I’ve finally settled into my place in Berkeley after moving up from San Diego and things have been busy, busy, busy. We have been working on ThriveSmart full time since the boxes were unloaded from the truck; only taking breaks for the occasional trip to the supermarket or power lunch. On Friday we headed into “The City” [1] to have lunch with Jeremy Stoppelman the CEO of Yelp. Listening to Jeremy talk was inspiring and he knows a great place to go for lunch[2] 
We talked about Yelp and how they started, how they marketed themselves and what might work for us. I won’t rehash the history of Yelp, but a couple of points stuck with me.
Virility: We talked a bit about how difficult it is for local content oriented sites to be viral. It’s easy for a funny video to travel around the world on the ‘net. Only so many people are interested in a great restaurant in San Francisco or the doctor I booked my appointment with online. We talk a lot about viral videos and if/ when they make sense. Hopefully soon we will have one out to test the waters. Stay tuned!
Sales: Direct Sales is hard, but it can work for an internet based company[3]. Although it’s not as sexy as those companies that can grow their user base exponentially like facebook. There are some benefits, you can focus your effort and your offering[4] on a particular vertical. You can work with businesses within that vertical to make sure what you are building is relevant[5] and Great[6]!
Failure: You think about failing everyday. I’ll be honest, we are so busy I don’t have much time to think about failing, but the fear is there. When I was learning to ride a motorcycle I read somewhere[7] that as soon as you loose your fear of the bike, that’s when you have an accident. So stay scared, but don’t let it paralyze you.
I’m sure Matt will have a post up later that will better articulate the conversation we had on Friday but mine is up first 
Notes
[1] San Francisco, just in case you didn’t know. Coincidently this was my first time on BART
[2] If you have an opportunity check out Samovar Tea Lounge: their Bison burger is great.
[3] Look at opentable.com as an example. They have hardware and software that needs to be installed by a business to use their offering.
[4] Initially, I’m not saying stay focused forever, but in the beginning having a product that works great for a “good” sized market is better than one that works good or average for many.
[5] I can never mention the word relevant without thinking back to a conversation Robert J and my former team had at a sushi place in La Jolla; Good times, good times!
[6] Great for you, great for the business, great for their users, great for the world. With some great ginormous success thrown into the mix too.
[7] Proficient Motorcycling: The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well
