Fittest Entrepreneur Again

Last Saturday I won my second consecutive Houston Fittest Entrepreneur Challenge! That turns out not to be very impressive as there weren't many entrepreneurs competing this year but I still took second among all male competitors and improved on my performance from last year so I feel very good about the results.

This year's event was much like last year's: it took place at the Houston Dynamo Sports Complex, the events were almost identical to last year's, and I had the same awesome team of my former Rice students cheering me on, plying me with water, etc. There were two main differences, though: 1. there were ~3x as many people competing this year and 2. there were many more corporate teams competing as opposed to individuals. This second factor probably accounts for the dearth of entrepreneur entrants and the glut of executive, professional, doctor, lawyer, and consultant competitors, most of whom were part of company teams.

After warmup, mobilization, and review of my race strategy with my "pit crew," I got after it:

Course 1

Event 1: 30 bodyweight inverted rows on a suspension trainer. I finished in 23 seconds, #5 overall. Last year my 28 seconds was good enough for #4 so already you can see that the competition was stiffer this year.

Event 2:  40 plyo box step-ups while carrying a 25-lb sandbell. Last year I finished in 1:14 (#9) and this year I swear my judge said 1:14 as well. However, in the final results I'm listed at 1:24 (#54, my worst place). I can't think of any reason that I would have dropped 10 seconds in this event since last year. Still, a 1:14 only would have bumped me up to #34, so this still would have been my worst event.

Event 3: 40 had-release push-ups (You have to rest fully on your chest and take your hands off the ground between reps.). Last year I finished the normal push-ups in 29 seconds (#4) but I found the hand-release push-ups much harder. I had to break up 40 into five sets of eight with a 4-5 second rest between sets otherwise my shoulders would get totally smoked. This strategy took me 56 seconds (#31). Given that I was near the top for push-ups last year and so far off this year (The top performers in this event were in the low 30s.) I think there was something I didn't understand about the optimal way to blast through this movement.

Event 4: 40 35-lb kettlebell swings. I finished in 48 seconds (#6) vs. 52 seconds (also #6) last year.

Event 5: 40 arms-behind-your-head to fingers-past-your-toes sit-ups. Last year this was my worst event, finishing in 1:18 (#12). This year I paced myself better and improved my time to 1:11 (but placed worse at #18).

Event 6: 20 burpees. I finished in 44 seconds (#5), pausing for two breaths at the halfway point, vs 45 seconds (#4) last year.

Event 7: two-minute plank hold. This was my undoing last year as I didn't even make it a full minute, tapping out at 52 seconds. This year I worked hard on my plank in an already exhausted state and it paid off: I completed the full two minutes to tie for #1. It's a good thing, too - last year 52 seconds was enough for #8 in the event; this year it would have only earned me #61!

Clearly the field was much more competitive this year: I had improved my performance in almost all of the events yet, instead of placing #8 overall for the first course as I had last year, I was down at #13! Even if my second event time was indeed incorrect, the correct time would only have boosted me to #10.

Course 2

After a rest and some coconut water, I hopped into Course 2. This was completed in pairs and I was fortunate to be paired with someone else who was very competitive. We both pushed each other through each of the four events, which I believe improved both of our scores.

Event 1: agility drills. Up and back through these speed ladders and hurdles took 29 seconds (#3) vs 1:23 (#4) on a longer version of the course last year.

Event 2: 10 15-lb sandbell tosses over a high barrier followed by suicide sprints. 50 seconds (#8) vs 60 seconds, (#9) last year. Already I could feel that I was doing better on this course than I had done last year - and my partner was helping to motivate me as he kept beating me by just a hair.

Event 3: 20 15-lb sandbell slams followed by a 100-yard out-and-back bear crawl. 43 seconds (#2!) vs 1:16 (#12) last year - a huge improvement. My partner was ahead of me heading out of the slams but I caught him at the turnaround of the bear crawl and never looked back.

Event 4: 100 yard out-and-back sprint while carrying a 10-ft, 40-lb sandrope followed by a 100 yard out-and-back sprint while carrying a 50-lb sandbell. 39 seconds (#3). Last year's event was just the second half of this one and I finished in 17 seconds (#4).

I improved my performance in every single event of this course and it showed as I completed this course #2 overall vs. #8 last year. My calf started cramping a bit in the final event so I rested and coconut watered up a bit before the 5k.

Course 3

Last year the course was a bit short, just 4.8k My km splits were:

4:39 (166 BPM heart rate)
4:42 (167)
4:39 (168)
4:36 (171)
3:18 (only 800m)

for a 21:54 (#3) finish.

Two weeks before this event I ran a 5k time trial in Oregon after an intense SHOP workout. My km splits were:

4:36 (163)
4:31 (165)
4:25 (170)
4:23 (172)
3:55 (184)

for a 21:55 finish. That was substantially faster than last year's competition since it was the same time for a full 5k vs just 4.8k. Given that performance in a training run, I was optimistic that I would do even better in a race situation.

This year the race course was a full 5k. Amped up on competition adrenaline I went out a little faster than intended and then had to rein it in a bit as the heat, humidity (very different weather than we had during my Oregon training run!), and exhaustion from the previous courses conspired to make my right calf threaten to cramp. I managed to stave off the cramp, though, and still beat last year's short course time on this longer course. My splits were:

4:27 (166)
4:25 (171)
4:27 (173)
4:27 (175)
4:04 (183)

for a 21:50 finish (#6) overall - much slower than my fresh 5k PR but a new "exhausted" 5k PR!

Overall

In the end I finished #13 on Course 1, #2 on Course 2, and #6 on Course 3 for a total score of 21, which was good enough for the top Entrepreneur spot and #2 among all male competitors. The #1 finisher earned #2, #4, and #4 on the respective courses for a total score of 10 so he was way ahead of me and even a correction to my plyobox step-ups event wouldn't have helped me make up much ground on him. Clearly I'll need to improve my performance in Course #1 substantially next year if I want to make a run at the overall title!

Once again this was a really fun event for which to train and in which to compete. I have to offer up huge shout outs to everyone who helped me out along the way:

The SHOP - my go-to source for all matters strength, conditioning, and nutrition
Paleo Runner - my running coach who is helping me improve my running with a less-is-more, smarter-not-harder approach
Unbound Body - my fascial stretching therapist who is helping me work through my mobility limitations
Chapel Hill Obstacle Run Conditioning Group - working out in this group has definitely improved my performance in things like the bear crawl.
Sid - my friend in Oregon who paced me during the 5k time trial
Matt - my Virginia friend who helped me train for courses 1 and 2 in Abingdon
Katie - my devoted wife who timed me on many training run-throughs and was so supportive of my efforts
Vivas and Veronica - my on-site pit crew was so incredibly helpful as I was nearing exhaustion in each event!

Thanks to everyone who helped me along the way! It was a blast and next year I'm thinking of putting together a team!

BBQ and Fitness in Houston

I spent the last week in Houston for business but, of course, managed to pack in social, culinary, and fitness adventures a plenty!

The culinary highlight by far was my first visit to Killen's BBQ, which has taken the Houston BBQ scene by storm over the last two years. To be honest I was pretty skeptical that it would be worth a drive outside the loop and lining up before they opened, but I was willing to give it a shot because . . . BBQ!

I met a couple of friends and colleagues there at 10:30 on Thursday - apparently you have to wait for hours on weekends but weekdays are more manageable. We took a number (which turned out to be meaningless), got in line, and then filed in when they opened at 11:00. Waiting in line outside, we could smell a little of the pecan, oak, and mesquite awesomeness, but it wasn't until we crossed the threshold into the building proper that the aromas really set our salivary glands into action.

Because I wasn't sure when I would ever be back there (and because I was hungry), I ordered every meat they had available: lean brisket (delicious), moist (read: fatty) brisket (more delicious), pulled pork (delicious), turkey (very good but a bit salty), pork belly (aka bacon that hasn't been cured - very tasty but so fatty as not to be my thing), pork rib (kind of underwhelming), jalapeno sausage (delicious), and the pièce de résistance: beef rib. A noted restaurant critic has called the Killen's beef rib "the Mona Lisa of beef" and it did not disappoint. It was the best beef rib I've ever had and much of the rest of the meat was some of the best I've ever had as well.

For sides I had pinto beans and green beans - both very good but not mind blowing. One of the other members of our party shared some of his bread pudding with me and that was pretty outstanding. Overall I have to say that Killen's is definitely a cut above - truly craft BBQ. Craft isn't that important to me when it comes to BBQ, though, so I'm not likely to endure too many long drives and longer waits in line for it. Still, it was fantastic to try - especially that beef rib.

I had ordered so much meat that other people in the restaurant came over to take their picture with my tray. At another time in my life I might have tried to eat it all (including the 2-lb beef rib) in one sitting, but instead I focused on trying a little of everything and then I took a lot home. Like a snake devouring an elephant, I slowly/surely made my way through all the leftovers over the next few days. In fact, I ate so much BBQ that my urine even smelled like smoked pecan, oak, and mesquite - that's a first for me!

</ TMI ALERT>

Saturday I defended my title as Fittest Entrepreneur in Houston. Results haven't been posted yet but, once they are, I will post a blog entry about that experience. Lots of people have heard of carb loading before a big race but have you ever heard of protein loading? Neither have I! But, given my BBQ binge, that's exactly what I did and it seemed to go pretty well for me.

Saturday evening I attended the housewarming party for some former students of mine (all grown up now!), which featured some of my Houston favorites for dinner: Torchy's Tacos, Madras Pavilion, and Bombay Pizza Company - mmmmm!

Then, later in the evening, I joined a former Rice colleague to continue my Barolo education. We did a mini-horizontal tasting of two 2003 Baroli, one from the Barolo region and one from Serralunga. While they both needed some time to open up, they really developed into very, very nice wines - and they paired perfectly with the steaks that my host grilled up. We ate, drank, and chatted about all ranges of topics until about 1 AM - an excellent way to wind down a very active day.

Sunday started with beach volleyball, a real luxury compared to the snow and frigid temperatures Katie was experiencing back in NC. I didn't have much stamina, unfortunately, due to soreness and recovery from the previous day's exertions, but it was still fun to play with one of my long-time partners.

It has been a great week, full of food, wine, fitness, and friends! Now it's back to work as Smart OES will soon be making a very big announcement!

Rice Homecoming 2015

Katie and I were in Houston last weekend for Rice's annual Homecoming & Reunion. It was a lot of fun to be together back in our old stomping ground and we packed an awful lot into just a few days.

The weather really, really cooperated as it was sunny and 70s F (20s C) almost the entire time we were there. Weather like that makes it easy to romanticize our life in Houston, selectively forgetting the miserable summer weather! We took advantage with lots of outdoor runs and beach volleyball. One of our runs was along Buffalo Bayou, which has changed significantly even since just a few months ago. Through landscaping, the addition of many pedestrian and bike paths, and the construction of new venues (not to mention an epic dog park), the City of Houston is investing heavily in Buffalo Bayou. It is still a work in progress but it is easy to see that it will soon be a tremendous asset to life inside the loop.

Buffalo Bayou is far from the only part of Houston under construction. As booming as Houston's economy is, there is construction everywhere! The downside to this is that there is traffic everywhere. It used to be that you would deal with traffic if you lived out in the suburbs but you were relatively insulated from it inside the loop. No longer! There is no escape! As quickly as Houston is growing, I don't expect the road construction to keep pace with the traffic and, unfortunately, public transportation efforts like light rail are being developed at a snail's pace.

Fortunately we didn't have to drive around too much as we spent most of our time on campus for Homecoming. The events were fantastic as always, including Katie's reunion at the new continuing studies building. As this was the first Homecoming in three years that Katie and I weren't chairing, we were really able to relax and enjoy it. We were able to see many friends in a short amount of time and Rice won the football game to boot, becoming bowl-eligible for the third year in a row - go Owls!

We also checked many Houston food destinations off of our bucket list while we were there: Goode Co. BBQ, Roost, Beaver's, Torchy's Tacos, some more authentic tex mex, and even the Lovett College servery. Say what you like about Houston; it is definitely a great food town!

It was just a quick trip, but it is always nice to be back together in the place we called home for more than 10 years - even if that place is changing at an incredible pace. It was a blast, Houston, and we'll be back soon!

Moving Pains

For 10 months I have been meaning to write about our move from Houston to Chapel Hill, which was filled with both [surprising] highs and [expected] lows.

As always seems to be the case, we A. were moving during the hottest, most miserable part of the year, and B. found ourselves with way too much stuff. We couldn't do much about A but we spent months addressing B by pruning our inventory of clothes, furniture, and various things we hadn't used in years. We took car load after car load of donations to Good Will but, when it came time to start packing, we were astounded by how much stuff we still had.

When I lived in Switzerland I became very enamored of my asset-light lifestyle. Having few things with me made it very easy to move from one place to another (especially including back to the US!) and I rarely devoted any brain cycles to my stuff or anything related to it. It was freeing!

Back in the US I have clearly done a worse job of acquiring things but at least this move was a good impetus to reduce the collection substantially.

We decided to hire professionals for the move. It would cost more than doing it ourselves but we thought it would be worth it.

Our move started off on the wrong foot, however, when the company we had hired showed up with a truck that was too small. As a consequence, they had to wait some hours for a bigger truck to show up and then completely unload the smaller one, reloading the items onto the new truck.

They also told us it would cost more since we had more stuff than they had estimated. There is a lesson learned here: only hire movers who actually come out to your house to inventory your items, not ones who give you a low ball estimate over the phone with every intention of upping the price on you, knowing that you have to move out on a deadline.

For weeks leading up to the move we had been watching Season 4 of Arrested Development with some good friends. We would get together in the evening, power our way through a few episodes, and feast on frozen, chocolate-dipped bananas that were absolutely divine. We were just a couple of episodes away from finishing the season so we had intended to head over to their house for one last hurrah once the movers were done.

Unfortunately the movers took longer and longer and finally we had to notify our friends that there was no realistic way that we would be done overseeing the movers until way past everyone's bedtime. Between the wrenches in the gears with the movers and not getting to say our goodbyes as planned, we were bummed. Imagine our surprise, then, when those friends showed up at our door unannounced, delivering frozen bananas, champagne, and good cheer! Talk about turning our frowns upside down!

Eventually the movers finished (Not quite; they actually had to come back in the morning for a few more things that they hadn't loaded.) and we spent the night at a friend's house before hitting the road ourselves. We broke up the trip by stopping to spend a couple of days in my childhood home of Huntsville, Alabama. Huntsville has changed a great deal but there was still plenty of nostalgia to be had.

The drama with the movers wasn't over, though, as they called to increase the price on us again. Now that they had many of our worldly possession on their truck, they were holding them hostage and were clearly in a powerful negotiating position. It was straight up extortion. We felt betrayed by the movers and angry at ourselves for naively getting ourselves into such a situation.

Fortunately, it turns out that we are not the first victims of such a scam. Mover scams are apparently so common that there is an entire office (The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) within the Department of Transportation devoted to protecting consumers from such fraudulent behavior on interstate moves.

We did a little research, talked with a representative of the FMCSA just to confirm that we were in the right, and then talked tough on our next call with the movers. The person on the other end of the line changed his tune pretty quickly when Katie started dropping terms like "federal fraud charges" and, wouldn't you know it, they agreed to deliver our goods on time for the price agreed to in their binding quote.

At the end of the day our goods arrived, largely unscathed, and we paid the agreed upon price. However, for every one of us who fights back, I wonder how many families give in to the demands - very many, I would guess. Ugh, I feel dirty just having dealt with them.

The irony of the situation is that we actually have a good friend who runs an interstate moving company. We completely forgot about that when we went out shopping for quotes and, in hindsight, would obviously have preferred to deal with a trusted (and trustworthy) business owner.

With 10 months of distance from the move, it no longer seems as painful. At the time, however, it was pretty stressful - and moves are already stressful enough without piling more on top! Let our experience be valuable for you, though: if you are considering a major move, feel free to reach out to me to learn more from our move and I would be glad to put you in touch with my friend who owns the good moving company!

Gone To Carolina In My Mind

Katie and I are moving to Chapel Hill, North Carolina! Those closest to us already know but it's time to make this announcement public. Next month Katie will be beginning a PhD program in nutritional anthropology at the University of North Carolina. This process actually began more than four years ago as Katie became very concerned about the obesity and diabetes epidemics. Having worked her entire career in healthcare, she has seen how our current medical intervention approach doesn't seem very effective, so she will be working to advance the state of the art of preventive cultural approaches.

I am incredibly proud of Katie. Once she set her sights on a PhD, she worked hard to maximize her GRE scores, define a compelling value proposition, and perfect her personal statement. She applied to the top programs in her field and was accepted into all but one of them. We then had the enviable problem of having to choose between several great options, each with its own pros and cons. One late night around the kitchen island, it became evident that UNC was rising to the top, not only because of the program, which is top notch and still maintains a strong focus on the development of its students, but also because of the location.

We have some family in the Research Triangle area and we will be close to Northern Virginia, where I grew up. It is a lush, green, wooded area, with lots of hiking trails - for us and for Max! There are lots of farmers markets and we believe we will be able to live the sustainable lifestyle we have cultivated. We are looking forward to being back in a place with four seasons as well - can't wait for the leaves to change color this autumn!

Of course this move creates both challenges and opportunities for me professionally. My startup, Smart Office Energy Solutions, is headquartered in Houston and I teach entrepreneurship at Rice University, so I will be commuting back to Houston for much of the next six months. At the same time, however, the Research Triangle has a great deal of cleantech / smart grid research going on, a thriving entrepreneurship ecosystem, and major corporate support for innovation. Accordingly, I will be opening a new Smart OES office in the Triangle to cultivate opportunities there. The East Coast represents a major client market for us so it will be advantageous for us to begin developing a foothold in the mid-Atlantic.

Katie and I will both miss Houston a lot; we have called it home for more than 1/3 of our lives. It has been a great place to start our professional careers: a burgeoning land of economic growth, excellent arts, and low cost of living. It is the people, though, whom we will miss most. Houston's great people - smart, fun, and friendly - kept us in Houston after we graduated from Rice, attracted me back after my Swiss experience, and may well attract us back again. The week leading up to our departure was filled with warm send-offs and validation that we truly are blessed to have such people in our lives.

Now we are embarking a new adventure. There will be new people and new challenges in our lives - and new opportunities! We have no idea what the future will hold but, as we vowed to each other two years ago, we will face it together. And so the next chapter begins . . . huzzah!

The Dude Ranch

Two weekends ago Katie and I were excited to host our first house guests since remodeling our house. Peter, a good friend from business school, and his girlfriend came into town from New York and it was the first time in Houston for both of them.

They arrived late Friday night so we just went out for dinner at Roost and rested up for a big day Saturday. Saturday began with the Houston Area Women's Center Race Against Violence 5k. Sunny and cool, we each did pretty well and then enjoyed recovery food with a brunch of almond flour pancakes.

Next we met up with the other IMD MBA 2008 Houstonian, Hernan, a recent transplant from Buenos Aires. What do three IMD MBAs do when they meet in a city that isn't native for any of them? Play ping pong, of course! We convened at the Rice Rec Center and held an epic international tournament for the ages.

Saturday afternoon we were pleased to introduce our IMD friends/guests/families to a unique cultural experience: the Houston Rodeo! From bull riding events to the livestock show to lots of Texas BBQ I think it's safe to say that we all enjoyed the experience and that our guests will always remember it!

Saturday night we went to dinner at Beaver's for some more locavore fare and Sunday our guests had to leave too early! The weather was gorgeous Sunday so it's too bad they couldn't stick around; we played beach volleyball all afternoon. Actually, as both of our guests were really, really tall, maybe it's a good thing they couldn't stay and play against us!

The weather here is still absolutely beautiful so now is the right time for us to be cultural ambassadors of Houston. If anyone else would like to visit, COME ON DOOOOOOOOOWN!

Entrepreneurship for Value Creation

This morning I read a blog post about "the problem with Silicon Valley."

The author contends that the pace of innovation in the Valley is amazing but that it is often somewhat insulated from solving problems that "matter." Clearly much debate can be had about what "matters" but the topic resonates with me. Two years ago I even presented at the Academy Of Management my own quest to use entrepreneurship for meaningful value creation.

Reading this article motivated me to post it in the facebook group for Houston entrepreneurs with the following exhortation:

Something to think about, people. As we develop Houston's entrepreneurial community, let's focus our energies and efforts on solving real problems rather than just stuff we think would be sexy/cool. This is one reason I came to Houston to launch my current venture; Houston has real industry and here - and I'll argue that Houston's biggest industries are some of the most impactful ones in the world: energy, healthcare, aerospace, nano/petro/chemical... What's "Made In Houston" runs the world - so let's embrace that and leverage it to foster a unique community for truly value creating, transformational startups. My wish/goal for 2013 - happy venturing everyone!

A Meaningful Award for Smart OES

Yesterday we were honored to receive first place in the Goradia Innovation Prize competition!

When I first announced that I would move back to Houston from Switzerland to launch Smart Office Energy Solutions, people thought I was crazy. "Why Houston?" "They don't have startups there - just big oil companies!"

I assured them - or maybe I was just assuring myself - that Houston was a great place for starting up a venture. There's a talented workforce here, a business-friendly political context, and the cost of living is just so, so, low. Plus, I contended, there is a nascent but growing support ecosystem for startups.

Well this award is proof of that. Smart OES has won many awards in the past but I have often been somewhat cynical of their value. The recognition has been nice but they haven't done anything to advance our venture. Our joke has been that, if our company completely fails, we'll dole out one award to each investor - those would be some expensive plaques!

This award, however, came with a cash prize, making it very helpful in advancing our venture! This shows how Houston is taking entrepreneurship seriously and literally putting its money where its mouth is. As I stated in my presentation, we have grand ambitions to create a massive worldwide market but we need help to achieve our lofty goals. Well, this helps.

So I offer my sincere thanks to the Houston Technology Center, its staff, the Goradia family who funded the prize, and the judges who selected us. You are helping foster entrepreneurship in Houston in very meaningful ways! And I offer my congratulations to the other Goradia Innovation Prize finalists. It is an honor to be counted among you and I hope that we will all become resounding success stories!

Now . . . back to working hard to live up to the hype!

The First Cleanweb Hackathon in Texas

Last weekend marked the culmination of a special project I've been working on for many months: bringing the Cleanweb Hackathon to Houston!

Cleanweb is a global movement of people developing IT-based "clean" technologies instead of the traditional "cleantech" like solar and wind which require massive investments and decades to commercialize. The purpose of a Cleanweb Hackathon is to bring together talented developers/engineers who don't usually work together, stimulate them with data and APIs that they're not used to working with, and give them a weekend to see what kinds of innovative new cleanweb software they can develop.

There have been some very successful cleanweb hackathons in San Francisco, NYC, and Boston but nothing in Texas. My co-organizers and I thought Houston would be a great location for such an event. Houston boasts world-leading companies in each of the major cleanweb categories (energy, food, water, waste, transportation) so we knew we could bring together people with relevant knowledge and skillsets. Our challenge would be to coax them away from their families or big company jobs for the weekend.

We decided to host the event at Rice University in Duncan Hall, the Computer Science building. Our sponsor, the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership (funded by Rice alum and legendary VC, John Doerr), provided us with this space. Through online and word of mouth advertising we attracted 55 participants to sign up. Friday evening everyone gathered at Duncan Hall to kick off. After some brief intro and ice breaker activities, we introduced everyone to the data we were providing. In addition to the publicly available data from government organizations and national sponsors like Genability, we were fortunate to receive contributions from Waste Management, METRO, and Rice's own Shell Center for Sustainability. These proprietary data sets presented a unique opportunity for our participants to build very practical solutions to very real problems.

Next we opened up the floor for participants to pitch their ideas: what they they wanted to work on for the next 48 hours. This was followed by mingling, Q&A, and building teams around each idea. Development wouldn't start in earnest until Saturday so we took everyone out to the Gingerman for "team bonding" before all the work began.

Saturday morning people arrived early and got to work. It was amazing to see students, industry professionals, NASA engineers, and public servants working alongside each other. Different backgrounds, experiences, skillsets, problem-solving approaches, etc. all combined together for some very innovative solutions. The teams worked all day, nourished by food donated by MyFitFoods, and well into the night. Many teams actually worked all through the night as well or slept onsite in shifts.

Sunday morning the teams wrapped up their work and in the afternoon we held final demos and presentations, which were live streamed over the Internet. We brought in a crack team of judges from many disciplines to determine which of our seven teams had accomplished the most in such a short span of time.

I was really impressed with all of the teams, but the winners were:

1st: C02 Commuter Contributions, a web app to motivate people to make more sustainable commuting choices by translating their greenhouse gas contributions into "real" terms. One of the reasons this team won was really beautiful design.

2nd: Amazing Houston, a web and mobile app to show public transportation users all the cool places they could visit easily from intermediate stops en route to their destination. This pulled real-time GPS data from METRO's API, so it could tell users who stop off for coffee to pay their bill quickly because the next train is arriving in a few minutes.

3rd: Revolutionary Trashcans, a mobile app that connects to a wireless scale underneath your trashcan and tells you how much food you're throwing away. The hardware was developed last semester by one of the teams in my entrepreneurship class and now, with the mobile app in place, they are ready to begin selling to school cafeterias nationwide!

It was an exhausting weekend and one that reminded me a lot of my collegiate experience. After all, Duncan Hall was where many of my late nights were spent back then! I was incredibly pleased with the results, though. Indeed many of the projects were quite practical as we had hoped. Several groups are continuing to develop theirs with an eye toward commercialization and Waste Management has already approached one of our winners about a partnership. Moreover, we're pleased to have fostered so many connections over the weekend: 55 participants and 20+ volunteers, all motivated to build software for sustainability. The event is over, but the movement is just getting started!

Pictures from the event

Morning Run in Houston

With the temperature down to 19 C (66 F) for the first time in several months, I took advantage and rose early for a morning jog along Buffalo Bayou in the heart of Houston. When I began, it was still dark and the crescent moon stood guard brilliantly in the cloudless sky. As I ran for an hour and a half, the sun rose and the stars faded, but the moon remained. Brilliant; my love affair with the moon continues. Poised above the downtown Houston skyline, it might not be quite as striking as I remember it over the mountainscapes in Switzerland, but still makes me smile

There were a few takeaways from this morning's run:
* Early exercise is a great way to start the day. Endorphins going, blood flowing, it really kicks the day off right.
* Early exercise is a great way to prepare mentally for the day as well. By the end of my run I felt centered and [after a shower] ready to accomplish everything I had organized in my head during my 90 minutes of running meditation.
* Houston's bayous really are beautiful - lush green banks and smooth streams winding right through the center of our thriving metropolis. I live a short jog away from Buffalo Bayou and my office is right along it downtown; I didn't realize how valuable that proximity would be when I moved in but now I'm extremely grateful for it!
* There is a bond issue up for vote this November 6th to develop the parks along the bayous even further, tremendously enhancing and increasing Houston's green space. I encourage everyone to learn more at Parks By You and to vote for it in November!

A Swiss Day in Houston

Today was a very Swiss kind of day! OK, OK, let me explain, because Houston, Texas is a pretty far cry from "Swiss!" What I mean is that today really felt a lot like my Swiss/IMD experience even though it was a Saturday in Houston.

To start, the weather was gorgeous. Not a cloud in the sky and the high temperature was mid 60s F (high teens C). There was a breeze that made it a little chilly when staying still or in the shade. Taking Max for a walk in the sun, though, was paradise on earth. And the breeze was very, very welcome during my run at Memorial Park this morning. Despite the very, very different scenery, I almost felt like I was running along Lac Leman in Lausanne. In the evening we had a long, lingering twilight with a dark blue sky, prominent stars, and crescent moon. There you have it: Houston in January is Lausanne in June!

Unfortunately my experience today did not include excellent food outdoors with great friends as it surely would have in Switzerland. After my run and Max's long walk, I spent most of the day inside PowerPointing in front of my laptop. Even this felt very Swiss, though, because it's exactly how I spent many a Saturday at IMD!

Ah, Suisse, vous me manquez! It will take more than ideal weather to recreate the Swiss experience truly, though. After all, the best thing about Switzerland is all my wonderful friends there. Hopefully there will be a chance to visit soon but, in the meantime, back to work!

Legally Married!

Last Saturday Katie and I took a major step by formalizing our civil union with some of our best friends in Houston. Because our "real" wedding will take place in Italy and because it's kind of a pain to be legally wed there, we decided to be legally wed in Houston first.

We originally intended for it not to be an event but really just an official procedure of filling out some documents. However, as it became clear that some of our best friends would not be able to join us in Italy, we decided to use the occasion for a little "pre-wedding" celebration.

Our moms and Katie's sister flew in for the affair and it was officiated by one of our best friends from the Rice community - who also happens to be an ordained minister! We held the event on April 16th, the 10-year anniversary of our first date, which also happened to be Jimmy Buffett Day this year! We held it at Antica Osteria, a restaurant that has been a special part of our relationship since the very beginning.

We had lovely weather all weekend and the star jasmine was in full bloom, providing an incredible scent everywhere we went. The night of our dinner the sky was clear and the full moon was shining brightly. There were 17 of us all-in-all in a private area, which proved to be a great size, allowing everyone to meet everyone else and for us to visit with everyone.

We had picked out our favorite dishes for the meal: pepperoni arrostiti with anchovies and garlic and burratta pugliese to start, the "Memari" salad dell'osteria, and a choice of fresh Gulf snapper, eggplant parmigiana, or Maine lobster fra diavola. We knew everyone would be stuffed by dessert time so we went for a lighter option: fresh mixed berries and cream.

To drink we served an Angelo Sassetti Brunello di Montalcino 2004. Katie and I had been to visit Angelo's brother / next-door neighbor, Livio, in 2009 and absolutely loved the wine so we gambled that Angelo's would be good too. Our gamble paid off and we had a very nice, mellow brunello that got better as the evening progressed.

The food was delicious, the company was great, and we couldn't have asked for a better way to kick off our wedding festivities. We closed down the restaurant and ended the night feeling incredibly positive about our future together and the great people in our lives. Now we are looking forward to more time with family and friends during the coming weekends and finally the wedding itself in May. Life is good!

I am not the King of the Beach . . . yet!

Yesterday I played in a King of the Beach tournament at Third Coast Volleyball. This means that, instead of showing up with a partner, each player shows up individually. Each player plays several games, each with a different partner. At the end, the results are tallied and the player with the most wins is the King of the Beach. This is pretty cool because it tests not only your skill but also your adaptability.

There were seven players in the A/BB division in which I was entered. We arrived early and prepared for a long day on the courts. It was clear from the outset that the long spell of temperate Spring weather we had enjoyed for an unseasonably long time was over. Although things didn't get too hot (mid-80s F), humidity was very high and you could feel it.

My goal for the tournament was to improve on my last performance, 6th of 7 teams in a men's 2s tournament in March. As in that tournament I had a slow start but improved as the day wore on. I hadn't played doubles with any of the players in this tournament but I knew a couple of them for 4s back in the day.

My first partner, Tim, and I lost my first game 21-16. We both played pretty well but didn't really connect much. My second partner, Brian, and I connected much better and, after dropping some stupid points, we staged a great comeback to deuce it up but ultimately lost 24-22. I've known my third partner, Ricky, for years so it was fun to play with him. Although we lost by a LOT (I can't remember but we may not have even hit double digits), he gave me some beautiful sets that I was able to slam down pretty hard. He played differently than I was used to so I fear I didn't support him as well as I could have.

So yikes, there I was halfway through my games and winless so far. I was feeling great after the third game, though, so optimistic about the next three. My fourth partner, Matt, was a great player but, again, we just didn't connect very often and dropped that game. My fifth partner, Niel, had outstanding defense but it was clear that, by this point in the day, the heat and humidity were really getting to him. Some balls got by him that I think he would have had earlier in the day and we narrowly lost game five.

So even bigger yikes, as we began the very last game of the day, I was fighting for honor--I needed to win at least one! My partner was Rod, whom I had known for awhile and whom I liked so I was hoping we could connect better. The game right before ours, though, wasn't very encouraging. Rod and his partner gave away their 14-7 lead and wound up losing 21-15! They both looked very tired so I was just hoping that Rod would still be able to bring it in our game. I knew he would pick up if we could get rolling with a little momentum.

Instead of giving Rod "safe" sets off the net, I intentionally set him very tight. A couple of them were bad sets and went over but a couple of them were dimes and Rod slammed them down. This pumped us both up and created that momentum we were looking for. Rod gave me some great sets too and, although I didn't really kill anything, we were able to keep our opponents on the defensive. It helped that one of them was hurting in the heat but I intentionally tried not to pick on him and distributed the ball evenly.

We won the last game 21-11 and, despite coming in dead last in the tournament, I felt really great about it. My challenge in subsequent tournaments will be to reach that state of peak performance before the last game! Even though I failed to meet my tournament goal by a long shot, I had a lot of fun out there and still felt pretty good about my play.

May and June tournaments are going to be even hotter so conditioning--one of my stronger suits--will become even more key. Still, I can't wait to play again in Switzerland this summer--nothing beats the weather and the lake!

Sports Season Transition

There were two reasons to be depressed following the Super Bowl this year. The first was that Peyton Manning failed to win a second league championship. Colts special teams were poor and Manning couldn't get any help at all from his receivers. Kudos to New Orleans, which played a great game of ballsy calls and good execution.

The second reason to be depressed is simply that the football season is now over. Sure there will be some buzz around scouting combines, spring training, and the NFL draft, but things really won't pick back up again until August. This makes Bryan sad--probably more productive, but sad.

Fortunately there are some silver linings. For instance, the end of football always marks the beginning of college baseball. The mighty Rice Owls opened the season poorly, being swept this weekend by Stanford, but it's better to stumble at this point of the season than in the post-season!

Another silver lining is the start of the beach volleyball season. In colder climates, beach volleyball might not be possible for months, but here in Houston this weekend offered the perfect opportunity for it. Saturday was sunny with a high in the low 70s. Several of us met early in the morning and played for hours. Some rust had to be shaken off--and it didn't help that some of us had been out until 4 AM the night before--but it was a lot of fun. Welcome back, Spring weather!

In the meantime I'm continuing to enjoy the Winter Olympics. I've never cheered so hard for sports I understand so little! Saturday night, at a friend's birthday party, we all found ourself huddled around the TV and cheering on the US Curling team, not to mention our speed skaters. The USA is still in first place according to my weighted medal scoring system, with a score of 66, but Germany is breathing down our neck with 56. Here's hoping for an exciting final week!

I'm a Symphomaniac, MANIAC!

Last Thursday Katie and I attended a performance of the Houston Symphony Orchestra for the first time since my return to the US. We used to be full season subscribers to this truly world class orchestra and it was exciting to be back. That night was a great performance for which to return as it was the world premiere of The Planets--An HD Oddyssey. Something I've always enjoyed about the HSO is its willingness to branch out and explore the integration of other art forms with the music it plays. In this case it meant stunning NASA video to complement each planet in Holst's famous score.

The program opened with renditions (sans film) of Stravinsky's Scherzo Fantastique and Dutilleux's Timbres, Space, Movement (The Starry Night), both fitting for an evening with a fantastic, heavenly, mythical theme. The evening was also the first time I've taken advantage of my office's location in the heart of the Theater District--and it won't be the last!

Saturday was Katie's birthday so we had several of her friends over for dinner to celebrate. I was in an Association of Rice Alumni board meeting all day so unfortunately some of the prep work fell to the birthday girl. However, I rushed home as quickly as I could and we got to cooking.

The first course, as guests arrived, was toasted baguette with olive oil, dark chocolate, and fleur de sel, paired with a sparkling white wine from Gruet. This course seemed to last forever as we all congregated in the kitchen while Katie and I put the finishing touches on the rest of the meal.

We migrated to the dining room for round 2: carrot-habanero-ginger soup paired with our old white wine favorite, Sella & Mosca La Cala vermentino, to cleanse and cool the palette.

This led to our "earthy" course: portabella mushroom caps stuffed with Minnesota wild rice and accompanied by lightly steamed broccolini. We paired this with Valdicava's Rosso di Montalcino as Katie, Cox, and I had all tasted it from the barrel during our vineyard visits.

Not that we needed anymore food by this point but we served three vegetarian cheeses anyway and attempted to continue pairing them with the Valdicava. However, too much wine may have impaired our judgement as we soon found several other bottles of exotic reds on the table. No one complained, though!

Finally we had dark chocolate birthday cake and Banyuls Rimage (kind of like Port, but French) from Les Clos de Paulilles. Miraculously this wasn't all succeeded by tequila shots and running around the neighborhood naked or anything--we really must be getting old!

Sunday the birthday continued as we took a cooking class at our favorite local Indian place, Indika. It was a small, intimate class--just a few couples--taught by the chef/owner back in the kitchen of the restaurant. It was our first time working with commercial cooking tools and very fun to experience a taste (no pun intended) of the chaotic restaurant kitchen environment. The result was a delicious dinner. This is to be expected from Indika when the real chefs are cooking so we were all pleased to have stepped up enough ourselves.

Tonight Katie and I watched Food, Inc., which galvanized our resolve to eat fresh, organic, locally grown foods. It's just amazing how much crap--and how little nutrition--is in most foods we are marketed and sold. The system drives us to buy the cheapest food--but it is so much more expensive when you consider the resulting healthcare, social, and environmental costs. We have to change the system to capture the true costs of food--in much the same way that we have to change the system to capture the true costs of energy--and it starts with consumers voting with their wallets.

A few things you can do right now are here.

Domestic Hippies

I have completed my first week of life back in the US and what a productive week it has been! The time that I have not spent on enistic has been spent on very domestic activities. After unpacking my bags, Katie and I had to spend many evenings sorting through our stuff, deciding what to keep and organizing furniture for space efficiency. We made major progress and now there is a huge pile of stuff on the dining room table that we simply don't need. If anyone is looking for a microwave, a toaster, a coffee maker, a George Foreman Grill, a TV/VCR, a dumbbell set, or any number of kitchenware items, don't hesitate to let me know!

It wasn't all work this week, though. Friday evening we had dinner with Katie's coworkers at Indika, which was so, so good. The Indian food with a new kick is excellent, but the real standout is the cocktail menu--I recommend the Madras Mojito, although the chili dusted glass rim offers little solace from the spicy food.

Saturday began with a new gym membership. I'd like to join the new Rice Rec Center, but alumni can't join until 2010 so I joined 24 Hour Fitness in the meantime. My first workout there felt great! My membership costs 1/4 of that of a Swiss gym and the equipment is ~1,000% better. Nothing against Swiss gyms--I certainly enjoyed my time there--but it is really nice to be back in a place where they take this seriously.

After the gym, it was time for more domestic activities. Whole Foods, Central Market, the farmer's market, the recycling center--Katie and I are such hippies! We picked up lots of delicious, natural food--at least enough to last us the weekend! I was pleased that my little Smart Car got us around fine; I think it's going to serve its purpose very well.

Saturday afternoon we went to the Rice football game. This started off very well with a Rice Engineering Alumni tailgate but quickly went downhill with a 63-14 loss to the US Naval Academy. After such a great 2008 season, this year's slow start is tough to handle.

Sunday I reveled in two things: 1. more football all day and 2. stores that are open on Sundays!!!! I haven't had the possibility to go to the store on Sunday for two years and boy did I miss it! After brunch at Mango's, where I had jalapeno-cheese-stuffed french toast, we filled Sunday with more domestic hippie activities and some relaxation at home.

This will be another big week for enistic as I am pitching at the Austin Clean Energy Venture Summit. Wish me luck as I'm hoping for a big win!

Pics are in my facebook album.

Smart Start

For the last two years while I was in Switzerland, I took it upon myself to describe the culture, food, landscape, and people to my faithful readers back home in the US. Now that I am back in the US, I feel the impulse to do the same for the European readers I have developed. There is nothing too crazy to report yet, except that the sky is just so big here in Houston. Having spent most of my time in Lausanne, where much of the sky was obscured by [beautiful] mountains, it is now refreshing to look up and see so much blue all around me. I never appreciated it before, but it seems that Houston's flatness has advantages above and beyond being good for running.

And speaking of moving around, one of my first steps here was to procure a means of transportation. No more Mercedes convertible for me; I needed something greener! I thought about a Prius or other hybrid but they all were much larger than I needed. My basic needs are driving 2 miles back and forth to work every day and sometimes transporting another person to lunch. The ideal car would have been a plug-in electric, but it seems that they won't be commercially ready for another 1-2 years. So I settled on a car that is ubiquitous in Europe but only just gaining traction here in the US: the Smart ForTwo.

It meets all of my criteria and leaves so much additional space in the garage that it may have preemptively solved any space-sharing issues Katie and I might have. Is it as fun to drive as my SLK(s)? Certainly not! But I only miss the fun for a few minutes worth of commute each day and I feel great about the 40 mpg. This is a good first step for me in a policy of just buying what I need.

Although I am already working hard on enistic, I am also spending a great deal of time getting settled back into my house. My friends from all over the world are welcome to come visit me here in Houston. It's hot and it's humid, but it's home and I love it!

Pics are in my facebook album.

Family Time

The weekend was a lot of fun. Nick came into town on Friday so he, Katie, Cox, and I went to dinner at Indika for excellent Indian food. I accompanied mine with a Madras Mojito, featuring chili powder on the rim--awesome!

Saturday we took Nick's son, Aidon, to the zoo, which was a blast. I haven't been to the Houston Zoo since 1998 and I was happy to see that it's still a great place. We made our own Indian food for dinner and all crashed pretty early. Sunday Nick and Aidon returned to Florida pretty early so Katie and I spent the day just enjoying being at the house--something we'll do much more of in the near future!

Sunday night I took the red-eye to London and spent Monday in Oxford meeting with enistic's sister company. That night we celebrated our recent steps forward with dinner at Jamie's Italian. The food was all good but the CLEAR highlight was my main course: three orders of chips (fries): garlic and parsley, parmiggiano and truffle, and polenta chips with rosemary. I'm a fan!

Now I'm back in Lausanne and beginning to prep my apartment for the trans-Atlantic move!

Pics are in my facebook album.

Back in Lausanne

After a HOT week in Houston (albeit one that was bookended by gorgeous weather in Minnesota and Virginia), it feels great to be back in Lausanne. It is also very nice to be reunited with my team at Poken, although half the team is in San Francisco right now so I won't catch up with them until next week.

My time in the US was very productive. Although I spent all of my days working for Poken, I also managed to catch up with family/friends in the evenings and coordinate some major renovations to my house. I'm very excited about these renovations as they are expected to reduce my energy consumption by almost 50%. This includes installation of a solar-powered attic fan, creating a better, insulated seal between the attic and the rest of the house, sealing all of the house's air leaks (around doors, windows, and exterior wall power outlets, for example), servicing the HVAC system, solar film on all the windows, installation of switches to shut off power to standby equipment "vampires," and replacement of all light bulbs with low-energy CFLs. This is a full-system approach that addresses not just the efficiency of equipment itself but also the efficiency of the way that air moves throughout the house and reduces the load on that equipment. In fact, when I replace my A/C unit next year, instead of just getting a more efficient version of the same cooling power, I should actually get a lower-power version--although still more efficient too!

Even with the rising cost of energy in the US, these renovations aren't likely to pay for themselves for several years. However, as most of you know, I try to live my life with at least a double bottom line and I believe the cost of energy inefficiency is much greater than just the price I pay per kilowatt-hour on my monthly electric bill.

My flight trip back to Lausanne was good for a couple of reasons. First, I achieved Gold Elite status on Continental. This is the first time I have broken the gold barrier and, with only 20k more miles this year, I may even arrive at Platinum. Hooray! Also, Matthew McConaughey was on my flight from Newark to Geneva, two seats in front of me. He was coming in to support Lance Armstrong at the end of the Tour de France. He seemed really laid back (as one would expect) and pleasant to everyone who came up to talk with him. I also give him major props for being so ripped at 39--almost 40.

Since I've been back I've been filling my non-Poken time with catching up with those whom I've missed--both IMD classmates and Poken coworkers. Friday night I went to see Bruno with some friends--outrageous as expected. Tonight I will attend my first Swiss music festival at Paleo, which I'm looking forward to. It probably won't be the typical massive-crowd-drunk-mosh-pit scene during Beethoven's 5th Piano Conerto, which is just fine by me. :-)

Long Time, No Blog

Sorry I've been off the scene for a while. Coming back from Italy there was a lot to do at work before gallavanting off to the US for the Nolte-Rakowitz wedding. Then, once over there, there was a lot to do trying to keep things moving forward remotely.

My time in the US was very nice. The wedding was lovely and neither the bride nor groom seemed too stressed. Always adventurers, they tried their hand at making jalapeno wine, which was very interesting. A little bit of it goes a long way and I wouldn't want to have it all the time, but its mix of spicy and sweet was very good.

After the wedding it was just nice living a "routine" in Houston for a few days: work, beach volleyball, running, seeing friends, cooking dinner, etc. My last night I was taken out for an exquisite dinner at the Petroleum Club, where it was nice to sit back and enjoy the finer things for the first time in a while.

Now I'm back in Lausanne and relatively well adjusted to the time zone. I got some beach volley in today and will again tomorrow. The annual Carnaval de Lausanne is going on right outside my apartment. This means that the streets are packed, live bands are playing, and vendors are set up all over the place. Thank goodness for ear plugs at night!

Over the past couple of weeks I've had the chance to enjoy some leisure entertainment. Via the Wii Virtual Console, I reconnected with Military Madness, one of my favorite games for the Turbo Grafx-16 back in the day. It was ahead of its time in terms of strategy game sophistication but I love how timeless it has turned out to be. I have as much enjoyment out of it now as I did in 6th grade.

All the flights have also given me the chance to watch a few movies: Valkyrie (ok), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (not bad), Taken (ok--Liam Neeson was an interesting casting choice), and The Wrestler (good). I think there were a couple more in there but clearly they weren't all that memorable. All this, of course, is just a distraction while I'm waiting for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to open in July!