Always thinking

Groupmingle logo shirt

posted by Road less travelled @ 8:59 PM 0 comments

Another day

It was cold in the morning, at least that is what I heard: 36 F. This is almost freezing point for Palo Alto. I did not go to bed until about 4am, answered a call in bed around 10am, finally woke up at 1:30pm. Day goes by fast when there is only 3 hrs day light after you get up. I will start teaching some session from tomorrow.

Through Techcrunch, I got to know entrepreneur27.org and submitted my info. I am no longer 27 if that is what they want. However I still look like one;)

Before that, Leo and I spoke briefly on skype. I am signing up for one of Emily's cooking class for the first half of Dec. Catalyst cocktail's Will called me back about his venue. I also posted a need for private home kitchen rental to kick off singles group dating party and implement our strategy. There should be two channels to market an event. One is the at regular price, one is at groupmingle.com: the purpose is to promote the site. Never forget that.

During the intermission of thoughts and working on things, I found green tea is truely soothing. The water has to be boiled water, no maybe but or...microwaved water does not work. Leave holder does not produce the similar flavour as floating leaves. I thought about creating a new blog called hotteacoldwather.com to show how to enjoy tea the best. It surely is paradise when green tea served along with Tartine bakery food.

I am struggling, still. To find the breakthrough for groupmingle.com; From Emily Dellas, dot come will never become a business if it does not think like a business: how to think like a business? Make money with great product.

The immediate task is to find a nice place to host a party, I am pretty sure singles will love to attend a food making and cocktail mixing party before the holiday arrives.

posted by Road less travelled @ 6:21 PM 0 comments

Struggle plus focus may produce creativity

Where was I? Struggling and spamming. Actually I did not really spam, only send a few emails out. For those I did emails with no personal interest, I appologize. I mentioned Emily Dellas who is very successful on her own cooking class business in SF. I called her number today. Her assistant answered phone and we chatted for about 15 minutes, she is extremely passionate about Emily as a person. Emily has 800+ emails on her email list alone and keep growing, her website almost does not have any traffic. So she must have done a hella good job on cooking class so all her clients introduce new clients.

I think for groupmingle to grow organically, we have to stick to our core value: a place for singles to mingle in group. We have to grow from small, cultivate a few real good chef, organizer etc., to host real good events for singles; We need to provide incentives for people to visit groupmingle, how? There must be a discount price on groupmingle. Out of this new focus, I emailed Amy who immediately emailed me back saying she wanted to host a vegetarian singles event. We will have a discussion tonight to pan out the detail. I think we will get some attention if we do things right, (not like spamming etc.)

I finally got the teaching job on the side to subsidize the cost I incurred. It's probably the only job I am willing to take, because it's a job that does good to society. The weather was horribly cold for bay area, 47 F to be specific, along with chilly wind. It took me three rounds of drive to get life scan fingerprint done and returned the Toshiba laptop I got 2 weeks ago.

While I was circling around menlo park and palo alto area, it hits me again that life is like a drive in a car: it's all up to the driver, if driver chooses to only circle around, s/he can waste all the gas and time on hand without getting anywhere; if s/he sets the right goal and chooses the smart rout, the car will move to onward and forward, get to where s/he wants.

Stop circling around. Start moving forward.

posted by Road less travelled @ 8:07 PM 0 comments

Daily struggle

Lot of time I spent in bed is actually thinking. Thinking about what the hell is going to happen with groupmingle.com; Leo said right: we have to fine tune a product to a point that it's proven not working. It's far from that point. I spent sometime early morning to "spam" a few female users between 28 to 40 on okcupid, since we need female members. I don't know about you, to me, I felt satisfied after getting some work done, even without knowing if it will work at all. I thought I will spent 48 hours inside my bed room emailing 1000 people, hopefully there will be some signing up with us. It's only 48 hours, not a big deal. I went to bed happy. Then I got up, turn on the computer, found an email from a female that I spammed (I hate to use that word, but I was spamming her). She said "thanks for the spam, I will for sure let ... know"; I hate spam. But I did that this time. It does not work for people and tarnish groupmingle's image. But how to get users? We have a fabulous group dating idea, a working platform, a few real singles signing up; how to reach 100 members, then 500, 1k?

To be continued...

posted by Road less travelled @ 7:53 PM 0 comments

Frustration

Just read a few stories on business 2.0 about linkedin and other successful companies, lately I have not spent whole lot of time on reading these stories since it's more important to actually get out there doing things. Marketing for groupmingle.com has not been smooth, there is 0 people signing up since Nov. 23, so it's been 5 days without no new users. I am thinking to either make groupmingle as an event aggregator for singles only, or go to place for singles to organize events. I spent about 30 min today on Linkedin to send out a few invitations and research people who have the experiences for online dating startup. Without much result. Then a lady called Natalie emailed me regarding a nice venue "Falcon lounge" down in LA that is pretty sexy and appropriate for singles event. I researched a bit on eventful and heyletsgo to see what events out there for singles and what popular events are. Eventful is kinda off the hook on "event for singles/social": it's a mere list of bunch of musical/comedy/dance/community events that a single can not relate much too. Besides a list, what else value it provides to singles? Singles events have to be relevant, initimate with built-in expectations. Although speed datings are not perfect format, it at least provides singles real opportunities to mingle. But again, the format is a bit over the top and unreal. What groupmingle tries to do is to bring singles together to an intimate setting where they can social without this types of over-the-top format. So I call it event by singles. I happend to find a top event posted on heyletsgo. It's a popular cooking class offered by Emily Dellas, it's surprising to me that she is only 27 years old and has her calender filled up pretty well. That is exactly what I wanted to start with: a chef hosting a dating event for a group of singles. Then I found out a few more chefs are doing the class from craiglist. None is doing for singles though. Look, Emily is already successful on her cooking class venture. She does not need groupmingle.com to get her crowd. The only proposition I have for her would be singles scene and more singles party in the future, but again, she is already busy and can not host more. But in order to scale, she needs to have more business. Maybe that is where groupmingle come in. On the other hand, groupmingle's real value is to provide singles with more opportunities. Good events definetely draw singles: that I know already. But we need more girls. Without girls, there are no points for a dating event. How to get them? I spent about an hour and half on popsugar.com and perezhilton.com to dig what draws so many women there. There are lot of women who are not very attractive having hard time finding mate, but guys are not looking for them online. But if you have these women in the event, guys are all gonna be pissed. Have to find the sweet spot. I think still, men follow women that is how it works in the history of mankind. Groupmingle.com has to find solution to best utilize this rule of thumb along with our own approach.

posted by Road less travelled @ 11:28 PM 0 comments

Titanic 9 years

It's almost 9 years since Titanic was released. TNT has been playing Titanic three days in a row. It reminded me the history. That was the first winter I spent in America, now it will be the 9th. I watched Titanic alone at a New Jersy's cinema back in 1997. Much has changed, both of actors grew to be an adult and having family and stuff. It's like part of my life now. The past, to the future.

posted by Road less travelled @ 11:59 PM 0 comments

I am pretty stupid, not

If I am a normal person who is content with a 9 to 5 job and 100k salary, I would have been happy. But I am not normal. Then I am almost stupid. Really really. I do not have a normal job, I slept anytime of the day I want, and worked this way too. My bank account does not have much. I don't even have a decent apartment to my own. And I still do my own thing without knowing what the turn out is. However, I believe my 3rd Internet project and first real startup groupmingle.com will have gather the steam and hit the main stream soon. I believe the way I am operating my startup. Besides all the obvious, I hope people can look deeper.

Check out www.groupmingle.com

posted by Road less travelled @ 9:50 PM 0 comments

It's raining

After a few gorgeous sunny california day, it turned cloudy and finally rained! It's still raining out side. I love raining in northern california. It's rare, it's seasonal. It turns everything green in a manner that no rains elsewhere would do so easily. The land just is craving for the rain.

A raining day is perfect for working inside. I got lot of things to do.

posted by Road less travelled @ 1:51 PM 0 comments

Thanksgiving and parents

Today the Nov. 25 my parents left for China on China airline. It was a bit emotional to see my parents gone, and my parents are even more emotional than me worrying everything that I am doing, meaning instability and such. It felt even more sad when coming back to empty house where my mom and dad stayed and cooked and cleaned for me.

Thanksgiving dinner is history, Susan and Jim brought back Christmas trees as part of family tradition, they appeard a lot more closer to me and kind to me, maybe they realized what a fine family my folks are from and how much they liked them.

While it's hard to see bye, it's also necessary, saying bye will give me more focus to my project, bringing more creativity badly needed for groupmingle.com

Latest business 2.0 has an article with what to expect in 2007, like their tradition. I particularly like Rachel Ray's testimony. It's been a great year for her, it's just being a begining for me.

posted by Road less travelled @ 10:10 PM 0 comments

Nudity on soccer field

Stanford women's soccer lost to Clemson at final shoot out, a Stanford student went all nude onto the field and kicked out the soccer ball right before the penalty kicker. And that happened twice in a night, the staff was just standing there laughing. That guy appeard to be an undergraduate student with a big ass and bumpy dicks/balls. Girls just turned their heads away, That was so funny.

posted by Road less travelled @ 11:23 PM 0 comments

Everything or nothing

In the past week, I have launched groupmingle.com, the first real event social network for singles. I had quite a few ideas for new projects at the same time. It has convinced me that focus is paramount at this stage; Stirr's founders' mixer and pitchlab both send clear msg to me: it's only the first step of launching a company to have a live site. There are lot more to starting up. This is also last week of my parents' visit.

The best thing about living in palo alto area is the startup environment. Only here, you will feel the vibe. To me, everything or nothing.

posted by Road less travelled @ 10:54 PM 0 comments

Startup camp

I am going to this camp:

http://wiki.startupcamp.org/wiki/StartupCamp1DiscussionIdeas

posted by Road less travelled @ 10:26 PM 0 comments