports to the CEO. Read the job posting on Craiglist. 

Inside Sales
The Inside Sales position will be responsible for generating and maintaining new business relationships. The ideal candidate is passionate, assertive, and driven to reach and exceed their goals. Previous experience in sales is required.

Marketing & PR Intern
The Marketing & PR intern will be exposed to a variety of marketing and public relations activities, including email marketing, advertising, social media marketing, press outreach, and content development. This is a great opportunity for a marketing or pr major, though it is not a requirement. We’re looking for a college student with a car as we’re not located near public transportation.

For more information about these positions and for information about how to apply, visit our Careers page.

Thanks again for your help!

This post written by Stephanie Fader, Marketing & PR Manager

This week (Feb 7-14, 2010) is Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week. To help raise funding and awareness for this important issue, Punchbowl has partnered with The Children’s Heart Foundation to create a campaign called “Spread the Love.” During the month of February, Punchbowl will make a donation to The Children’s Heart Foundation for every recipient of a MyPunchbowl eCard.

Congenital heart disease is considered to be the most common birth defect, and is a leading cause of birth-defect related deaths worldwide. The goal of The Children’s Heart Foundation is to bring health, hope and happiness to children impacted by congenital heart defects.

There are millions of families affected by congenital heart disease. This one story really touched me, but there are many others like it:

Cora Mae McCormick was born on November 30, 2009. Cora’s mom, Kristine, had a normal pregnancy, labor, and delivery. When Cora was born she displayed no signs of a bad heart. She brought her parents overwhelming joy and happiness from the moment she came into their lives.

On December 6, Cora died in her mother’s arms suddenly and unexpectedly. She was only five days old. Her parents rushed her to the hospital after she stopped breathing, but doctors could not revive her.

The preliminary report says that Cora was born with a congenital heart defect. Kristine is sharing her story to raise awareness about CHD, to make sure other babies get screened, and to raise money for CHD research.

One way to help raise awareness and funding is to participate in “Spread the Love.” Send free Valentine’s Day eCards to your friends and family and a donation will be made to The Children’s Heart Foundation for each valid, unique email address on your list. The more you send to, the more money we donate!

For more information about the Spread the Love campaign and to send a free eCard, visit: http://www.punchbowl.com/spread-the-love

This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO, @mattdouglas

Well, it’s Groundhog Day (again), and this year is a special one for the Punchbowlers. As usual, Groundhog Day is a company holiday — so we all get the day off. But this year we organized a volunteer day (for the record, completely optional for employees and guilt-free). In the afternoon this Groundhog Day, we’ll be painting a few rooms at a local homeless shelter. We’ve been calling it “Phil’s Philanthropy Day” after the venerable Punxsutawney Phil. After waking up early to watch the grand prognostication, I can’t think of any better way to spend the afternoon.

And that’s not all….

This year I’m very excited to report that Punchbowl announced an official partnership with Groundhog.org and the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. This is a partnership that makes me happy on a number of levels. First, it’s great exposure for Punchbowl, with an audience that matches our target demographic. And second, it’s been a long-standing goal of mine to find an official way to be involved in the Groundhog Day festivities. Here’s a quick snippet from the blog post I wrote on my start-up CEO blog about this partnership announcement:

For 2010, I wanted to do something special for Groundhog Day– so on a whim, I picked up the phone and called the folks who developed Groundhog.org. I told them that I wanted to partner with the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club and create an eCards site. After a little negotiation, we signed an agreement with Groundhog.org to become the exclusive provider of Groundhog Day eCards. This morning, we made the official Groundhog Day press announcement.

And last but not least, my wife and I are planning our 14th annual Groundhog Day party for this coming Saturday. This year’s theme is Disco, and with the combination of disco party supplies, unique party favors, disco costumes, and a 70s play list, we have planned an awesome party. We’re expecting about 30-35 people this year. Of course, we’ve used MyPunchbowl to plan the entire event from start to finish, and it’s been a great experience.

Groundhog Day is all about community, revelry, and celebration of the ordinary. So whether you take a moment to turn your attention to Gobblers Knob or you send someone a free Groundhog Day eCard, please remember the infamous words of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club:

“There are many important events in life — and Groundhog Day is not one of them.”

Happy Groundhog Day!