Today was all about field trips.
Google
Okay, so obviously not a start-up but we had the pleasure of having lunch with a friend who works in their ads division (formerly DoubleClick). There are some fantastic ideas that will likely be reality very soon around optimizing creative, content, and calls to action in almost near real-time. I’ve been lucky enough to be to Google’s Mountain View, California and Boulder, Colorado campuses and they never disappoint. The food really is pretty close to fine dining and the campuses just kinda have an indescribable buzz about them.
Check out the QR code sign too:
No Sleep ‘til Brooklyn
From here it was off to Brooklyn to interview filmmaker and web design legend Hillman Curtis for a very cool blog. More on that in a few weeks…
Harvest
Back to Manhattan and SoHo in particular to attend WalkaboutNYC put on by the Harvest team.
Note: We’re huge fans of Harvest and if you’re running a small business there really isn’t a reason you shouldn’t be on it. For $12 a month you have everything at your finger tips to handle the awful business of invoicing and time-tracking. We’re constantly referring our consultant friends to get set up on it.
We met the cofounder, Shawn and it was great to hear from him how they bootstrapped the business off a core competency of web consulting. He was very humble about the whole company and said over and over about what a great team he has working with them.
They have a very cool space with the most awesome desks we’ve ever seen that raise and lower on a switch, so you can stand or sit. (www.geekdesks.com - see below)
Behance
For some reason SoHo not only has some best bars and restaurants but also lot of the cool web companies in NYC. Behance seems perfectly at home in this setting. The company serves creatives with a variety of products from sketchbooks to its recently launched (and brilliant) Prosite that allows designers to have a portfolio on their own domain with a CMS to power it.
Designers and developers with the content folks are mashed up in the space. Everyone’s running a big iMac. …and still cranking at 6 pm on a Friday night.
Gotta love startups.
In Sum
New York City is known for its energy and it doesn’t disappoint on the tech scene either. We were exposed to good ideas and met a ton of great people doing some remarkable things.
We owe a huge thanks to our clients the Webby Awards and Netted by the Webby’s in particular. Through working with them we were introduced to Team Internetweek – a great group of very hard-working people who pulled the whole event off. They were also kind enough to let us tag along to the after parties and tip us off on some great restaurants.
Thanks Steve, Alison, and Katherine – We’ll do our best to return the hospitality in Bozeman.
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