March 2013
2 posts
Let's be friends
GroupMe recently partnered with Balanced to power all the financial plumbing for our new Split feature. Building that partnership and working out the nitty gritty of that contract was a long and trying process. More than once we came to an impasse that looked like a deal-breaker; on one occasion I did in fact walk away.
Obviously, we ultimately got the deal done. Both because of, and to some...
February 2013
1 post
Buffering
Deals to use another company’s API usually require the most legal oversight and diligence, because you’re typically exposing your company and your users to another company’s terms of service, privacy policies, etc. — not to mention whatever potential liabilities are created by the new product you’re building.
One of the trickiest things to navigate in these deals is...
December 2012
1 post
“A goal without a plan is a wish.”
– (Herm Edwards, in the fantastic 30 for 30 documentary “Broke”)
I’ve been on vacation this past week, enjoying the quiet and comfort of my parents’ house. The plan was to spend time thinking about my goals for 2013, both personal and professional, and of course, devise...
November 2012
1 post
Experiences Partner Program launches →
Really, really excited to announce our flagship partners for GroupMe Experiences. This is a big step for us in terms of scale and giving our customers even more awesome things to do with their friends.
Couldn’t be prouder of the team here that worked on this, from BD to product to marketing. And special thanks to Norm at Excursionist, David at Zozi, and Adam & Harris at Underground Eats...
October 2012
1 post
The Experiences Blog: Experiences by GroupMe... →
experiences:
Experiences is the easiest way to do something awesome with your friends. We help you discover, plan, and pay for the amazing experiences you’ll always remember.
This past July, we were excited to introduce the private Beta version of something we’ve been working on all year:
BOOM.
September 2012
2 posts
Facebook on mobile: long road ahead
The native Facebook app released last month deserves all of the praise it’s gotten. Functionally, it’s worlds better than the company’s previous efforts in mobile (read: it’s actually usable). Now that the product is up to snuff - though there’s still certainly remove for improvement - the calls for Zuckerberg & Co to better monetize mobile will be even louder....
Timing is everything
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about timing, specifically how doing things (e.g., executing a partnership) as quickly as possible isn’t always best, despite the highly en vogue “move fast & break things” startup mentality.
As a general rule of thumb, I try to take action on everything that comes across my desk within 24-48 hours. That could be following up after a...
August 2012
3 posts
So true; think about this all the time →
alexstechthoughts:
One of the best pieces of advice I ever received about doing product partnerships came from David Honig, of Vision Ventures.
At the time, I was working at Aviary and focused on third-party integrations for the web and mobile editor. David told me that while it is great to close a deal…
Reconnecting
So-called smart address book apps, like Brewster (or Sensobi, a GroupMe acquisition, before them), try to make how you communicate with your contacts as efficient as possible. A critical feature, for me at least, is an automatic notification to contact someone with whom I haven’t communicated in a while. It’s something I’ve been doing manually for my personal network for years,...
July 2012
5 posts
Bloomberg's long con
Before working at GroupMe & L2, I was at the NYC Economic Development Corporation. Most of NYCEDC’s work is conducted via real estate development, but I was on the small team focused on the City’s “innovation economy,” specifically how to make New York a better place for startups. Across all sectors, not just consumer web, although that’s what gets the most media...
Find your champion
Navigating the layers of middle managers and faux-decision makers at large organizations can be incredibly frustrating, but it’s often an unavoidable part of forging high profile partnerships. Success hinges on identifying which of the people sitting across the table will be your champion: the person who understands your product, believes in your vision, and is excited about what you can...
GroupMe Blog: Get Together Better →
groupme:
Experiences is the easiest way to do something awesome with your friends.
We help you discover, plan, and pay for amazing experiences you’ll never forget.
At GroupMe, we’ve always been motivated by our mission to help groups of people communicate and get together better. We’ve loved…
Know your target
Every few weeks I get an unsolicited inbound inquiry from a sales rep at a mobile ad network asking if GroupMe would be interested in working with them.
But none of GroupMe’s clients serve ads. Never have.
It would take a few minutes of work for the sales rep to know that. But the standard compensation structure for a sales guy doesn’t incent finesse. It’s a numbers game, so a...
the busy trap →
charlesbirnbaum:
so much great stuff in this OpEd from Tim Kreider today, but this was my favorite excerpt:
Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from...
June 2012
2 posts
"I'm a people person"
When I’m asked what exactly doing business development at startup entails, I often think of that scene from Office Space in which the Bobs try to figure out exactly what everyone does. And then that one middle manager freaks out with his “I’m a people person!” rant.
BD at a startup is a lot of different tasks, functions and skill sets rolled into one, and it varies by...
Process
When I meet new people who also work in tech, the conversation often starts like this:
Them: So where do you work?
Me: GroupMe
Them: How’s it been being part of Skype / Microsoft?
A perfectly valid question. Last August, our 19-person startup became a part of Skype, a much larger company with a much longer history. In and of itself, a pretty big change that was sure to present a unique...
May 2012
1 post
323 days
My first day at GroupMe was July 5, 2011. It’s been almost a year, and it’s been everything I hoped for when I joined. It’s also been incredibly eventful. Seven weeks after I joined we were acquired by Skype. We’ve launched several new versions of the product. I slanged ‘chos at my first SXSW. I got my first taste of telecom negotiations at Mobile World Congress.
Over the past 323 days, I’ve been...
