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!