Clever Blog

CleverSet in Business 2.0

We are included in a great article, “Rethinking the Recommendation Engine”, in the July issue of Business 2.0.  Erick Schonfeld and I have sat down a few times and he is a direct, precise and fair journalist, as you will read in this article.

The article provides some perspective on how companies, like CleverSet, are moving beyond Amazon’s collaborative filtering technology (“people who looked at product X also looked at product Y”. 

Jeff Bezos calls recommendations their "key differentiating factor" Sucharita Mulpuru from Forrester says that retailers can expect to see between 10 and 30% of their sales come directly from recommendations/suggestions – WE AGREE!

Go pick it up – page 40.

Selling to Google in 6 months or less

Gotta love this story. Six months ago, two guys (one of who’s wife is pregnant) drive to Silicon Valley to create a company with the intention of selling it to Google. 

Today they did just that. Congratulations. 

(GOD help all of the pregnant women who are about to be left behind as their husbands try to do the same).

Ballet and Start-ups...

I mentioned Marc Andreesson’s blog and his discussion about start-ups. I was having a conversation about our company, and others at a similar stage, with another CEO last week. I was trying to come up with an analogy for the lifecycle of a company. I not only discovered it, but actually watched it, on Sunday.

First, I digress...Sunday was Father’s Day and it turned out to be one of the most special days of my life. My soon-to-be-FIVE year old daughter, Claire, was performing in her first ballet recital. This was a BIG day.  She wasn’t only going to perform on a ‘real stage’ but in front of hundreds of people. Ok, I had confidence that she could do that (I think). But then I found out that she was the ‘leader’ of her group and would be the very first one to come out. This I had serious doubts about. 

All of this made me very, very nervous.  I was a wreck and could barely speak as her time approached. 

But then a miracle happened – the music started, the lights came on and, after a slight delay (that felt like a year) out she came. She had her hair ‘done’, make-up on, her pink leotard and looked so grown up.  I can only imagine the look on my face – I was the proudest, happiest Dad on the face of the earth at that very moment.  Amazing.

So how does this relate to a start up. Well, after Claire’s performance out came the six year olds, the eight year olds, and on and on.  So while I thought that she looked like she should be on Broadway there were more and more girls (and boys) who were older, bigger, more refined, more skilled and quite simply better ballet dancers. 

Many people talk about companies ‘growing up’. It struck me on Sunday that we do that, day after day, week after week, month after month. Continuously getting bigger, better and hopefully smarter.  But it takes the same level of dedication, ‘practice’ and time that a dancer does; it simply can’t happen overnight. 

On Sunday I was a very proud Dad. On Monday morning I went to the office feeling like we are 4 year old ballet dancer with lots of room to grow and amazing potential.

Andreesson describes Start-ups perfectly

I, like a lot of others, have been reading the great posts by Marc Andreesson’s blog.  While most of them have been really well written I have gone back to two of them a number of times – the way that he describes the life of a start-up is phenomenal. If you’re an entrepreneur, or want to be, or are curious what goes on in these ‘early stage companies’ go and read this – there is truth in all of it. 

My favorite quote is this one:  “in a startup, absolutely nothing happens unless you make it happen.

This one throws both founders and employees new to startups.

In an established company -- no matter how poorly run or demoralized -- things happen. They just happen. People come in to work. Code gets written. User interfaces get designed. Servers get provisioned. Markets get analyzed. Pricing gets studied and determined. Sales calls get made. The wastebaskets get emptied. And so on.

A startup has none of the established systems, rhythms, infrastructure that any established company has.

In a startup it is very easy for the code to not get written, for the user interfaces to not get designed... for people to not come into work... and for the wastebaskets to not get emptied.

You as the founder have to put all of these systems and routines and habits in place and get everyone actually rowing -- forget even about rowing in the right direction: just rowing at all is hard enough at the start.

And until you do, absolutely nothing happens.

Unless, of course, you do it yourself.

Have fun emptying those wastebaskets.”

Couldn’t be more true! Thankfully we’ve got a team that isn’t afraid to empty the wastebaskets....

Being recognized as "Most Innovative Company" in America

It’s always fun when hard work, dedication and many people working a ton of hours really pays off. Last night in NY we were presented with a ‘Stevie’ Award – it is presented annually by the American Business Association. We were chosen as the winner of the “Most Innovative Company” (less than 100 employees). 

When we applied for the award we thought it would be good exposure for CleverSet in front of an impressive group of judges. We were really surprised when we were selected as a finalist. 

I went to NY (for the ceremony and a series of other meetings) with very low expectations of winning the award – in fact, it never occurred to me that they would call our name.  During the awards I got an email on my blackberry from my Mom who said she was watching the event online – you have to love that!  Given that I didn’t expect us to win, I didn’t really contemplate what to say during the expected ‘acceptance speech’. So, one minute I am eating risotto and chicken sipping on red wine (think wedding reception) and the next I am speaking in front of 1,000 people being broadcast live online and on national radio.  (Rumor has it I didn’t embarrass myself with my comments).

I did manage to accomplish one lifelong goal (along with winning a Stevie, of course) and that was saying “hi to my Mom” during my acceptance speech!

So, needless to say, I am so proud of our team, and particularly of our co-founders Bruce D’Ambrosio and Jane Jorgensen who have built this company from their dining room table to the where we are today – another great example of entrepreneurship at its best.

Congratulations team – this one is all you!