Venture Energy Blog

Seeking Perpetual Inspiration as Entrepreneurial Fuel – Johnson Cook

Venture Energy Blog - Seeking Perpetual Inspiration as Entrepreneurial Fuel – Johnson Cook

The Run, Not the Route – Serial Entrepreneurs and Focused Energy

 

TeaminTrainingI’m training for my first half marathon.   Next week I’ll be in San Diego to run the Rock and Roll Half with a group of entrepreneurs from EO.  Our efforts are for Team in Training: we are fundraising for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and I appreciate your donations to the cause here. (One week to go!)

As I’ve built up my weekly long runs to cover more mileage (now right at 13 miles!#$%), since I prefer to run alone, one of the most interesting aspects has been planning the course and finding routes that will get me the distance needed in my training plan.

I’ve known routes for a 3 mile loop, 4 miles, 5 miles, 10k, and even a 7 miler, but I have no desire to do any of these routes two or three times in a row. I need more variety than that!   So I’ve found some new routes and combinations of known routes to get in nice long runs.

When I’m running a route for the first time, I’m often more focused on the scenery and making the right turns than I am on the run itself.  Without fail, I run slower on unexplored portions of the route in my long runs. So I’ve figured out to always start the long runs with the unfamiliar routes and end with the routes I can run without thinking.

The reason?   When I’m not thinking about which way to go, I’m thinking about what’s really important. My pace. My energy level. My actual run. Besides, that’s the point, isn’t it? The run. Not the route.

It’s incredible how directly this translates to entrepreneurship. Serial entrepreneurs, in their later career companies, are able focused on the run not the route in each additional startup. They can spot issues so much earlier than first-time entrepreneurs. They get their rhythm. They know how to meter their energy, ideas, and cash.  It’s really awesome to watch them work.

Some of my favorite observations of entrepreneurs who are focused on the run:

  • Team and culture friction issues are spotted earlier, and addressed easily with the right amount of TLC. This doesn’t usually include throwing more office benefits in (like buying a pool table, or adding beer to the fridge)… it is quickly getting to the root of stress, discussing it, and finding solutions to the causes.
  • Unnecessary partnerships and other distractions are ignored. Serial entrepreneurs know that they’ve picked the route– aka business model– and taking turns off that business model by exploring often sill strategic partnerships are a waste of time and energy.
  • Investments are made on the right people.   Serial entrepreneurs have been through the broken promises routines before. They know how to spot the candidate that looks amazing on paper but doesn’t work out in the culture of the startup. They waste less money on these mistakes.
  • Cash is handled smarter.  This is the equivalent of energy management on a run. “Go slower than you think you should” is what my coach always tells me. Whether you’ve raised money or are bootstrapping, the not-so-silent killers of cash burn rate and big overhead are aggressively managed.

Last point: I believe the ability to focus on the right things also comes with age and wisdom. In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill says that few people become successful in their 20′s and 30′s because our ability to effectively focus our energy doesn’t come until late 30′s and early 40′s.  No doubt this plays a big part in the success of serial entrepreneurs as well.

Whatever your stage or age, I hope you will work hard to eliminate the noise. Ignore distractions and focus on your pace.  Happy running!

 

Cliff Jumping or Puddle Hopping – Crazy Dramatic Decisions That Aren’t

 

cliff-jumpingLooking back on my own life, I’ve noticed that the best decisions (that in retrospect seem like obvious good decisions) felt like wildly dramatic leaps with unknown outcomes at the time I made them.   I suspect most of us have the same view.

Getting married. Buying our first house. Starting a company instead of taking a salaried job.  Hiring someone. Firing someone. Deciding to open a line of credit or take money from an investor.  Having a baby. Leaving a salaried job.  Adding a position to the org chart and payroll.  Giving up a responsibility. Moving to another community because of the schools. Firing a client. Saying no to a big opportunity.

All of these are the level of big decisions that cause us to lose sleep, but after we make them, life improves and we often find ourselves on a new trajectory.  If you’re stuck on a path, can see where it leads, don’t love where it heads, and you aren’t sure how to change directions: I propose that you need to consider something that seems dramatic.

When you look back, it will probably appear to be one of the many no-brainers that took you to new heights.

Dream bigger.

 

Cure the Destination Disease – Tips for Enjoying the Ride

 

At the recent EO NERVE Conference, in Charlotte, NC, there were some great speakers on life balance and things that matter. My favorites were Steve Gilliland and Gary Kunath.  Steve and Gary are both great speakers with successful careers, inspirational stories, and invaluable lessons. I wanted to share with you some of the big points I took from their talks.

  • Lessons in serial entrepreneurship. One entrepreneur once told Steve that he wanted to build another business after he sold his first because this time around he wanted to enjoy the process of building it this time.  Having started my first business in my late teens / early twenties, I can admit openly that I had no idea how cool it was to be doing what I was doing. Each new business I am involved with now, my goal is to savor the exhilaration and stress that it takes to go from idea to team to customers to company.  Enjoy!
  • The grass will grow back.  Gary spoke of his father and how he would be frustrated with his grandkids (Gary’s kids) for running on the grass and damaging his perfect lawn.   I can relate to this, being a lover of my lawn. I often find myself barking at the kids to stop destroying some plant or part of our lawn with their antics.    Gary said that his kids are now grown and gone and his father stares at a perfect lawn, with no kids, wishing only that they would come back; but that time has passed.   It is a reminder to me that the grass will grow back, but I only have one shot at having crazy fun in the backyard with my 5 and 7 year old boys.
  • Study of Happiness.    One of the speakers described a study comparing lottery winners to individuals who had an accident and became paraplegics. The bottom line is that those winning $200,000,000 in the lottery are less happy after a couple of years than people who had an accident and became paraplegics! It’s about appreciating life around us. Appreciating what we have and savoring every minute.
  • The big deals at death. Consider that you’re in the last few minutes of your life.   When you write out the bulleted list of “big deals” in your life, what will they be?   Now compare that to the list that today you are working through.   Work to constantly put your daily routines and todo list in perspective of what will matter in the end.  Do this activity in your head with some sincerity on a regular basis and your stress level will drop by 50%.  Here’s a video from Gary to demonstrate.

I may not be able to cure my “Destination Disease,” but with events and reminders like this, I hope to work harder to enjoy the ride. Relax. There isn’t a destination.  We’re living it right now, today.

The ironic thing about this conference is that 24 hours before departure I was just about to cancel because I just “have too many things to do.” Wow. Powerful stuff.

 

 

Startups: A Surprising Place to Find Spiritual Satisfaction

 

I find a ton of spirituality in tech startups.

What!?  Yep, you heard me.

Let’s start from a basic question. Where do you find God and spiritual satisfaction?

For me, deep spiritual satisfaction comes from being in motion. In pursuit of something better. It’s not about the what you’re making better, it’s just about movement towards better. As an example, I believe Christianity is all about the pursuit of being better at serving others and making the world a better place to live. It’s that simple, to me.

When stagnation takes hold, that’s the “devil” (or whatever bad news label you want to give it). That’s the lack of presence of good spiritual stuff. Ironically there is a book about the thoughts of Napoleon Hill called Outwitting the Devil.    In his research and writing for Think and Grow Rich, Hill not only explores why successful people succeed, but also why unsuccessful people don’t find their grove.   Doubt. Lack of self-confidence. Laziness. Fear. These are all things that lead to not moving.  It totally supports the idea that real meaning comes from motion.

With this understanding of my view of faith, religion, and spirituality, you can understand why the world of startups and entrepreneurs provides crazy good spiritual satisfaction for me.

  • Entrepreneurs who decide to do a startup are working to make themselves better as people. We all know that to build a good business, you have to build a good entrepreneur at the heart of that business.  Fundamentals are just as true here as in any other discipline. Fundamentals of life balance, a burning passion, and healthy living are key. As the business grows, so must the entrepreneur.   The spiritual energy that took a business from start to go isn’t the same energy that will get the business to the next level. Everything must move.
  • Startups are about making some tiny corner of the world better.   Whether their passion is about making something easier, cheaper, or better, it’s always about movement. It’s about helping a customer move their needle.
  • Over the top generosity and giving is a fundamental success factor for startups, just as it is in anything else. Giving of your time to others helps grow your network, which in turn helps you move. You change trajectories.

This idea is also perhaps what pulls me to technology. Technology is in constant motion. It’s not going to change any time soon. The rate of innovation is exhilarating.  Technology + Startups = More movement towards better than you’ll find in many other disciplines.

This idea is at the core of the reason I encourage “lifestyle entrepreneurs” to take it to the next level. I won’t say that these guys frustrate me, just that I feel like they are leaving tons of fulfillment on the table.   These are entrepreneurs who had the glory of going from 0-60, but then set the cruise control and relax. That’s a nice way to live for some, but for me, I see that the acceleration has slowed or stopped and the juicy satisfaction is going away.  Swinging for the fences doesn’t have to mean taking stupid risks, but it just means persistently moving from where you are today to somewhere else. Keep going! Keep moving!

 

Atlanta Tech Village Design Process and Story- Planting a Forest in Buckhead

Ideas....

Ideas….

One of the fun parts of building the Atlanta Tech Village has been working with Gensler, our design firm, on the renovation and creating the story that the building we want to tell with the physical facilities.   It has been exciting to see that the idea of the Rainforest as an innovation ecosystem has really fueled the creative folks working on the project. We recently had the presentation of the schematic design and it was awesome to see how the ideas of a startup ecosystem could be translated into architectural design.

The concept is that the building is a 5 story building with a basement level and rooftop terrace and the vertical programming of the building will be designed around the vertical story of an actual rainforest.   This legend shows our building levels on the right and the rainforest layers on the left:

Atlanta Tech Village - Building Layout

  • Atlanta Tech Village Club Level RenderingThe basement / club level – the root system -   will be the foundation of the building.   Gyms, locker rooms, showers, massage room, a video production facility, and a small server room.   The textures, colors and fixtures will be designed to show that the root system of a technology building are humming with life to deliver the fuel that the forest needs to thrive.
  • Atlanta Tech Village Community Center Concept RenderingThe first level — the Forest Floor layer — the community center, coffee shop, event center, 400 seat auditorium, plaza park, lobby atrium, patio dining area. This floor is where the highest volume of serendipity happens. This is where, in the rainforest, the “litterfall” lands as it falls from the canopy.  Basic building blocks are broken down and recycled. Accidents happen.   Ideas, talent, and capital find each other in exciting ways. Atoms run into each other just as people run into each other and new life is formed… weeds and all.
  • Atlanta Tech Village - Offices RenderingThe second floor – the Understory Layer — coworking desks, unreserved desks, conference rooms, small glass offices for 2-4 people, and soft seating for quiet collaboration.   In the rainforest, this is where young trees begin. Vines begin to gain traction and shrubs thrive.
  • Levels 3, 4, and 5– the Canopy Layer — private suites, shared community centers, conference rooms — varied lease terms for more established companies. In the rainforest, this is the main layer with thick density. The branches overlap commonly to share resources, but they are firmly attached to established trees.  The canopy layer retains moisture of the forest floor.   Just as the canopy layer does for the rainforest, these established, growing companies are a critical component of the ecosystem.
  • Atlanta Tech Village - Buckhead Rooftop RenderingRooftop Terrace —  The Emergent layer — Select trees will rise above the canopy. These are the exceptions that inspire us, just as the Atlanta Tech Village rooftop experience will inspire all who visit. The emergent trees produce seeds with wings, myst be adapted to a bright, open, and changeable world… only a few will reach this level of growth.

I underestimated how fun it would be to go through this design process. I was expecting nothing more than repetitive, tedious line drawings of floor plans and desk arrangements. And yes, while we’ve spent 80% of the process on those floor plans and desk layouts, designing the story of the building has been very exciting.

I hope that what we build here will be the place where my children decide to start their tech companies in 20 years.

 

 

Tips for Assessing Fit on the Front End

 

My favorite saying from mushy success guys is this: “Your success trajectory over the next 12-months is 99% determined by two things.  First by the quantity and type of books you read, and second by the people you meet.”

With this in mind, are you intentional about who you meet, and how you spend your energy helping others?   I’ve found that I can’t help everyone.   Some folks don’t fit my personality or my high-energy MO. They don’t align with my core values or they drain my energy.   Given this law of the universe (that everyone isn’t a fit) combined with a calendar that stays overbooked, I now assess fit on the front-end of a relationship.

Here are some tips that work for me.

  • Respect to the calendar process – I use several tools to manage my calendar. When someone complains about their inability to schedule a meeting with me, they often sound as though I should apologize for having a busy  schedule.  This is a huge indicator of patience, respect, and seeing things through others’ eyes.  I can’t help these people because I wouldn’t be willing to introduce them to my network, because of the risk that they would treat them similarly.
  • Mode of communication – I hate the telephone. I prefer face-to-face meetings. For information transfer, e-mail is my preferred mode of communication.   Without debating the value of the phone, etc… It is important to note that different people prefer different modes of communicating, and when I’m building a relationship with someone, I like to know that I’ll be able to communicate with them in my own style.  It’s hard to build a relationship of value when two people prefer different modes of communication.
  • Attention to detail – When people show up the wrong day, week, or MONTH to their scheduled appointment with me, it’s a major red flag. DUUUHHH!   Sadly, this has happened most often when I’m meeting with college students to help them find career connections.  For some reason, kids are not taught to use a calendar.   I keep a large stick in the Village that I can use to bang them squarely on the head and suggest that to get a job, the first lesson is to learn how to manage your own schedule.
  • Aggressive WIIFM – These folks reek of selfishness like the sales guy at the conference who stayed out drinking until 6am reeks of booze.   They want to be sure I run through the checklist of things I can give them before our meeting so that I have everything lined up and ready.   It’s sad to see.  And yes, you can see (and smell) it coming from miles away.
  • Obvious stepping stone abuse – These are the folks who have looked at my LinkedIn profile, found a few VIP connections and want to spend an entire meeting asking me how I know so-and-so and what they have to do for an introduction.   To quote my favorite Monday Night Football saying: C’mooonnnn MAN! 
  • Negative Online personality – You will love this one. If you aren’t sure about someone, take a look at their twitter stream or Facebook posts. Count how many of their status updates are positive and how many are negative. This ratio will give a great read on someone’s personality type.

I proclaimed in the beginning of the year that my New Year’s Resolution for 2013 is to provide meaningful value to every person I meet with this year. So far, I feel that I have done a good job of this.  However, I’ve learned that not everyone can be helped at the same level. These front-end filters have been valuable in thinning the herd to the meetings where I can add real value.

 

Don’t Force It

 

Sometimes blog posts flow from my fingers like schmoozing from a politician’s lips. And sometimes they don’t.  This morning, I was stressing about a lack of queued up thoughts and ideas for the blog and I was fortunate enough to have a Duh moment where I told myself “Don’t force it.”

There’s no rush on most things we’re working on. Getting that next big client. Raising the money from the investor to take it to the next level. Finding that perfect portfolio company to invest in.   Everything we do becomes easier when we take 10 deep breaths and remind ourselves: “There is no rush. Don’t force it.”

Achieving this clarity in the heat of battle is powerful.

And sometimes, this clarity will even yield the thing you were trying to force in the first place. In this case… it yielded a blog post called “Don’t Force It.”   ;)

 

Stages of Entrepreneurship and Swinging for the Fences

 

Chipper Swining for the FenceAfter SxSW this year a blog post emerged from Austin’s Brett Hurt entitled “The State of Tech Entrepreneurship in Austin.”  I recommend all those in and around tech entrepreneurs to read this post. It’s not just about Austin. It’s about the stages of entrepreneurship, what it means to truly swing for the fences, and the challenges that many cities face (not just Austin) in growing this attitude.

Here are some of quick notes from the post.

  • The best way to bring the Valley mentality to your city is to send your best and brightest to the Valley. It’s an attitude and a way of doing things that can only be learned by being there. These folks will bring it back to your city.
  • There are stages of entrepreneurial businesses:
    • First stage – consulting or services. The most obvious, the easiest to launch. Limited potential to create economic impact on a large scale. Most first stage businesses in Austin (and Atlanta) are 20 people or less.
    • Second stage – a product based business, almost always investor backed. “Second stage businesses are far more valuable than first-stage businesses under almost any scenario. And if you care about creating a lot of jobs and economic ripples as an entrepreneur, you should focus on thinking bigger than the most obvious business opportunity in front of you…”
    • Third stage – a product-based business that has returned it’s investor capital and then some and is in a long-term phase of Growth. In Austin, Dell and Whole Foods are examples of third-stage entrepreneurial companies.  ”These entrepreneurs represent the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – self-actualization – and numerous books are written about them.”
  • Hurt is convinced Austin is stuck in a first-stage entrepreneurial mentality. He shares the story of an entrepreneur who pitched him his plan to fund his product company with his successful consulting/services company.  He points out that none of the great product companies that impress us today were started with funds from a services business.   (In Atlanta, however, I have to point out that Mailchimp is exactly that– a great product that came from a few guys who were funding it with their consulting services.)
  • On going for a second stage product based company:   You have more energy in your 30′s than you will in your 40′s… and if you are this age, now is the time to “park” your first-stage ambitions for lifestyle and personal cash-flow  and swing for the fences.   If you miss the window to change gears, you will enter the vicious cycle where you need to sell more consulting business to fund your growing need to pivot to a product business and that will make you even more defocused.

I encourage everyone to read the post by Brett and ponder what this means for your city:

http://lucky7.io/post/the-state-of-tech-entrepreneurship-in-austin

 

 

Young Entrepreneur Jon Birdsong, CEO of Rivalry.com

Birdsong

 

Jon Birdsong, is one of everybody’s favorite young entrepreneurs in Atlanta. Having worked for multiple tech startups, gone through the famous TechStars Accelerator in Boulder, CO, and even founded several community organizations in Atlanta, @JonnyBird has taken the leap to start his own tech startup.   Rivalry.com is a sales process management software that helps drive compention among sales reps and bring better automation to tasks that happen to close deals. It’s good stuff in the works.

What do you do as an entrepreneur to balance your most important personal relationships (spouse, kids, family)?

Call, text, and make time for them. Ben Franklin has a famous line “friendships are always in need of constant repair” Prioritizing a call with a brother, a text convo with a friend is important or brunch with the girlfriend is important

What is your exercise routine?

50 pushups every night before I go to bed.
Then I run three to four miles 3-5 times a week.

What gives you the most personal energy?

Progress and traction. Doing something that works. There’s nothing more that motivates me than going down the right path and getting validation it’s succeeding.

What do you avoid because it drains your personal energy?

People who drain me.

How are you involved in the community?

Predominately two ways:

The Atlanta Startup Community. I write for AtlantaStartupCommunity.com and co-organize the monthly Atlanta Startup Village.

Families First: They are an organization focused on building families in and around the Atlanta area. Actually, we have a really fun event coming up on February 28th at Sweetwater Brewery. You should come!

Are you involved in a church or other religious organization? How do you think spirituality is important to your entrepreneurial success?

Spirituality is very important to an entrepreneurs’ success. How you build and grow your organization is a reflection of your mental and, I’d even go as far to say, your physical health.

What are your most proud moments regarding your own legacy?

Following a path that’s truly mine and…of course the future!

How do you find ways to help others and give back?

Outside of my work in the Atlanta Startup Community and Families First, I try to just listen. Listen to everybody. People always need someone to talk talk to and bounce ideas/problems/goals on. Listening to folks is a really powerful way to help.

What hobbies are important to you and why do they give you energy?

I try to play golf once every other week. It’s such a great way to apply the challenges and struggles of real life to sport. The bottom line, on every shot, you’ve got to dig deep and give it your all.

Do you have written personal core values, what are they?

I grew up with the Golden Rule being cemented in my head. Thanks Mom.

Do you have a personal mastermind group? Can you describe how they give you energy?

You know, I don’t. Or at least it’s not structured that way. I have folks who’s opinion I significantly respect and when I’m looking for guidance, they’re the first ones I go to. Anyone with energy emits energy — I like to hang out with high-energy folks.

What competitive advantages do you have as an individual that has made / will make you more successful than the guy you are competing against in business?

I genuinely like working with people. There’s nothing more exciting than building a team, tackling a problem, and having a ton of fun in the mean time. One quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower has resonated with me for quite some time: “leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something that you want done because he/she wants to do.”

 

 

 

True Students of Entrepreneurship

 

pianoIn the last 100 days, as I have been full throttle on studying how we can grow and accelerate the startup ecosystem in Atlanta, it has been a deep-dive observation on entrepreneurship, not just in our city, but in general.  One theme I’m starting to see is the dramatic differences between lifestyle entrepreneurs and serial entrepreneurs.

Seth Godin had a brilliant post recently:

Studying entrepreneurship without doing it

…is like studying the appreciation of music without listening to it.

The cost of setting up a lemonade stand (or whatever metaphorical equivalent you dream up) is almost 100% internal. Until you confront the fear and discomfort of being in the world and saying, “here, I made this,” it’s impossible to understand anything at all about what it means to be a entrepreneur. Or an artist.

In that sense, I’m starting to see that individuals who have a single profitable lifestyle company, generating piles of cash for their families aren’t as similar as you may think to the entrepreneurs who create company after company, after company.

When you think about it, how can they be?   If you have to solve each problem just once, for one particular situation, in one market, with one team, to serve one purpose– you don’t learn about the processes of solving those problems, you just solve the problems.

If you create one painting, are you in the same league as someone who paints for a living?

If you land a plane once, are you now a pilot?

If you learn Chopsticks on the piano, are you a pianist?

Building a team, attacking a market, building a product– lifestyle entrepreneurs learn how do it just for that one company in one situation.   The most impressive entrepreneurs I’ve met are the serial entrepreneurs. They  learn these lessons beyond a single instance. They are true students of entrepreneurship, not just students of one company.

Serial entrepreneurship isn’t for everybody. I am not promoting that you aren’t an entrepreneur if you don’t pursue multiple companies.

What I am promoting are these two morals:

a) as an ecosystem, it is important for us to recognize the different types of entrepreneurs.

b) as individuals running companies, self-awareness of our own entrepreneurial journey will give us the right stuff to improve.

 

 

 

 

Brer Entrepreneur in The New Wild West

 

Brer RabbitI received quite a few offline comments back on my post about Insightpool’s ability to automate relevant conversations between companies and individuals. Some were excited; they wanted an introduction to the founders. Others (several) expressed concern about the Minority-Report’esque privacy challenges with social media tools like this.

In the Internet today, we are at the early stages of the New Wild West. The platform is creating new opportunities to connect, learn, and grow by the hour. These opportunities will bring with them new problems and challenges. New grand challenges are food for entrepreneurs.

Challenges mean opportunities to solve them.  Conflict and uncertainty in society are the “briar patch” for little ol Brer Entrepreneurs. (if that doesn’t makes sense to you, shame on you, go here.)

A simplistic example follows, directly from the social marketing automation discussion:

The conversation went like this: “Do I have to assume that everything I say in my online social networks is always going to be available for global consumption? What if I want to have extremely private conversations using these tools?  What if my employer sees me say something that I wouldn’t want them to see? What if an insurance company uses something I say against me?”

The non-entrepreneur, aka common sense answer: “Well just accept that it is what it is and if you don’t want it seen, don’t type it.”

The entrepreneur, “boldly go” answer: “Sounds like you see a problem that needs solving. Maybe you aren’t the only one who sees the problem. Go build something to get you where you want to go and maybe others will see value in it as well.”

As we enter the New Wild West, it will pay to be Antifragile. Entrepreneurship in it’s most awesome, inspirational form is fueled by antifragility.

Oh, and please, please, don’t throw ME into the briar patch!

 

 

Automating Relevance – Awesome Startup Insightpool with Inspirational Ideas

 

I rarely write about specific startup companies on this blog, but lately, I just can’t get this one out of my head, because their ideas are so potentially helpful to so many professionals and businesses.

Insightpool is a startup in the Atlanta Tech Village that is working to crack the code on automating relevant interactions on twitter and other social media.   What does that mean?

I’ll give you some examples and you’ll see why I think they are working on something special.

This morning I heard an interview with Rep. Paul Ryan on the radio and I was really impressed with him. So I decided to shoot out a tweet giving him a plug.  Nothing much happened from that tweet other than a few favorites from my own network.  But what if @RepPaulRyan’s office had a tool that enabled them to listen very closely to the entire twitter-verse for mentions like that, and then not only Follow, and Retweet me, but somehow engage me in a discussion about something relevant to their work.   This is what Insightpool is working to crack.

Or even more relevant — let’s say I decide to start working in the yard tomorrow, and I mention on Twitter that the kids could use a new swing set.   What if @TheHomeDepot could see that (without me mentioning them by name), and shoot me some links to stuff in my local store that I could go pick up on special. Or even hotter– what if they sent me a friendly discount code that is only for me, only for one day, only for the stuff that I need.  Then what if they saw that I used the discount code to buy some swing accessories, followed up with me the next day to ask how it went.  What if they even asked me for a photo of the kids on the new swing set.

That is some cool stuff, and with the work of cool tech startups like Insightpool, we’re headed in that direction. Can’t wait!

ps. If my friends in Vinings over at HomeDepot.com are reading this and haven’t already reached out to Insightpool, it’s http://insightpool.com.  Happy swing set building!