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Category Archives: CA 001

The dream goes social – Salesforce’s big yet safe gamble

September 15 2011 - CA 001, Dreamforce 11, Social Enterprise, Teambox - Write Comment

It was at the point in his speech when Mark Benioff was waving his arms and furiously ranting about the Social Enteprise that it hit me. I could have given this keynote 3-4 years ago. Many of us on the front lines of the social revolution would have been great on that stage. What we were missing all this time was the audience. That is something Mark has a knack for generating.

online collaboration
 

Salesforce is doubling down on the concept that all paths to the future of business are down the social streams. It only took five years for the big boys to see what the pioneers of all the 2.0s (Enteprise, Marketing, Sales etc…) were proclaiming. For those that have been teetering on the soap box, we are quite happy to have the big boys tardy to the party.Better than focusing on a different soiree all together.

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Karl Goldfield

CA 001

@karlgoldfield

Folders part 2, now even more powerful!

September 13 2011 - CA 001, Features, Productivity - 3 Comments

A month ago, Pablo announced our new file folders feature. You can read that post here. This was a small leap for Teambox and a major leap for getting things done. It allows you to share files with people not connected to Teambox, quickly eliminating the need to download and email files.

As cool as they are, my intent is not to repost all of the content in his post, but instead to share some additional features that make our folder systems even easier to manage and all the more powerful.

You can now do three things that are critical to proper file and folder management:

  1. Now you can rename folders.
  2. You can move files in and out of folders.
  3. You can manage files, including sending and changing folders, from anywhere you see the file.

There is one more powerful feature. This one really excites me. You can now share folders with people outside of Teambox. You can see all these cool features in the screenshot below.

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Karl Goldfield

CA 001

@karlgoldfield

In SF and Dreamforce is all about Social Enterprise in the Cloud #DF11

August 30 2011 - CA 001, Dreamforce 11, Social Enterprise, Social Network, Teambox, Technology - 1 Comment

If you did not know before August 30th 2011, you do now. Salesforce is making everything they do about using social media to better serve their customers and partners. It is all about their Social Enterprise and the Mobile Cloud. 

While we have been trumpeting the need to integrate business with the critical mass of social media, they have the billions to put some power behind it. And frankly, I say BRAVO! 

Why?

Because it is not just the question of getting it right. It is not about which one of us makes the best online collaboration tool (Pssst, it is us). It is about making sure that the entire business community sees that through the progression of the mobile, the growth of the web and the elimination of silos of data (the anti-cloud), we can make work easier for all.
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Karl Goldfield

CA 001

@karlgoldfield

Why open ended online collaboration works

August 14 2011 - CA 001, Collaboration, Entrepreneurship, Insight, Procial, Startups, Technology, Webinars - Write Comment

When I was 19 and still more concerned with my rock band’s next tour date than how I was making a living, I worked in the warehouse for Photoflex. The company was a photographic accessories manufacturer and the owner had some radical ideas at the time about how to run a company. One, which was my first experience with corporate transparency and open collaboration was that he shared the company financials with the entire company.

Colaboración online

“OK, so our gross profit was 50% and we are trying to manage the business on a gross profit of 58%,” he would open the meeting, “Any one have any ideas on how we can reduce our operational or shipping class?”

This was my first experience with open collaboration in a corporate setting.

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Karl Goldfield

CA 001

@karlgoldfield

What does it take to create real change?

May 4 2011 - CA 001, Insight, Procial, Teambox - Write Comment

For those of you who do not know our mission, here it is:

Change the way we work by making it easy and fun to get things done.

We believe it to be an important mission. If we can make our users more effective at work we are improving their quality of life. Better work means better solutions, better products and more profits. All of these are wonderful things that everyone can embrace. But it is a lofty goal and well, who do we think we are? How can we, with a software solution really think we are going to effect change at a global level?

The answer is simple. Like the theme of the movie ‘Inception’ we need to plant an idea deep in the psyche of the business community. That idea? That using email and other one on one communication tools is slowing us down. That by moving to a hybrid of productivity and social systems we can become more effective in every aspect of our day. This is the concept behind Teambox and our placement on the Procial Network.

We believe that if instead of working from a linear pile of unstructured email and file folders you drive your day from an organized stream of activity and tasks you will spend less time between actions and more time doing things. We believe that groups having the ability to discuss ideas in a central location then add people to the discussion at will makes for better answers and solutions. We believe that being able to take ideas and covert them to action is a powerful step towards executing on our action.

How can we be so confident? Because we see it in our own efforts every day. Personally I spend 30-40 minutes in my activity stream instead of several hours managing the same communication in my inbox. I complete 20-40 tasks a day when prior to using Teambox I was lucky to manage 15. I no longer have to sift through the noise of meaningless emails to find what is relevant to my day. I no longer lose important content to my Spam folder. If you asked  anyone on the team they would tell you the same. We are more effective because we use Teambox and it allows us to get more done.

Now, what about the fun? Well we get to enjoy our work because we spend less time in between tasks. We get to play around in projects designed for fun. We get to high five (even if it is virtual) each other as we knock out objective after objective. Frankly, I find few things more rewarding than getting to forget about work for the weekend because we managed to get everything we planned accomplished during the week. Like I said, Teambox has improved our quality of life.

So join us in our mission. See what it means to manage your efforts on the Procial Network. See what it means to have fun at work.

KG CA001

Karl Goldfield

CA 001

@karlgoldfield

Video, t-shirts, stickers…at Teambox it is a media bonanza

April 20 2011 - CA 001, Collaboration, Procial, Teambox, Webinars - 4 Comments

And people I could not be more excited. We have so much content coming our way today my head is spinning. To share it all I am going to have to list it out.

1.  We have new stickers. Want one? Post a comment here or on the Facebook fan page.  http://facebook.com/teamboxapp

 

2. The new shirts are going to be in SF tomorrow! I am so excited to mail these to the USA winners and get mine!

3. We have a new video for the home page. Check it out:

4.  We have a complete web training in 6 chapters on the webinar page. Check it out here: https://teambox.com/webinars.

AND

5. New educatonal screencasts will be in the system for first time users by Monday.

Can you dig it?

 

 

Karl Goldfield

CA 001

@karlgoldfield

It is an invasion!

March 29 2011 - CA 001, Collaboration, Social Network, Startups, Teambox, Technology - Write Comment

What else would you call it when the majority of your development team, including your CEO and CFO rent a giant house high on a hill in San Francisco?

Well I guess you could call it the pre-amble to an amazing couple months of development for Teambox. Watch out people, it is going to be amazing. Already in the works are better ways to manage and add contacts, a new private element interface and another tweak to the user interface that will be another increase in the level of easy and fun to GTD!

For now, come find us at the Web 2.0 conference this week as we walk around evangelizing the Procial Netowork.  I am driving two of the developers up from Santa Cruz today to join the fun. We plan on being at the Marriot for the local/mobile party tonight; let the rejection therapy begin!

Don’t know about rejection therapy? Click here.

Karl Goldfield

CA 001

@karlgoldfield

Update on Giving Back Campaign

March 24 2011 - CA 001, Collaboration, Giving Back - Write Comment

Just a quick note to share some great news. Over 50 organizations have qualified for a free cloud account. Several others are waiting on installation of their on location deployments. We will soon share the names of some of these great organizations that range from churches sending aid to New Orleans and other needy areas of the nation to companies giving micro-loans to women in third world countries to teams providing relief on the ground in Haiti and Japan.

For all of you that retweeted, posted on Facebook or wrote about the campaign on behalf of Teambox, the organizations and the people they help, I say thank you. I am so proud of this community of givers that prove the human condition has a giving side that can overcome any obstacle.

Karl Goldfield

CA 001

@karlgoldfield

The long steady road to traction

March 22 2011 - CA 001, Collaboration, Community, Procial, Teambox - Write Comment

Startups go through many phases and while at most the experiences, the people, the offering and the path to success have to be agile and adapt in some unique manner to the effort at hand, the one thing that is consistent is that success comes more in slow and steady rises than in huge spikes until a tipping point is achieved. These tipping points are the holy grail as each one changes the day to day numbers and plans of the company.

What happens all to often however is that a startup will get some recognition that creates a spike in activity and mistake this moment in the sun for a tipping point.

Sometimes a new startup will see a spike in activity from a good event showing or  a positive review. All too often this spike is confused for a tipping point and when things settle down after the excitement it bursts all the bubbles from the prematurely popped bottle. These spikes in isolation are just small building blocks towards the true scale tippers that change the way you get to play the game.

I am excited because over the last six months Teambox has had many spikes and watched as the growth simmered back to steady. Exhilarating, but far from any tipping points. We have worked hard to align on several fronts and all of our effort has finally led to the precipice of an explosion. It is an exciting time at any startup and well I just want to say thanks.

To my partners in building the plans, thank you for being patient and trusting our process.

To the developers, thanks for making an amazing product.

To the users, thanks for all the well, use. We hope you continue to love us.

To the media, thank you for all the positive reviews and validation.

I know this might seem premature, but if things continue this week and next, I may not have time to say it then.

Karl Goldfield

CA 001

@karlgoldfield

The startup and rejection therapy

March 2 2011 - CA 001, Collaboration, MWC 11, Procial, Startups, Teambox - 3 Comments

My mind is still stuck on the many wonderful experiences of both Barcelona and Teambox HQ.  Getting to really know Pablo at a cellular level only strengthened my decision to walk away from almost 5 years of consulting to wear the ‘employee’ hat again. He has the serial entrepreneur bug and more importantly the fortitude to fail his way to success.

Evidence is his ability to put a name to a game of dare me and my sales cronies have been playing for years. It is common to challenge people in the sales world to try the impossible if they have the stones to try. Pablo calls this ‘rejection therapy’.

He explains, “An example would be if you were say a smoker. It would be easy to walk up to somenoe smoking on the street and ask for a cigarette. The challenge of rejection therapy is instead of asking for one cigarette you ask for six. In this exercise you win either way. If you get told no, you are rejected and have succeeded in your objective. If you get a yes, well you get some extremely unbelievable prize and a chance to try again.”

Eureka! This was the sales mind at its finest, the proverbial tilting of windmills that made the startup mind relish in its daring. So the Barcelona edition began. First stickers on napkin holders and other hard to achieve marketing objectives. We asked people to wear stickers on their badges at Mobile World Congress and well some we will leave out of the post. The challenges were decent, but I continued to fail to get a real no. It was great to win, but in a game where winning is really losing, I was just ready for some rejection.

Then came my moment. The coup de grâce was my decision that I was going to get a Mossos d’Esquadra, the local police squad, to slap on a Teambox sticker and become the first Mossos d’Procial. When I had this idea, my Catalan companions told me that I had gone too far and lost my mind. See, in Barcelona you do not mess with the Mossos and everyone was convinced the attempt would land in irons and a cold dark cell. (Read more about them here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mossos_d’Esquadra). At the mere scent of fear my excitement grew. A challenge of this magnitude could not be overlooked. Did I think that I would end up in the back of a squad car for merely asking, no; but the chances of getting a yes seemed almost non existent. Rejection city here I come!

At long last my opportunity arose and with the aid of a Jordi (As common a name in Barcelona as espresso and Jamon), I approached, set forth with my ultimate play of rejection therapy and…

Captain of the Mossos d'Procial Network

The image has been cropped to protect the officer, but anyone that knows Barcelona will recognize this outfit. That little white strip above the badge, you guessed it, that is a Teambox sticker. So, I left Barcelona without a real rejection from the game, but the boys had to feed me three mojitos for this win. I guess I can save rejection for the many times it is bound to come as a member of a startup. Windmills beware, we are coming for you.

Karl Goldfield

CA 001

@karlgoldfield