Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Meet More People And Have More Fun
We humans love to eat. Actually, we need to eat. We also tend to eat three times a day (or if you listen to Taco Bell, you should add Forth Meal). We always think about food. You're probably getting hungry just reading this! Food is necessary for survival, but we've turned it into something so much more enjoyable..usually. We'll go out to celebrate a friend's birthday with food, or take a date to a fancy dinner, but what about all those times in between? How many times have you eaten an uninspired, mediocre meal by yourself at home? I've done way too many times myself.. Instead, why not eat with a neighbor who's cooking authentic Dal Makhani? You can actually get to know your neighbor for once as well! Or why can't we find out about the people down the street who are watching American Idol together and eating homemade mac n cheese? If I'm going to watch it anyway and I need to eat anyway, I might as well enjoy it with people! That's why were creating this site. We want to meet more people and have more fun. Eating is something we have to do every day of our lives, so why not make it memorable?
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Changing The World..Of Eating
If you're in Tech, you probably read Techcrunch. They just had their annual TechCrunch 50 conference, where 50 promising startups reveal their products for the first time. One major criticism from the conference judges this year was that too few companies were trying to 'change the world'. Basically, most companies were focused on some specific niche or improving an existing product instead of becoming the next Google or Facebook. Well, here I am, proud to say that GrubWithUs is indeed aiming to change the world..of eating! While good restaurants will always exist, we're here to replace the uninspired, mediocre, overpriced, unfriendly restaurants that permeate our cities. If you only have a $6 budget for food tonight and you don't want to cook, instead of going to one of these depressing sinkholes, why not find a home cooked meal on GrubWithUs, bond over an activity, and make new friends? We're also trying to change the world by getting people offline and having real-life connections! We think too much time is spent making online connections, instead of having real-life experiences that you might actually remember 20 years from now. So help us alpha test at http://grubwith.us and join us on our quest for a dining revolution!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Being Scrappy
I'm sitting here at the Virgin America terminal at 2:01 AM writing this blog. Virgin's only $29 flight is at 6AM and no one loves me enough to drive me 50 miles to the airport at 4:30AM. I am definitely not spending $16/day to park my car, so a buddy of mine drove me to the airport at night. Here I am, sitting on the same bench as a homeless looking guy and listening to another dude vacuum the whole establishment. Now they're buffing the floors. I'm mentioning this because I thought I was being scrappy, but it's probably just mostly pathetic.. Anyway, much has been said about entrepreneurs and being scrappy. One of my favorites is Paul Graham's essays about being relentlessly resourceful http://paulgraham.com/relres.html. I totally agree that scrappy entrepreneurs are usually more successful than their counterparts, since they know how to get a lot out of very little. What I don't understand is why most people aren't scrappy. It just seems so intuitive to fight and twist and claw to think of every possible way to survive when you're backed into a corner. Do 'non-scrappy' entrepreneurs just bend over and take it? Daishin didn't know photoshop, but he learned it. He didn't know CSS either, but he learned it. I didn't know one thing about jQuery, but I knew I had to figure it out. I've always hated sysadmin work, but if there's no one else to configure apache, guess who has to do it? I can't stand founders who outsource ALL their technical work to someone else and just work on the 'business'. There are definitely some exceptions, but why spend thousands per month on outsourced development to deplete your capital and shorten your runway? If you're in a technical startup, then act like a technician and read some tutorials and start coding. Your 'business' vision will probably change anyway. And what's up with people needing $9 million in revenues to be profitable?? We just hosted our first few meals as a private alpha test of our website, and we were joking that we were already profitable because everyone that came over paid $2! When you're being scrappy and the two of you are the only developers, business people, accountants, lawyers, and marketers, being profitable can mean earning as little as $16 dollars!! So there you have it. GrubWithUs is cash flow positive!
Friday, September 11, 2009
Calling all Los Angeles foodies!
If you like cooking and are in the Los Angeles area, we need your help!
We are in the infant stages of our web start-up company and are looking to test our product.
If you are interested in cooking and hosting people at your house, this is perfect! You can make money doing it also.
For more info, check out www.grubwith.us/about
Please email info@grubwith.us to hear more.
In your email, please include the following:
Age/Gender/Occupation
We will contact you if you are a good fit!
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