Archives for June 2020

By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

Jun 1, 2020

These 4 Steps Are Essential to Successfully Managing a Remote Team — Getty Images

Whether it is called flex-time, distributed, or simply “working from home,”it’s the dream of entrepreneurs to be able to be part of a remote team. For many, their ultimate goal is to be working from a tropical island, drinking out of a coconut as the waves lap gently on the sand. Unfortunately, for most, the perception does not match the reality.

However, for those left behind in the office, imagination can run wild. With their colleagues out of sight, it becomes too easy to fill in the blanks of their missing time with –anything, really. Too often, this becomes a two-way burden, as the remote worker must now work harder to be seen, and the office worker must remember to be inclusive.

At Evernote, we had a distributed company, with office locations around the world mixed with remote (at-home) employees.Managing this required tact, as we could not simply have “quick discussions” at someone’s desk, as that could leave out valuable input from someone who was not there face-to-face.

To that end, we came up with some great ways to encourage healthy team collaboration. Here are a few of them:

1.Set the culture.

I once worked with a salesman who had extremely high numbers –he could close any sale. It turned out, he would promise anything that the client wanted –whether we offered it or not, and then neglect to pass that information on to the development team. As this caused both sides to be unhappy, we had to let him go.

If you have people in one place, it’s relatively easy to monitor how employees are speaking about your company. However, if they’re in a satellite, it’s easy for them to “go rogue.” Having a strong company culture that is constantly reinforced ensures you are all speaking with the same voice, no matter where you are.

2. Start a shared chat.

As we were a 24-hour company, with offices around the world, employees were always working somewhere. I therefore created a virtual “water cooler”–where notifications were not turned on — for people could come in and say good morning, and goodbye when they were signing off.

With the popularity of Slack, Telegram and other similar products, creating places for your employees to talk to each other is great. Make sure you enact policies around notifications and time usage lest they become overused.

3.Get creative with management.

While some jobs require you to have specific hours, many of the remote jobs in the world do not. One of my rules of thumb for managing remote workers has always been to tell people to get their work done on time, not dictate how or when they do it. One of my best employees was able to complete his full-day’s workload from midnight to 6am every day –no matter how much he had piled on him, simply because no one was bothering him.

Remember that each person on your team has their own sets of skills, and they wouldn’t be there unless they were good at their job. If you try to manage someone remotely the way you would in an office, they will likely not be as effective –or leave.

4.Bring them home.

Once a year, I ensured that we had a team get-together for everyone, so that they could meet face-to-face. No matter how much online meetings and talking online can substitute, you still need to be in person every now and then.

However often you can manage it, make sure that you build a teambuilding event into your schedule where your remote workers can become a close-knit tribe. This will help you to grow as a company faster than you’ve ever imagined.

Adding remote employees can seem like a big jump, but when you’re ready to make that extra effort and make your team a success, you can do wonders for your business.

Nov 26, 2019

4 Companies Want To Get You Home This Holiday.Html

Countdown: Holiday 2019

These 4 Companies Are Trying To Solve the Biggest Reasons You Can’t Go Home For the Holidays

With a record number of people not taking off for vacations, these four companies offer unique solutions to ensure you’ll be with your loved ones this holiday season.

By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

Small Business Celebration

How an Unlikely Alliance Saved This Main Street Business During Covid-19

Things looked dark for Sweet Spot Skirts until a fast-growth entrepreneur showed up with a proposal.

These 4 Companies Are Trying To Solve the Biggest Reasons You Can't Go Home For the Holidays — Getty Images

Holidays can be rough.

Each year they start earlier and earlier, with the constant barrage of requests to buy gifts for the people we love. Not surprisingly, we tend to get more stressed and overworked at the end of the year than any other time.

Every year we promise ourselves to do better, yet come January 1, we end up making the same resolutions. Adding to the problem is that as entrepreneurs, we’re so attuned to long work hours that when holidays come, we tend to ignore them and treat them like any other day. This can have serious detrimental health benefits.

In Japan, the term “karoshi” means “death by overwork.” Multiple deaths have been linked to karoshi, including 24-year-old Matsuri Takahashi, whose 105 hours of overtime in a single month at the Japanese ad agency, Dentsu, led her to leap from her company’s roof on Christmas Day in 2015. This led to the resignation of Dentsu’s CEO.

In the US, 16.4 percentof people work more than 49 hours or more a week, while 54 percent of people don’t take their paid vacation days. However, only 35 percent of Americans get vacation or holidays in the first place, which means if you’re not working, you’re not getting paid.

Combine that with another sobering statistic: The average credit card debt is $5,284 and one in 6 people have maxed out their credit cards at least once. People are less likely to spend money on themselves when in debt, further contributing to the cycle of working harder and longer hours.

So, when holidays come, many of us remain glued to our desks. How can we travel when we need to without breaking the bank and causing more stress?

Some companies have come up with intriguing solutions to the most common problems that keep us fromvisiting our loved ones.

1. Prices keep fluctuating

Hopper is a popular app that helps you to find the best prices and days to travel using their huge database of flight information. It sets up price alerts, and when the best price is achieved for your route, gives you the option to buy.

2. Can’t get away

Skiplagged is a site that lets you buy flights based on hidden-city routing. If you’re traveling last minute, you can often find great deals here, however you may not be able to check a bag.

Both Hopper and Skiplagged require you to purchase your tickets upfront. If you’ve maxed out your credit card or simply don’t have the money, there’s something for you as well.

3. Can’t find the cash

Enter Affirm, a financing company that has revolutionized the way people, especially Millennials, receive credit. Founded by Max Levchin, they take into account things other than your credit score to give you a temporary credit line to use specifically on sites like Expedia, CheapAir and Suiteness. Buying travel from a site that gives you Affirm as a payment option will give you an extended way to pay for it without having to add more to your credit card.

4. Need peace of mind

Once you’ve purchased your flight, you’ll want to make sure you get there. Freebird offers a unique solution for travelers who have already purchased their flight. For $19 each way, simply enter your flight information and if there are disruptions to your travel (delays, cancellations, etc), Freebird will rebook you on for no additional charge. You won’t have to worry about those hefty change fees, or sleeping in the airport when things go south.

After you’ve arrived, make sure you spend time actually relaxing and enjoying your time off. There will be plenty of work when you get back.

Nov 13, 2017

John Bork and Stephanie Lynn, standing six feet apart.

Editor’s Note:Although the officialSmall Business Weekhas been postponed, we at Inc. feel it’s always appropriate to recognize the teams and companies that serve the needs of their communities and help keep Main Street humming–and not just for one week!

Sweet Spot Skirts and WellHaven Pet Health are just down the street from one another in downtown Vancouver, Washington. Until recently, location was about all they had in common.

Sweet Spot makes and sells derrière-cloaking skirts in funky colors and patterns for female bikers and runners to wear over shorts and tights.But despite owninga 12-year-old Australian shepherd, founder Stephanie Lynnhad never heard of WellHaven, a $50 million company operating 41 veterinary hospitals that employ 450 people in five states.

WellHaven founderJohn Bork was similarly unfamiliar with his neighbor.”I had seen Sweet Spot but I never used it,” Bork says. “I didn’t really know what it was.”

From the awarding of government loans to the designation of “essential” status, coronavirus frequently has set Main Street businesses at odds with larger companies. But in places like Vancouver, where a very active chamber of commerce is an enthusiastic yenta for its members, large and middle-market companies have formed surprising partnerships with mom-and-pops to fight the pandemic.

For example, when Chandelier Bakery was unable to obtain flour to fulfill all requests for bread donations for frontline workers, United Grain Corporation, among the Pacific Northwest’s largest grain exporters, supplied the wheat. Ryonet, a $50 million supplier of equipment to screen-printing businesses, not only stepped up to manufacture masks and face shields itself but has also contracted with two of its small local customers, Brainless Tees and Opake Screen Printing, to decorate them.

And in Lynn’s case,the larger companyhelped completely turn her business around. Sweet Spot does between $350,000 and $600,000 in annual revenue, much of itat sporting events. On March 12, Lynn was selling at a pickleball tournament in College Station, Texas, while thecountrywas rapidly shutting down.

“I got on the plane in Austin, and by the time I changed planes in Phoenix enough events had canceled to take $50,000 off my plate,” she says.

The next day, she was sitting with her landlord, in tears because she would not be able to make rent. The following Monday she laid off her entire staff of six.

Can you make this?

Bork, meanwhile, had approached the chamber for help. Government and industry leaders had begun asking veterinarians to donate their PPE to health-care workers who attend tohumans. Bork wanted to find a local business that could replace his surgical-grade masks and caps with something that would protect animals during procedures. The chamber quickly reached out to Sweet Spot.

The next morning, four days after Sweet Spot’s closure, Bork and his chief medical officer, Bob Lester, were at Lynn’s doorstep with a model surgical mask and cap. Lynn called in one of her seamstresses and over the next two days created prototypes from the fabric used for her skirts.

With check in hand for just over $10,000 to cover 500 masks and 500 caps,Lynn brought back her whole staff. “She would text me when she had 60 or 100 made,” Bork says. “I would walk over and fill up my backpack, bring them back to the office, box them up, and off they would go.” Sweet Spot filled the entire order in just under three weeks.

Bork ordered another 500 masks and caps, which he distributed to other veterinary hospitals in Vancouver and neighboring Portland, Oregon. With each donation, he included Lynn’s contact information.A few of those practices placed their own orders. Word spread, and other groups–Vancouver public schools, an organization of home inspectors–reached out.

With skirt orders down 90 percent, Lynn launched Facewear Fashions to go after the consumer PPE market. Those masks, with names like Pinch Me Pink Floral and Doilies for Your Face, retail for $14. (Businesses, which receive volume discounts, still account for 50 percentof mask sales.) Lynn plans to cross-promote her product lines. Buy a skirt, get a free mask made from the same material. “I match mine all the time,” she says.

The collaboration with WellHaven continues. Bork made an offer to match any donations of masks to worthy causes by other Vancouver businesses. When the Vancouver Farmers Market reopens, Sweet Spot will have a place in WellHaven’s booth.

“Had WellHaven not come about, I don’t know where I would be,” Lynn says. “They saved me completely.”

May 18, 2020

Attention Geek Girls 5 Trends Youll Love At Ces This Year.Html

Technology

Top 5 Tech Trends That Will Rock CES in 2017

Going to CES is like Star Wars, Star Trek and Lord of the Rings all merged together into one super vat of awesome. Use this handy guide to hone in on what’s really important.

By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

Inc. 5000

This Entrepreneur Hated PowerPoint So Much That She Invented Her Own Presentation Software

With the Digideck, Sportsdigita founder Angelina Lawton created a media-rich sales tool used by pro sports organizations all over the world. Now she’s seeking to corner a new market: the pitch-from-home sales team.

Top 5 Tech Trends That Will Rock CES in 2017 — Getty Images

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

No, I’m not talking about the holidays (although those are ok too.) I mean only the BEST week of the entire year, my reason for living, one of the best things about Las Vegas – the Consumer Electronics Show.

OMG OMG OMG. It’s so awesome.

Just look at this if you don’t believe me:

That’s Paro, who is possibly my favorite invention on this entire planet. I simply love living in a world where a robotic baby harp seal therapy robot exists.

Anyway, every year, CES is where major companies come to announce their new products relating to tech, and as the world has become more tech-centric, it basically means that every company on the planet comes there to announce something.

Over the past few years, I’ve watched this show expand from its more humble COMDEX roots to take over pretty much all of Las Vegas (including its suites, restaurants, and nightclubs) for an entire week, with such an array of awesomeness that I can’t imagine being anywhere else the first week in January.

Here’s a sneak peak of CES 2017:

Augmented / Virtual Reality

There are a ton of VR devices already on the market, but content for them has been lacking. Expect more “augmented” experiences (heads up displays), entry-level VR tech as well as a plethora of content that are all geared to helping entrepreneurs save time by immersing yourself in a virtual world (rather than have to actually go outside and do stuff.)

I’m looking forward to seeing a bunch of new compatible stuff for the super comfy Google Daydream.

Automotive

Just like last year, CES is all about the self-driving cars. Expect entries from BMW, Faraday, Hyundai and others all vying to get your hard-earned dollars and while giving you some precious minutes back into your work day.

Frankly, I don’t need my car to actually drive for me – if it can just take care of finding a parking spot on its own, I’ll be in heaven.

Cell Phones

There are tons of rumors circulating about the phones we’re going to see, with LG, Samsung and Huawei all expected to come out with some sort of “foldable” phone, giving you a smaller profile to fit those skinny jeans.

I’m honestly a bit “meh” about this. I had a phone that folded on itself 20 years ago, so these would have to be something special to make me interested.

Wearables

Under Armour, Fitbit, Samsung and others are expected to have a lot of interesting things on the table this year. This is the geek mother lode category – any part of your body that you want data about can and will be tracked.

This is one of my favorite categories every year because it is so broad and creative. There’s a company with designer IoT gowns, as well as some truly beautiful reasons to start wearing a watch again that don’t rhyme with “Mapple”.

Everything Else

Really, there are so many categories and things and all around “stuff” at CES that whatever your interests, you will find it here. The busy entrepreneur will definitely want to stop over at the smart kitchen area, to see how quickly and easily your meal prep will be thanks to innovative companies like Drop.

And, when you happen to get overwhelmed, there’s always a little Japanese baby harp seal that just adores being petted… just don’t be surprised if you have to fight me off him!

Dec 20, 2016

When Angelina Lawton ran communications for the Tampa Bay Lightning, she could never understand how a company with such an exciting product–professional hockey, for goodness sake–managed to be so dull when it came time to pitch potential sponsors.

“We were doing these huge pitches for naming rights with these boring PowerPoint presentations. It felt very stale,” says Lawton. “I kept thinking, we can do better.”

Her frustration spurred her to start a boutique agency, Sportsdigita, whichspecializesin making flashy presentations for pro sports sales departments–“a movie-trailer for franchises” is how she describes them. Nine years later, executives at more than450 teams, stadiums, and arenas haveused her multimedia slideshows, called Digidecks, to sell everything from merchandise licenses to luxury suites, she says.

But now the pandemic haspostponed professionalsports seasons, and widespread protestshaveLawton’s bread-and-butter clients–the sales groups–lying low. To keep revenue growing and her company afloat,Lawton ispivoting to target customers in new fields from financial services to health care.

Work-at-home sales teams at all kinds of businesses must now figure out how to close deals from afar–and they can use all the help they can get.

“Covid-19 has opened up people’s eyes to remote selling and collaborating,” says Lawton. “Our product is perfect for that.”

When Lawton first started marketing souped-up sales decks to sports and events companies, the multimedia opportunitieswere obvious.Looking to sell advertising rights to the billboards in the outfield? Show a star centerfielder leaping for a catch in front of them. Marketing the luxury suites for your arena? Play clips of the games, concerts, and monster truck rallies that clients will be able to see up-close from the box.

In 2016, she decided to focus on the hard part, the software–andbegan selling it as a service sosalespeople could produce the digidecks in-house. The move put her into direct competition with legacy competitors like Microsoft PowerPoint, as well as subscription-based online software, such asPrezi. Even so, since pivoting to this software-as-a-service model, Sportsdigita revenue has grown over 200 percent, to $4 million in 2018, which putthe company at No. 1,993 on last year’sInc. 5000 ranking of fastest-growing private U.S. businesses. It ranked at No. 146 on this year’s Inc. 5000 series Midwest list. Today, 80 percent of the company’s revenue comes from software subscriptions, and the rest fromservices. Clients include the Los Angeles Lakers, the Philadelphia Eagles, and U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

Now, with sporting events on hold and tensions high from weeks of protests, high-profile sports teams don’t want to be seen as tone-deaf amid the unrest. Like entrepreneurs across the world, Lawton was forced to rethinkbasic assumptions about her company and customers.

Her company has already made some early scores: insurerMutual of America, Cargill, the giant food conglomerate, and Jostens, the seller of high school yearbooks and class rings, have signed on as clients. They haveexisting libraries of media–salespeople can populate the decks with pre-loaded photo and video options from their ownexisting ads, and then present them in tandem with Zoom calls or other videoconferencing software.

Next, Sportsdigita is planning to add videoconferencing to Digideckas well, requiring new kinds of software expertise and putting the company up against the likes of Zoom.

For Sportsdigita, the new revenue has offset the slump in sports, andLawton says the company is once again on track with its pre-Covid growth targets.And her new clients? Their presentations may lack the same jaw-dropping action of their pro sports counterparts–but their infographics and bullet points are leaping off the screen like all-stars.

Jun 15, 2020

The Simple Hack Amazon Uses To Get Us To Try New Products.Html

Technology

The Simple Hack Amazon Uses to Get Us to Try New Products

By cleverly connecting us to our childhood, Amazon is getting us all to become early adopters.

By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

Working From Home

How This Founder Cuts Distractions During Quarantine

Modern Fertility founder Afton Vechery has made some concessions to a difficult situation, but not when it comes to productivity.

The Simple Hack Amazon Uses to Get Us to Try New Products — Getty Images

Recently, I started taking part in an experiment. I began the process of adding voice controls to my home. As part of this, one phrase started to become commonplace:

“Alexa, turn on the tv…”

These same five words can be heard in houses around the world, at least once a day. They’re words that help people segue into using something that is, at its core, something extremely complex and technologically advanced. And yet, what I realize as I listen to those words is that they are also cleverly meant to connect with us.

When I was younger, not only did we not have internet, or cell phones, or even personal computers in most homes – our televisions didn’t have remote controls. A common phrase heard in every home was “<insert name of youngest child>, turn on the tv.” This was followed up by asking the same person to change the channel (often one channel at a time), by going forward and back, to change the volume up and down (often multiple times), and then to go turn on or off the lights. As I’ve been experimenting more with Alexa, I can’t help but think about “her” as that young child.

Jennifer Prenner, global head of marketing, growth, andengagement at Amazon Fire TV, offered a similar take on the new Fire TV Cube with Alexa. “We wanted to take everything that was great about the Echo, including Alexa, and make it even better with visuals from a FireTV,” she says.

And, as a visual version of an Echo, it is certainly an upgrade. Says Prenner, “Our goal is to give people an open ecosystem where they can have the type of entertainment they want, on their own terms.” In my experiments, though, I’ve had some hiccups getting the Fire TV Cube to open third-party apps like Netflix or HBO over the Amazon Prime app, and it won’t turn my television off, no matter how politely I ask.

Interestingly, as I asked Alexa to pause Netflix, she told me of new commands added in an update that I could now utilize. This made me realize something–like the young child changing the television, Alexa is growing up, and learning along the way.

This just highlights one of the most difficult choices you can make as a business owner: knowing the right time to set your child — I mean, product — out into the world. Here’s a few guidelines to help you out:

1.Consumers are asking for it.

It may seem obvious, but the first step in releasing any product is to have some sort of consumer base to release it to. If you have gotten into the unenviable position of developing a product with no built-in customers, then you will have a long road ahead to try to convince them that they need it.

Instead, try building on something that is familiar. With the iPhone, Steve Jobs took an MP3 player, a computer, a camera and a cell phone and combined them into one unit to give people something they’d purchase.

2.The product is done-ish.

While we all wish it weren’t the case, most products do not work correctly 100 percentof the time. In early releases, products have a higher percentage of failure as early bugs are being worked out of the system.

Research indicates that customers are willing to put up with a few glitches, especially in technology. However, they want a product they consider reliable. As LinkedinFounder Reid Hoffman famously said, “If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”

3.You have a communication plan.

There’s nothing worse than finally releasing your product after working on it for months (or years) to the resounding silence of the internet’s indifference. Instead, prior to launch you need to spend some serious effort letting people know you exist and building up a targeted userbase. Then, you can release it when you’re fairly sure they’re ready to buy in.

Of course, the other option is toassumepeople will come on their own. From my own personal experience, going this route means certain failure.

Like all young children, Alexa has a lot of growing up still to do. By opening up the ecosystem for development and giving users the reigns, Amazon is giving us a chance to grow with her.

Hopefully, she’ll learn to turn off the TV soon, so I can get back to work.

Aug 22, 2018

Afton Vechery, co-founder of Modern Fertility.

For Modern Fertility’s Afton Vechery, the biggest adjustment to going remote during the coronavirus crisis has been minor but symbolic: “I’ve had to switch from contacts to glasses because of all the screen time and video calls,” she says. Vechery co-founded her home-fertility-test startup, which has $22 million in funding, in 2017. While many now have plenty of time on their hands for, well, fertility, Vechery is busier than ever. Here’s how she stays productive.

Climb Every Mountain

The alarm clock buzzes at 6:30 a.m. “A lot of founders have these amazing morning productivity hacks, like meditation,” says Vechery. “For me, the single greatest motivating factor is to just be doing something I love. And so, uh, that translates to emails in bed when I wake up.” After that, Vechery typically bikes to work. During the crisis, she’s swapped her commute for an early-morning ride to the top of San Francisco’s Twin Peaks. It doubles as me time. “It’s really helpful to understand what’s going to bubble up from your subconscious when you’re not being stimulated sitting in front of a computer,” she says.

Face Time

Vechery’s days in quarantine include more one-on-one meetings than they did before, but that’s the cost of keeping information flowing. Modern Fertility has implemented daily meetings at which employees can check on current and upcoming projects. And the staff has organized optional virtual lunches and happy hours, which Vechery will drop into when she can. Whether at home or in the office, she and co-founder Carly Leahy generally eat dinner while working and wrap up around 9 p.m.–though they encourage staffers to leave earlier.

Clear Screen, Clear Mind

Vechery relies on an app called Captio, which lets the founder email a note to herself with one click. But you won’t find the Captio icon on her iPhone’s home screen, which is clear of everything but three apps: Calendar, Clock, and Notes. Manually searching for apps lets Vechery ignore distracting notifications. “As a founder, there’s constantly something else you could be doing,” she says. “But when you have space to think through what you’re working on, you’re a better leader.”

Portion Control

When she makes time for a TV show, Vechery starts with the season finale and views the episodes in reverse order. The strange habit helps prevent the urge to binge. “I have an incredibly addictive personality,” she says. “So this is better for everyone.” Vechery also unwinds by playing the trumpet. “It’s a total break from everything else in life,” she says. “It lets you process your thoughts in a really different way.”

May 13, 2020

The Real Reason Dave Mcclure Is Out At 500 Startup.Html

Icons & Innovators

The Real Reason Dave McClure Is Out at 500 Startups

There’s a huge shakeup reeling Silicon Valley that has repercussions around the funding world.

By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

Small Business Celebration

How an Unlikely Alliance Saved This Main Street Business During Covid-19

Things looked dark for Sweet Spot Skirts until a fast-growth entrepreneur showed up with a proposal.

The Real Reason Dave McClure Is Out at 500 Startups — Getty Images

They say revolutions don’t happen overnight. They take years of anguish, and suffering, and hardship, until one day the dam breaks and a flood of people rise up together to create real change.

For years, the Venture Capital culture, with Silicon Valley as its nexus, has been rife with behavior that many consider abrasive and rude. However, looking only slightly under the surface, it has turned out that it goes far beyond that.

In the past weeks, we’ve seen the complete collapse of Binary Capital, a fund led by Justin Caldbeck, who allegedly assaulted multiple women, and Jonathan Teo, who allegedly assisted in covering up this behavior.

Dave McClure, Founder of 500 Startups, was forced to apologize for his lewd behavior, as well as resign from his role there, and as GP of the fund. Elizabeth Yin resigned in protest for his misconduct, and there are reports that others are not far behind.

Reid Hoffman, urged others in Silicon Valley to stand with him in signing a “Decency Pledge“, that would show which funds are allies to women, yet as more funds showed their support for this, other reports came forward against some of the people using this hashtag, which highlighted the point that the unethical behavior of certain VCs is unlikely to end anytime soon.

Since this story initially broke, more people have started to come forward. Cheryl Yeoh posted her experiences with Dave McClure, which may have been the lynchpin for his resignation. Comments made by Cathryn Chen, myself and others are eerily echoed in the words of Amy Varle, founder of the People’s Property Shop. “It actually makes me cry to read these comments and know I’m not alone. I have literally been stalked and bribed with a 100,000 investment via the latest guy. Its made me sick on a daily basis.”

There has been backlash against these women. VCs Sam Altman and Chris Swies got involved in the fray. Chris Sacca, himself named in the New York Times article, disputed the claim against him. As more women are coming forward, men are starting to fight back, turning this into a she-said, he-said.

Clearly, something isn’t working.

As I’ve been digging into this story since I started covering it, I’ve found that it goes deeper than simple gender bias. Not only have women come to me with their stories, I’ve heard from men who have had similar experiences of their being harassed while vulnerable – only they feel the repercussions for their coming forward would be too harmful for them to deal with.

Wherever there is a power imbalance, it is too easy for things to be misconstrued.

On the VC side, they may very well be innocently thinking: “Hey, this person is really fun to hang out with.” Unfortunately, they’re not taking into account the worldview of the person on the other side.

This other person is in an automatically vulnerable position. They’re not on the same level as the VC, because they have a fiduciary responsibility to their company to make payroll, pay vendors, get product out, etc. To them, at some level, the VC represents certainty, security. That person will never be “really fun to hang with.”

Chris Sacca, Dave McClure, even Justin Caldbeck and all the rest may well have had purely innocent intentions – in their own minds. Where they have failed is they did not take into account the other people around them.

I’m happy to talk to anyone in Silicon Valley or anywhere who would like help in understanding perspective. Maybe then we’ll start to make some progress.

Jul 5, 2017

Sweet Spot Skirts and WellHaven Pet Health are just down the street from one another in downtown Vancouver, Washington. Until recently, location was about all they had in common.

WellHaven founderJohn Bork was similarly unfamiliar with his neighbor.”I had seen Sweet Spot but I never used it,” Bork says. “I didn’t really know what it was.”

“I got on the plane in Austin, and by the time I changed planes in Phoenix enough events had canceled to take $50,000 off my plate,” she says.

The next day, she was sitting with her landlord, in tears because she would not be able to make rent. The following Monday she laid off her entire staff of six.

Can you make this?

“Had WellHaven not come about, I don’t know where I would be,” Lynn says. “They saved me completely.”

May 18, 2020

How To Keep Living After You Lose Everything Youve Always Worked For.Html

Work-Life Balance

The Proven Mental Checklist to Handle Losing the Only Thing that Matters to You

Most entrepreneurs spend all their time and energy focused on being a success. Here’s how to prepare for the day after you exit.

By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

Working From Home

How This Founder Cuts Distractions During Quarantine

Modern Fertility founder Afton Vechery has made some concessions to a difficult situation, but not when it comes to productivity.

The Proven Mental Checklist to Handle Losing the Only Thing that Matters to You — Getty Images

What does it mean to lose everything you’ve worked for? What does the day after look like?

For many entrepreneurs, there is no day-after mentality. They don’t allow themselves to think about life after the business, because that would distract them from achieving their vision. But what happens when their time in the business ends?

No matter the reason for the exit — be it selling for millions, or losing it all — the sudden loss of something that meant everything to them, unfortunately, leads to emptiness. If there is nothing to fill the hole, all too often it leads to suicide,or suicidal thoughts,even in people with no history of depression.

When I was a child, my dream was to become an astronaut. I proceeded to spend every waking moment working toward that goal, with very little time for anything else. And at Marshall Space Flight Center and via the UAH Astronautics Program in Huntsville, AL, I was close to achieving it.

Until one day, a neurologist took that all away from me. My body betrayed me — my brain has a defect that doesn’t allow me to go into space — or even do something as trivial as scuba dive. As I was listening to this doctor sentence me to life on terra firma, I literally felt my reason for living disintegrate.

When I left his office, I drove to the top of a mountainand perched my car on the side of a steep cliff. I sat on the hood of the car in a trancelike state for what I waslater told was three days.

In that time, I considered what I’d just been told. I pondered what the purpose had been of my life unto that point and felt it had amounted to nothing. I couldn’t get myself to move — until I remembered a school friend of mine who I had admired greatly that died five years prior.

I asked myself, if he’d had another day, what would he have done with it?

I realized he probably would have just gone to school, played games, talked to friends — same as any 13-year-old. It occurred to me — literally for the first time — that life doesn’t have to be all grand visions and dreams every day, it just is whatever you make of it.

It’s that thought that got me to crawl off my car and drive back down the mountain, to find panicked friends and family had been searching for me. People who hadn’t occurred to me to think about while I was up there, but were suddenly extremely important.

As entrepreneurs, it can be difficult to think about the ordinary. We always have to be so perfect, and exciting, and grand, that when our dreams are taken from us — whether through success or failure — the blow can be too much to accept.

While you may think this could never happen to you, it is always a good idea to be prepared. Here’s a quick checklist to help you think about “the day after.”

1.Be social, even if you don’t want to be.

This is probably the hardest part, but the worst thing you can do is lock yourself away and disappear from the world. Posting on social media doesn’t count; go out in public to community and volunteer groups where you can be around other people that have different needs than yours.

2.Go away.

Research shows that the best thing you could possibly do during transition periods is do something completely different than before.

Scheduling a quick retreat or vacation right away will help you acclimate to the new way of life.

3.Get a coach.

When dealing with any major life change, it’s a good idea to talk to someone about it. Unfortunately, for many entrepreneurs, we tend not to share our innermost thoughts and feelings with those people closest to us.

Having a properly trained, impartial, judgment-free sounding board is more beneficial to your well-being than you may realize.

4.Start a new project.

Entrepreneurs often don’t suffer from a lack of ideas. If you suddenly find yourself with a lot of free time, find something new to fill it with that gives you a sense of purpose.

5.Don’t change too much at once.

No matter what you do, try not to make any radical life changes right away. During the initial transition phase, you may experience a strong temptation to be self-destructive. To combat this, try not to make any decisions too quickly, and not do more than one new thing at a time.

And lastly, the best way to plan is to start ensuring you have more than just “one thing” that encompasses your whole life. That way, it won’t matter as much when it is gone.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255 with free confidential support for those who feel at risk of harming themselves.

Jun 11, 2018

Climb Every Mountain

Face Time

Clear Screen, Clear Mind

Portion Control

May 13, 2020

The Only 4 Questions You Need To Ask To Create Resolutions That Stick.Html

Strategy

The Only 4 Questions You Need to Ask to Create Resolutions That Stick

Twenty years ago I asked myself these four questions. Now, its my framework for success for the year ahead.

By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

Jun 1, 2020

The Only 4 Questions You Need to Ask to Create Resolutions That Stick — Getty Images

As we are entering a new decade, there can be even more pressure to stick with our New Year’s resolutions. We tend to look back at the past ten years as a whole and can stress over what changes we’ve made –or haven’t –and focus more on our failures than celebrate our successes.

Similarly, at the end of 1999, I felt a ton of pressure sinceit was the end of a whole millennium. I spent tons of time looking back on my life and began to evaluate what I liked and didn’t like and asked myself four questions. The resolutions I made as a result of those questionschanged the course of my career.

Twenty years on, I have followed the same framework for defining my resolutions every year. They’ve been an essential part of setting me up for success in each new year– and beyond.

Here are the questions that I ask:

1. What outcome do I want to achieve?

Most people don’t really stop and think about this thoroughly. If you don’t have a specific definition of what success means in each thing you are doing — such as to find five new clients, or open a new business location, or increase your savings by 10 percenteach month for your retirement account –you’ll never know that you’ve achieved it. Being specific is much more helpful than making a vague goal to “succeed in your career” or “learn something new.”

2. What is holding me back?

Sometimes we truly aren’t aware of what blocks us from achieving what we want, but most of the time we just don’t want to admit what’s stopping us. Once you name the thing that is stopping you from moving forward, you can brainstorm ways to get past it. Anticipating what can be in your way helps you be prepared and come up with a plan for when you’re actually faced with it.

3. What is my plan to get there?

Witha specific goal in mind, look for easily quantifiable actions to take that will allow you to achieve it. This makes things much easier — and less daunting — than if I was looking at it the other way around.

To give yourselfaccountability, you can have a coach or mentor to help you along. Additionally, you can write your goals down in a passion planer or a notebook on a weekly or monthly basis to track how you are doing along the way.

4. What am I willing to commit?

Once you’ve defined your outcome, removed what’s stopping you and have a plan, you’re just left with your own accountability. You can commit time, resources, money or a combination of those things to see a project through — but you need at least one of those, or it will have no momentum.

After you’ve answered these simple questions, you’ll be much clearer with your business outlook –into this decade and beyond.

Win-win.

Dec 30, 2019

The Mistake That Cost United Airlines 14 Billion In One Day Twice And What You .Html

Cloud Computing

The Mistake That Cost United Airlines $1.4 Billion in One Day (Twice) and What You Can Do to Avoid It

A combination of poor communication and ineffective crisis management caused one of the worst PR disasters of the decade.

By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

Jun 1, 2020

The Mistake That Cost United Airlines $1.4 Billion in One Day (Twice) and What You Can Do to Avoid It — Getty Images

They say history repeats itself — if you wait long enough.

The year was 2008. A passenger on United Airlines, Canadian musician Dave Carroll, was sitting in Chicago awaiting takeoff when he heard a commotion. Outside the window, baggage handlers were throwing guitar cases haphazardly before loading them into the hold.

This alarmed him, as they were his guitars. He called for assistance, but flight attendants told him there was nothing they could do, and to bring it up when they land.

Upon landing, he found one guitar was broken and told to file a claim for compensation. Carroll attempted to negotiate with the airline for nine months, hitting dead end after dead end. United was unapologetic and unsympathetic.

In early 2009, he wrote the song, “United Breaks Guitars.” This became a viral video, spawning two sequels and spurring United to update its customer service training and its social media outreach policy. While they eventually compensated him $3,000 for the guitars, the PR damage had already been done.

Above and Beyond

They seemed to have learned from this.

In 2013, United was again in the news — this time for their excellent customer service.

Passenger Kerry Drake was on his way to Lubbock, Texas from San Francisco when he found his flight in Houston would be delayed. He had a 40-minute connection to the last flight of the day.

When he heard of the delay, he broke down in tears.

When flight attendants saw him crying, they brought him napkins. They asked him what was wrong only to find that his mother was on her deathbed and would likely die that night. If he didn’t make it to Texas, he’d never see her again.

The crew radioed ahead to his next flight to keep it grounded until they landed, delaying it so he could make his connection. This delay cost the airline thousands of dollars and put the airline’s on-time departure record at risk — but they felt it was the right thing to do.

He made it to the hospital that evening to say goodbye, and she passed away at 4 a.m.

The Unfriendly Skies

Fast forward four years to 2017, and the focus is once again on United. First, an incident where the airline denied boarding to three passengers over their inappropriate dress. This could have been handled better by the gate agent before it took to the internet, but their explanations were curt and misleading. By allowing the court of public opinion to go unchecked before resolving the situation, the tide quickly turned against them.

Second, a situation involving an involuntary denied boarding (IDB) spiraled out of hand when gruesome footage of a passenger being beaten and bloodied reached the internet.

From all reports, United did not clearly explain the IDB rules to the passengers on the aircraft (and in my time as an airline employee, I cannot recall anyone doing so). In the aftermath, United’s Social Media team offered the contract of carriage as proof of their permission to remove a passenger, however it took multiple tries to extract an apology from the CEO. In the time it took him to do so, their stock plummeted $1.4B USD.

This begs the question – is there something fundamentally wrong with United Airlines culture, or has this all merely been a communication problem?

When you look closely at the incidents, Mr. Carroll’s guitars were broken by employees who clearly showed a lack of care. A few years later, the United employees went above and beyond to show how much they care. The more recent incidents with United employees speak more to poor communication – the physical violence was not performed by a United employee, so it is possible that miscommunication allowed it to happen.

Coming In for a Landing

The thing about history is, those who do not learn from it are doomed to repeat it. So, what can we learn from United Airlines’ PR woes that can help us avoid their fate?

1. Say Something

Silence on the internet just begs for someone else to fill it. Get as far ahead of things as you can by acknowledging that you’re at least aware of whatever it is that people are chattering about — even if you have no information yet. This will help to stem the tide of the “@company – did you know that this is going on?” messages.

2. Take It To the Source

Wherever people are the most actively conversing about you, that’s where you need to be responding. If you’re trending on Twitter, you need to respond there. If people are on your Facebook page, answer them with Facebook Live. Be prepared for outbreaks on Reddit, Snapchat, Pinterest, even 4chan – they can and do happen.

3. Apologize – And Mean It

It should go without saying that if you’ve messed up in the public eye, you should ask for forgiveness. If you’re not sincere, people will see through the apology, and it will be even worse for you in the long run.

4. Be Tactful

Some things are simply better handled out of the court of public opinion. Getting things offline as quickly as possible can help you remove mob mentality and allow you to reasonably settle disputes.

5. Learn From It

After the PR dies down, document everything and perform a post mortem. Analyze the behavior to see what happened, what you did well, what you could have done better, and what you should not have done at all.

In the case of United, it’s obvious that they have some work to do to in both their social media response protocol and their overall communication team. However, with a culture that empowered their employees to work together in Kerry Drake’s case, I believe they’ll be able to find a way to come back from this.

Apr 17, 2017

Click Here for Official Rules

Jun 1, 2020

The Essential Business Tools You Need To Declutter Your Life In 2020 Beyond.Html

Productivity

The Essential Business Tools You Need to Declutter Your Life in 2020 and Beyond

By implementing these programs into your routine, you’ll gain hours back in your week.

By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

Real Talk

This Billion-Dollar Brand’s Covid Strategy: Act Like a Startup Again

Austin-based jewelry and home decor seller Kendra Scott reminds herself that there are lessons in every challenge and that the customer is always the boss.

The Essential Business Tools You Need to Declutter Your Life in 2020 and Beyond — Getty Images

Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m not the most organized person –which is more common for entrepreneurs than you might realize. Therefore, when it comes to tools that promise to make my work life easier, faster and more productive, I’m all in.

I am always willing to try the latest and greatest to cover up my own weaknesses in the workspace,and of course, make me look like I’m a confident boss who has things more together than I really do.

With the help of a little bit of AI and some other clever apps, I have managed to increase my productivity so much that I even can take time for myself. The best part? You can replicate my results by adding these few simple steps to calm your own hectic life.

Calendar Tools

If you’re anything like me, you have more than one calendar. Whether it’s an iCal feed coming from Tripit, shared calendar with your significant other –or kids –or multiple client accounts you need to merge into one, having a “single source of truth” for your actual schedule is a never-ending nightmare.

Luckily, there are two tools that you can use to help with that. In order to view all your calendars at once– without seeing things duplicated– I recommend Fantastical. To have other people book your time, have them use Calendlyafter loading all your relevant calendars into the mix.

Email Tools

Once upon a time, I had one email address, and only a few emails to check each day. Now, I have multiple inboxes that I need to keep track ofand they all have their own daily supply of newsletters, junk mail,and spam to sift through before I can find the useful mail. Rather than aiming for Inbox Zero, I’m on the Inbox Infinity plan –and I’m making great strides every day.

Thankfully, I have a few solutions for that too. The mobile app Chuck helpfully sorts through your inboxes and will sort through to find any newsletters, unread emails, potential junk, etc. With a simple click, you can unsubscribe, archive or delete hundreds — or in my case, 20,000 — emails at once.

As for email programs, there is no one-size-fits-all. If you’ve got multiple inboxes, though, Edison email provides a unified inbox, which automatically finds all your most useful emails and sorts them for you. While it doesn’t let you set any mail filters or rules yet, it does save a lot in processing power.

Note Taking Tools

Now, you may not believe this, as I did previously work with Evernote,but I hate taking notes. I have always preferred to pay attention and be present in meetings, so taking notes always seemed counterintuitive to me.

Thankfully, technology has caught up to my conceit! Now, I have some awesome note-taking options for every meeting I’m in. Zoom offers automatic transcription for every cloud-recorded meeting I start. Fireflies.ai offers transcription for all my other calls, and then Otter.ai is handy for in-person meetings. Now, I have automatically transcribed notes from my calls that I can send out right away –win, win.

Time Tracking Tools

As a consultant, I used to dread filling out timesheets. As a lot of my time is spent in research, and another good chunk is spent writing and responding to emails, I would find myself seriously underestimating my time.

Thanks to Chrometa and Rescuetime, I can automatically generate timesheets for myself, and see exactly how much time I spent on each phone call, email, each web page — everything I do, really. Everything is handily organized into a spreadsheet that I can then edit and attach to any bill –or just keep for my own records.

By implementing these tools, you’ll be well on your way to a more organized new year.

Dec 20, 2019

Kendra Scott had 2020 planned out for her eponymous jewelry and home decor companywhen all of her plans–along with those of so many businesses–changed in an instant. “Covid-19 was not part of our plan,” Scott told Inc. editor-at-large Tom Foster during Inc.‘s latest Real Talk: Business Reboot webinarThursday. “The best-laid plans don’t always come to fruition.”

Scott, who’s based in Austin, says she had to return to a “startup mentality” to face the health crisis that temporarily closed the doors on her 108 retail locations and the economic freeze that altered her supply chain and changed customers’ purchasing habits. Working from home–while juggling homeschooling for herthree kids–and staying in touch with her teams and customers, she reminds herself to “be creative and collaborative and take each day as it comes.”

Here are some of the insights and highlights from Foster’s conversation with Scott:

Be flexible

Scott learned about flexibility during the Great Recession when she realized that selling her jewelry primarily through stores owned by others wasn’t going to work for her or her long-term plan. “Every store around was closing. Nobody had a store,” she recalled.

“When the crisis hit, I had to pivot quickly.It forced me to look at my business differently,” she said. That meant opening her own brick-and-mortar shop and going direct to consumer through the web. She remembers telling her staff that this move could not fail(“I’ll have to move back in my mother,” she said with a laugh), and thatit could succeed beyond their hopes.

A decade later, Scott has 108 stores and a thriving online business. And, pre-pandemic, her company wasvalued at $1billion.

Create a connection–however you can

Muchof the success of her retail locations is the way the stores’ designencourages customers to interact with the merchandise and salespeople. Unlike other jewelry stores filled with glass display cases (and, in some cases, plexiglassbarriers), Kendra Scott stores emphasizetactility and connection.

The challenge now is maintaining that feel in the 78 shops that have already reopened post-Covid, as well astranslating the experience online. Salespeople can no longer touch customers, but, as Scott muses, “How else can we touch her heart, touch her mind?”

One way has been speeding up a virtual try-on concept that was in the works for a year and that launched in April. Another has been implementing curbside pickup programs at some stores. This is especially important, since Scott believes brick-and-mortar stores are not going away. “We need those places,” she says. “We have to create places that allow people to connect.”

As Scott advises her employees: “Don’t worry about the transaction.Worry about the connection.”

Businesses need to ask (and answer), “Where is [the customer] in this moment? How can we serve her? How can we bring her joy?” Scott says. “Because she’s our boss. She signs our checks. If not for her, we don’t have jobs.”

Reach out

Since the start of the pandemic, Scott and her team have been reaching out to customers on every possible platform. She advises people to pick up the phone, send emails, or get on FaceTime with customers tomake them feel seen and appreciated. (Even her mother has been making calls.) Scott has also sent many handwritten letters. “The simplest things can make a real difference,” she says. “Don’t focus on the business. Focus on the customer.”

Learn from every crisis

Scott, whose company survived the last recession (and whose previous business did not succeed), knows about challenges. She also knows about keeping the faith during tough times. “There’s a reason this moment is happening,” she likes to tellherself. “In the moment, you may not understand it,” but a lesson will present itself. If you can understandthat lesson, you–and your company–will gain from it.

“Right now it seems so hard to understand why something like this has happened,” Scott says. One possible lesson: After the quarantine lifts and some of the harder hit sectors of the economy rebound, “We may be kinder to each other, more loving to each other,” she hopes. “Those are the gifts that may come from this struggle.”

May 28, 2020

The 8 Most Underrated Ted Talks That Defined 2017.Html

Innovate

The 8 Most Underrated TED Talks That Defined 2017

From listening to your gut to a heartwarming plea from Pope Francis, this was our year in TED.

By Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer@heathriel

Jun 1, 2020

The 8 Most Underrated TED Talks That Defined 2017 — Getty Images

Every day, somewhere in the world, it is likely there is a TED or TEDx event going on. This speaks to the power of a brand that has flourished for more than30 years, providing thought-provoking talks on the simple premise of “ideas worth spreading.”

This can be a double-edged sword — there are so many events, and their catalog of knowledge is vast. This can be daunting when you’re trying to find some truly amazing talks buried in the archives.

Here are just a fewthat I feel are worth another look.

1. Garry Kasparov — Don’t Fear Intelligent Machines. Work With Them

Former chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov implores us to take a look at the dawn of robotics and A.I. with an open mind and open arms. His recounting of how he faced Deep Blue and lost is poignant and beautiful, and gives a lovely perspective on how we should think about the years to come.

2. Casey Brown — Know Your Worth, and Then Ask for It

In a year where we have had a seemingly endless stream of negativitysurfacingin all industries, it is refreshing to hear Casey Brown’s simple message of positivity and personal responsibility. While she doesn’t promise a quick fix to all of the industries’ problems, it is a great first step.

3. Giulia Enders — The Surprisingly Charming Science of your Gut

In this quirky talk, GiuliaEnders takes us on a journey through our digestive system,and teaches us how our “gut feelings” really do mean something.

4. Pope Francis — Why the Only Future Worth Building Includes Everyone

As an entrepreneur, I’ve found this is probably one of the most important talks to watch of any on the TED site. In just a few short minutes, Pope Francis delivers a nondenominational talk that truly redefines “change the world.”

5. Nagin Cox — What Time Is It on Mars?

One thing that many of ustake for granted is that because we are all human, we have basically the same experiences. In this delightful and informative talk from NaginCox, she opens up the world of dailylife — on the planetMars.

6. Mariana Atencio — What Makes You Special?

In a world where we are constantly told that we are all unique, Mariana Atencio’s talk shows usnot only how that can betrue but also why it matters.

7. Bill Eckstrom– Why Comfort Will Ruin Your Life

Sometimes, getting fired can be the best thing to happen to you. At least, that’s the premise of Bill Eckstrom’stalk about getting comfortable with discomfort. It wasn’t until he got the jolt to his career path that he was able to find his true calling — and he’s here to tell you what you can do to change your life today.

8. Sarah Knight — The Magic of Not Giving a F***

This is probably my favorite talk of the year — and I warn you, it’s as NSFW as it is hilarious. Sarah Knight expands on the premise of her best-selling book to tell us all how we can live much happier, better lives by simply letting things go.

These are my personal favorites, but I’d love to know what other underrated talks you have found interesting. Let me know in the comments.

Dec 22, 2017

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Jun 1, 2020

These 4 Steps Are Essential To Successfully Managing A Remote Team.Html

These 4 Steps Are Essential to Successfully Managing a Remote Team

Remote teams are the dream of many entrepreneurs. How can you make them work?