MyPunchblog

A brilliant site for all of you who want to know: Is it Christmas?

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Party Planning and Online Invitations with MyPunchbowl

After a long 3 1/2 year life, an old friend passed away this week. How many cell phones do you know that have lasted that long?

I loved my Treo 600. It was reliable, consistent, and user friendly. And then one day this week, it decided it was tired. It stopped working, and with a last final sigh it had its last phone call. I don’t think my Treo realized that the 12th recruiter this month would be its last call. But alas, none of us get to choose when we take our last breath.

My Treo and I– we saw the world together. Treo’s been there to share my ups and downs, the good news and the bad. Treo’s been my link from Natick to the world, helping me to connect with our partners, the press, and random customers that call me with their stories. Ask anyone who knows me– I carry my Treo almost everywhere I go. I store all of my information in my Treo, and I love to show people how quickly I can pull up their contact information.

Treo 600: you will be replaced. But you were my first Smartphone love, and you will never be forgotten.

VT we love you.

….I just can’t help myself. Mobile broadband rocks!!

I’ve gotten a few emails asking about my new broadband mobile card. The question is always “is it worth it?”

Well, it’s Saturday afternoon around 3:30pm, my wife is driving, and we are doing 75 down the NJ Turnpike. I’m not exactly sure where we are….check that….we are near the last service plaza in NJ. Before I wrote this post I checked our bug database (we’re cranking on a new release and working on the last handful of open issues).  So is it worth it? I’ll let you be the judge. But I think it’s great to live in a connected world.

One last note about my broadband card: during my trip to NYC there were a few times where I walked into an important meeting with only 15 minutes to show off MyPunchbowl (for example, the BusinessWeek meeting lasted only about 12 minutes!). This broadband card allows me to power on my computer and be *immediately* connected. Pretty amazing.

Anyway, we’re headed to D.C. for the weekend. Cherry Blossoms and a 10 mile race. Given my illness recently, it’s going to be a challenge. I wrote a few months ago that running is like doing a startup. This will be one of those times that showing up is more than half the battle.

A great new site launched recently called Behance. Behance offers an in-depth take on what it takes to be a creative person. Their interview style is in-depth, focused, and edgy.

I’ve spent a bunch of time clicking around to read interviews with various creative people. I’m partial to the more technically minded folks, but they have some great interviews with musicans and artists too.

Take a read of MyPunchbowl’s Behance interview– then book some time to spend looking around the rest of the site. My hats off to Scott and the rest of the crew at Behance for an interesting and visually appealing site.

We just launched a new version of MyPunchbowl.com, and we’re pretty psyched about the new features and functionality. My favorite new feature is the ability to “Try it Out” before you create an account. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t like sites that force you to sign up just to have a look around. We went one step further with our “Try it Out” functionality: you can create a ’save the date’ or an invite, and if you decide to create an account you can pick up where you left off.

Here are some of the other key new features:

• Flexible RSVP options: allows the host to decide whether the guest list can be seen by guests. Hosts have complete flexibility and can change the options at any time
•  “Try it out”: provides a simple way to try the application without the need to create an account
• YouTube integration: Add YouTube videos to your MyPunchbowl After Party
• Preview “Save the Date” and “Invitation” emails before they are sent
• Guests can now track parties they are invited to using MyPunchbowl, eliminating the need to keep the invitation email
• Customize your party map and save the zoom level, and type of map
• View parties planned across the country in the MyPunchbowl Party Nation map
• Useful “Reasons to Party” and “Plan Ahead” calendar of holidays and events
• Interactive messages provide users with feedback throughout the unique workflow-based user interface
• Update your email and password in “Your Account” settings
• Support for foreign language characters

What’s your favorite new feature?  Would love to hear your thoughts about the new version.

It’s been a good week, that’s for sure. We launched MyPunchbowl.com, and we’ve had quite a bit of coverage, especially because of the TechCrunch article. But it almost didn’t go that way. Everything turned out well, but I don’t think I’ll forget the day I had coffee with TechCrunch.

Since we’re based on the east coast, I had emailed Michael Arrington to try to set up a meeting while I was in San Francisco. Michael wrote back– he was going to be on vacation in Washington state, but he arranged for me and Nick Gonzalez to meet up. Obviously, I was psyched– if everything went well, MyPunchbowl.com would be on TechCrunch.

Nick and I traded emails, trying to figure out the best place to meet. After some internet searching, I picked a place that would have internet access. To be sure, I called the place and asked if they had wireless. “Oh yes, and it’s free” said the nice woman who answered the phone. Oh boy, she was wrong.

Fast forward to January 3rd– not only am I sick (with the flu), but now I’m standing outside of the place we are supposed to meet having just found out that they don’t have wireless and realizing that I may not be able to show Nick the product. Uh oh. I quickly get on the phone with Sean (co-founder) as he looks around online to find a place with wireless. A few minutes later, Sean calls back with some options– there’s a Starbucks not too far away. As I hang up the phone, I see Nick. I casually explain to him that we need to walk 3 blocks to find wireless. “No problem”, Nick says. (Note: Nick is a really laid back guy who made the whole thing not a big deal– thanks Nick).

A few minutes later, we’re at Starbucks. Of course my T*Mobile login didn’t work, so I had to create a whole new account. That took another few minutes. Nick was really patient, and once everything was set to go spent over an hour with me to really understand our vision.

With all that’s been written this week about MyPunchbowl, there’s really one thing that stands out to me: TechCrunch took the time to learn about our product AND our vision– and with all of the delays, Nick could have just as easily said that he didn’t have the time. But he did spend the time, and I think he really understands where we are headed. And TechCrunch’s conclusion?

“The ability to not only plan a party, but learn from the experiences of other party planners will be an attractive feature in party planning and provide a strong reason to choose MyPunchbowl over the others.”

Ah yes…it was a good week. But it almost didn’t go that way.

Start your next party at www.mypunchbowl.com

TechCrunch has the story: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/01/14/mypunchbowl-joins-the-evite-gunners/

It’s been a blast developing this new product — we hope you’ll sign up and give it a try.

- The MyPunchbowl Team

Throw your best party yet! http://www.mypunchbowl.com

It’s been busy for us right before and after the holiday weekend. However, it’s been worth it– we successfully shipped a new version of MyPunchbowl, adding many new features. There is plenty to write about, but one new feature stands out: MyPunchbowl now has a unique, more personal way to RSVP to an event or party.

Here’s how it works: after a host has created a party invitation, he/she can easily send an invite to guests and ask for an RSVP. MyPunchbowl RSVP has 3 options for the guest:

YES: If a guest RSVP’s “Yes,” a collaborative party message board will appear. The guest can choose to write a comment on the message board– but it is not required. We look at the party message board as a fun place to interact– not a required public forum where you have to come up with something witty to say.

RESPOND LATER: If a guest RSVP’s “Respond Later,” a message from the host will appear. Right now it’s a simple message which asks the guest to respond before the event. Respond Later provides the guest with a simple way to answer later.

CANT MAKE IT: If a guest cannot make it, the guest can send a private note to the host. Rather than a public Yes/No/Maybe list, our “Can’t make it” allows the guests to privately decline the invitation.

We think there are many benefits of the “MyPunchbowl RSVP” method– the most important being that MyPunchbowl RSVP is not a public exhibition.  There is no public list of who’s coming and who’s not coming. Rather than deciding on whether you’re coming based on who else is coming, you decide what you want to do. MyPunchbowl RSVP is a personal 1:1 interaction between the host and the guest. That’s how we think it should be.

Go try it out. Create a new party and give it a whirl. And let us know what you think about our new way to RSVP.