The Underdog Story

It’s 4am, 39 Degrees and I am Running All Alone…

I had the opportunity to talk to the Nashville Software School today as they wrap up their class. I chose to talk about my thoughts on interviewing techniques and freelance vs full time employment. I could have written the story either way, but this way was fun :)

Detail — it is not my job to help you, it is something that I want to do and therefor I do it for free. But here is the thing, you have to want it more than I do. You see, I am a sucker for a great startup. I found myself rushing around trying to make sure I spoke to 3-4 of the different companies and made sure that I offered to make introductions, offer advice and to provide tidbits of information that might spark a meaningful thought and/or conversation. And even though they are already more than a month into the program, they did not follow the magical 90/10 rule from the movie hitch (video below).

The 90/10 rule, if you recall, is this: When you are out on a date with a girl, and you get the signal that it’s ok to give her a kiss, you don’t swing in and go 100% of the way to the lips. No. You go 90% of the way and wait, and let her come the last 10%. In my startup meetings tonight, that was not the case unfortunately. I felt like I was the one trying to convince the startup to pick me! I sought them out. I sparked the conversation. I barged in to meetings. I connected the dots between the ideas I was presenting and their business. I knew about them, and even though some had already connected with me on LinkedIn and had setup meetings with me digitally, they knew nothing about me.

Startups are hard, no doubt. They take a lot of effort, time and brain power. But founders – do NOT make your mentors, your customers or anyone else for that matter do 100% of the work. Just like that magical moment when you are green-lighted by the man/woman of your dreams to go in for the kiss the first time – make your mentors (or your customers) want to go the last 10%. Trust me, you want them to want you back.

Here are my findings – I hope they help you in your journey to supporting outdated enterprise email clients.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Formatting HTML Emails for Lotus Notes

• Do everything possible in semantically correct HTML
• Do not put your style tags in the header. If required, put css in-line – but know this, there is a great chance that they will get ignored
• If you need to have padding or margins, most of the time those are ignored if done via CSS padding/margin attributes. If you need them, it is best to do nested tables and adding padding with the cellpadding=”10″ attribute
• When you use tables (and trust me, you should always use tables), I saw more success from applying fixed width sizing to the table and to the individual cells. Don’t forget — if you are using cellpadding, make sure you subtract those widths from the table cells too!
• Don’t use <p> tags. Use <div> tags or <span> tags. P tags are uncontrollable due to defaults in Lotus Notes. If you use DIV or  SPAN, you should still use them inside of TABLES to have more control.
• If possible, use the BGCOLOR attribute on <table> and <td> tags as close as possible to where the color is needed. If you only do it at the TABLE level, the cells may inherit from the BODY tag or other parent instead
• Don’t use BORDERS at all! It seems that the minimum border width in Lotus is 5px no matter what you do !IMPORTANT :D Just get rid of all the borders both in your CSS and on TABLEs and cells.
• Lotus Notes (versions 6.5 and 7 at least) do NOT support .PNG. That means you have to make all images in .GIF or .JPG format. Have fun with that. It literally will not render a .PNG file

How to Do Testing?

I can not speak highly enough of LitmusApp.com – they are what I used to do 95% of my upfront testing (with the last 5% being sending test emails to select clients using Lotus Notes). They have tremendous support for many email clients and browsers, but important to my scenario, they have lotus notes 6.5, 7. 8 and 8.5 that I could test in within minutes.

Life Moments

• Remembering my grandmother, who died in early 2012 from cancer. So happy to have been able to see her for the months leading up to her passing.
• Mourning the loss of our 10 year old golden retriever, Cason. He was the only constant in our family, sad to see him go.
• The happiness of 11 years of marriage. Every August I cant help but think of how lucky I am to have met someone so perfect for me at such a young age.
• The pure joy of learning of our first child. Coming in March, our little boy has been hands down the most exciting thing we have ever planned for.
• A trip to Memphis with friends, Dave & Sherry. We probably would not have made it there without your prodding.
• A trip to Mexico with family. A week, unplugged, with loved ones. Always worth it.
• Spending time on the mountain (Monteagle). It’s awesome to learn who your greatest friends are, and to be able to do cool things with them.

Personal

• Brewing beer with Rob, Matt and Jeff. We’re not the best, but we make amazingly drinkable beer.
• Finding companies to start to mentor, and to continue to mentor.
• Backing cool projects on Kickstarter that range from underwear, to gadgets, to food and a book. More great companies.
• Another amazing year at the Jumpstart Foundry. The 2012 companies truly amazed me.
• Being part of the wedding of my good friends Matt & Rachel.

Work

• The tremendous execution of Checkd.in. We built so many cool campaigns, its hard to mention them all: Taylor Swift, Pink, Kenny Chesney, Dunkin Donuts, Less Conf, Pitbull and so many more. The team is just crushing it.
• The explosive growth of Change Healthcare. The stats are still unpublished, but before this year is over – peoples minds will be blown.
• The launching of Curious

Fitness

• Fangtastic 5k with John Wyckoff and family
• The warrior dash complete, and highly recommended. Drink beer, costumes, live music and giant turkey legs.
• Ran the 200 mile Ragnar with team CHC. It’s amazing what you learn about people and their desires to succeed when you spend that much time in a van with them. This was a great experience, hope I can do it again one day.
• Bought my new Cervelo R3. Decided if I was going to commit, I needed to commit.
• Trained 700 miles (small, but moving). My hopes is to do so much more in 2013

I’m sure I have left out soo many moments, but this is what my memory (and facebook, and flickr) remind me to write about. I can only hope that 2013 is more impressive than 2012 in every category. To those I know, much love – lets go get it!

 Similar Posts:

• Ferfs’ 2011 – A Year in Review
• Status Update, Where Am I?
• Memorial Day Memories

From October 2001 to October 2012, Cason lived a good life. At 11 years old and more than 120 pounds, he was the only thing that stayed constant in Amy and my life from the day we got him. While we moved from city to city and coast to coast, charging through new adventures and startups, Cason followed along happily at our side. I’m glad he died at home, without pain, and with family. The photos tell a lot of stories, but if you spent any time with him, you know all you need to already :)

Some of my favorite Cason moments:

• He used to spill your beer just so he could help you clean it up
• He has eaten: a pound of reeces cups, a pound of chocolate chip cookies, a stick of batter, fiberglass insulation and the orange netting bag that your oranges come in – just to name a few
• He has chewed holes through both drywall and a mattress, just to see what was on the other side
• He loved being covered in towels – a towel was actually his favorite toy
• Cason is “kill me dog” (just google it)
• and so much more.

11 years is 1/3 of my life and as long as I have been married to my wife. It will be hard to get over, but his memories will of course be with us forever. He was loyal, loving and part of our family. But most of all, he was a great friend. Similar Posts:

• Cason Puppy, Cason Enormous

For those who do not know me well, allow me to start with this: I have a list. This list is full of all the goals, large and small, that I want to achieve. Some are things like learning martial arts, or playing blues harp, or riding my motorcycle on a long road trip. Some are things like raise chickens, live off my own garden and make the world a better place – you just never know what’s going to be on the list. The idea is this: when something gets to the top of the list, you do it (or you put significant effort into figuring it out). Today we can mark “raise chickens” off the list.

Last month, on July 4th, we brought home our four little ladies (ages 10-16 weeks). Their names (from left to right): Cluck Norris (a cinnamon queen), Chicken Tetrazzini (a Salmon Faverolle), Nugget (a Welsummer) and Hen-rietta (an Americauna). Having had them a month, I can officially say they are growing to be a big part of our family. They are very low maintenance and will start producing eggs in about 8 weeks.

A few details for those of you who are interested (this is the significant effort part):

• We got the ladies from an awesome bird lady at Poultry Hollow
• We built the chicken coop from scratch (pictures)
• We bought the necessities from Tractor Supply Store
• We feed them DuMor Layer Pellets
• Read the Nashville chicken ordinance/rules
• Get your Nashville chicken permit ($25)

Above: Our chicken coop at about 90% complete.

Amy and I are proud to be among the few city dwellers in Nashville to have our permit and be raising chickens near downtown. Soon we will be getting upwards of 4 eggs per day to go along with the fresh veggies from the garden. It’s been fun to have friends and family over to teach them about our chickens, and raising chickens in general. Im sure this is just the first part of our chicken story, but… another list item, completed!Similar Posts:

• Jumpstart Foundry Investor Day: This is Going to be Huge!
• The Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus come to Nashville
• Leaving San Francisco > Photos from the Going Away Party

It is bittersweet, but after 10 years of running our screen-printing company, we’ve decided that we can no longer devote the appropriate time to it. It was Amy and my very first small business startup and since, we’ve started more than 10 additional companies!

We have had a great time working with you to create shirts for events and adventures in all of your lives and we are grateful for the business and friendships that grew because of it. I wish I could recommend someone else to do the work for your in our absence, but honestly, no one does what we do anymore for the price.

Above is a photo from 2004 from a Jimmy Buffet party where we brought t-shirts for everyone there. It was a fun ride, but time to clear some space for the next big thing.Similar Posts:

• I Bought A Bike > Schwinn 2007 LeTour
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• Memorial Day Memories

Barbara Marie (Wright) Southworth, 73, died at 2:54 p.m. Sunday, April 22, 2012 in Tennessee surrounded by her family.

She was born Dec. 4, 1938 in Monticello to John and Edith (Widner) Wright. On Aug. 29, 1953, in Royal Center, she married Joseph Edward Southworth; he preceded her in death. She and the love of her life were devoted to their two daughters. As the families grew, so did their love. Barbara treasured life and her friends. She was very close with the entire family of Jim Maxson Sr. who were considered part of her immediate family.

Barbara was a lifelong resident of Monticello. She retired from White County Memorial Hospital in 2002 where she worked for 21 years as a Dietary Aide and later Assistant Director of Foods and Nutrition. She always enjoyed both her co-workers and the patients she cared for.

Barbara believed that all people are good in their own right and treated them so. She never met a stranger. Through the years, “Coffee’s on!” and “You’re on!” were poetic as everyone was welcomed into her home, and if you lingered, the games came out. She enjoyed traveling and camping and in later years, arts and crafts.

Barbara had a strong belief in God and His plan for her life. Nearing the end, she was excited she would be joined with her husband and forever be in God’s presence.

2011 brought a lot of greatness to my life. Great friends, great memories and great opportunities as well. None of this is designed to be bragging, if you know me you know that is not my strong suit. And you will also know that one of my weaknesses is a terrible memory. This post is mostly for me. I want to remember all of the things I have done. So with that, let me remind my self today of 2011…

Fitness

Staying in shape, finding new friends…

Ran the Fangtastic 5k with Matt, Rachel, Matt & Nick

Cycled Over 1,000 Miles & Raced a 100 Mile Race

Battled (and Beat) the Warrior Dash with Amy and Nick

Ran the Cinco in the Gulch 5k

Entrepreneurship

Managing Director of the JSF, Launching 6 Companies

Raised the First Round of Funding for Checkd.in!

Built Amy and Nicks First Startup – EverydayBetter.com

Invested in 6 Kickstarter Startup Companies

Attended TechStars Demo Day in NYC

Learned Tons About My Grandma Southworth

Funding and Growth (Doubled in Size!) for Change Healthcare

Season Tickets to the Preds with the CH Nerds

What’s in the Future?

I can only hope I continue to be blessed with great friends, a loving family and good fortune. I know not every moment can be glorious, as I found out in the past year. We remembered Tim on the four year anniversary of his death, donated oars and planted a tree for Eli Witt after his death from battling Lymphoma, and then finding out that my grandma has pancreatic cancer just to name a few moments.

But find the good in the bad. I realize over and again how important friends are. How important family is. And how important it is to try to live every day to the fullest. I’ve learned how to listen, how to help and how to care. I have also tried to teach more and more as I met with 100’s of startup entrepreneurs and mentors in Nashville and across the country helping them work on their companies.

My number one lesson in 2011?
Live life, appreciate your friends and family
& love what you do.

 Similar Posts:

• Ferfs 2012 – What the Year Looked Like
• Memorial Day Memories
• Too Tired to Write, But Enjoy This Photo…

Every day I sit in my office and this photo is there. The picture is of Tim McGovern, Nathaniel Saylor and myself at the top of a mountain where we always hiked and climbed in college. Inside the frame I added a fortune I got from a Chinese restaurant a few years ago that I think fits quite well. It reads “Life always gets harder near the summit”.

I have a pretty good life, but that does not mean that there are not challenges. I work hard to make myself and others around me successful, and that is why I love this photo so much. Not only does it remind me of my friend Tim who died in Iraq 4 years ago… but it is a source of inspiration to keep on striving to be the best. To not let work get in the way of friendship, love or life. That hard work means you are doing something that matters in some way. And that you never know when it all might end.

Tell someone you love them today. Do something that you love today. And remember those who gave it all so we can do these things everyday.Similar Posts:

• I Work Hard Because I Play Hard
• Happy 30th Birthday to Tim McGovern
• Tim McGovern – One Year Anniversary, RIP

Southern Startup Hospitality from chris mcintyre on Vimeo.

This is my presentation about my involvement in the Jumpstart Foundry, as well as why I believe in the Southern Startup Hospitality that exists in Nashville. From the Jumpstart Foundry Investor Day 2011.

Open your rolodex. Open your laptop. Open your checkbook.

Similar Posts:

• Jumpstart Foundry Investor Day: This is Going to be Huge!
• My CarlSays Interview at PodCamp Nashville 2011
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What can you expect to see? Well, I don’t want to give too much away (you can read a bit about the companies here), but let me tell you – this is an amazing bunch of entrepreneurs! We took submissions from companies all around the world to come to Nashville and work with the JSF. Over 100 applicants, 8 countries and 25 cities applied! It was hard to whittle down the list, for sure. Lots of reading, exchanging 100’s of emails, flying around for meetings, skype meetings, in person meetings, and lots of internal debate. Needless to say, I am absolutely amazed by the companies we chose and how far they have come in the last 13 weeks.

The JSF is in it’s second year, and last years start-ups are doing amazing things! Check out some of the following 2010 companies if you don’t believe me: Bizen, SourceYourCity and SplitSecnd (see them all here). This is what I consider to be a historic event for Nashville – 6 start-ups exploding out of an intense accelerator program, primed for investment!

Don’t miss your chance to attend Investor Day, get your name on the list today! RSVP Here.

As a final note, if you are a technologist, startup or entrepreneur looking for a way to accelerate your company, you should check out the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. If you are on the brink of a great startup idea and think the 2012 Jumpstart Foundry accelerator might be right for you – we will start accepting applications soon. Hone your presentation now!Similar Posts:

• Southern Startup Hospitality – My Pitch for Nashville at the 2011 Jumpstart Foundry Investor Day
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I had the opportunity to sit with Nashville great Mark Montgomery yesterday for a couple of hours and exchange life stories. For as interesting as he is (read: very), what was most interesting was his straight forward approach to getting the info he wanted/needed from the conversation. An interesting example of this, and the reason for this blog post, was because of a very pointed question he asked…

“As an investor, if I was looking at your company to invest in and saw all the things you were involved in outside of that company, that would scare me. How do you get away with all of it, and why?

My answer was simple: “I take my work life as serious as I take my personal life“. At first he looked at me like I was a little full of crap, but then I went on to explain.

Loving What You Do

Most of us have hobbies or things we LOVE to do: gardening, biking, playing music, mentoring, volunteering, mountain climbing… you name it. Because we love these things, and because (for the most part) we don’t get to do them as much as we would like, we can become obsessed with them. We read articles, write reviews, enroll others, buy gadgets and in some cases fundamentally change our lives for these personal life things. That’s pretty serious. I take my job that serious.

I love what I do. I love where I work. I love the people I work with. I take my job as seriously as I take my hobbies. I approach each day like its that one week a year where my friends and I get together to hike into the woods and camp, climb mountains and tell stories by the fire. I love my job. Everything in my life is part of one story. My personal life bleeds into my work life. I believe it should be that way. When you are a well rounded person, you are a better employee, a better friend, a better spouse, a better parent. Don’t believe me? Ask the people I work with. It’s a shame I have to call them “people I work with” because for the most part, these are my greatest friends and people I share most of my personal and professional time with.

Work Life Balance is for Wussies

Some people call what I have explained here “work life balance“. That is such a politically correct way of explaining peoples lives in this world. Why would you not work for a company you believed in? Why would you not love your job? Why would you not work with people you would call family? Work life balance to me says “I know you hate your  job, but if you have hobbies and friends that will make it better.” I know I’m making generalizations and stretching the definition, but whatever. I have no work life balance and I love it. There is no line between where work ends and life begins.

About My Imbalance

I am a founder (or founding member) of many companies, some here in Nashville (Anrovia Design, ShirtsBymail, Podcast Alley, Mevio/PodShow, CarlSays, Checkd.In, Jumpstart Foundry, Change:Healthcare, EVBE, etc). This is my work, and my life. No balance. I love my startups, as a matter of fact I love many startups (Im a mentor for Source Your City and NextGxDx, and others too). I also love being outdoors, gardening, cycling, motorcycling, family time, creating things with my hands, and more. My work life balance is so out of whack, but that IS my balance.

I work hard because I play hard.

Work/life balance is for wussies.

I take my work life as serious as my personal life.

Do You?

In Summary…

Mark, thanks for the time we spent together. To anyone reading this, I would love to talk to you more about this topic and help you find a way to work as hard as you play. Most importantly, don’t let people tell you about you. You decide who you are, what you love, and what you do… not others. Don’t be afraid to go balls out.Similar Posts:

• Life Always Gets Harder Near the Summit…

From their site:

“Thomas Edison is repeatedly quoted and sited for his perspective on failure. This perspective has seen many packages; “fail fast, succeed fast,” “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Those tag lines are great for movies but failure in reality is both sharp and blunt like the corner of a steel table.”

I rarely do interviews (and this one is kinda low quality due to internet lag), but I hope it explains a little bit about my philosophy on failure and my failures along the way. My wife and brother are starting a new company called evbe (or Everyday Better). Im hard on them. I have failed a lot and it has hurt. Hopefully they can learn from me to not get hurt so bad, but letting them fail is part of their growing experience as well. In the end, their product, and they as entrepreneurs, will be better for it :)

Watch the Video Here

Enjoy the video (ps, the audio is bad for like a minute but gets better).

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• New Job Official > I Have Joined Change:Healthcare

While the government claims to provide pricing for drugs and procedures, those listings only highlight what Medicare and Medicaid are willing to reimburse, not what those services actually cost. Hospitals, doctors and insurance companies provide patients with an itemized bill for care – but only AFTER the fact. The Healthcare Transparency Index, issued today by change:healthcare, is the first to provide healthcare consumers with ongoing trends data about actual healthcare costs – offering insight into critical opportunities for cost savings.

With more than 60 percent of employers in the U.S. expected to offer a consumer-directed health plan (CDHP) in 2011 as a way to curb costs, employees and their families will be increasingly accountable for “shopping” and paying for their healthcare – making it more critical than ever for them to understand the costs involved. To be issued quarterly, the inaugural Healthcare Transparency Index includes data derived from more than 1.3 million medical claims, totaling $220 million, from 90,000 individuals across all 50 states over a 12-month period. Key findings include:

• Prescription drugs offer the highest opportunity for cost savings ($8 million across the HCTI data set), followed by dental, routine primary care physician office visits, psychotherapy, physical therapy and chiropractic. View Chart
• Costs for commonly prescribed drugs can vary greatly. The following prescription drugs offer the greatest opportunities for cost savings for both brand names and generics – by simply switching pharmacies. In fact, an Abilify consumer could save up to nearly $2,500/yr by making a pharmacy change. View Chart
• Wal-Mart, Target, Kroger, CVS and WalGreens top the list of pharmacy chains with the widest prescription cost discrepancies for both brand name and generic drugs. View Chart

Similar Posts:

• Confused About Generic Drugs? You Could be Paying 70% too Much!
• Did You Know 20% of Every Dollar in America is Spent on Healthcare?
• New Job Official > I Have Joined Change:Healthcare

Contact me if you need our new address or phone number… or if you want to come hang out in the new house/neighborhood.

My Short List:

• Celebrated 9 years of marriage with my beautiful wife
• Introduced our new puppy, Ari the Golden, to the world
• Started 2 new companies (CarlSays and Carazel)
• Built and Launched a giant campaign for Jason Aldean
• Signed huge new companies at change:healthcare
• Finished (mostly) our house remodeling (and here, and here)
• Moved my brother from CA to TN
• Had a Snuggie Christmas
• Help start the Jumpstart Foundry Microfund
• Built new relationships with amazing friends
• Explored Tennessee and are proud to call it home
• Survived the Great Flood of Nashville
• Had multiple San Francisco people visit us in TN
• Ran a 5k Race and a 1/2 Marathon (results & pics)
• Visited San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Georgia, Alabama and Indiana
• Went on a cruise with my wife and brother
• Gave up cable. Learned to relax. Smiled a lot.
• Took pride in knowing Tim McGovern, and remembering him
• … and SO MUCH MORE! (I could prolly double this list easily)

I encourage you to find one day a year to sit back and just think about what all you have done, and what you have to be thankful for. I miss Tim every day, but am glad he gave me the gift of learning to reflect and be thankful. I miss you buddy.