GrubHubMike

I am an Exotic Bomba

 
I am an Exotic Bomba. A tasty desert made of Mango and Passion Fruit sorbet covered in a thin white chocolate shell and drizzled with chocolate.  For good measure, I lay atop a chilled plate tastefully decorated with rasberry sauce. 

In a world where so many people are phoning it in, its easy to just settle for a chocolate dessert. Some cocoa, some sugar, and sure, you are 90% of the way there. Its much harder to put together a subtly sweet and refreshing fruit desert. 

So next time you are in Evanston for dinner, go to Kansaku (1514 Sherman) for excellent sushi and an Exotic Bomba

Interview with Adrian Holovaty of Everyblock.com

Adrian Holovaty is a Web developer in Chicago, and he runs a site called EveryBlock. He's co-creator and co-Benevolent Dictator for Life of the Django Web framework for the Python programming language. Some Chicago folks might know him for his old (as in, May 2005) crime site, chicagocrime.org, which was one of the first Google Maps mashups.

On a more personal level, He's a quasi-professional musician, in that He makes money playing gigs in Chicago, and posts YouTube videos from time to time. More stuff about him, including a blog, is at holovaty.com.



Knowist: Tell me a little bit about your work.

Holovaty: EveryBlock is a very, very granular local news site. We show you what's happening, literally, right around your block. That includes stuff like newspaper articles that mentioned something in your neighborhood, crime reports, restaurant inspections, Flickr photos, movie filmings and all sorts of other information, filtered by city block and updated daily. You can sign up for e-mail alerts or RSS feeds to get notified whenever things happen in your neighborhood, or you can just browse the wealth of information on our site (warning: it can be addictive!). We're based here in Chicago and cover 11 cities.

Some folks in the news industry have considered us to be the "future of news," which I think is pushing it, but that demonstrates the level of interest in our project.

Knowist: Everyblock has had a different funding path than most businesses.  What are the ramifications of grants vs institutional for-profit funding?

Holovaty: I was lucky enough to get a two-year grant from the Knight Foundation thanks to a contest they held, called the Knight News Challenge. It's different from your standard VC funding in that we retain all the equity of the company but we have a specific mission to fulfill under the terms of the grant: namely, we have to open-source the code that powers our site, so that other people can take it and use it to make similar sites in their own cities. We are creating the site and code as a public service.

Knowist: Most businesses have a very clear (and legally binding) responsibility to shareholders.  What's your take on that vs a responsibility to the community?  To Employees?

Holovaty: First, a preface: My background is in journalism. Before EveryBlock, I worked as a Web developer at three mainstream newspapers (the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Lawrence Journal-World, and the Washington Post), and I got an undergraduate degree in journalism. With that background, I've always been most comfortable serving the public, as opposed to being a cold capitalist. It sounds cheesy, but there's this feeling of a "higher calling" when you're working as a journalist -- like you're going to change the world and do public good.

So that's the context for EveryBlock. We're a journalism organization dedicated to providing a public service. Of course, it'd be nice to be able to pay our rents, buy groceries and keep the servers running, so we're now turning our attention to figuring out how to keep our project sustainable as a business. Craigslist is very much a model for us -- technically for-profit, but run like a non-profit.

Leadership Rule no. 1: Humility

The King is dead, Long live the King! 

In today's technology careers, bosses are their own worst nightmare.  Every talented person I work with is empowered.  Bosses turn empowerment into entitlement.   Each little king rules his own cubicle domain. Master of all he surveys!  Rather than being the boss, the effective leader levels the playing field.  But, by refusing to be the king, he does away with the little kingdoms.  The difference between the bombastic tyrant and the energetic leader is that the leader has some humility.

Be Quick to Apologize.
In almost any conflict, I can find a justification for my actions.  With some introspection, its easy to find some self deception in that justification.  If you've wronged one of your employees, apologize. Sincerely.  Being a leader has very little to do with being smugly "right" about a conflict.   

Practice Non Entitlement
You are not entitled to respect. You don't deserve a better parking space. Your desk should not be nicer. Your chair should not be more Aeron-ish.  Your designs are not sublime.  Your ideas are not faultless.  You don't get the last chocolate munchkin.  Your salary doesn't make you correct. 

Icy Alien Cocoons

Just south of the border of Evanston and Chicago there are remnants of a broken pier... I think. 

Actually, I've often wondered what possible use these things could have actually served.   For all I know each of these ice clad vertical wooden beams is an alien cocoon ready to hatch evil cold weather runner eating monster.

But mostly, I just thought they looked cool.

Leadership Style: Passion and Energy

As old Abe said: "Whatever you are, be a good one"

Circumstances have conspired to put me in a leadership position. Over the last few years, I've tried to move from "I make this s**t up as I go along"  to a more seasoned approach.  To that end, the best advice I've gotten has been from Chuck Templeton.  He guided me to the belief that great leadership doesn't look like any particular thing because it can be found in so many unexpected places and styles.  There is no general ideal to aspire to. There is a specific and personal ideal.  To that end, I'm going to introduce a few leadership styles I've observed, and some areas of caution that arise from that

Passion and Energy is about getting everybody excited about a meaningful vision

Energy and passion can go a long way. Leaders with this style infect those around them.  The real key to leadership here is driving that energy towards a conscious goal.  As Napoleon said:

A man does not have himself killed for a half-pence a day or for a petty distinction. You must speak to the soul in order to electrify him

Fortunately, I'm not in *that* kind of leadership situation. But the principle applies.  Vision shouldn't be small. Anybody can drag themselves to work every day, but with great vision, everybody involved can derive real satisfaction.

Some Passionate and Energetic Leaders:

Col. Saul Tigh
Cpt. James Tiberius Kirk.
Doc Brown
Jedi Master Mace Wendu
Cobra Commander

The Passionate and Energetic leader's best tool is in this post: Leadership Tip #1: Humility

Beautiful day for a run

Just 8 days left to the New Orleans marathon. It has been an outrageously cold January for all this outdoor training. Today was real reward for all my hard work. I've run somewhere in the range of 2500 miles over the last 2 years. A lot of my peeps wonder how I do it. The answer is that I enjoy it. But more specifically, I enjoy days like today. Running outside on such a bright, clear, cold day is about being very alive. I love it!

Interview with Aashish Dalal of Parkwhiz.com

Aashish Dalal is Co Founder and Chief Whiz at Parkwhiz.com. ParkWhiz.com is only place you can find all of the parking that is closest to you, whether it’s a parking garage, surface lot, or a person renting out their driveway.

Find Aashish: www.parkwhiz.com/blog

knowist: What kind of tensions exist between technology decisions and strategic thinking?

Aashish: Tensions that exist generally revolve around ideal vs. reality. Many times it’s easy to imagine what we WANT to do, but a completely different beast when attempt to execute it. Expectations are also a source of tension as much of what is needed is needed NOW, which is sometimes impossible when 5 other projects are due at the same time.

knowist: What kind of interesting things happen in your office?

Aashish: Most of the interesting things that happen revolve around our interaction with customers. We field all calls through our 800 number and get some interesting calls. Many people think we own the parking space that they are inquiring about, while others start yelling at us for no apparent reason thinking we damaged their car. It’s frustrating explaining to these customers that we don’t own the facilities, but are only providing a service to find and reserve parking. Once we explain that, they seem to get on board, leaving feedback for the particular facility. Of course, this branding exercise sharpens us as we find new ways to illuminate the public on ParkWhiz.

I am Notorious

I am Notorious... the soundtrack. I am an ablum that puts greatest hits albums to shame. I am Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis.

B.I.G. songs have been incredibly hard to get through Napster So when I popped up on the what's new section on the landing page. You were hyptontized. Can't you see? Somtimes my words just do that to people.

Lyrically, my rhymes stand alone at the top of an unassailable mountain.

The next time some suit comes up to your desk and tells you about your damn TPS reports... Just put on your headphones. Crank up the volume. Show those bitches how you roll.

I've got scotch up the wazzooo

Sorry to be so obvious. Its cold outside. I rode my bike home tonight and for only the second time in my life got some minor frostbite. Not worth going to the ER, but my fingers really hurt and are scratchy. Its about -7. I've heard lower temperatures and wind chills all day, but honestly, I don't feel that hyperbole is necessary here.

One bright spot is my glass of scotch. I had one as soon as I walked in. LaPhroig 15. It warms the cockles of the heart. The cockles of the heart are located right next to the "wazzooo" As in:



I've got colde up the wazzooo, but this glasse of scotche warmes the cockles of my heart!

Interview with Keith Schacht of Crafted Fun, Inc

Keith Schacht is the founder of Chicago-based Crafted Fun Inc, the company behind leading Facebook applications such as Growing Gifts and Hatching Eggs.

Prior to 42 Friends, Schacht co-founded and sold two technology companies. In 2005, BusinessWeek named him one of the top 20 entrepreneurs under 25. He has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and Business 2.0 and served the world's top consumer product companies including Nike, Proctor & Gamble, Motorola, BMW, Kraft, and many others. Schacht attended University of Illinois where he studied computer science and psychology.

Find Keith:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/keiths


knowist: We once had a chat about making memes go viral. In my own marketing work I've talked about having a viral coefficient. That is, if you send a piece of communication out to a given number of people. Then those people, in aggregate need to forward the communication on to a larger number of people in a short time frame. Can you explore that idea a little bit for me?

Keith: Sure, I essentially agree with your summary. However, it doesn't even have to be a short time frame. I know a tutoring company that is experiencing exponential growth as a a result of viral (word-of-mouth) marketing. The viral loop is months rather than days or hours, but the same math still applies.

Also, even if every new customer you get only refers, on average, 0.5 additional customers. Your product isn't experiencing viral growth, but it doesn't mean that's not valuable. You've just increased the value of each customer by 50% by getting every other customer to bring along a friend. People have talked about the value of referrals for years like this for years, the only difference today is that the friction for referring friends has gotten so low (5-clicks to invite 50 friends) that people are actually seeing the referrals be greater than the starting group and that's what results in the hockey-stick exponential growth that everyone is talking about today.


knowist: You've been very active as an entrepreneur. Freshwater Ventures, Inventables, and Crafted Fun come to mind. Is there a unifying theme in the work you've done?

Keith: Definitely, each project or business I've ever done has logically lead to the next in mind, but I don't know if the thread is interesting to anyone besides me. :) I love using technology to create experiences. My two passions are technology and psychology: I love the usability of software, the subtle factors that make something "fun", highlighting the unexpected aspects of something to surprise people--and I love taking advantage of all these things to create something from scratch that excites people.

Land Waves

My campaign against treadmills and my dislike of the inside of a gym continues. Because of it, I've gotten some some really amazing sights of winter time in Chicago. This is on the lake in Rogers Park.

There's a lot going on here with permanence vs impermanence. The waves from the lake continue on indefinetely, yet each is individually very short lived. The ice and sand seem implacable and solid, yet will wither quickly once it gets warm. The beach gives off an illusion of turbulent motion, but is solid enough to walk on.

Interview with Jack Kent of GrubHub.com

Jack Kent the 5th (knowist: yes, the 5th!) was born at a young age in 1982. Unable to communicate with others, walk, or even feed himself, he eventually overcame these challenges and more to graduate Ball State in 2004. He is currently working as the creative director at GrubHub.com. His interests generally lie in the artistic realm- music (listening and playing) and graphic/web design. Beer also ranks quite high on the list.

knowist: Tell me a little bit about your work

The 5th: According to my business card, I'm creative director of GrubHub.com. The vast majority of my work is working on the front end of GrubHub.com, from any and all marketing/advertising, to the site itself. I try to approach my work with GH.com with an emphasis placed on usability and how the design can help push the brand (read: makes more money) instead of making a site that looks great but doesn't meet the users needs or make it easier to use. Having said that- I also try to find way to let it have as much form as function- so long as form doesn't step on functions toes.

knowist: How did you learn to be such a great designer?

The 5th: Apart from 2 semesters in school, my early education in web design was a trial by fire redesigning the site waaay back in the winter of '07. Learning web design by fire has been quite a challenge, but an enjoyable one and and am looking forward to seeing where the next couple years brings as my knowledge and abilities increase.

knowist: The correct answer would have been: "knowist taught me everything I know"

knowist: Whats the biggest decision you've had to make lately?

The 5th: The biggest decision I've made lately is to work at things more. I don't neccassarily mean at my job or any certain thing, but as an overarching theme. There's a quote by Aristotle that sums it up fairly well- "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit". While not aiming for excellence per se, it's hopefully a by-product of my effort to do better.

Interview with Chuck Templeton of DeltaBeans

Chuck Templeton is an Eco Entrepreneur Student of Leadership and Strategy. California native transplanted to Chicago about 7 years ago. Three years in the Army, (Airborne Ranger, Sniper qualified), but no live action. Founder of OpenTable.com. Board member of GrubHub.com, Partner in Delta Beans, LLC, advisor for multiple tech start ups. Husband and father of two girls (2 and 4).

Find Chuck:
twitter @greenergood
blog http://blog.greener-good.com/

knowist: Tell me a little bit about your passion for environmental issues?

Chuck: I have always had a tint of green growing up connecting with nature and the outdoors. I loved camping with my dad or walking a stream jumping from bolder to bolder for miles at a time as a youngster. My father recycled aluminum cans (not for the evn, but for the $) but it was always amazing to me when we went to drop off all of the cans, how many were there and that many in society just threw theirs out. But most of my life has been as a passive environmentalist. That all changed when my wife and I had our first child, Kendall. She made me think more about the future and what the world would be like when she got older. I started to think about her standard of living and decided to do some research on what was/is actually happening in the world.

The more research I have done, the more I realize that we have some serious challenges ahead of us and those are not as far out in the distance as many believe. I also don't believe that technology alone will be able to save us. We are making amazing advances in learning between materials science, energy and biomimicry. But the physics of 6.5 billion people on the planet, of which 3 billion have arrived in the last 50 years and another 3 billion projected in the next 40 cause me pause for concern. I believe that we must change culture and the values of humans as to what a high standard of living is and move away from consumption as the primary goal of a live. There are so many other ways of defining real wealth, many of which point to
more intense experiences and require a lot fewer resources.

knowist: Have you had to resolve conflict between your environmental passion and your business initiatives?

Chuck: There are indeed some business initiatives that I am engaged in that are not currently 100% aligned with my evolving vision for the future of Planet earth and its inhabitants (not that anyone is asking my opinion besides this blogger). But my goal is to help move them where is makes sense in a direction that is more consistent with my perception as to what it will take to be successful as resource challenges, carbon capt and trade systems, re localizing of economies, increased energy prices and rising commodity prices permeate the business community. Just like the last 5 to 10 years has drastically changed the competitive landscape for businesses, I believe that the next 5 to 10 will bring even bigger change as we move from a carbon based economy to a carbon neutral or carbon negative world.

So I hope help the businesses I am involved with be ahead of the inevitable curve we are speeding towards so that they can have a competitive advantage and excel in a changing world.

I am a Dell Printer part.

I am a critical part for a Dell Printer. I stopped working. That sucks. Fortunately, I've got a brother. You might call up my bro at 4:45 on Tuesday. He'd show up by 10:00 AM on Wednesday. Now that is awesome. Especially if you were 4 days late getting your monthly statements out the door because of the New Years Holiday.

What's really cool about me is that my brother was shipped in an efficient container. He came with instructions about how broken old me could get sent back to the Mothership and recycled instead of being thrown out.

That's a lot different than Office Depot's shipping policy. Apparently they think that 43 bags. 43 bags. 43 bags! of air stuffed shipping material is just enough to keep a calendar's internal parts from breaking. That's good. Because the inside of this calendar are probably as complex as a Delorean Time Machine.

Interview with Sachin Agarwal of Dawdle

Sachin Agarwal is the co-founder and CEO of Dawdle, an online marketplace for both new and used video games, systems, and accessories. After working in VC and ibanking he started Dawdle.

Find Sachin
Twitter: @sachinag
Blog: http://blog.dawdle.com

knowist: Tell me a little about your work

Sachin: My job is to do everything I can to give interesting projects to the technology team and to leave them alone to do their jobs. I consider myself both the stage manager and the producer of the play that is Dawdle. The technology guys are the actors - the stars of the show. I strike partnerships with other companies, try to identify and recruit high value professional sellers to the site, do our media outreach, and handle some of the customer service.

knowist: What kind of tensions exist between technology decisions and strategic thinking?

Sachin: Well, we have our internal roadmap of stuff we want to build to make the site better/cheaper/faster/whatever-er. Partnerships often require us to write some specifications for our partners and usually require some technology to be built on our end. In addition to that, we always get feedback on new features from our professional sellers that we need to incorporate. Sometimes it feels like we're zigzagging between 800 different things, but that happens when I'm not doing my job and setting strong priorities. I make the final decisions about what takes priority, based on external feedback and internal development time estimates, and the technology team whips it up.

knowist: How has the concept of Dawdle evolved?

Sachin: The initial vision of the site worked much more like Priceline for video games - although I hated that comparison, in retrospect, it was the right one. We did a complete 180 on that and now Dawdle is much more of a fixed price marketplace, although we retain the Priceline style user-experience under our "StandingOffer" technology. It was a big deal to make that change, but thankfully, we were able to retain our transaction engine (we call it our Intelligent Matching Engine) by coming up with some clever ways to hack it (in the good sense). If we hadn't made good strategic decisions about how the technology would have worked from Day One, we never could have retained the engine and may have just puttered around forever. Since we made that change, sales have skyrocketed and it's been easier for me to recruit new sellers to the site.

knowist: what else you got for me?

Sachin: I think it's really important for every startup to have at least two people: one focused on technology, and one focused on everything else. Even if two technologists start a company, someone is going to have to step up and own the business aspects of the company. I initially tried to do Dawdle myself with some outside consultants (here in Chicago) building the technology. That just didn't work because Dawdle was just one of many clients. Similarly, a single technologist with no business partner is going to have a devil of a time getting good outside feedback from potential customers, partners, and press. The separation of roles is key.

Clear roads are for sucks!

After my previous post: I am a stud... ed tyre You might have been wondering: "How bad can it be that he needs studded tires?" More probably, you were wondering nothing of the sort. Actually the possibility that you were among the 3 people that read the post out of 6 billion people makes it extremely unlikely you were thinking about it at all! But, if you were:

The commute to GrubHub.com has gotten a little bit colder these last couple of weeks. I'd like to say that I ride my bike because it reduces my carbon footprint. But, the reality is, I just have a lot of road rage, and its easier to be happy on a bike. Also, its fun to look at all of the shivering people in the bus stops and all the angry people in the cars and feel superior. I am an ass.

I am a Stud(ed tyre)

I am a Nokian W106 studded tyre. Why 106? Because I have 106 Carbide Steel Studs. They bite. No really. They bite into the ice and snow. Which is particularly important since Mayor Daley isn't clearing the snow anymore.

If you weren't using me on your bike, you might have a rather embarrassing fall where the bike slid out from under you 5 feet from the end of a 10 mile commute. You might have slid for 10 feet into a dumpster just outside the back door of your house. Man, that sure sucks as far as hypothetical situations go!

You might also wonder why I am a tyre. As opposed to a tire. Its because I was manufactured in Finland. I'm tougher than talking to a "genius" at the mac store on Michigan ave without an appointment. I'm tougher than Sergeant Slaughter. I'm tougher than Colonel Tigh. Don't think the Finns are tough? Check out Fridtjof Nansen.

Geese Asking for Directions

These geese are lost because they can hardly tell the difference between The sky, The snowy ground and The Frozen Lake

Lonely Sentinel of many Boundaries

This tree grows just between Sheridan Drive and The Lake. Right on the Border between Evanston and Chicago. Just in front of a cemetery where I like to run. The tree is alive, but the photo was taken in the depth of winter. At twilight.

Brisk Run up to Evanston

I had a plesant 6 mile run up to Evanston and back today. I really like the curve in Sheridan road as you approach this jewel of the suburbs. (As opposed to the Dominick's of the suburbs). I'm running along and then BAM! there's the lake. There are very few places in Chicago where you can run right along the lake. Ohio street is the other one that comes to mind. But most Chicago runners hate that part of the path because its all slanty and concretey and hotty and windy.

Evanston. A city in its own right. Not just for Suburban Date Nights!

Running along the Lake