Unroll.me Web App Review

I first met Steve and Jojo of Conceptual.ly last summer at a BD Meetup in NYC. Their only product at the time was a service that turned your twitter followers into a T-shirt. Nothing special but they had a great development team and were looking for ideas to build. I tried partnering with their CEO, Josh, to build a contact management app but they were concerned it would be competing with Hashable who was still a SXSW darling at that point. With the rise of Brewster and Smartr over the past few months our timing could have been perfect but that's another story.

Their latest product unroll.me is something I've used since they launched last December and have been impressed by how they've improved the product. Their MVP was a site that made it possible for you to manage your email subscriptions and successfully unsubscribe from a single place. What once required the user's participation is now an automated email reduction tool that manages your subscriptions by condensing them into a single daily email. It's perfect and I came across it again by accident.

I was voting for my friend Syed's startup LetsLunch who was competing for a free intro video through SwithVideo, unfortunately they didn't win...

Blogging for a cause

Haven't blogged personally for a little while as I've been trying to help spark a community effort to bring a Co-op or market to Kendall Square (well my wife and I are). It's a little side project to address a need we've recognized since moving here in October. It's not something we want to own, run, or manage. Just a fun little project to use Inbound Marketing in order to organize our community. We've seen a little success while in the early stages of building awareness aka trying to get our messaging down. Hopefully we'll eventually have a thriving online community to manage as we look to build a team, develop a plan, and hopefully raise the capital needed to get this thing launched. Check it out:

http://kendallmarket.blogspot.com/

How Much Is Too Much?

I often laugh at people who tell me they're too busy right now. The excuse is often that they're applying to grad school, working ridiculous hours, or having a baby (lame). No doubt people are busy but ultimately these are nothing more than excuses to avoid possible failure/"burnout". Perhaps it's because I'm horrible at saying no or because I have trouble finding limits (never was very good at Calculus). But it's clear that I'm happiest and most productive when busy. Busy enough that it makes other people's heads spin when I tell them what I'm up to. Here is a list of my commitments/activities that put a demand on my time (Note: no particular order of commitment level or amount of time):

1. Zipcar employee (Inbound & Outbound Sales)
2. Rugby Coach (Brandeis University Men's team)
3. Rugby Referee
4. Blogger (Clearly doesn't take up too much time)
5. Career Development (networking, events, emails)
6. Side Projects (Kendall Market, The Mutty Election)
7. President of Friends of Middlebury Rugby (clearly shows my dedication to rugby)