Tag Archives: event

Sep 14

Square. More than just a popular shape.

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Yesterday I had the opportunity to hear from & meet Jack Dorsey, Creator of Twitter & Founder & CEO of Square. He came to discuss Square & making payments better for everyone. What became clear is that Square is not just the shape of their product, not just the name of their company, not just a shape, not just about a payment mechanism. Square symbolizes a vision. A vision about the entire experience around payments & the transaction of value.

I remember discovering Square when it first hit the public eye. The timing was perfect because it lined up with the opening of our newest Iorio’s Gelateria in downtown Ann Arbor. From this point on, I knew that as long as Square became available soon enough we would not have to purchase an antiquated POS system (there’s a reason they’re called POS). This was game changing for our business. After examining a few other new POS systems (tablet based, cloud infrastructure, etc) we ultimately decided to go with Square. Why? Great design, simple to use, every function we needed at the time, & fabulous support (via Twitter of course) from the Square team. Plus, it was cheap & easy! Roughly $500 for an iPad, a complimentary Square reader, & only 2.75% on each transaction.

Jack started off last night’s discussion with the story of Square. He described an anecdote about his friend who made beautiful glass art, but was unable to sell a $2,000 piece of art to a lady interested in purchasing it, because he didn’t accept credit cards. The lady ensured she would return with a check, but never did.

“The future has already arrived, it just hasn’t been distributed yet” – Jack shares a quote by science fiction writer William Gibson

This story is the same for many individuals & businesses around the world. I have experienced it personally…when I first started Iorio’s we didn’t accept credit cards. Cash only. So many people asked if they could pay with credit card. Imagine a 15 year old’s disappointment to lose out on a sale because of a inability to accept a form of payment. Seems criminal. Where is “Freedom to Pay” in the Constitution?!

A month later Jack & his friend had built software & hardware to accept mobile payments. A great demonstration of Jack’s advice “write it down”. Whether on paper, typed up, in code, somewhere…write it down. Otherwise, nothing happens, except excuses. Take action. Do something. That’s how Square started.

Jack also went into some impressive stats that support Square’s vision…

  • Only 6% of commerce is online
  • Credit card companies accept 10% of applicants, Square accepts 95%
  • Pricing of credit card fees hasn’t changed in 62 years
  • Starbucks touches 70 million unique Americans per month (considering Square’s recent partnership with Starbucks, this is big news!) And to give some perspective on that 70 million unique visitors…the New York Times unique visitor count is around 25 million per month.

“If you worry too much what the competitors are doing & become too reactive, you’ll lose” (yes, the photo clearly wasn’t taken with an iPhone)

One of my favorite parts of Jack’s wisdoms shared was his bridge analogy. He popped up a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge & asked the audience how many have traveled across this majestic structure. What do bridges do? They provide utility. They help move something from point A to point B. They result from the intersection of design & engineering. What does Square do? Provides utility. Move money from point A to point B. Jack is designing & engineering a company to design & engineer a product. It’s not about “putting ourselves in front of our users” according to Jack, “that’s selfish”. If there’s conflict in the company, that materializes in the product. This clearly demonstrated Jack’s attention to company culture, of significant importance, but often under valued in growing companies.

Speaking of culture, Jack mentioned that his job is to keep Square focused. It’s clear that Square works hard. They couldn’t get where they are today without working hard. I spoke with several people who work there, all who were friendly, engaging, & genuinely enjoying working at Square. That was inspiring to see. Jack also seems to be a very thoughtful entrepreneur, seemingly down to earth, clearly driven, & introspective. He talked a bit about his time management style, which was applaudable & well thought out. Themed days. He’s deliberate about planning his time. Obviously stuff comes up that disrupts with plans, but setting his cadence for each week seems like a well thought out way to organize his responsibilities. Well done Jack!

After telling a bit more about his story & Square, Jack posed this question to the audience: What can Square do to make payments better for everyone?

Questions, answers, discussion ensued.

Then the after party began at the Computer Science building on campus. Jack couldn’t even get in the door before a line of students, wantrepreneurs, & others formed a line to get to talk with & snap photos with the visionary entrepreneur. It was encouraging to see so much interest & respect for Jack & what he’s doing. I did notice that there were maybe 10-15 females in the audience during the event. Clearly outnumbered. There’s no debate that guys outnumber girls in the tech world. And it’s probably a good thing this event didn’t get promoted all across the University, because I’m sure every sorority would send a troupe of its members to the event & to meet Jack. After all, let’s be real, he’s far more attractive than Bill Gates.

Bill Gates vs. Jack Dorsey

Before he left campus, Jack enjoyed Raspberry dairy free sorbetto from Iorio’s gelato cart (which we moved outside the Computer Science building to make it easier for Jack to get some).  He suggested a team photo, so the Square team posed around the cart & then Nick & I jumped in for a Square/Iorio’s photo!

Official endorsement?! Grazie!  Gelato does go well with tea & alcohol (for Square’s Friday Tea Time!)

Throughout my journey using Square for my business I have been challenged by banks, by customers, by team members. But it’s very clear that Square is here to stay & as long as they’re around & continue to innovate, I’ll be a strong supporter!

Venture on,

Mel, the venture gal

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Nov 16

Defragging Defrag

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On Tuesday, 11/8/11, I flew to Colorado for the 5th Annual Defrag Conference in Broomfield.  I was fortunate to win a scholarship from the Kauffman Foundation, as a woman in tech interested in attending the conference.  Thanks Kauffman!  In summary,
  • Defrag was awesome!  I learned so much & met so many great people
  • I love Colorado!

My Generous Host/New Friend & I in front of the Defrag Ice Sculpture/Shrimp Chiller

Why was Defrag awesome?

  • I met so many great people.  I ran out of business cards and walked away with dozens of new relationships & friends.
  • The conference opener was a Star Wars themed introduction.
  • The swag bag included a really nice fleece jacket with the Defrag and Box.net logos, flask, iPad case, & other useful & high quality goodies.
  • I learned a lot!  My 3 key takeaways from a technology/opportunities standpoint:
    • Big data is more about how the data is used than about the data itself.  Data is becoming a commodity, so the ways in which data is used are becoming increasingly important.  And it’s not about exploiting data it’s about getting humans to interact with data in new ways.  Data is becoming active.  So rather than searching for data, the right information is constantly trying to find you.
    • Purchase graph – you think social graph is important.  Tapping into the purchase graph is far more powerful.
    • Content is easily ignored so improving content is more important than distribution & right now content sucks.

If you’re really interested in learning more, contact me & we can chat more about what I learned!

Reasons I love Boulder:

*note: I spent most of my time in Boulder, & was only in Denver Friday evening, Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning.

When traveling to new places if there are great people, great food, & a great environment I am satisfied.  Boulder went above & beyond with several additional qualities that made it harder to leave!

 

The People
A fellow conference scholarship winner volunteered to pick me up from the airport & she was so friendly & welcoming.  During the conference I stayed with another conference scholarship winner & his housemates in Boulder.  I Googled him before deciding to stay there and I knew anyone who received the scholarship would be a quality person.  My expectations were blown through the roof though, as my hosts were so welcoming, kind, and hospitable.   They welcomed me to work out of their office, where they work on Varsity Framework, & treated me like a friend, as opposed to just a guest at their house.  Similarly, everyone I met in Boulder was kind & welcoming with open arms.  I left with several new friends!

 

The Food
  • My first night in Boulder I was spoiled with dinner at The Kitchen.  It was a topic dinner on “Leveraging Social Networks to Create Change” organized by Gist.
  • The following night after the conference, my host and new friend recommended The Kitchen Next Door, the restaurant directly next (& affiliated with The Kitchen)

Pumpkin Stew from The Kitchen Next Door

  • Whole Foods. Boulder is home to several Whole Foods & during my visit I visited two of them.  The bigger of the two is bigger than the Whole Foods in Ann Arbor.  My friend & I grabbed dinner there after a long day at the conference.  The following morning we went to the other, smaller, Whole Foods, for breakfast.  They have an outstanding, & very affordable, oatmeal bar, stocked full of steel cut oats, fresh berries, nuts, & other tasty toppings.  I got a full big bowl & it was only $2.96!  Paired with the view of the mountains from the store, this start to the morning couldn’t be beat!
  • On Friday morning, my friend & I were walking to his office when we ran into another Defrag’er downtown Boulder, got to talking, & he invited us to breakfast.  We went to Lucille’s, winner of best breakfast in Boulder.  Waiting outside the restaurant was several other Defrag’ers from Spot Influence & Flow (another reason I love Boulder – small enough to run into people you know & big enough to meet new people).  Lucille’s serves a New Orleans style breakfast & even though my friend & I already ate breakfast bowls at Whole Foods, we split pan fried trout topped with poached eggs & served with spiced potatoes.

The Tech Community

  • Considering I spent much of my time at the Defrag Conference I got a focused view of the tech environment in Boulder.  There were tons of local entrepreneurs, tech companies, events, & support.
  • Atlas is a coffee shop on Pearl Street in Boulder.  It’s a very common space for coders & entrepreneurs to spend their time cranking out code, design, or other work.  The morning I went my friend & I got Earl Grey Lattes – earl grey tea with almond milk, steamed, & vanilla agave to sweeten.  It was delicious!  I’m more of a green tea fan, but this converted me.  It didn’t need the sweetener though, so next time I visit I will get my latte sans agave.

Fueled by Earl Grey Lattes, Entrepreneurs, Creators, & the like Work Away at Atlas

  • Clearly The Foundry Group is part of the community in Boulder.  Jason Mendelson & Brad Feld were involved with Defrag & there were several Tech Stars companies represented there as well.  The support for tech entrepreneurs is so much that Boulder has attracted folks from all over the country to come start their companies there.  After speaking with several entrepreneurs about highlights of the community I learned that it is pretty vibrant, but there are still areas left for improvement.
  • Codespace is a co-working space in downtown Boulder.  Something notable about this space – it is FREE to work at.  Yes, you read that right.
The Health
I won’t generalize & say that everyone is healthy in Boulder, but I will say that most people I met are very conscious of health & super active (more so than folks I know in Michigan).  It’s not that fat people are discriminated against so much as it is the wonderful atmosphere to be healthy & active.  Outdoor recreation, healthy restaurants, friends that are active & healthy, FREE yoga classes at Prana.

 

The Environment
  • Beautiful mountains (which were referred to as hills when I considered them mountains)
  • Crisp air.  Much drier than Michigan air, so it didn’t seem to feel as cold & damp.
  • Sun!  Apparently Colorado gets 300 days of sun each year.  That’s a lot of vitamin D!
  • Dog friendly!
  • Chill – people are down to earth, friendly, relaxed, & up for adventure.

Mountains *ahem* Hills in Boulder

Will I be back to Boulder?  Yes.  Will I ever live in Boulder?  Possibly.  I’d put it in my top 3 places I’d like to live in the U.S. (from the ones I have visited so far).

To all my friends in Colorado (new & existing) thank you for helping to make my experience awesome!

 

Venture On,

 

Mary aka Venture Gal