Foursquare’s first direct relationship of note was with the Brooklyn Museum. The museum saw the obvious value of visibility into who checked-in and decided to embrace the opportunity to directly provide it’s visitors with tips and tricks around the museum. The created an interactive experience and essentially a personally guided tour! Awesome. Other institutions saw the obvious value in this type of partnership and wanted in, as I said before, the people who get in early will benefit the most. Tristan is killing it in driving these partnerships and infusing compelling reasons for users to checkin and amplifying the value of the checkin.

Our next announcement was that Harvard University got on board by populating over 30 tips for both students and visitors all around campus. The cheeky headlines read, “Foursquare goes to school” and they were right. With Harvard U. on board Foursquare was learning that the potential for these partnerships were reDONKulous. Harvard used the Foursquare platform to populate a virtual tour guide with tips like…

@ Harvard Hall: In 1764, Harvard Hall burned down in a nor’easter, taking with it almost the entire College library & John Harvard’s book collection. (December 9, 2009)

@ Mr. Bartley’s Burger Cottage: An American landmark since 1960 & voted best burgers in America! Try “The American Idol” burger w/ bacon, cheese, mushrooms and onions. (December 8, 2009) [Link]

Can you imagine the potential of the worlds best location based social network and the worlds best restaurant guide teaming up? Exclusive tips from Zagat about the highest rated restaurants in major cities like Chicago, New York, and San Francisco becomes very interesting for the foodies out there. Did someone say Foursquare Foodie badge? I think so!

Oh snap, with a Foursquare/Bravo partnership 4SQ enters 90 million American living rooms and hits mainstream big timeness. BravoTV’s experts and celebs give tips about the venues they love so that when you check in, you’ll see their exclusive tips integrating your checkins with that of the BravoTV shows. Everything from Michael Cohen of Miami Social, to Patti Stranger from Millionaire Matchmaker…know you’ll be in the know like never before, and you can live vicariously through the shows and their stars.

@ Joe Allen: This is where the understated in-crowd always dines. You actually need reservations because the food and This is where the understated in-crowd always dines. The menu changes often but for lunch, the La Scala salad is so good!  Their fish selections are also notable. -Michael Cohen, Miami Social (1 day ago)

@ Dave and Buster’s – Hollywood: Sports bars attract hotties. That’s why I love the wings at Dave & Busters. -Patti Stanger, Millionaire Matchmaker (1 day ago)

The institutional partnerships are taking things to a whole new level. Foursquare was always praised for being a game that provided real world, offline value, but with these partnerships that value was just amplified.

Why raise $30 million to hire an enormous, nationwide sales force if you could use the power of existing sales teams for a fraction of the cost? Recently, I’ve been thinking about how startups can leverage other, larger, companies to build out their model. After all, a startups purpose for existence is to test their model. So why wouldn’t a startup leverage every existing system possible to keep costs low and test the model?

An increasing trend in startups, for good great reason, is to use Facebook Connect to leverage the existing social graph. Look at Foursquare, HotPotato, or OMGICU, all great examples of instantly connecting via FB connect to pull in all of your friends from likely your largest existing friend network. The time and wasted money that these startups would spend developing a brand new social graph is ridiculous.

There are so many opportunities for rapid growth through this type of “existing system leveraging”. With Foursquare I’ve been working hard to get as many venues involved and offering specials in the application as possible, so why wouldn’t I take my own medicine here. I try to use, excuse me, partner with the people who already have relationships with these venues. It turns out there are marketing teams who have great relationships with large groups of bars and restaurants, working directly with these people may bring in 10-20 venues in one fell swoop rather than me pounding on each venues doors individually. Or, another example is liquor distributors? They have strong relationships with bars and can possibly influence the end price of the product to a customer who say, checks in on Foursquare…get it. There are sales teams that work with these people and have a system in place already like Coke, or Zoom media (those ads above urinals), etc. etc. etc., the list could go on.

Whether you’re building a social app, or a utility that sits on top of the ’social graph’ I’d encourage you to look at ways to use existing systems, social or otherwise, as your best distribution channels. The cost is likely lower, and the impact likely higher.

What existing system have you leveraged?

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Back in October I wrote a post about wanting more feedback on this blog. I vowed that if you gave me feedback, I’d listen and sculpt the content of this blog in such a way that it was valuable for you, the reader. I’ve often struggled with the question, should I write for the audience? or, should I write for myself? I’ve found that a mix is the best for all of us. If I’m not really engaged and passionate about what I’m writing it’s probably not going to come off as very interesting to you, and sure as hell if I’m not interested in the topic then I’m wasting my time writing.

What I haven’t done to-date is share the feedback I received so I want to do that today. It’s important to me to let you know that your “voice” is being heard, and that I actually have been listening to your feedback. One of my favorite startups out there is Rypple, a Toronto based company that creates tools that make it easier to grow as a professional. Their feedback tool which allows for completely anonymous input through email or in this case an embeddable widget (which is still in the side bar to the right) is perfect. The people at Rypple are some of the best and you should follow their progress and use their tools at your company. Check out (@jaygoldman, @ddebow, @dpriemer) Anyway, anything you write in that box is completely anonymous, otherwise I’d give some credit to those who contributed. You know who you are so thank you!

Here are a handful of the tips and feedback that I got…

“I like to hear what motivates you as an entrepreneur– to hear your special reason and drive.”

“I love what you write about – its a must read blog… thanks! It would be great if you wrote more about some controversial topics – the BS of arrogant entrepreneurs, the Kool -Aid drinkers etc. But – don’t be negative, just honest.”

I really like this idea and I’ve not written about it yet. I definitely plan to… (I frickin hate the Kool-Aid drinkers)

“blog what you want, it’ll be best if you like it.”

“Could you talk more about lessons learned from start-ups and their culture and how that influences what you are doing at GE. but in general, keep mixing it up and making it interesting in every blog post.”

Because I do work at GE full time I’ve refrained from writing about it so far. I have been contemplating writing a series of ‘how I use startup lessons in the corporate world’ type posts. I appreciate your feedback here and will start to take more action on it.

“Your stuff is great Ryan, one of my regular reads.”

And that kind of feedback is what keeps me going! I appreciate all of you who take the time to read this blog a few times a week. I will continue to listen to your feedback, feel free to post it in any posts comment section or anonymously in the Rypple tool to the right ——->

By now we are all well-aware of the devastating effects of the earthquake that struck Haiti two weeks ago. You’re also likely aware of the uber successful campaign ran by Red Cross to text 9-0-9-9-9 with the word “Haiti” to auto donate $10 of your next cell phone bill. Genius. As terrible as the event was and is, it’s heart warming to think that the world has come together to support the people who need it most. Sometimes it looks like the world is going to shit but events like this although terrible seems to bring us back together, and that’s a great, needed, thing.

via (drewconway.com)

This graph effectively shows which countries are pulling their weight in the giving category. It measure giving vs. gdp. One of the reasons that the US has done such a great job helping is the grass roots nature of our giving. Yes, it’s the same grass roots giving style that Obama captured during his campaign run. So, how do you contribute to the grass roots effort?

Here is an easy opportunity to lend your monetary support for relief efforts, and have a blast doing it. This Friday at High Tops in Lincoln Park, you’ll be able to spend all that money you probably would spend on booze anyway, and send it to Haiti. All of the Happy Hours proceeds will be donated to Save the Children.

Details:
Date: Friday, January 29
Location: High Tops: 2462 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago [website]
Time: 8pm
Deal: From 8-10pm, $30 all-you-can-drink domestic drafts and well drinks, as well as $2 shots and $5 bombs.  From 10pm to close, its $3 you-call-its with that wristband.  Appetizers will also be served.
Charity: 100% OF MONEY COLLECTED WILL GO TO SAVE THE CHILDREN’s DIRECT EFFORTS IN HAITI [http://www.savethechildren.org/]

Bonus: Anonymous donors will match the first $600 of donations!

How It Works:

Donations will be collected through this page and at the door of the event.  Please print your confirmation email from FirstGiving.com and bring it with you on Friday to collect your wristband. ONLY donations of $30 or more are eligible for the drink special!

Who to contact with questions?
Allen Burt: burtra@gmail.com
Allen Penn: allen.penn@gmail.com

Recently, I’ve heard a lot of startup type people say, I’m a product guy. Without to much analysis I’ve always taken that to mean, the business guy, not the developer. I was mostly right with that snap judgment, but as I heard the term/title more and more I decided to jump into the details of the product manager role and the “product guy”. I found that there are those who dislike the product guy title, the self proclaimed “product guy bigots” and there are those who epitomize the role of “product guy“, and likely bask in it. It seems to be just generic enough of a title to get criticism from all angles, so what does it actually mean?

WTF does it mean?

Tony Wright wrote this about the product guy:

It feels like product entrepreneurs are oftentimes “cowboys”. Flying by the seat of their pants, they rally a small team to build a product that people want. It’s no surprise that this is really freakin’ hard and requires a mythical combination of brute force time and effort, insight, customer empathy, and a huge pile of luck.

Here’s my take on what the product guy should do:

• Scrub & rinse new ideas
• Write the product definitions (specs & reqs)
• Create the initial version (user experience)
• Connect: Customers <> Designers <> Developers
• Own the road map
• Define and measure success

Great slides on product management basics

Here’s a much more detailed slide about the details of product management.

It seems to me that whether you’re starting your own, or joining a small startup you need to work on these skills a bit. Whether you’re a community manage, a developer, or an operation guys you need to be aware of what the “product guy” is doing. You need to have some of the skills necessary to be a good product guy because in a startup your product is so infant that everyone has a drastic effect on its’ survival. Become a product focused <insert your role here> and your startup as a whole will be much better off.

Last week Mashable ran a poll to find out which location based service YOU like the most (I say YOU because I’ve learned that the folks that read this blog are likely the type to also peruse Mashable on a regular basis). I was very please to see the result here, obviously, and I’ve been giving the battle for best location service a lot of thought. What does each service have, not have, and have the potential for?

I decided to use something that is very easy to analyze, a car, to explain what I think each service offers…or doesn’t. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Gowalla is too gamie. The feedback I’ve gotten from all of my friends who use Gowalla is that it’s so tough to figure out. There might be free iphones and tshirts hidden around town but those gimmicks fade quickly. Because of it’s overly gimmicky nature, like the PT Cruiser, I think it’s shelf life is very short. Where other services will beat Gowalla, and likely already have, is that they’re useful, they’re a service and people only play games for so long. There’s got to be user utility otherwise I’m out.

Yelps recent entrance to the location services game is on the surface appealing. They do have a lot of venues to work with but it’s clunky, not social, and ultimately not fun. Although mini vans are super effective cars, they fit kids, surf boards, Christmas trees and almost anything else, but they’re not fun to drive at all. Trust me I drove one all through high school, and although I was awesome (or so I thought), my ride was not. :) Yelp is too much on the service side, the game mechanics that other services bring to the table will win out in the end. Phin Barnes of FRC recently wrote about how gaming mechanics will be critical to all social applications in the future and this is where yelp fails, no community.

Ultimately Foursquare has the best combination of social and utility. It may not be the smoothest ride (yet), but it gets the job done better than anyone else and it’s fun, a powerful combo. The foursquare app can fit your friends and your fun into one ride. Like an SUV foursquare is enjoyable, you can be proud of what you’re driving because the community is a strong one, and your friends will think your cool :)

Although I’ve used all three of these applications, foursquare still blows the others out of the water. Yes, I’m biased (disclosure, I’m working w/ foursquare) but, I don’t see how the others are going to cross the chasm into true social utility. Because foursquare was built for that purpose from the ground up it will win.

Yesterday I had the *fun* experience of publicly being thrown under the bus. The individual inaccurately assessed a situation then cc’d numerous people on the email explaining her version of my incompetence (which was actually their incompetence, isn’t that fun). My immediate reaction was, what a bitch! But I tempered my immediate response and held off from sending any detrimental communications, email or otherwise.

This morning I approached the individual directly and said, “is there any other issue I can help you with? And, please feel free to raise concerns with me directly if you have this type of issue in the future.” I think the person realized that I was really saying, “hey don’t be a bitch next time.” Only time will tell.

Even if you don’t get through to the person who threw you under the bus, at least you can feel good about handling the situation with respect and maturity. I believe, and hope, that this approach is the best way to prevent it from happening again. If you respond bitterly, and with a short fuse, you just let them win. And nobody wants that.

image via flickr

The New York Times announced that they plan to start charging for the online content. This has been a VERY scary thing for the industry and a topic of much debate. As Fred Wilson said back in July, “the newspaper industry is doing a lot of soul searching for the right revenue model”.

So why hasn’t monetizing new content worked well to date? Why hasn’t the ‘freemium’ model worked well for the news industry like it has for so many other industries? In short the answer is, they’ve gone about it in the wrong way, and luckily it seems that NYT is learning from others mistakes. As newspaper readership migrates from print to web they’ve got to be able to monetize the move and it seems the solely advertising model has proven to be an insufficient way to monetize that content.

If a newspaper was to charge you based on how much you consume (per-article) that would be like slapping your most valued customers in the face everyday. So, they had to come up with a model that works in the opposite way… Reward the best customers, retain the exposure to search (Google juice, Bing, Tweets), and use curiosity to drive sales. I think they’ve found a way to do this through their improved ‘freemium’ model (that Financial Times, FT.com, already uses btw). It sounds like, starting in 2011, they will allow a certain amount of “free reads” per month, then after X amount of articles read (likely 10) you’ll get a pop-up asking you to pay a one time fee for unlimited reading for the rest of the month. This allows the casual reader to get their fix and it rewards the valued customers (Super User) to pay a nominal one time fee and have the ability to read like mad.

The term super user derives from computer operating systems and is used to refer to a system administrator account. This means that they have all the access rights possible or needed. This model targets and rewards they’re best customers or super users by keeping prices low relative to the amount of content consumed. Fred Wilson intuitively called this, monetizing the audience, not the content. Newspapers have got to charge something to stay alive, but they are rewarding their super users by keeping the fee minimal and one time.

I personally hope this works well because my forward thinking self :) realizes that without a model that proves profitable, the quality of the news we receive will begin its inevitable decline. I like having quality journalism on a daily basis and would pay my nominal fee for it.

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In a semi unrelated note, I heard that Amazon can charge Kindle users a dollar to subscribe to my blogs RSS feed. They’ve monetize my FREE content. Is anyone paying for this blog (or any other) via Kindle? How do you feel about doing that? Love to hear your thoughts.

image via flickr

For those interested in how I slept last night, here’s your answer. This graph, capture by the Sleep Cycle iPhone App, shows when I was in my deepest sleep and when would have been best to wake up. I went to bed at 11:21pm last night and woke at 6:23am, 7 hours and 2 minutes of sleep. If this morning is any indicator to how the app works, it’s amazing. I was SO refreshed and ready to crush it this morning it was amazing. No caffeine necessary.

I’ve always used my mobile phone as my alarm because I like the consistency that provides when I’m traveling for biz or pleasure. As long as I have a power outlet I can trust that I’ll wake the same way. For some reason when I’m using someone elses alarm clock I get really nervous about falling asleep, not sure why, I’m just weird.

Although I do like using my mobile phone as my alarm I was not all that impressed with the iPhone’s alarm. When the most appealing sound for waking up is a barking dog, you know that the options aren’t great. So, on a twitter recommendation (I believe from @msg) I checked out the Sleep Cycle app.

Here’s how it works:

You set the time you’d like to wake up (6:30am) then it tell you to place the iPhone in your bed. I put it just under my pillow.

Throughout the night, a person’s sleep moves between different sleep phases – from deep sleep to nearly-awake. Sleep Cycle analyzes the movement in the bed to determine in which stage of sleep a person is in and, according to the app itself, “uses a 30 minute window that ends at your set alarm time to wake you up when you are in the lightest sleep phase… a natural way to wake up where you feel rested and relaxed.”

We’ve all waken up in a funk, and hopefully, we’ve all waken up fresh. If this app can guarantee that you’ll be fresh in the morning it’s worth much more than $0.99.

Some of the limits are, the phone must be plugged in; the app must be left on (do not lock the phone); the phone is placed face down on the bed and be next to – not under – your pillow (I put it just under and it worked very well). Also it apparently takes about 2 days of calibrating, so the graph above might not be perfect since it was my first night. When the alarm goes off, the sounds are soothingly subtle and get increasingly louder as the vibrate feature of the phone also activates from intermittently to constant. One thing I actually love is that there is no snooze. It knows when you should wake up so it doesn’t give you the option to delay waking up, which makes perfect sense.

Many folks have used Withings.com to send their weight via a WIFI enabled scale to Twitter. This type of tech that can affect how your body feels is awesome. I love tools that bring the web to the world and the world to the web. If I can can feel 20% more alert during the day due to the Sleep Cycle app it may become one of the most valuable apps I’ve purchased.

Have you tried out Sleep Cycle, let me know what you think. Also, if you have other app recommendations PLEASE let me know!