Greg Galant
4,905 followers
http://www.sawhorsemedia.com
Founder of Sawhorse Media (Listorious + Shorty Awards + Muck Rack + ???) and Venture Voice
Listorious Interview
That people mostly tweet about what they had for lunch. I usually tweet what I had for dinner.
I went to college dead set on majoring in business since I learned I love business while starting my first company in high school. When I finally took a couple business classes, I was very disappointed that they purported to be practical but really were just teaching theories that were neither practical nor intellectually challenging.
For example, in marketing class we memorized countless frameworks and went over cases of what consumer packaged goods companies did decades ago. Anyone who has ever ran a business knows marketing requires creative thinking, and frameworks are rarely helpful except to sound smart to a boss. Would Steve Jobs have learned to market electronics the brilliant way he did if he studied how Procter & Gamble grew Bounty's market share by 3%?
Meanwhile, I found philosophy to be challenging, enjoyable and filled with interesting people. Studying philosophy prepares one just as well for the world of business and startups as studying business or economics -- which is to say not at all. But everyone in the philosophy department is honest about it: no one pretends the lessons of philosophy will be directly applicable to business. But it will make you more interesting at cocktail parties, which counts for a lot in business.
Oh, and living an examined life is pretty cool too.
Questions Asked
Be human, be honest, admit mistakes, don't forget the big picture, try to meet people in person (because you can make good friends online, but you can make great friends over drinks), that lit bloggers are some of the coolest people out there, that OUP publishes far too many books to ever read in a lifetime, that social media is a job that never ends because there is always more ways to be social, and that in the end every job is the people you work with and that I am very lucky to have worked with some of the smartest, most creative, and dedicated individuals out there. Oh, and that that no matter how hard you try you will still not please everyone, in fact if no one ever gets upset you are probably doing something wrong.
Design is about changing understanding; user experience is about changing behavior. Design is about intent; user experience is about purpose. Design is about style; user experience is about substance. Design is about the platform; user experience is about the person. Design is about the present; user experience is about the past and future. Design is about action; user experience is about impact.
much shorter this time, which is probably better anyway :) bottom line, i was reminded of how good our people were on an almost daily basis, hence the importance of careful hiring and never settling for anything less than exactly the right person for an open position.... no matter how fast you're growing and how acute the need is to just get it done. we grew from our first programs to over $14M in revenue in about two years, and had to do a lot of living in our house as we built it around us. i don't think there are too many folks who can do that effectively for sustained periods, and make it to the point where they have the kind of institutional knowledge and value that comes from partial ownership and invention of processes. you have to sort of look for people who can thrive in total chaos, while refusing to settle for it as a constant.
Needed more space than we could get in Dumbo at the time. As an agency that had strong media and PR components as well, getting from meeting to office to meeting needed to happen more quickly. Getting a cab to the BK at 3pm (or from anywhere on the east side) is harder than it sounds.
Keep it short and LEGIBLE. Ideally, it captures some significant/trending topic already in play. Finally, coordinate behind the scenes with lots of people to support the effort. hashtags need love too.
It sounded so nuts that I couldn't say no! Talk about doing something that you might tell your grandkids about...
And, it's a great project. Humanity needs our oceans to survive and they are in bad shape and rapidly getting worse.
I once programmed a first-person 3D game in only 5K of code.
Ow.ly pro will be officially launched July 1st 2010. We have a private beta signup list at http://ow.ly/pro and you can read more about the program here... http://blog.hootsuite.com/htly-owly/. Rest assured, Ow.ly pro is T.co (twitter's new shortener) compatible.
I started by working in restaurants and bread bakeries, here and around Europe. Eventually found someone I wanted to write about -- a gardener in France. I wrote my first book, The Cook and the Gardener, about him.
I wrote about it a while ago because I wanted to give my job away: http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk/browse_thread/thread/7f3ff5f52b68d100
Being an entrepreneur in Canada has definite pros and cons.
Cons: less evolved & more risk adverse vc/angel market, miss out on day-day events/relationships with industry peers (I have to travel to meet our partners often)
Pros: Access to great talent, government programs that help startups, I live in an amazing city that I love, SF is only 2 hrs away, cost of living is lower, when dollar is lower we get a conversion boost on any $US that we raise and finally great company of expats all over the world looking to help out a fellow Canuck.
At this point, the pros outweigh the cons. I <3 Canada.
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