Oh, Kontain

Most consumer internet CEO's (like me) dream of getting a game changing press hit. Poor Kontain. They got their 15 minutes of fame today with a HUGE front page article on CNN.com. This isn't a run of the mill press hit -- this is the big kahuna. The equivalent of Oprah getting excited about a product on her show and telling her followers to go check it out.

But Kontain.com can't handle the traffic. Hey Kontain! Send your traffic to MyPunchbowl! We can handle it...

I can't kontain my sadness for David Martin, the CEO.

Why I switched to Google Calendar

This past weekend, I made a big switch to Google Calendar. This is pretty significant for me, because I've been using a desktop based calendar for years. For more than 10 years, I used Palm Desktop software in conjunction with my Treo 600/650. In 2008, I bought an iPhone, and I spent a bunch of time moving from the Palm Desktop software to iCal on the Mac. That wasn't easy, but once I got all of the recurring appointments working correctly, iCal worked well. So I've used iCal for a few years now.

So why did I decide to switch to Google Calendar now? There are a few reasons:

1. I'm a heavy user of Gmail, and I would like my calendar more seamlessly integrated into my daily workflow. I used Google Labs to turn on a mini-calendar inside of my Gmail and it works great.
2. I want to be less reliant on my laptop if something goes wrong. It's great to know that my email and calendar are "in the cloud" so that I don't have to worry about backups for that critical information.
3. I want to be able to share my calendar with others. In the process of setting up Google Calendar, I was able to allow my wife access to see my calendar (although it's freaking me out a little when she asks "How was your meeting with so and so today.")
4. I want to be able to share my calendar with others without letting them see the details of my appointments. That's a really nice feature of Google Calendar: I can simply share a free/busy calendar without sharing the details.
5. I want to add other calendars to my calendar. With Google Calendar it's easy to overlay other calendars. For example, I can now see my wife's schedule with just one click.
6. I want to separate my personal calendar from my work calendar. iCal let me do this, but Google Calendar does it better.
7. I want to get a daily summary of my meetings in the morning via email. Google Calendar sends my agenda to my Gmail every morning. Simple.
8. I want SMS reminders of appointments on my iPhone. This was really easy to set up in Google Calendar.
9. I want a super simple interface for setting up new appointments. Setting up a new appointment in Google Calendar couldn't be easier. Just simply type "3pm Meeting with Tom" and the calendar app magically puts it in the right place.
10. I want to be able to search my calendar for past meetings quickly. Google is the king of search -- they got this one covered.

So far, it's going great. I admit that I've clicked on the iCal logo a few times by mistake, but I'm well on my way to getting used to having my calendar on Google. I should have done this a long time ago....

Don't give up

I've had a very difficult, but rewarding week. It's been one of the hardest weeks of my career. I wrote the below post many months ago, but I was thinking about it a lot this week. 

A start-up is not for those with a weak resolve. Just like the March college basketball tournament (March Madness), what separates the winners from the losers is that winners figure out how to "survive and advance." The key in my opinion: perseverance. So don't give up. 

Don’t give up: when you’re all alone at the beginning, trying to figure out if there is a market for your product
 
Don’t give up: when all you have is a Powerpoint presentation and a vision.
 
Don’t give up: when you struggle to explain what exactly it is you are working on (chances are you’re not even really sure yet yourself)
 
Don’t give up: when you can’t find people to take a risk with you, to join you at the infancy stage of your startup
 
Don’t give up: when every VC you meet with says that the “market is too small” or “the competitive space is too crowded” or “they don’t see how it can become a 100M company. (Read Mike Feinstein’s post)
 
Don’t give up: when product development is going slower than you would like, when big bad bugs slow you down, and when the user interface still isn’t quite right.
 
Don’t give up: when your early beta customers tell you the 50 other things the product needs before they would actually use it.
 
Don’t give up: when the press (or bloggers) won’t cover your product or write about your latest development
 
Don’t give up: when potential partners don’t return your phone calls and show a mediocre interest in actually closing a deal 

Don’t give up: when it looks like the deal might fall through
 
Don’t give up: when individual angel investors get cold feet before they write the check

Don’t give up: when you can’t find GREAT people to hire to round out your team

Don’t give up: when they tell you it can’t be done or it’s already been done — when they tell you to pick another market. 

Don’t give up: when the competition heats up

Don’t give up: when others can’t see the potential that you do 

Don’t give up: when others around you do. 

To all of those who wrote about what it takes to build a successful startup, I challenge you: is there another golden rule of startup success that trumps my Golden Rule? Whether you save money, build a hot product, hire the right people or fire the workaholics, I believe that the only thing that matters is that you don’t give up. This is something that can’t be taught: it’s like the Gatorade commercials: do you have IT in you? 

If you’re trying to build a startup– or maybe you’re struggling to get it off of the ground I hope you’ll re-read this post when you feel like giving up. Then pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back to it. Little by little everyday. Just don’t give up, and the rest will take care of itself. As we build MyPunchbowl.com, I remind myself everyday not to give up. That’s the only thing that really matters.

Behind the scenes at Hubspot.tv

A few weeks ago (on Friday Feb 19th) I was invited to be a guest on HubSpot.tv. The show is a weekly video podcast covering inbound marketing news of the week. It's hosted by Karen Rubin & Mike Volpe.

The show was great, and I really enjoyed participating. If you missed it, and would like to take a look,  all of the old episodes are in iTunes: http://itunes.hubspot.tv/ 

I thought I would provide a quick top 10 of what I saw "behind the scenes" during my visit to HubSpot.tv.

1. The HubSpot offices are located in the heart of Kendall Square in the One Broadway building. Parking isn't cheap.
2. The office layout is very open -- and right outside the HubSpot.tv room there are rows and rows of salespeople taking calls. It's pretty impressive for a "startup."
3. The filming of the show takes place in an open room with a ping pong table, drum set, and cooler full of beverages (beer).
4. Besides Karen and Mike, there are a number of other folks that assist in the production of the show. I didn't catch all of their names, but they were very nice people.
5. A few minutes before the taping started, I was emailed some notes about the show (I was told that I'd get them in the morning, but apparently things were running a bit behind that day). So I read them in detail for the first time on air! 
6. I was repeatedly told not to lean on the desk that we all sat behind. Of course, I still managed to lean on it -- and they were right, it's not sturdy.
7. To my knowledge, Mike Volpe did not wear makeup during the show. Maybe he just wears some everyday...
8. Yes, I was drinking beer in my Hubspot mug. Sam Adams.
9. Karen is as energetic on camera as she is off. I think it would be fun to go to Vegas with her and the HubSpot team.
10. The room was full of HubSpotters during the show -- including Brian Halligan (the CEO of HubSpot). There were also other tech folks that came in to the office to see the show. Many people came up to me after the show and were very appreciative.

All in all, it was a great experience being a guest on HubSpot.tv. I hope that Karen and Mike will invite me back someday!