A few months back MyPunchbowl launched a new personalized party product on our site – MyPunchbowl Personalized Soda. Personalized soda comes in many classic flavors such as Root Beer and Cream Soda, among others. To personalize your soda, choose your flavor, upload your own photo for the front of the label, then add a personalized message for the back of the label. Pretty cool, right? Check out the soda that our CEO, Matt Douglas created.

For the holidays, our partners at Jones Soda have made some special holiday-inspired flavors available for you to customize for your holiday parties. Evergreen Apple, Snowdrift Soda, Reindeer Root Beer, and Holiday Cheer are the new flavors for this holiday season (just look for the holly icon at the top of the bottle to identify holiday flavors!).

MyPunchbowl Personalized Soda makes a great addition to any party but with these holiday flavors you can definitely add a little something special to your Christmas or holiday party this year. Order your personalized soda soon as these special holiday flavors are only available for a limited time!

This morning I was inspired to write a post on my start-up CEO blog about a question that I wish I never had to answer over email. I’m curious to hear your comments on this post. Do you think I’m being too particular or do I have a point? Find out the question and read more in my most recent Startup Swami blog post.

If you have an interview some time in the future, you might want to read this blog post from my new start-up CEO blog. This tip could save you a little embarrassment and help your interviewers too. What’s the simple interview mistake you might make? Allow me to tell you what happened to me last week. Read the post on the Startup Swami.

When I started MyPunchbowl, I spent a lot of time talking to colleagues and networking with people in startups. Part of my goal was to learn more about how to start a company, but the more I reflect on that period of my life, the more I realize that I spent a lot of energy and time seeking validation of my startup from those around me. With that in mind, the Startup Swami (aka me) has written a post dedicated to those who are trying to start a company or grow a startup. The post was fun to write — it rolled right off of my fingers. So without further ado, here’s today’s Startup Swami post: Your Startup Sucks. Enjoy.

Today we are excited to announce our partnership with Oriental Trading Company. As the leader in start to finish party planning, MyPunchbowl now offers the huge range of Oriental Trading products to our customers. Here’s the official announcement: 

MyPunchbowl.com today announced the launch of MyPunchbowl Party Supplies in partnership with Oriental Trading Company. The new Party Supplies portal powered by Oriental Trading is the perfect complement to MyPunchbowl’s award-winning start to finish party planning site. The announcement was made in conjunction with the start of the Shop.org tradeshow in Las Vegas.

As customers plan events and parties on MyPunchbowl.com, they can now shop from a massive selection of Oriental Trading Company’s best-selling party supplies. MyPunchbowl Party Supplies is organized by occasion and matches the types of parties that are most often planned on MyPunchbowl.com — kids and adult birthdays, baby showers, as well as Halloween, Christmas, and New Year’s parties.

“We are thrilled to offer our fun and affordable Oriental Trading party supplies to the loyal customers of MyPunchbowl.com,” said Sam Taylor, CEO, Oriental Trading Company. “The common characteristics of our customers make this partnership a win-win solution for our business.”

Through technology developed by MyPunchbowl, inventory from Oriental Trading is updated on a nightly basis. The party supplies portal displays featured products as well as best sellers. After planning an event, MyPunchbowl.com customers can quickly and easily find party supplies that match the theme of the event they are planning. The site also features an integrated search engine to find relevant products among tens of thousands offered on the site.

“We found the ideal partner in Oriental Trading Company,” said Matt Douglas, CEO, Punchbowl Software. “As the nation’s largest direct marketer of party supplies, Oriental Trading provides our customers with party supplies that meet our customers’ wide array of party planning needs.”

Shop MyPunchbowl Party Supplies.

I believe there is one word that is the most important word for start-ups. I wrote about it today on my new start-up CEO blog, Startup Swami. Go ahead, try to guess. What is the one word that matters the most when you are starting a company? Want to know my answer? Then head over to the Startup Swami to find out what word I think matters the most.

This week we sent out the fall edition of our quarterly newsletter. This is the second newsletter that features our updated newsletter layout — we first introduced the new format at the beginning of the summer.

In case you missed it, the fall newsletter was jam-packed with tips and helpful information for hosts planning Halloween parties as well as holiday parties. It also contained exciting news about two recent additions to our product offerings: MyPunchbowl Personalized Soda and MyPunchbowl Experiences.

So far we’ve gotten some great feedback about our newsletter. Check it out and let us know what you think!

We’re excited to welcome former CEO of TownConnect, Mike Ford, as he joins MyPunchbowl as VP of Business Development. Here’s the official announcement:

Punchbowl Software, the company behind MyPunchbowl.com, announced today the hiring of Mike Ford as Vice President of Business Development. In this position, Ford will be a key part of the management team responsible for driving sales, traffic and strategic partnerships.

“Mike joins us at the perfect time in the company’s growth,” said Matt Douglas, CEO, Punchbowl Software. “Mike’s experience as an entrepreneur and business leader in the consumer Internet space makes him a great fit for Punchbowl.”

Ford’s sales and business development experience in social media, search marketing and ad networks will play a vital role in the growth of Punchbowl’s service. Previously, he was Founder & CEO of TownConnect, a social-local networking site that connects people in their communities and SVP, Sales & Marketing for Did-it Search Marketing in New York. Mike also led vertical business development for Quigo Technologies (acquired by AOL) and was the Founder of Computer.com.

Mike’s favorite reason to celebrate is St. Patrick’s Day – a tradition for generations in the Ford family. Mike has personally hosted over thirty St. Patrick’s Day parties.

“I’m thrilled to join the Punchbowl team,” said Mike Ford. “The business potential of MyPunchbowl.com provides a unique opportunity for me to work with top online brands and retailers.”

As some of the long-time readers of this blog know, this blog started off with only one author — me. As a result, the blog took on many forms: sometimes related to MyPunchbowl, and other times related to my observations about start-ups and business. It was a hodgepodge of Matt, in blog form.

A few months ago, I decided to make a change to this blog. I invited other people in the company to contribute to the blog, and focused the subject material on MyPunchbowl-related topics. We’ve heard from our co-founder Sean has offered a glimpse into new features and functionality on the site, from our Marketing Manager Stephanie about interesting ways to connect with the MyPunchbowl community, our Analytics wizard has shared with us ways we think about numbers, our interns have shared their stories and observations. I’ve heard lots of great comments about these changes, and I think our company blog has become stronger.

However, one thing that’s been left out since these changes is a place for me to share some of what I learn and observe about start-ups and business in general. So that’s why today, I’m launching a new startup CEO blog called the “Startup Swami.” For those of you who don’t know, Chris Berman (of ESPN) made the term “swami” a pop-culture phenomenon a few years ago. As the “ESPN swami” Berman waxed on about all things sports, and threw in a few predictions to boot. As the Startup Swami, I hope to share what I’ve learned over the last several years about how to start a company. The blogs will take many forms: short-form, long-form, and maybe even some video. My hope is that you will hear my raw thoughts and experiences as I continue to navigate the startup world.

I’ll post short summaries on the MyPunchbowl company blog when I write on the Startup Swami. Today’s post, offers a brief background story of why I decided to create the Startup Swami.

I hope you will check out my new CEO blog and subscribe to the feed.

It happens to everyone at some point - you need to cancel an event that you’ve already invited people to.

With our latest release, we make it a little easier on you and your guests. If you need to cancel your event, just choose Cancel Event from the Event Options menu on your Dashboard:

We’ll take you through it step by step and we even include an option to send your guests a message:

But wait, there’s more! If you need to reschedule your event we’ll give you the option to copy to get you started:

We hope your event goes off without a hitch, but now if you do need to cancel you can do so with confidence.