Returning to Normalcy

After my first week back in Switzerland I'm starting to feel plugged back in to a "normal life." Although it's not routine per se, it is beginning to feel just like business as usual--a good thing.

Even though I have a car at my disposal here it is amazing how much more active I am just from walking/taking public transportation everywhere! Since my arrival, I've burned an average of 3,415 calories per day vs. an average of 3,054 per day in Houston. The fact that much of the walking is uphill probably contributes as well!

Friday night I attended an apartment party for a former Poken coworker who is leaving to join the staff of . . . IMD! I know from personal experience that it can be hard to make the decision to depart from Poken but I am very, very excited for her new opportunity--and for IMD's great new team member!. The party was a lot of fun and ridiculously international--exactly what I remember about my Swiss social life.

Saturday one of my best friends from IMD and his family came to visit so we organized a small dinner gathering with other local classmates. It was so nice to see everyone and impressive how easily and naturally we fell back into catch-up discourse. IMD is more than a name on our diplomas; it is a unique, trying, wonderful experience that binds us all together and--I suspect--always will.

Sunday was the finals of the World Cup. As I did Tuesday night for the semifinals, I attended a major outdoor viewing party in Ouchy with an enormous screen. The place was packed to the hilt with fans for Spain but we were cheering for Holland (supporting Margot, one of my French classmates's Dutch wife, who organized the get-together). It was a tough, close match but, in the end, Spain won and we had to sneak out before the mob turned on us.

Soccer really frustrates me to watch. It does have potential and I can see why so many people worldwide get excited about it whenever there's a run toward goal that makes you hold your breath. However, more of it seems to be about baiting the ref for some wimpy foul instead of just playing the game and that just totally ruins it for me. Still, it was fun to be amidst a throng of people who were very, very excited about the game.

This will be a short week as I have much to do before heading to Turkey for an IMD class mini-reunion!

2009

Katie and I spent New Year's Eve with friends at two separate house parties, both of which were a lot of fun. There was a "black" theme at one of the parties to represent the "laying to rest" of 2009. Not one to settle for just black tie, I also donned a head band and katana to be a black tie ninja. Not exactly funeral attire, but much more fun!

At both parties many people seemed very excited for 2009 to be over; it wasn't a great year for most. For me, though, it was pretty awesome. In this post I'll take a look at my journey through this roller coaster of a year.

Of course the story of the first half of 2009 for me was Poken. I came on board five days before product launch as employee #7 and manager #2, originally in charge of Product. As our first product took off, it became apparent that our major challenges weren't in product--they were in delivery. So I shifted in March to become Head of Global Operations, tasked with building the team, systems, and processes to enable our little company (headcount 11 by that point) to grow to the next level. By July we had sold hundreds of thousands of pokens in 30 countries, grown to a staff of 20 in two locations, won major awards, introduced a second product, and my Poken-related travels had taken me across three continents. What a whirlwind! The best thing that came out of it by far, though, was working with such a great team--talented, passionate, and of high integrity.

This made it very difficult for me to decide to leave Poken at the end of August. Everything was going so well and, moreover, I was loving living in Switzerland. However, as most readers know, I am committed to working toward a better energy future and Poken simply didn't match up with that goal. What's more, living so far from Katie was great for our frequent flier miles, but not so great for our goals of being together (She's sitting here next to me on the couch as I type and this is exactly what we were missing.).

So, I made a decision for my career, my relationship, and my ethic of what is right--and I made this decision with my heart instead of with my head, which is something on which I worked a great deal in . . . business school, of all places. But then IMD was hardly a typical business school!

After taking September off to travel around Europe visiting fantastic wineries and even more fantastic friends, I returned to my home in Houston and began work on the next chapter. For the last quarter of 2009 I divided my time between getting settled back into American life and laying the foundation for pursuit of my career dream in 2010.

My quest to find something that marries my skills in leadership, experience in IT entrepreneurship, and passion for green energy culminated by the end of the year in being given the opportunity to join the senior management team of a UK-based cleantech company to help them scale up globally--with particular focus on the American market.

It took us a while to structure the deal and, as expected, the real work to getting the deal done wasn't financial or strategic; it was rooted in personal dynamics. Again, I felt the benefit of IMD preparation throughout the process. Now at the cusp of 2010, we have created a subsidiary company in the US (Smart Office Energy Solutions), raised a modicum of seed capital, imported products from the UK, begun the electrical certification process, and secured our first clients and resellers. There is still a long, long way to go before we've empowered businesses worldwide to reduce their office energy consumption 30%, but the momentum is so exciting!

As many readers also know, fitness is a major part of my life and the end of the year offers a good time to pause, reflect, evaluate how things went, and adjust the future course. In terms of meeting fitness goals, 2009 was really a Tale of Two Halves. In the first six months of the year I shed ~5 lbs of bodyfat while adding 4 of lean muscle mass--both good trends! But, here at the end of the year, I'm only ~2 lbs of bodyfat down with no real change in lean muscle mass. Most men in their 30s add fat and lose muscle each year, so I can't really complain about staying relatively even. However, this is a major disappointment to someone who seeks constant improvement--especially given how well the year began. The second half of the year was filled with travel, change, and adaptation to a new fitness regime back in the States. As I look toward 2010, I believe I have a solid base under me on which to get back on track.

Well there you have it: 2009, not a bad year all-in-all and one filled with great opportunities to be realized in 2010. In my next post I'll discuss plans for 2010 and . . . new year's resolutions!

Poken One-Year Anniversary

December 8th was the one-year anniversary of my start with Poken. I can't believe it, that really seems lifetimes ago. What a roller coaster ride it was: arriving just as we launched the product commercially, working feverishly to update the product to meet the massive surge of initial demand, building a team quickly to keep up with the scale of growth, and--ultimately--making the heart-wrenching decision to leave Poken to lead a company that is working toward a better energy future. Poken is still doing well, growing and expanding every day. I wish the team all the best there and I look forward to the day when everyone else has a Poken!

Also in the news recently, my high school was selected as the top public school in the nation for the third year in a row. Once again I am humbled by the company I am in and can only strive to live up to such a standard. I feel very, very fortunate to have had the opportunity to attend TJ and I must make the most of it!

Reunion

The last week has been absolutely wonderful. Building up to the IMD MBA 2008 reunion here in Lausanne, I spent most of my non-working hours catching up with those whom I haven't seen since our graduation last year. It began on Tuesday when my Swedish classmate, Jesper, arrived in town and crashed at my apartment for a few nights. We went out for drinks with the other Laussanois classmates as well as some others who had made it into town early but we also had great opportunities just to catch up between ourselves. I found this particularly valuable as Jesper is working on a project to bring distributed solar energy to the developing world. I know he will be wildly successful and perhaps some day we will have the opportunity to work together.

On Thursday, Jesper's family arrived so he moved into a hotel with them. Then Friday my Slovakian classmate, Tomas, arrived to take over the Jesper suite. Friday was fun. The reunion began with lunch at IMD followed by a full afternoon of presentations from IMD faculty and staff about the school, the program, and the like. After our back-to-class sessions (No case preparation necessary!) we moved to the IMD restaurant for a cocktail and dinner. For those of us who traditionally spent most of our lunch time playing ping pong, this meant that we first played ping pong all evening until the sun went down and it was no longer feasible. Oh what glorious memories!

That same evening the Class of 2009 had organized a Latin Party so we stopped by for some dancing and catch-up then wrapped up at MGM, one of our favorite lakeside watering holes from last year. It was a great kickoff to what was sure to be an exceptional weekend.

Saturday morning most of the class loaded onto buses for a day-long hike in the mountains. The four of us who frequently played beach volley last year, though, embraced the gorgeous weather and returned to the sand courts of Vidy. Mario (Brazilian), Martin N. (Czechoslovakian), Tomas, and I were the only ones playing so we enjoyed several games and a dip in the lake before a relaxing lunch at Le Carousel.

It is amazing but the weather here is clearly tending toward fall already. The high on Saturday was in the mid-60s (F) and there was evidence of many fallen leaves on the ground. Furthermore there was that particular autumn smell in the air that indicated warmer clothing would be necessary soon. It seems that just about the time that it becomes too cool for beach volley in Lausanne I will move to Houston where I can keep playing for another two months--good planning!

After lunch we returned to the courts and played against locals, who had finally begun arriving. A dip in the lake and a nap back home prepared us for the evening's festivities. What seemed like the entire class gathered at Le Pur for dinner and followed up at Red Club afterward. It was wonderful to see everyone but it was apparent that everyone was dead tired after a full day of physical activity in the sun. By 3 AM only Peter (the Great Dane), Ian B. (Canuck), and I were left at the club so we decided to call it a night.

Sunday morning began early as I met up with Sergei (Belorussian) and Martin N. for a mini-reunion of our first building block bbb7 group. We decided to allocate some time to discuss the weightiest issues on our mind. I therefore expected to be talking about career issues, professional challenges, etc. but, instead, we spent the whole time talking about the women in our lives! Hmm, maybe that's dangerous to refer to our women as "weighty" but they know we love them! :-)

Although we could have tarried for hours, we wrapped up our discussion and made our way to Parc du Milan for the final Class of 2008-vs-Class of 2009 soccer match of the year. 2008 won 2-0 to take the series decisively. The Class of 2009 will forever cry foul that some of their players were unavailable due to ICP travel requirements but, well, a win is a win. :-)

All Sunday afternoon was spent at a relaxing picnic along the lake. We grilled out, ate, drank, and took hours to say all of our goodbyes. It was a wonderful weekend and many thanks go out to the organizing committee--especially our fearless Chair, Irina (Russian), for pulling it seamlessly together. Those who were unable to attend were sorely missed but we will all hope to see them soon.

Pictures are in my facebook album.

On the subject of tearful goodbyes, today is my last day at Poken. I have a great deal to accomplish in order to enjoy a farewell drink this evening at Les Brassieurs. What an intense ride it has been! I will definitely miss the Poken team and just as definitely I will continue to foster Poken adoption wherever I go.

A New Way

There's a feeling I get

When I look to the West

And my spirit is crying for leaving

-"Stairway to Heaven," Led Zeppelin

After months of very hard, conflicted consideration I submitted my resignation to Poken on July 13th. In this blog entry I will lay out the reasons behind my decision and present what comes next.

First, let me be clear: I love Poken. I believe in its success. I especially love the team, including the awesome, incredibly dedicated people we have on staff AND the amazing extended team of resellers, evangelists, and users around the world. I've never been part of something before that has elicited so much passion so quickly from so many. So why leave? There are many reasons, but they fall broadly into three categories:

1. As many of you know, my real desire post-IMD was to make a positive impact on the global energy challenge. I tried to tell myself that Poken would be a learning opportunity (and it has been!) that would better prepare me for a green career later on (and it has done!) but, at the end of the day, I'm just not buying my own rhetoric. Every movie I watch, every book I read, and most of the news articles I read remind me that energy presents THE challenge of this generation and I simply don't feel fulfilled professionally if I'm not contributing to the solution. Looking back through my IMD application essays and even my very first blog entry reminds me that developing the skills and tools to help address this challenge was my major motivation to come to IMD in the first place. 250 blog posts later, sitting in the Poken office, I began feeling that I had lost my way--time to get back on track.

2. I need to be closer to Katie. I love her, I need her, my life is more complete when I'm around her, and she deserves better than a partner who is halfway around the world. After 18 months of trying to make a commuter relationship work, I have a lot of airline frequent flier miles (Woohoo!) but that is little compensation for the heartache during the times apart. It was hard at IMD but we always had the light at the end of the tunnel of graduation. Now there is no light other than one that we make for ourselves. My prospects in the US are much more favorable than are hers in Europe, so I will return to the US.

3. There is another reason to return to the US as well: my country needs me. Oh wow, that looks even more arrogant on my screen than it sounded in my head. Let me explain. We spent a lot of time last year--especially in Jean-Pierre Lehmann's International Political Economy class--revealing the faults of the US and the mistakes my country has made. I learned a lot from the 44 nations represented in our auditorium about collective psychology and about attitudes toward the US--both positive and negative. Perhaps nowhere did I learn more, though, than in study room 007. I will never forget a heated debate with my Chinese groupmate, Gong Ping, regarding with whom lay the responsibility for changing the world's course on energy. Over time it sunk in that the world may never correct its path unless we gluttons who steered it wrongly in the first place lead by example. And so I believe that a better energy future has to begin with the US. Thank you, Chairman, for helping me see the way.

Over the past several years I spent a lot of time apologizing for the US--it was hard not to, given the administration. I moved to Europe. I even applied for dual citizenship in Italy. I'm ashamed to say it but I may have lost my national identity somewhat. But discussions in class that made my blood boil, the rhetoric of a new administration, and a lot of self reflection have jolted me back to my senses.

For all her faults, I love my country. I still get chills when I hear the Star-Spangled Banner. I still cry when I think of those who have given their lives in her service. I'm still a patriot. I've never taken the opportunity to serve my country as valiantly as have some of my noble friends and family in the forces, but now perhaps I can do my part. She needs devoted leaders to support a sea change in energy and I will answer the call.

Leaving something that is very successful and gaining momentum is hard to do so I spent a lot of time toiling with the rational pros and cons of my decision. At the end of the day, though, I made the decision for exactly one very irrational, very compelling reason: this new direction just feels right. Trusting my feelings is something I still have a hard time doing but I had a much harder time with it before IMD. Many thanks to all of my professors, classmates, and especially loved ones for helping me develop both the awareness of and trust in those feelings last year.

So what now? I will stay with Poken until the end of August to ensure a smooth transition of my responsibilities and not leave Poken hanging. I will remain in Lausanne until the end of September to tie up loose ends and begin work on identifying whatever comes next. I have an offer to be the CEO of a US green technology startup. It's a really good fit for my background (IT-based, B2B, based in Houston) so I may take it, but I am still vetting the opportunity and identifying others. I feel actually somewhat as I did at this point last year: with a universe of possibilities out there and not really knowing where to start. With the benefit of 8 months of work behind me, though, I am now much more focused on exactly what I want to be doing and where/how I can contribute the most.

Whatever I wind up doing, I will miss my classmates and Poken colleagues on this side of the Pond very dearly. I emailed this blog post out to my classmates yesterday and the tremendous outpouring of support I have received from them has been nothing short of moving. In the language of George Kohlrieser, my family, friends, and classmates are secure bases that give me the strength for tough decisions and I am truly blessed to have them in my life. This move will be a step toward living up to all the blessings I have been given. There is no certainty in this path and I don't know where it will lead. However, in a blog entry just over a year ago, upon my return from Kenya, I committed to give responsible leadership all I've got. Well, here it is. Here I am. Bring it on.

Mixed Media

Last week marked several milestones for me regarding different forms of media:

1. I finished listening to the entire Jimmy Buffett discography chronologically and am now well prepared for the July 5th concert in London. Speaking of which, I still have an extra ticket for that show if any Parrot Heads are looking to join.

I've made my way through the "K"s and I'm now in Led Zeppelin, having just finished I and II. What a strong start they made onto the music scene!

2. I beat all the Military Madness levels as both the good Allies and as the evil Axis, so I now hold the title of Grand Strategy Pooba--at least by 1989 video game standards! If history is any evidence I probably won't play any video games again for a long time but this was a fun diversion for the last few weeks.

3. I watched The Kite Runner in lieu of reading the book. I'm sure the book was better but most reviews I read indicated that movie was pretty faithful to it. It was interesting--pretty well done.

4. I finished Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, his third in a string of engaging, thought-provoking books. I question some of the causality in the cases he makes but they are interesting nonetheless and I would recommend this book. Reading it gave me pause for thought about the opportunities I have had and especially about the unique high school environment created for us at TJ. Fortune has definitely smiled on me throughout much of my life and I'm not sure I deserve it. All I can do is my best and hope that I live up to the extraordinary opportunities with which I have been blessed.

On another note, things are absolutely crazy at the Poken office these days. We have flown in our new Web interface development team for "war room" style productivity. This has effectively doubled our headcount--but of course we haven't increased our office space at all. Result: high entropy! "Chaos" might be a better word, but it seems to be productive. The new team members are nice and smart and a good addition to our existing uberteam.

It Finally Happened

This weekend has been remarkable for several reasons. Chronologically:

1. On Friday it was announced that Jimmy Buffett will be performing not one but two shows in Europe this year, both in small venues. July 5th he will be in London in a theater that seats ~2,000 and September 26th he will be in Paris in a jazz lounge that seats ~900. Last year's show in a jazz lounge in Paris was UNBEATABLE. If you really consider yourself a parrothead, come join me one of these shows!

2. On Friday I finished J.R.R. Tolkien's Book of Lost Tales. It was very long and slow going but it provided amazing insight into how Tolkien arrived at the stories that were ultimately published in The Silmarillion and laid the foundation for The Lord of the Rings. It's not for the faint of heart but I recommend it for any die-hard Tolkien fans.

3. Many of you know that I have never been shat upon by a bird before in my entire life. Walking to and from IMD every day last year, I always had this fear that my streak would be broken as the paths through the woods around campus were coated with bird poop. Miraculously, however, I made it through unscathed and reached my 30th birthday still unsoiled.

Saturday morning, one of my coworkers, Bogdan, and I went to IMD to play ping pong. Bogdan is a good athlete; he was a soccer star in Romania and he has picked up beach volleyball very quickly, providing me with a much-needed partner who is consistently available. It turns out that he is pretty good at ping pong too; he beat me 5 games to 3, but most of our games were settled by 2-3 points and a few of them went to deuce.

During one game, as I was winding up for a forehand smash, I felt something on my shoulder. After putting the smash away for a winner, I looked back and was surprised to see what was obviously bird poop. On May 23rd, 2009, at approximately 11:30 AM, 30 years and 2 months to the day after I entered this world, my great streak was finally broken! It's actually kind of a relief. Bogdan and I already share a special bond because we went into the cold, cold lake together after beach volleyball earlier this year. Now we shall truly be united forever--thebrotherhood of Poken sports and bird poop!

4. After ping pong we went to play some beach volleyball and then met up with another coworker, Dave, for a late lunch. Dave and his family had arrived in their boat so they took us out for a quick tour of the lake. I'm embarrassed to say it but, after almost 18 months in Lausanne, this was my first time actually out on Lake Geneva. Crazy! Better late than never, though. It was fun looking at Lausanne from the outside in. We traced all the paths I usually run along and it felt like I was looking at them from the other side of a mirror.

5. I beat Military Madness and am now starting over, playing as the bad guys. I really don't have any time to play video games, but it really is therapeutic to devote brain cycles to strategy in a context other than Poken.

6. Rice baseball is undefeated in the C-USA tournament and will play in the championship game tonight. Go Owls!

Bogdan and I are off for some more ping pong and volleyball then this evening I'll work on a presentation for a talk I am giving on Tuesday. If anyone will be in Geneva on Tuesday, come by for the panel on new media and the future of social networking.

Pics of the above are in my facebook album.

Team Poken

Yesterday some coworkers from Poken and I played beach volleyball after work until it was completely dark out--around 9:30 these days. It had rained during the day so there weren't many other people there and we had no trouble taking the court we wanted. It wasn't exactly the highest level of play, but it was a good time. I like my coworkers; we have a good team full of smart, competent, fun people--it's a great basis on which to grow.

I've been blogging less frequently recently, partly because I've started microblogging on twitter. This helps me post those small, ad hoc musings that otherwise would need to wait for a more concerted blog entry.

The other reason I haven't been blogging much is that life has been pretty routine recently--hectic, but routine. In June my two favorite beach volley partners of all time (who also happen to be my two favorite wine consumption partners of all time) will come visit, though, so I expect plenty of bloggable stories to be generated then!

Sand and Snow

Friday afternoon we had an all-hands meeting at the Poken offices. Stephane regaled us with his vision for the future of the company and the product; I followed up with new initiaves we will be taking to ensure realization of that vision. We then partook in Romanian wine and chocolate courtesy of one of our software engineers, who is from Romania.

As we wound down the day, the sun shone ever more brightly and it warmed up into the 60s. That meant only one thing--the official start of Lausanne's beach volleyball season! After work I changed into board shorts, hopped a bus down to Vidy, and--sure enough--there were people playing. I only squeezed in a couple of games before it was time to head to dinner, but it felt great. My hitting timing was way off but my hand sets were surprisingly on. After the games I took a dip in the freeeeeeeeeezing lake to rinse off the sand then returned back up the mountain. There I was treated to make-your-own pizza courtesy of one of my coworkers and her flatmates. Thanks, Asena!

Saturday was another story altogether. The entire company traveled to Crans-Montana for the last weekend of the ski season. There was a survival of the fittest competition going on and the athletes were using pokens so we had to be there. Some of us chose skis, some snowboards, and some--especially those with small children--just hiking boots. For a whole day we forgot about the mountains of work piling up and focused instead on a very different kind of mountain!

In that I haven't skied since high school, I figured that I would probably have to re-learn from scratch. And if I was going to have to re-learn from scratch, I figured I might as well try something different--so I rented a snowboard instead of skis.

The Swiss version of a bunny slope is much, much steeper than what you would find on the east coast of the US (or maybe they just don't even have bunny slopes?) so my first trip down featured many, many falls. Fortunately, Guillaume, one of our investors and a certified snowboard instructor, swooped in to teach me the basics. After a few more runs I was making it down decently--if not quickly--and steering intentionally.

I must have become giddy in my excitement about not falling, though, because somehow I lost my phone on the slopes. I retraced my path a couple of times but was unsurprisingly unable to relocate it. Oh well, it usually takes me forever and a day to respond to voicemails--now at least I have an excuse!

Saturday night we were treated to real Swiss fondue and raclette courtesy of Le Chalet. After a day in the sun practicing a new sport and an evening of heavy cheese and wine, I was wiped. Most of the company went out to an afterparty, but I called it a night--I really AM old now!

What a great weekend, though. My traps are sore from volleyball, every other muscle is sore from stabilizing on the snowboard (Real snowboarders probably don't contract every muscle in their bodies simultaneously but I never claimed to be a real snowboarder!), my butt is sore from lots of falling down, and my skin is sore from sunburn. I wouldn't have it any other way! :-)

The juxtaposition of sun, sand, and snow this weekend was cool, but I'm honestly most excited about the increasing availability of sun and sand!

Taiwan!

I passed my 30th year mark somewhere over China en route to Taiwan. Actually, our KLM flight stopped in Amsterdam and Bangkok before arriving in Taipei but, unfortunately, there was no time to get out and explore either of those locations.

Our time it Taiwan was really excellent, albeit very rushed as we were only there for 48 hours. We arrived in the evening and launched immediately into meetings. First up was a group of women looking to bring Poken to the Taiwanese market. They have good ideas and I wish them the best success. Next we met with our manufacturing partners, who took us out for karaoke.

Karaoke was an amazing experience in and of itself. We were in a private room, waited on hand and foot, and singing slightly modified versions of late 80s soft rock--at least at first. With some help from the girl next to me (name pronounced like "Go-Go"), we managed to find the song lists for Michael Jackson and George Michaels--then it was on! Stephane and I belted out tunes (Fortunately the girls knew how to turn the background music up to drown out our singing!) until the music selection turned to the Backstreet Boys.

At one point in the evening a cake arrived and Happy Birthday was sung. Considering that I was far away from family and friends on my birthday, this was a great way to ring in the new year. I am also very, very, very appreciative of all the calls, cards, emails, and facebook messages people sent. Thank you very much for reaching out even from far away!

Our next day was filled with meetings, discussing new product versions and our ability to scale up production to address Poken's worldwide stock-out. We have far outpaced our original growth projections so modifications must be made to increase our manufacturing capacity. The meetings went well and I am very impressed with the professionalism of our Taiwanese partner.

Tuesday night we went out for Japanese food and then walked around local night markets. We also wandered around the outside of Taipei 101 but it was already closed so we couldn't go up. Stephane and I "turned in" relatively early (before 1 AM) but then stayed up for hours answering email backlogs. Our body clocks hadn't adjusted yet and we were energized. We shared a room (Yay, startup life!) but this time we had come prepared enough not to have to wear our underwear inside out!

Wednesday's meetings were more of the same (Korean BBQ for lunch!) and, again, went very well. Then it was back to the airport, through Bangkok and Amsterdam, and finally back in Switzerland. It was a real whirlwind but a great experience for my birthday and first time in Asia. Now I can't wait to go back, learn the local languages better, and spend more time soaking up the culture.

Coming and Going

I just dropped my week-long house guest off at the train station (where IMD Professor Dominiq Thurpin was also taking the train to Geneve-Aeroport) for a tearful goodbye. It was a wonderful week with her in town and it felt so, so, so good to cook again--really for the first time in my 15 months in Lausanne. She also helped me outfit the apartment so it finally is really liveable.

We capped off the week with a birthday dinner last night at La Suite, where I have long eyed the 95-point Valdicava Brunello di Montalcino 2003 on their wine list. For the second time in a week our restaurant turned out only to have one bottle remaining so we were clearly destined to drink it. I would describe it as good-not-great. To be fair, it was too young and should have had a few more years in the bottle. It definitely opened up after a couple of hours but, even still, it didn't bowl me over. There were good red currant flavors up front and a gorgeous, satiny texture. The tannin profile was one of the best, most gentle I have tasted and the finish went on and on. Perhaps these are clues that James Suckling uses to predict that this wine will be 95 points in the future, when it is ready to drink. I readily admit that I don't have enough experience drinking top-quality Brunello to have an exceptional feel for its aging trajectory. To quote Braveheart, well that's something we shall have to remedy, now isn't it?

The rest of the dinner was delicious, as I have come to expect from La Suite: crottin de chevre and lentil soupe to start, bone-in lamb and sea bass after, followed by molten chocolate cake that paired excellently with the last dregs of our Brunello. Of course nothing could beat the company as we plotted out ways to change the world and juggle international careers. It was a fantastic ending to a fantastic pre-birthday week.

Now it is time to return 100% of my focus to Poken. I have been taking on too many things in my three months here and, as a consequence, not doing any of them exceptionally. It's my fault for letting myself get sucked into working in the business instead of on it, which is always an easy temptation in a startup where everything is urgent. It is not too late to rectify, however, and I'm on the case, working feverishly to crank out some deliverables before I hop on a plane to Taipei this afternoon.

Poken is encroaching on US soil!

One of my coworkers attended SXSW in Austin last week and inadvertently made a big splash for Poken. We found ourselves on the front page of techcrunch, on many US blog sites, and . . . on NPR!!! Our site traffic has doubled since then and we have completely sold out on every continent (Last week we launched the product in Japan and it sold out in hours!). Not to worry, though, manufacturing has ramped up and we will be restocked soon. This is very exciting!

In other news, I went for my first run along the lake of 2009 Monday evening with my favorite running partner. The skies were clear and the red sunset reflected pink off the snowy mountains. The weather was warm enough to wear shorts (although still with long sleeves) and the birds chirping + trees budding harkened the spring to come. The lake was as smooth as glass, so all of the above was reflected beautifully during a long, slow jog.

While she has been here we have been cooking every night. Potato leek soup, wild mushroom risotto, mmmmmm. It feels so good to have a real kitchen again!

Yesterday I flew up to London for the first all-hands meeting of our Sales & Marketing (S&M!) team. It took 10 hours of travel for < 5 hours of discussion but it was good to have our personnel from the US, Netherlands, UK, and Switzerland all together in the same place. Next week I may find myself in Taiwan. Welcome to the world of the mobile work force!

Weekend in Paris

As I write, I am speeding along the French countryside in the TGV. I am following my progress on Google Maps on my cell phone; any of my friends on Google Latitude can see where I am in real-time too.

During this 4-hour train ride I have spent my time napping and reflecting on the lift conference. I was very, very pleased with lift for a few reasons. First of all, from Poken’s perspective, our new conference badge prototype worked very well. There were a few small glitches and there are clearly some usability issues to address before we release a final version but the product was functional and we had three days of testing with great users who provided very insightful feedback. Fortunately, many of the suggestions we received are features/fixes we are already working on.

One of my objectives in taking the position with Poken—and even in coming to IMD in the first place—was to expand my global network. Lift showed me that I was definitely making baby steps in this direction.  I bumped into several venture capitalists and business owners I had met at previous conferences. I met in person for the first time several people who had corresponded with me online about Poken. I bumped into two sets of entrepreneurs whom I knew from the IMD Startup Competition/MBA Projects. I had lunch with a Google product manager whom I had interviewed with back in October. And, of course, I pokened with plenty of new contacts.

Amazingly, I found that my Rice network extended to lift as well. One of the staff members had worked in Teach for America in Houston, where she knew Melissa, the legendary Baker president during my term as Lovett president. I was delighted to find such a connection halfway around the big earth/small world!

My wingman from Houston is on a project in Paris so I am heading up to spend the weekend with him. We will, no doubt, rock Paris like le hurricane! But it is hard to talk of le Perfect Storm when the weather is beautiful and not even that cold. Could spring really be in the air? Or am I just being lulled into a false sense of security before more snow? On verra!

My Underwear Is Inside Out

The last time I shared a hotel room with a friend/colleague was in Kenya last summer. My IMD classmate, Dongao, shared both a room AND a tent with me, in fact. Before that I shared a room in Orlando with one of my mom's NASM coworkers at a Space Shuttle launch. Going even further back I have fond memories of sharing a room with my fellow Rice CS alum/entrepreneur/R7 Solutions employee at a GIS conference in San Diego. We were both working day and night to finish our presentations while also trying to finalize version 1.0 of our first software product at the same time. Somehow we still found time to see Terminator 3. Going even further back, I shared a room (albeit in a dorm not in a hotel) in college with an All-American Baseball Pitcher who would throw pillows at me if I snored at night--97 mph, OUCH!

Yesterday I spent all day at lift, where Poken debuted a version of our product that is integrated into a conference badge. Instead of exchanging business cards or writing down contact info, attendees can connect with each other online just by touching their badges together--by pokening! The conference badge poken is, of course, compatible with the original poken and I was pleased to see that several lift attendees showed up with their own pokens in hand and ready to network. Although it's in French, you can see the new Poken conference badge starting at 19'40" here.

Several other Poken reps and I spent the day providing support to the conference users: helping them create their Poken accounts, answering questions, and just mingling/networking. Afterwards our Founder/CEO, Stephane, and I were invited to dine with the Sandbox Network at La Broche. The event was well organized and featured very stimulating conversation about the future of identity (along with good food and wine, of course!) with passionate, informed participants.

As we wrapped up, it was nearing midnight. Stephane and I contemplated the prospect of driving an hour back to Lausanne only to turn right back around in a few hours. Instead we agreed just to crash in Geneva for the night. We found a hotel near the restaurant that had a room available with two beds so we took it. The hotel was sketchtastic but we were so tired that we hardly noticed. When I protested that we had no change of clothes, Stephane suggested that underwear could be turned inside out to extend its usage. And so, on a night when we hit a sales milestone that would have had most companies breaking out the champagne, we instead crashed at a sketchy hotel in Geneva. Lol, I do love the startup lifestyle!

Now we are wrapping up our second day of lift and man, I am wiped. Many thanks go out to our CIO, Dave, who brought us not only fresh t-shirts but also tooth brushes, tooth paste, and deodorant this morning. I was interviewed a few times today so hopefully I wasn't too disheveled! Having shared a hotel room with Stephane, I now feel somehow like a tighter bond with the company has been formed. And hey, at least Stephane doesn't have a 97-mph fastball!

Can't Sleep

Even if there weren't a million things on my plate right now, I would still have a hard time falling asleep. There is just so much excitement going on at Poken right now that my mind is flooded with energizing thoughts each time I close my eyes. Some of them recount what happened today, some of them anticipate what will happen tomorrow, and some of them are completely new. The new ones especially motivate me to shirk off sleep to get up and document them in case I forget tomorrow.

This is a big week for us: another user interface update, major work on our API, and participation at LIFT,  where we'll be unveiling a little surprise. ;-) Oh well, if I can't sleep, I can at least get some work done. After all, tomorrow is a busy day--and it kicks off in just a few hours!

Sunny Saturday

I was woken this morning by a call from a number I didn't recognize. It turned out to be two Dutch entrepreneurs. They had driven all night from Amsterdam and were ready to take delivery of the 1080 pokens they had ordered. As I live just around the corner from the office, it falls on me to service such requests. Bleary-eyed, I threw on some clothes and met them at the office. They were thrilled to receive their first order of the tiny devices that are all over the media in their country and I wish them the best of luck for their new webshop--and for their 10-hour drive back!

 

Last night was a lot of fun. We've been pushing the team hard so we decided to have a small dinner at Poco Loco, a local "swiss-mex" restaurant whose owner is a poken fan. The food was good (although watching the swiss eat fajitas with a fork and knife was...entertaining!), the guava margaritas were cold, and the company was great.

 

We were surprised when, at the end of the meal, the lights went out and a cake was brought to our table. it was a poken cake! Everyone sang happy birthday as it's been about a year since Stephane really started pushing it forward in earnest.

 

A quick note about the music I've been listening to recently. I'm in the j's right now and I just finished Jethro Tull. Wow, was I ever surprised by the quality of their works! I expected Aqualung, Locomotive Breath, Bungle in the Jungle, and then a bunch of forgettable, flute-filled songs that I would never listen to again. Instead, in the Anniversary Collection, I found two very full discs of compelling, melodic, lyrical songs that enticed me to relisten several times.

Now it is a gorgeous (albeit still very cold) Saturday so I am off to . . . work on Poken! :-) Congrats to the IMD MBA class of 2009 for finishing their first Integrative Exercise today. Just remember, that which does not kill us . . . 

Poken Is Hiring!

Poken struggling to keep up with 1,000+% growth and we are augmenting our product development team. Below is a summary of the position for which we're hiring but, in a nutshell, we're looking for really, really, really, really, really ridiculously awesome Java developers. Ideally you should be already in Europe but, even if not, let me know if you're interested as we may have some flexibility for the right candidates.

The full post is at here:

Java Developer, Lausanne

Passionate Java developer/engineer who can execute quickly on consumer facing N-tier Java/AJAX web apps with a web 2.0 mindset (agile development, mashup, social networks). Knowledge of JSF, MySql, j2ee, junit, linux, eclipse is an advantage. Poken (http://www.doyoupoken.com) is one of Europe's fastest growing start-ups. It employs 10 people and is based in the centre of Lausanne.

Required profile : Swiss nationality, Swiss C, B, G working permit, OR EC European nationality passion for developing robust consumer Internet applications excelent Java and AJAX skills fluent English

First Week In New Apartment

Sorry for my absence but last week kept me very busy! On top of many long hours at the office (due to our release of a new website look and feel), I also moved into my new apartment and have been dealing with all of the time sucks that come with that. Pics of the new place--such as it is--are in my facebook album.

Friday night I met up with our new Marketing Director at Bavaria to discuss our product strategy. We ate sausage and drank Berlinoise ("glass of framboise + bottle of hefeweissbier == good!")--I felt very Bavarian!

Saturday night was our IMD MBA Class of 2008 reunion dinner at the Moevenpick hotel. Many of us stayed in Switzerland so we had over 30 attendees--not bad for a class of 89!

On another note, I am loving Google Latitude. It's like Twitter but coupled with locational information. It uses your phone's GPS (or you can update it manually) to publish your location to your friends. Obviously privacy is a concern so you can hide your location from one, some, or all of your friends at any time. It uses some mobile phone data bandwidth but the possibilities of knowing when you are unexpectedly close to a friend of yours is more than worth it. On Monday, for example, I bumped into an IMD classmate as we got off the train in Geneva. Had we been using Latitude, we would have known that we were on the same train and enjoyed the ride together. Cool stuff!

Exciting times!

After a full weekend of Poken work, yesterday I moved into my new apartment! Well, sort of. I have a bed, a sheet, a blanket (Thanks, Lee and Sam!), a pillow, a shower curtain, and a water filter. Oh right, and lots of bags! I thought I would be able to leech wireless Internet access from a local cafe, but no such luck. Until my DSL is installed I suppose I'll be spending late nights at the office.

Last night I tried out the Thai restaurant next door to my new apartment. I was disappointed to learn that they don't serve Pad Thai. What kind of Thai restaurant doesn't serve Pad Thai?? Oh well, at least it's open late 7 days/week--very rare, here in Lausanne!

Our software team is killing itself with this new interface right now. The developers are getting sick, not seeing their families, and living on caffeine. We're taking a much-needed break right now to play darts--at which I am terrible--then it's back to work. But, for a few minutes at least, we're having a good time. :-)

P.S. We need a ping pong table!

A Country Kinda Week

I've moved through "G" and "H" in my music collection. This has brought with it a high concentration of country music: Garth Brooks, George Strait, Hank Williams, Sr., and Hank Williams, Jr. Although I'm not a HUGE fan of country, it reminds me of Texas and that is comforting. 

I'm onto Huey Lewis and the News now. Their early work was a little too new wave for my tastes, but when Sports came out in '83,I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He's been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humour. In '87, Huey released Fore, their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is "Hip to be Square", a song so catchy, most people probably don't listen to the lyrics. But they should, because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity, and the importance of trends, it's also a personal statement about the band itself.

The Poken team is working all weekend on a new user interface. We owe our users something prettier, cleaner, and more intuitive than what they are using now. It's a major undertaking and we are behind schedule, but by God they shall have it!