Cool Stuff
If you are looking to make a startup explainer video, make sure to check out this guest post I did on the Startup Chile blog:
How to Make a Startup Explainer Video
It’s a detailed post covering what we did to make our startup explainer video for Process Street on Knowledge Management for Small Business.
You can check out the video below, or visit the above post to see the details of how we made it.
Posting this here to remind me to watch it again. Amazing story from the CEO of Constant Contact.
I tried opening a Venturebeat article from Facebook the other day and got the below screenshot:
Just goes to show even the big brands can fall victims to problems like this. Creating a process to test problems like this on a regular basis is crucial and one of the reasons we created Process Street.
Hopefully they can fix this soon!
So I went to the hairdresser today and… you can probably guess the rest from the post title. I wanted to use my phone while getting a haircut and started to think why there was no clear window in the poncho so I could use my phone without getting hair all over it.
This kind of product would be perfect for a “Muse” (with appropriate testing first of course).
If you don’t know what a Muse is, its a concept from the book The 4 Hour Work Week, the book that inspired me to start my first internet business when I left to go travelling. It refers to a small business, usually internet based that requires very little energy to run once set up as you systemize all parts of the business (one of the things my startup Process Street is designed to help with).
I like the idea of this product because you could sell it wholesale to companies who supply hairdressers, creating a business with decently high revenue but only a few clients, 80/20 that shit (another concept from the book).
I found the above image, its kinda what im talking about except for getting a haircut.
Someone needs to make this or Evernote needs to integrate spreadsheets into their platform, because my current spreadsheet experience is pretty poor.
I currently have 13 Excel Spreadsheets open, 6 Google Doc Spreadsheets and 2 files open in CSV file editor.
Why is there no solution for me to manage this?
Here are the reasons I want this:
1) Navigation
Using Windows 7, Excel makes me click twice to change sheets, I cant split excel spreadsheets across monitors, and I am switching between excel / chrome / csv editor. Confusing and slow. With an Evernote esq app, I would have everything in one place, and could spawn off spreadsheets into new windows to do with what I needed.
2) Speed
Google Docs uses a TON of memory and I have no way to easily look up or add to spreadsheets.
3) Search
Using an Evernote style app, I should be able to insta-search any spreadsheet, or any bit of data in any spreadsheet. This would make finding data from and adding data to spreadsheets much faster and easier.
Is this something you think you would find useful?
Here is the video we did for Start-Up Chile.
To search on iOS 7 you need swipe down from the middle of the screen anywhere in the phone to bring up search.
NOTE: This will not work if you are in an app that uses scroll such as Safari or Mail.
Here is an example:
UI/UX Co-Founder
We are looking for a team member to join as a co-founder for a new startup called Process Street – www.process.st. Process Street is building a collaborative process management system targeted at the SME market.
We are a brand new startup, working to build our MVP. We currently have 2 of our desired 3 “Dream Team”. We have our Hustler (business/marketing) and our Hacker (coding/sys-admin) we just need our Hipster (UI/UX) co-founder to help make our dream a reality.
We are Australian and Canadian and the company is based in Delaware, USA, but we’re living and working in Buenos Aires, where we plan to build out the initial product and work on doing market testing and gaining traction. If everything goes well, we plan to move to San Francisco (Silicon Valley) to scale out the business.
The Role:
You will be part of a 3 man team, working to build a highly needed, super useful product that helps businesses make more money. Easy sell.
Because you are coming in at the ground level, you will be entitled to founders equity – which we all know is going to be worth BILLION$ in just a few short months 🙂
Responsibilities:
– User EXPERIENCE. Yes, that’s experience, not design, or interface, or graphics, or logos… EXPERIENCE
We are building a B2B product, and our first and foremost focus is to make sure our product is and simple, quick and painless to use. Because time is money for businesses, we must make our product as easy to use as possible or it will fail.
– User Interface.
Yes, you will still be doing design work and will be responsible for the look and feel of all of the areas of the startup. This includes product interface design, marketing site design, logos, color schemes etc… BUT WAIT. If you are a kick ass user experience person who hates thinking about colors, we still want to talk to you 🙂
– Front End HTML/CSS. Putting your UI/UX designs into action. You know the deal.
– Countless other startup hats including – Content, Customer Support, Testing, Marketing etc…
Requirements:
– UX Freak
We are looking for someone who lives and breathes UX. UX is your shit, you know what I mean. Websites, web apps, mobile, tv, you are interested in all interfaces. You are on a mission to optimize design and streamline the way humans interact with technology. You have a focus on functionality, simplicity, customer conversion and retention as your key experience design principals. Not pretty colors (not that we don’t like pretty colors).
– Outstanding Over Communicator (English). You gotsa know how to read, write, talk, yell, sing, shout etc…
– A flexible life situation
– An understanding of how startups operate (understanding this job description is a good start)
– A burning desire to do something BIG
If this sounds like you, lets talk!
Contact – vinay@vskill.com
Cheers
I learned so much from my recent journey to San Francisco and Silicon Valley.
I’ve traveled all around the world and I have to say, the Bay Area is easily one of my favorite places. Nowhere else do you get that magical blend of cutting edge technology, brilliant ambitious people, amazing food and a truly international culture.
While I was in the bay area I worked out of a few different “Shared Work Spaces”. There are a tons of them in San Francisco, through Silicon Valley all the way to San Jose. Probably more than anywhere else on earth, obviously fueled by the startup community.
Shared work spaces are offices where you can rent a space for your team, an individual desk or pay to just hot desk (sit wherever you can find space). The office is stocked with everything you need including security, printing and scanning, conference and meeting rooms and kitchen space. Many of the spaces also hold events targeted at the startup world and have relationships with mentors, investors and service providers.
While these spaces are awesome, I think we can do better 😉
IDEA – “Work and Workout Space”
I envision a shared working space which is half office, half gym, half health kitchen (and yes, I know 3 halves don’t make a whole).
Companies would pay a premium for access to this space, but would get a whole lot more than a simple work space. The premium cost would also be off set by the fact that employees don’t have to pay for food or gym costs.
Imagine a large warehouse type space with a cross fit gym, fully stocked kitchen with fresh organic foods (you could even bring in a chef if you so wanted) and a complete locker/change room for both guys and gals.
Companies could rent out spaces or hot desk – just like a standard collaborative working space – but also gain access to all gym facilities and eat free from the kitchen.
This kind of set up would make it almost impossible to not be healthy. Since you are working in this space with a bunch of other people who are all working out and you only have access to healthy foods.
The space could bring in instructors for specific sessions and run competitions between the community members.
Regular exercise and a healthy diet is proven to increase productivity, so there will be genuine returns to business owners. Plus having the gym and kitchen in the same space will increase the amount of time employees spend in the office. A tactic that some of the big dogs already employ (Google/Facebook).
Plus it can’t hurt to have a team of happy, health and good looking staff 😉
Additional ideas for the Work and Workout Space
– Standing and treadmill desks
– Ergonomic desks and chairs
– Smoothie bar fully loaded with protein and supplements
– Training on exercise, nutrition and supplements
– Cooking classes so you can keep up your diet for dinner and on weekends
I am about to move to Costa Rica and want to create a similar environment except its going to be a “Work, Live and Workout Space on the Beach”.
Would you want to work in a space like this?