Punchbowl Blog

This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO

This past Saturday was the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby. In a shocking victory, the 50-1 longshot Mine That Bird won the Derby. In the history of the Derby, it was the second highest payout for a Derby winner (the only higher payout was in 1913). In the leadup to the Derby, there was hours of analysis by countless experts, and not one of them picked Mine That Bird to Win, Place, or Show in the Derby. So what went wrong? How did all of the experts, pundits, and the betting public get it so wrong? Here are a few lessons that I think we can all learn from this year’s Derby. And it’s probably no surprise that I believe these lessons are useful for a startup too.

5 lessons from Mine That Bird:

1. How you start the race is important: Mine That Bird started the race cleanly, and didn’t stumble. It wasn’t important for the horse to lead the race at this point — just have a clean start and set yourself up for a good race.
2. Have a strategy you believe in: The jockey of Mine That Bird (Calvin Borel) had a specific strategy right from the start of the race. It’s a strategy he used when he rode Street Sense to victory only a few years ago. Have a strategy you believe in right from the start.
3. Ignore the competition: Even with 17 other horses around you, focus on your strategy and do your best to ignore the competition. It’s your race to win, if you focus on your strategy and execute.
4. Know when to accelerate: The key to winning the Derby is to know when to accelerate. Mine That Bird had enough in the tank to turn for home and accelerate when it mattered the most.
5. Celebrate your success: Anyone who watched the Derby will never forget the image of that crazy jockey Calvin Borel screaming at the top of his lungs and waving to the crowd. The pure joy was infectious. Know when it’s time to let loose and celebrate.

There is so much we can learn from this year’s Derby winner, and I found it very inspiring. Are you the underdog in your market? Do the experts and pundits think you have no chance to “win it all?” What other lessons can you learn from Mine that Bird?

This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO

These days, with information overload and endless lists of things to do, it’s really easy to lose track of the most important topics on your to-do list. Those who work at Punchbowl have heard me repeat this phrase a lot recently: “There are always lots of things to do, but what are the top 3 impactful topics you are working on today?”

I think this is an important concept for any job — whether you work at a small company or a large company. In fact, I wish someone had introduced this concept to me when I was a young Product Manager at Adobe (a large company). I remember drowning in to-do lists and email after only a few weeks on the job. Everything seemed important. So I did what any ambitious, 22 year old would do: I worked 18 hour days for weeks on end. And as you might have guessed, I still wasn’t able to keep up with the volume of things to do.

In my position as CEO of Punchbowl Software, it’s not any easier. My inbox fills up daily, and there are endless lists of things to do and areas that need to be addressed. The good news is that I can now delegate some of the things on my to-do list, but yet I still don’t catch up. There are still too many things to do, and not enough hours in the day.

I believe there is a better way: focus on the top 3 most impactful topics on your list. Make a list of *only* 3 topics. The 3 topics should be followed by a very specific list of tasks that can be accomplished within a few days. Avoid items that don’t have specific action items. Steer clear of items that don’t have clear deliverables. Write them on your whiteboard or on a sticky note attached to your computer monitor.  Start and end your day with a close examination of your topic list. Are you spending time working on the top 3 most impactful topics or are you filling your time with other tasks?

You may be asking yourself: how can I figure out the top 3 most impactful topics to work on? Perhaps a top 3 list would be useful. Here are the 3 most impactful people to ask:

1. Ask your customers: What most matters to them? Make a list based on the top 3 topics that your customers talk about frequently (I’ve literally asked customers on the phone: what are the top 3 things you would improve about MyPunchbowl?)
2. Ask your peer: pick a colleague that you work with closely. Ask him/her to have lunch with you and then help each other make a top 3 list. (Bonus: how can each of you help each other achieve your top 3 list more effectively?)
3. Ask your boss: Sit down with your boss and ask him/her to help you come up with a list of the top 3 impactful topics that you should be addressing (it’s very telling if your boss can’t help you narrow down your list to 3 topics)

Does this methodology work for you? Why or why not? I look forward to hearing from you.

This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO. Follow Matt Douglas on Twitter

There are so many things to do in a given work day. One of the most important things you can need to do is figure out some things to ignore. Here’s a suggestion: ignore the competition.

Yes, you could study the competitors product, analyze their marketing, and deconstruct their strengths and weaknesses. Or you could simply focus on what you can control, build a product that you love to use, and do your best to delight your customers. There is no one in the world who knows the problems and opportunities of your product better than you. You don’t need your competition to help you build a better product. Who cares what the competition is doing if you are building a product that your customers want?

Here are 5 reasons you should ignore the competition:

1. You have limited resources. Put your energy into building a better product and satisfying more customers.
2. You can’t control the competition. Put your energy into things you can control.
3. Your customers don’t care about the competition. All they care about is solving their problem. Are you solving it for them?
4. It’s too easy to be influenced by what the competition is doing. Stay on your course.
5. You won’t innovate if you are influenced by your competitors. Build something new and different — that’s innovation.

So, do we follow this advice at MyPunchbowl? I’ll say this: I used to spend a lot more time in the past looking at the competition. These days it’s only a quick glance once in a while. We have far more opportunities when we simply focus on what we can control and build a product that people love to use.

What do you think? Should we pay more attention to the competition? Why or why not?

This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO

If you don’t want to read this post, then just head right over to Twitter and follow Matt Douglas on Twitter. Otherwise, read on for a few reasons why you might want to follow me on Twitter…

After months of watching Twitter from the sidelines, I’ve decided to start using Twitter on a daily basis. I’ll write more in a future blog post about why I decided now was the right time to integrate Twitter into my daily life. I’m going to try this for at least a month and see how it enhances my connections to customers, partners, and others in the industry.  To motivate you, here are a few reasons to follow me on Twitter.

5 Reasons to follow @mattdouglas on Twitter

1. Learn what it takes to run a consumer internet startup in convenient 140 character snippets
2. Read my brutally honest opinion about new developments in the web industry. I promise to be harsh whenever possible for your amusement.
3. Receive links to interesting websites and useful blog posts
4. Hear inside details about new features and functionality on MyPunchbowl
5. Get some daily amusement with my random musings about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

Whether you are a customer, partner, friend (or foe), I hope that you will take a moment to follow me on Twitter: Matt Douglas on Twitter.

This post written by Stephanie Fader, Marketing & PR Manager

I’ve been at MyPunchbowl for almost five months and I’m happy to say that I finally ordered my business cards–yesterday. You might be wondering what took so long…

It goes back to my first or second day when I asked Matt about my phone. Until only recently the company had just one phone with one line. Unfathomable, right? But with only a handful of employees, most of whom had no need for a phone, there wasn’t really much need for more than one line. And as an internet company, shouldn’t we do most of our business online anyway? Matt thought about my question, looked at me and said, “Now you know what it’s like to work at a start-up.”

While I’ve been able to manage without my own line, it was clear that we needed to resolve the issue of the phones. But who would do it? We don’t have a dedicated office manager to take care of these things. Should the CEO spend his time on this issue? Or the engineers whose time is precious. Somehow I ended up with the undesirable task of figuring out the company’s phone system.

After considering landlines, cell phones, and other services, we ended up choosing VoIP with Packet8. So far so good. We’re still working out the kinks regarding the number of lines we actually need, conference call needs, etc.  But it is nice to finally have a phone at my desk!

And I’m still learning what it means to work at a start-up but having this experience early on prepared me for what to expect.

As you can imagine, we get a lot of salespeople trying to sell us one thing or another. Pretty much every day of the week our phone rings off of the hook with salespeople trying to sell us everything from hardware servers to recruiting services — and even some folks trying to sell us buildings. It gets tiring after a while to listen to these sales pitches. Each salesperson thinks they are unique in their approach, and some salespeople just don’t know how to take “no” for an answer.

In the past I sold software, so I have some experience in cold-call sales. At the time, I was told that I was a natural at selling, and the numbers seemed to prove that. I financed most of the bill from my last year of college on commissions I had made over the previous summer. That doesn’t make me an expert, but I do have a basic understanding of how to conduct sales in an effective way.

So in that spirit, I offer a list of advice for all of the salespeople who are calling on Punchbowl Software these days:

1. Don’t call on the day when company news hits the wires (for example, when we announce funding). This is the worst possible time to call. We’re already busy enough with press and other folks calling us. Rule of thumb: call one week *after* we announce big news. You’re much more likely to have success by waiting.
2. Do some basic research on our company’s website. Don’t call the office and ask to speak with the person in charge of hiring .Net or Java developers (we are a Ruby on Rails shop). If you can’t take 3 minutes to do some basic research, don’t waste our time (or yours) with a sales call.
3. Take 2 minutes to sign up for a free MyPunchbowl account before you pick up the phone to call. You will be able to start the phone call by saying “I just signed up for a MyPunchbowl account, and I’d like to talk to you about how we can help you.” You’re much more likely to get my attention with this approach (one note: please spare me the over-the-top praise about the site. I’m glad you like it, but it’s not going to impact whether or not we engage with you).
4. Don’t call and ask to speak with one of the engineers. Our developers are too busy to take your sales call, and it’s unlikely they will purchase your service anyway. Asking for one of our engineers is a dead giveaway that you’re trying to sell us something that we don’t need.
5. Don’t call and ask for the IT Department, Marketing Department, or HR Department. Do some basic research and you’ll quickly learn that we are very small startup and we don’t have departments. The most likely person to answer the phone is me — the CEO.
6. Don’t call and ask for one of our remote employees. I understand that you have no idea who works at the office but we’re a very small company, so ask to speak with the CEO.
7. Tell me upfront that this is a sales call, and you’re more likely to get my attention. Be ready with the 30 second pitch, and try not to use jargon and buzzwords.
8. It’s ok to ask if you can follow up with me in the future, but be willing to take “no” for an answer. I don’t want to waste your time with a lead that is not going to end up in a sale. I hope you will respect my time as well.
9. If you engage with one of us, be ready with a trial offer. We’re a startup, so we’re looking for vendors who are willing to stretch to meet our short-term budgetary constraints. If you get our business at this early-stage, we’re likely to grow with you as we have more money to spend.
10. Do the proper follow-up by email. Ask me for the best email address for follow-up and I’ll gladly give it to you.
11. Don’t bother sending anything by U.S. mail unless it is really unique and interesting. It won’t help convince me to use your services.
12. Do not — under any circumstance — come by the office unannounced. It’s inconsiderate and inappropriate, and will ensure that we never use your service. Call (or email) us to see if we would be interested in having a salesperson stop by before you decide to stop by the office.

I’ll keep adding to this list as I think of others. I understand that sales can be a tough and often frustrating job. We’ll do our best to listen to your pitch, but please respect our time. I hope this advice will help anyone who is calling on Punchbowl Software.

Last week, we announced a brand new version of MyPunchbowl which includes a fantastic feature called MyPunchbowl Design Studio. We’re really happy with the new version, and our customers love it.

Since our new version is complete, we’ve been spending a lot of time planning the next version(s) of MyPunchbowl. I’m fond of saying that “we have a feature list that extends from Boston to Los Angeles” Over the last week, I’ve been on the receiving end of a slew of feature requests from our customers, our friends & family, our employees, our partners, and our investors. It’s fascinating to hear from all of the various people. Each person explains why they believe that the feature they suggested should be the most important priority for MyPunchbowl. Everyone has “must-have” features or functionality, and everyone has a items on their list that are priority #1.

Here’s the problem: everything can’t be priority #1, In my years of managing software development teams, I’ve learned that you can’t just add more people to build software faster. The hard part of software development is thinking through the design issues, carefully considering how the feature will scale over time, and providing yourself enough time to adjust the implementation when you see the first iteration of the feature working. Great products are built carefully, with careful thought before implementation and ample time to test and iterate before unveiling it to customers.

I can always tell apart the people who have developed software in their past from the people who haven’t developed software. Those who haven’t ask questions like “Is it possible to do XYZ” (in software, it’s almost always possible to do anything with infinite time and talent). Those who haven’t ask for endless features and say things like “That feature shouldn’t be that hard.” Contrast that with those who have software development experience: They ask thoughtful questions about feature implementation — for example “How will this feature work for existing users?” and “How does this feature impact other features around it?”

Everything can’t be priority #1. Whether you have a small team or a large team, you have to make a priority list — an actual priority list, numbered 1-xxx. Force yourself to answer the question: what’s the most important thing on the list? What is 2nd most important?

Even the best development team can only work on one thing at a time. Each developer needs their own priority list — also numbered 1-xxx. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you can have more than one priority at a time. This is how we successfully developed the MyPunchbowl Design Studio: by creating a priority list of functionality for that feature. I’ve witnessed the difference between development teams that know how to make priority lists and those that don’t. Those that don’t take on too much too fast and end up shipping a product that isn’t ready for primetime.

If you’re on the receiving end of a feature request list that extends from Boston to LA (like I am these days), prioritize everything and make sure your team does the same. Remember: everything can’t be priority #1. Repeat that to yourself and keep repeating it to all of the people around you.

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Use MyPunchbowl for your Halloween party planning and Halloween party invitations

Most people that have worked with me know that I used to be an expert on the Mac. My first real job in high school was for a company named Specular International, a developer of 3D graphics and animation software for the Mac. From 1992-1998, I learned how to manage the inner-workings of a Mac. I mastered the operating system and learned how to add video boards and memory inside the machine. While an intern at Specular, I was the sole person in charge of a series of seminars around the country at Apple Market Centers. During college, I used a Mac exclusively. After I joined Specular full-time, and later when the company was sold to MetaTools, I used a Mac. I was a fan of the Mac and I knew it inside and out.

When I joined Adobe in early 1998, I was given a IBM Thinkpad and I had a Mac desktop. The product I managed, Adobe Premiere, was a big success on the Mac. It was built on top of Apple Quicktime, so I got to know the team at Apple pretty well. During this time, I learned the basics of the Windows OS, but I was no expert. Even so, I was happy with my Thinkpad. After about 2 years at Adobe, I upgraded to the latest and greatest Thinkpad.

I left Adobe and went to business school at the University of North Carolina — and continued to use a Thinkpad. By this point, I had suffered lots of problems with configuration settings, internet connectivity and other Windows idiosyncrasies but I dealt with them. For Windows, it was par for the course. After business school, I joined Bose Corporation. Another Thinkpad.

Fast forward to when I bought my first computer for Punchbowl. By this point, I had been using Windows (and related applications) for more than 9 years. I had lots of data from various programs, and I didn’t even consider switching to a Mac. Even though I continued to have typical Windows problems that I couldn’t fix, I didn’t even give it much thought. So I bought a Lenovo Thinkpad T61.

Over the last several months, things have changed. Here’s a partial list of some of the problems I’ve had with my Lenovo Thinkpad:

1. Problems with docking station. Often when I undock and redock, I’ll get a blue screen of death (known issue)
2. Constant problems connecting to wireless networks (many times a day I have to repair my connection for no apparent reason)
3. Internet Explorer 7 crashes. A lot.
4. Display driver problems when connecting to an external monitor (everyday, I have to run the display wizard to get the resolutions correct)
5. External peripherals stop working (like my USB drive)
6. Battery problems: Replaced the battery after only 6 months. New battery runs hot.
7. Overall slowness and unusability (CPU idling very high even though nothing is running)
8. Increase in spyware and malicious viruses (virus software often interrupting my work)

Yesterday morning (Saturday) I sat down to do some work. As soon as I touched my computer, I got a blue screen. I have no idea why. So I restarted my machine, and attempted to undock it from its docking station. Another blue screen. After another restart, I got it working again. And then it struck me: I don’t want to put up with this anymore. With the whole day in front of me, I set out to do the unthinkable. I decided to switch back to the Mac.

Switching back to the Mac is not something I take lightly. In fact, over the past several weeks, I had been jotting down notes about what it would take for me to switch. I have thousands of contacts, many data files from various programs, and numerous peripherals. This was going to be a big task.

Armed with my list of information, I went to the Apple store in Natick, MA. I spent about an hour and a half with a well-trained salesperson as I went through all of my issues. He had excellent answers for some of my thorny issues. So I plunked down my credit card and walked out of the store with a brand new MacBook Pro. I was on my way.

What transpired over the next ~ 10 hours was a massive switch to the Mac. Here is a rundown of how it went down (and roughly how long it took to get everything working).

1. Initial Mac setup: Went very smoothly. Found my network quickly (20 min)
2. Internet browsers and bookmarks: Installed Firefox 3 and Yahoo Toolbar (15 min)
3. Installed Microsoft Office: Installation got hung on font installs, had to reinstall. (25 min)
4. Installed Glance for screen sharing (10 min)
5. Installed Adobe Web Collection (includes Acrobat Professional). Very slow install. (40 min)
6. Spent some more time configuring the Mac: personal settings etc (30 min)
7. Attach/reattach external monitor, configure settings. This worked really well, and I’m so happy that it will be easy to connect and reconnect quickly (20 min).
8. Installed Palm Desktop (for use with my Treo 650). Went smoothly, but software is very different so took some time getting use to it (45 min)
9. Office printer configuration: awesome (5 min)
10. Scansnap 510 (2.5 hours). This was much more difficult. The black version of this device was made ONLY for Windows. Through some internet searching, I found a site that explained how to get the Scansnap to work on the Mac. Sounds crazy, but the solution is to use a Japanese driver and then go through a crazy process to localize that driver into English. A few notes for anyone who is trying to make this work, and running into problems:- Make sure you use the correct version of the English driver as explained in the directions. DO NOT use the most recent version! The correct Scanscap Mac driver is English version 21.
    - If you still have Japanese menus and dialogs after you add in the English folder, you will need to find the English folder in EACH and EVERY component and replace EACH of these. There are 3 applications (Folder, Email, Print) and 6 bundles. Do not try and use the same English folder in all of the resources. It won’t work (and I found out the hard way).
    - Read this thread very carefully. It has more information that will get you through this.
11. Flickr Uploadr: easy (5 min)
12. Skype: easy (5 min)
13. Moving all documents from PC to Mac using USB drive (60 min)
14. Buffalo NAS Network Drive. Fairly easy, once I figured out how the Mac sees networks (30 min)
15. Home printer, Dymo Label maker, Photo printer. Easy. (20 min)
16. More personal configuration (1.5 hours)

So there you have it. I’m back on the Mac. I’m very happy with how things are working so far and I especially like how easily the computer wakes up from standby.

I have a few more items still to solve to make my Mac transition complete:

1. Mobile Broadband Card from Sprint (I hope they give me a new one that fits in my Mac)
2. Quicken for home
3. Quickbooks for work
4. Transitioning my iTunes library (it’s already on the network drive, so should be easy)
5. Waiting for Google Picasa to come out for the Mac (should be soon)
6. Carbonite Backup (I sent a note to the CEO of Carbonite asking to be added to the Mac beta program, we’ll see what comes of that)
7. I need an extra Mac power cord so I don’t have to move the powercord from work to home everyday.

I don’t know if “I’m a Mac” now, but I do know this: after all of the advertisements are over, a computer should just work. My laptop is the center of my work life, and it’s critical that I can rely on it. My new MacBook Pro gives me that confidence.

They say that the “quiet comes before the storm.” And indeed, in many cases that is true. Why is it that things are quiet before something big happens? Here are a few possible reasons:

• It’s nature’s way of preparing for what’s about to happen (for example, in the case of a hurricane)
• The human body auto-regulates to make sure it has enough energy to get through the excitement (part of the fight or flight response, but prior to the adrenaline kicking in).
• You specifically schedule a quiet period to give yourself time to prepare
• You shift your priorities temporarily (because you know that your full attention will soon be required)
• Life gets too damn busy to have much time for anything else

Over the last few weeks, it’s been a combination of all of the above for me. I haven’t had much time for blogging (thank you to the people who wrote to me asking me to post more). I’ve taken some time to rest, and luckily the world around me has cooperated. And in the lead up to this something big, I’ve been busy preparing. I shifted my priorities, scheduled quiet times in my life, and have also had periods of time where I was overwhelmed with all of the work and responsibilities that this job often brings. In particular, the last week has been pretty much all-consuming, but I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our “something big” is soooo close.

So what is the “something big” that is about to happen for Punchbowl Software? You’ll have to wait to find out.

A few weeks ago, I was at an epic Red Sox game. If you follow baseball, perhaps you heard about it. In the bottom of first inning, the Red Sox scored 10 runs. Yes, 10 runs. David Ortiz (aka “Big Papi”) was up twice in the inning, and he hit two 3 run home runs — in the same inning! Absolutely incredible.

I’ve seen a lot of baseball games in my lifetime. So when I turned to my sister-in-law in the bottom of the third (with the score now 12-2) and proclaimed that the Red Sox would likely hold on and win the game, I don’t think it was unreasonable for me to jump to that conclusion. Boy was I wrong.

Apparently the Texas Rangers didn’t get that memo. In the top of the 5th inning, the Rangers put on a hitting display and scored 8 runs. The very next inning, they scored 5 more — to make the score 15-14 and take the lead. Stunning.

So how did it all end? The Red Sox battled back with 4 runs in the bottom of the 8th to reclaim the lead, and hung on (barely) to win the game 19-17. That’s 36 runs on 37 hits. It tied an American League record for most runs scored in one game. Take a look at the final box score to get a sense of the unbelieveable comeback by the Rangers — 13 runs in 2 innings!

Most reasonable people would have drawn the same conclusion as I did in the 3rd inning. The Red Sox had already pulled off an amazing feat — 10 runs in one inning — no one could possibly match them, right?

The same can be said about many web businesses. The pundits of the web have declared over and over again that certain websites have such a large lead on their competition that they will never be beat. I remember distinctly meeting some of the original employees of Google back in 1999 (I was living in Palo Alto at the time where Google was founded). My reaction was typical. “Why do we need another search engine?” I asked the guy with the Google t-shirt. With Yahoo, AltaVista, Lycos, AOL ahead of them, there is simply no way that Google could catch up… right?

In Google’s case, not only did they catch up, but they took the lead. However, the real moral of my story is this: although the Red Sox won the game, Texas scored a hell of a lot of runs. They played a great game, and were successful in their own right. Startups (and business in general) are the same. You don’t have to win the overall game to win. If you can follow the leader (and keep pace), you’ll build a very successful business and score a lot of “runs.” I’m sure that the Rangers wanted to win the game, but I’d bet that they were very pleased with the game that they played.

If you have a startup, don’t listen to all of the %@#^* pundits who proclaim that the competition has such a huge lead that it’s not worth playing the game. Remember, the game is 9 innings long. Focus on what you need to do to be successful, and stop looking at the scoreboard. Who knows? You may find yourself successful in your own right — and maybe you’ll even take the lead.

What other examples on the web come to mind? Facebook and MySpace? Flickr and Kodak Easyshare? Who else? Add your thoughts to the comments.

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