In the last two weeks, we’ve had a few new dogs join the Punchbowlers. Our new tech support person, Colin brought us Jordy (who enjoyed lying on his back and pretending he was swimming). And today we have Pippy Louise, brought in by our new marketing contractor, Scott.

I don’t have a dog at home (we have two cats), so I’m always happy when we’re visited by our canine friends. Usually the dog finds a spot in the office to quietly hang out — in this case, Pippy Louise is spending this morning eating a bagel:

While it’s not a requirement to have a dog in order to get hired at Punchbowl, it sure is a nice bonus. So if you’re on a call with someone from Punchbowl and you hear barking in the background, now you’ll know why.

“Eating breakfast gives you the energy that you need to have a productive day. So stop hitting the snooze button and make time for breakfast.”

This simple statement says a lot about how General Mills thinks about their product and how it relates to their real competition. General Mills realizes that their biggest competition is not other cereals or even other breakfast foods. Their real competition are those people that don’t make enough time for breakfast (those who substitute sleep for breakfast).  The best thing that General Mills could do to increase sales of their product is to find a way to get people out of bed in the morning rather than hit the snooze button. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that GM should partner with alarm clock manufacturers like Bose and strike some radio programming deals that help people get out of bed.

As I mapped this way of thinking onto MyPunchbowl, one substitute is probably “paper and pencil”. It’s certainly possible to plan out your entire event using paper and pencil (and lots of people still do it this way). However, it’s not as efficient, it will take more time, and I would argue that you will have a less successful event (for example, when you use MyPunchbowl’s Pick-a-Date feature you can ensure the key people will be at your event). One other potential substitute is other forms of celebration (like vacations). For example, my sister-in-law recently told me that they are going to take a trip this year instead of holding a birthday party for my nephew. If somehow we could convince people that hosting a party or event was the best way to celebrate a birthday, our traffic would likely go up significantly.

Think about your product in this light: rather than focusing on other companies who are competing for the same market space, think about the substitute for your product. What substitute is the real competition for your product?

It’s been a while, but I was inspired to write a blog post. You see, in the last year or so I’ve had a few moments of clarity about myself. When you have these moments like I did, you realize that they don’t come along that often. Get ready because this is some really deep stuff (ahem).

1 - I like food that is small in size, but large in quantity.

Yup, read it again. I know your next question: what are some examples?

• Sprinkles. I love sprinkles. I’ve been told that I have sort of a problem. I don’t think I do- they’re sprinkles! …  brightly colored, crunchy, small, and completely edible! I mainly eat them on ice cream (but i won’t claim i’ve never eaten a straight spoonful). I prefer rainbow, but chocolate are cool too. I used to buy the small tin at the supermarket for $3.49 but then I got smart and ordered bulk quantities on eBay (6lbs of rainbow sprinkles for 12 dollars!). I never thought my love of sprinkles was a big deal or that unusual, but I’ve been informed that it is.

• Couscous. Getting the idea here? They’re small, there’s lots of them, so i like them. Back in my bachelor days I could eat a whole box of “Near East” couscous for dinner. My wife Jessie informed me that it wasn’t a well-balanced meal. Huh … well OK maybe not.

• Angel hair pasta. Slight variation here but the spirit is the same - small in diameter, large in quantity. I prefer Pesto sauce. In fact, i boycotted red sauce for a while cause I got tired of it. Speaking of boycotting, that brings me to my next life revelation …

2 - I’m not going to drink wine anymore

Look it’s not that i hate wine or have some big issue with it, I’d just rather drink other alcoholic beverages. I don’t particularly like wine, and I don’t have a great palette for it (in a blindfold test i could probably tell you if it was red or white) and so you know what? Not gonna drink it anymore. In case you’re wondering, i like beer, bourbon, vodka, and gin (I drink them separately, of course).

3 - Liquid and leather.

These are the two forms in which I eat fruit. So to clarify: If you want me to eat fruit (Jessie tells me it’s healthy) give it to me in liquid form (e.g. a smoothie, or ‘Naked’ juice) or give me some fruit leather (it’s like a natural fruit roll-up) and I’m in!

OK, that about wraps it up. I eagerly await my next moment of clarity. I hope others will be inspired to look inward, dig deep, and uncover some truly profound, fundamental, life-altering revelations like I recently have. Feel free to share with us if you do …

-Sean

Consider this your public service announcement to check your fire insurance policy….

If you like watching fires (or you just like firemen) here’s a video of the fire, courtesy of the Metrowest Daily News article:

Here’s what they had to say about MyPunchbowl:

“If you want to take planning that party to the next level, try http://www.mypunchbowl.com…. it allows you to send a “save the date” message to your partygoers, locate a party store near you, and share your party photos and videos.”

Thanks to Daphne and ABC-TV in Phoenix for covering MyPunchbowl.

I get a lot of email everyday. I’m trying to learn the methodology of touching an email only once and immediately handling it, but invariably some emails linger in my inbox (sometimes for days, and sometimes for weeks). Numerous times in a day, I’ll scan my inbox either to tackle a specific issue or delete an email from something I’ve recently completed. I often read my email via my cell phone (I’m a fan of the Palm Treo) which makes the readability of email subjects even more important. I’m pretty fast at scanning my inbox, but without a clear email subject I can really get slowed down.

I have many pet peeves about how people write email subjects, but it primarily boils down to two main items:

Pet Peeve #1: A subject that doesn’t have enough information which causes me to have to open the email to find out the basics of what it is about. Here are a few of the examples that are currently in my inbox:

1. “Questions”
2. “Info”
3. “Intro”
4. “Help”

Pet Peeve #2: Email subjects that have WAY too much information and are WAY too long. Here are a few examples:

1. ‘Hi Matt, Your thoughts on a partnership with XXXXX company and how you could work with them.”
2. “Been a while. How is Punchbowl doing and have you seen our latest newsletter?”

So with that in mind, I present to you a 10 point checklist for writing good email subjects:

1. Your subject should be more than one word, but no more than seven (4-5 words is ideal)
2. If you’re a company, start with the name of your company (e.g. Punchbowl: Follow-up)
3. If it’s an intro to someone, include the person’s name in the subject (e.g. Intro to Matt Douglas or Bill meet Jane)
4. If it’s a meeting, include the date in the subject (e.g. Punchbowl meeting 6/17/08)
5. Do anything you can to make it not generic. (e.g. “Hey Matt” is a really bad subject)
6. If you use a SPAM filter, make sure your subject doesn’t get filled with SPAM tags (e.g. SPAM-LOW) 
7. If the email has bounced around before, remove the Re: Re: Re: or Fwd:Re: that litters the subject line 
8. Use proper capitalization: it’s easier to read 
9. If the subject is a question, re-write it
10. If the subject has exclamation points, take them out

I believe that writing a good email subject is important: it’s how you present yourself and it influences the quality of the response from the recipient. I’ve certainly noticed that I tend to respond more quickly and thoroughly to people who send me an email that has a clear subject line (perhaps that’s because the content of the email is usually more clear too).

So please… before you send me an email, take a moment to think about the subject line before sending it. And if I sent you this blog post as a response to an email you sent me, allow me to apologize for my pedantic behavior. Yes, I know that email subjects are not the most important topic in the world — but give it a try. My inbox will thank you for it.

Yesterday our landlord (aka “slumlord”) celebrated his birthday. Steve is the owner of our building, and he graciously leases out space to us at startup rates. We share a bunch of common areas with Steve, and he’s around more days than not. The Punchbowl team really enjoys having him around, and he’s even recently taken to our Roaring Lion drinking competition.

When we made the decision to get an office, we couldn’t have asked for a better situation. Our office is a relaxed and fun environment and Steve adds some color to our team everyday. Just this week, we’ve been graced by the presence of guinea pigs — apparently thanks to a pregnant guinea pig that Steve had at home. Steve named him “Punchy” in honor of his best tenants.

By the way, if you’re looking for a great lawyer in the Metrowest area of Boston, I would highly recommend Steve Meltzer. He can help with corporation paperwork, real-estate transactions, and run of the mill legal disputes. The best part: he won’t charge you the over-priced Boston lawyer rates.

Here’s a picture of Steve Meltzer with a signed can of Roaring Lion (hand signed by the team) and some celebratory cupcakes (thanks Margery!). Happy Birthday Steve!

Every year, my July 4th weekend is accounted for — my wedding anniversary is that weekend and my wife and I usually get away. As a result, I usually have to decline the 4th of July party invitations that I receive. I think last year I was invited to at least two 4th of July parties that we declined.

Yet even though I don’t participate in any July 4th party planning, 4th of July is a pretty popular event on MyPunchbowl. We have lots of 4th of July invitations to choose from and lots of great party tips and advice for your 4th of July party planning.

If you never have used MyPunchbowl before, why not get started today by sending a 4th of July save the date? You don’t need much information to send your save the date — simply put in the date and place of your 4th of July party and send it off to your friends and family. Come back a few weeks before the event to send your online invitations. Easy and simple.

Here’s are a few of the 4th of July party invitations that are available on MyPunchbowl:

MITX has a strict process for this competition, and it included a significant questionnaire, an in-person interview, and a number of follow-up questions. These awards only go to the best of the best companies in New England. 

I’m really happy that MyPunchbowl was recognized as a winner of the MITX award for “Usability.” We’ve worked hard to make a user-friendly and feature-rich web application for party and event planning. It’s very rewarding to be recognized by such a fantastic organization like MITX.

Special thanks to Blake (our Director of Engineering) for accepting the award on Punchbowl’s behalf. I wish I could have been there, but I was out of the office all week in California. I heard that Blake even had to give a speech!

Here’s a picture of the plaque from MITX that we’ll be hanging on our awards wall. Thanks to everyone who helped make this award possible.

Which brings me to my rant of the day: why oh why don’t the toothpaste companies offer a bigger sized travel toothpaste? The “standard” travel toothpaste is 0.85 ounces. You know, the kind you get for free at the dentist:

Now I don’t know about you, but I like to brush my teeth a few times a day — at least twice, and often three times. A 0.85 ounce toothpaste lasts about 2 days (maybe 3 if I ration carefully). In the past, I used to bring my larger toothpaste from home — one of those 4.6oz ones. However, the maximum I can bring through TSA is 3 ounces. What to do?

Yesterday I stopped at CVS to see if I could solve my dilemmna. But CVS only sells large sized toothpaste and the small travel size. So I purchased two of the smaller ones (which raises an interesting question for TSA: can I bring an unlimited number of travel sized toothpastes as long as they are in seperate containers? Oh, the danger!).

I really hope that the toothpaste manufacturers realize that anyone who travels for more than a few days at a time needs more than 0.85 ounces of toothpaste — to maximize the amount of toothpaste without going over the TSA limit. I’ll be a lifelong supporter of whichever company puts it out first.

I ranted about this to my wife as I was getting ready for the trip, and she (in her amusing sarcasm) reminded me that you can’t buy toothpaste in San Francisco. Yeah, well I guess I could do that. But that wouldn’t be efficient.

End rant.