Coming and Going

I just dropped my week-long house guest off at the train station (where IMD Professor Dominiq Thurpin was also taking the train to Geneve-Aeroport) for a tearful goodbye. It was a wonderful week with her in town and it felt so, so, so good to cook again–really for the first time in my 15 months in Lausanne. She also helped me outfit the apartment so it finally is really liveable.

We capped off the week with a birthday dinner last night at La Suite, where I have long eyed the 95-point Valdicava Brunello di Montalcino 2003 on their wine list. For the second time in a week our restaurant turned out only to have one bottle remaining so we were clearly destined to drink it. I would describe it as good-not-great. To be fair, it was too young and should have had a few more years in the bottle. It definitely opened up after a couple of hours but, even still, it didn’t bowl me over. There were good red currant flavors up front and a gorgeous, satiny texture. The tannin profile was one of the best, most gentle I have tasted and the finish went on and on. Perhaps these are clues that James Suckling uses to predict that this wine will be 95 points in the future, when it is ready to drink. I readily admit that I don’t have enough experience drinking top-quality Brunello to have an exceptional feel for its aging trajectory. To quote Braveheart, well that’s something we shall have to remedy, now isn’t it?
The rest of the dinner was delicious, as I have come to expect from La Suite: crottin de chevre and lentil soupe to start, bone-in lamb and sea bass after, followed by molten chocolate cake that paired excellently with the last dregs of our Brunello. Of course nothing could beat the company as we plotted out ways to change the world and juggle international careers. It was a fantastic ending to a fantastic pre-birthday week.

Now it is time to return 100% of my focus to Poken. I have been taking on too many things in my three months here and, as a consequence, not doing any of them exceptionally. It’s my fault for letting myself get sucked into working in the business instead of on it, which is always an easy temptation in a startup where everything is urgent. It is not too late to rectify, however, and I’m on the case, working feverishly to crank out some deliverables before I hop on a plane to Taipei this afternoon.

Poken is encroaching on US soil!

One of my coworkers attended SXSW in Austin last week and inadvertently made a big splash for Poken. We found ourselves on the front page of techcrunch, on many US blog sites, and . . . on NPR!!! Our site traffic has doubled since then and we have completely sold out on every continent (Last week we launched the product in Japan and it sold out in hours!). Not to worry, though, manufacturing has ramped up and we will be restocked soon. This is very exciting!

In other news, I went for my first run along the lake of 2009 Monday evening with my favorite running partner. The skies were clear and the red sunset reflected pink off the snowy mountains. The weather was warm enough to wear shorts (although still with long sleeves) and the birds chirping + trees budding harkened the spring to come. The lake was as smooth as glass, so all of the above was reflected beautifully during a long, slow jog.

While she has been here we have been cooking every night. Potato leek soup, wild mushroom risotto, mmmmmm. It feels so good to have a real kitchen again!

Yesterday I flew up to London for the first all-hands meeting of our Sales & Marketing (S&M!) team. It took 10 hours of travel for < 5 hours of discussion but it was good to have our personnel from the US, Netherlands, UK, and Switzerland all together in the same place. Next week I may find myself in Taiwan. Welcome to the world of the mobile work force!

Another Weekend in Paris

I woke up early Saturday morning to take the TGV up to Paris, where I met my special lady friend, who was flying in from Houston. After some initial confusion about hotel rooms, we finally got settled just outside of the Gare de Lyon and struck out to enjoy the day. Instead of an aggressive schedule of museum visits and sight seeing, though, our entire plan consisted of a run in the Jardin des Plantes, a nap, and an early dinner.

Dinner was, however, a spectacular affaire in and of itself. Based on a recommendation from Wine Spectator we had reservations at La Truffiere. At 7 PM we were clearly the first customers of the night and, accordingly, we were waited on hand and foot by the entire staff. It was a good way to start off the evening being “bon soir”ed by no less than seven employees on the short walk to our table. Another indication that we were in for a good evening came when the wine list arrived : a tome so extensive that it came with its own pedestal to support its weight.

It was difficult to choose among the thousands of possibilities but the sommelier was helpful and we eventually settled on Château Leoville Barton Saint-Julien 1999. It was rich with tart red fruit and gentle, carressing tannins up front, followed by dark, warm spice on a long finish—just what the doctor ordered! It turned out to be the last such bottle in the house, a good omen. The sommelier got extra points for fantastic presentation. Sure, he broke the first tasting glass (before there was wine in it, fortunately!) but we’ll just write that off as a warm up. J

Choosing what to eat was much easier. As the name of the restaurant indicates, their specialty is dark truffles. Accordingly, that was the focus of our courses. Before any food arrived at our table, the maitre d’ presented us with a bowl of fresh truffles, which were incredibly fragrant. I had always thought of truffles as being very earthy but this was the first time that I came to appreciate how fruity and nutty their pungent aromas could be as well. We selected our truffle for the evening (one that was oddly shaped and therefore would surely be full of mysteries!). It was weighed, priced (costing more than our wine!!!), and then hand shaved (by a black-gloved hand) in front of our table—again, points for presentation!

The truffle shavings then became an integral part of our meal for the rest of the evening. We began with toasted bread, olive oil, fleur de sel, and truffle shavings—so simple and so delicious! It helped that the truffles went magnificently with our wine. And of course a dinner in Paris w/o snails would be somehow . . . unfulfilling. So we also ordered the escargot. It came in three different varieties: sauteed with white asparagus on phyllo, emulsified with parsley and garlic and served in the shell, and suspended in an emulsification of garlic and bone marrow. So good!

Next round: Salmon with green tea mousse and parmentier of foie gras—again with truffle shavings galore. About this time it was clear that our noble Saint-Julien would need reinforcements. Our sommelier recommended a Chateau de la Negly La Porte du Ciel 2003 Rhone blend from Languedoc-Rousillon, claiming that it was like nothing that we had ever tasted from that region. It had been opened in the morning and was in a perfect state for consumption. He was right on both accounts. It was an oppulent, fruity wine—more purple and less red—and definitely stood up to our hearty meal.

Before dessert arrived, it was mandated that we cleanse our palettes with cheese. The rolling cheese cart was more of a fortress, containing and displaying at least 20 cheeses from around the world and varying in age from 1 – 5 years. Oh well, since it was mandated, we had to partake. I can’t even remember what we had, except that most of it was strong and stinky—like me!

Dessert then took the truffle experience to the next level. We had a moka chocolate tort and a dark truffle souffle, which was amazing. The both paired fantastically with a glass of muscat and that was it. By the time we finished dessert, 3.5 hours had passed (We received little palette cleansers between each course.), 17 grams of truffle shavings had been consumed, and we could have rolled all the way home.

When the bill arrived, it was, not surprisingly, the most I have ever paid for dinner for two. While I don’t plan on making such extravagent expenses a habit, it was certainly worth it to do once on this special occasion. 

This morning we woke up late, had a leisurely brunch, and hopped the train back to Lausanne. The evening featured fine dining (frozen pizza, now that I actually have a kitchen with an oven!) and catching up on the current season of 30 Rock. With every episode I watch, I continue to love Alec Baldwin’s character (Jack Donaghy) more and more. “We all have our ways of coping; for me, it was sex and awesomeness.”It was a lazy, wonderful weekend in Paris and I am looking forward to the coming week with my guest in town!

 

Carmina Burana

Thursday night several of us from the IMD MBA class of 2008 attended the Choire Lausanne’s performance of Carmina Burana. Although it wasn’t an amazingly executed performance, the music was, of course, great. Even better was the chance to catch up with my classmates before the show and afterward over beers at Les Brasseurs.

Friday then was an Indian day for me. I ate my first Swiss-Indian cuisine for lunch and then stayed in all evening to do yoga and watch the new episode of The Office. Although I don’t love Ashtanga Yoga (I can’t listen to audio books while I’m doing it!), there is no question that my flexibility is increasing so hooray for that!
The sun is shining now and the temperature is above 42 F. If this keeps up tomorrow I’ll go for my first run along the lake of 2009!

Weekend in Paris Part Deux

Paris was 24 hours of awesome. My favorite wingman met me at Gare de Lyon, we dropped off my stuff–which all fit in my laptop bag–and kicked off the day with lunch in an outdoor cafe near the Louvre. The sun was shining, the people-watching was great, and we won our first battle against grapes, duck livers, and snails. After a lazy lunch, though, what to do, what to do?

I pulled up Google Maps on my phone and searched for Museums around us; it didn’t let me down. The National Picasso Museum, while not exactly close, looked the most interesting and digestable in an afternoon. So we walked over to the East side of Paris, enjoying the glorious weather.

Picasso‘s works weren’t exactly what I was expecting–which was a pleasant surprise. They were presented chronologically, which my readers know I love (a la my musical explorations), so it was apparent how his style evolved over time. It was interesting to see that he had dabbled in classical and impressionist (like his good friend Henri Matisse) styles before really finding the cubist and other styles for which he is–in my mind–famous. I also didn’t realize that he had done so much sculpting, so it was interesting to see his later-life sculptural interpretations of his earlier-life paintings. Cool.

We then ambled all the way back to Paris’s west side to visit Lavinia, a wine store that had been recommended to us as the “Spec’s of Paris.” Spec’s (the largest wine/spirits store in the world, just a few blocks from my house in Houston) it was not, but it was definitely cool and had an awesome selection of French wines, which was exactly what we were seeking. We spent 90 minutes inspecting every bottle and debating the pros and cons to kill time before dinner. We walked across the Seine, stopped for a quick cafe, and then finally arrived at Aux Charpentiers, my favorite little restaurant in Paris.

Joel, the general manager is always extremely gracious and this time was no exception. We started off with some champagne to nourish us while we poured over the menu. At long last we decided on three courses and got down to work. First up: foie gras paired with a sauternes and, naturally, escargot. Hassin and Cox: 2, Duck livers and snails: 0.

Next course: roast duck in a dark sauce (the contents of which escape me) and sardine fillets marinated in citrus. The piece de resistance here, though, was the 2002 Chateau Lynch-Bages Pauillac. 2002 wasn’t a stellar year in Bordeaux but Lynch-Bages has never let us down and we figured that the 2002 might be more approachable now than a blockbuster like 2003 or 2005. We were right! It was drinking beautifully and, although it would have paired better with one of the beef entrees, it still went smashingly. Well structured, layers of currant and peppery spice with a long finish. Delicious!

We ended with a poached pear drowned in a cassis wine reduction and something very chocolatey with raspberry sauce. Perhaps the sweetest treat of all, though, was our bill, which was 1/2 what we paid for lunch. I love Aux Charpentiers!

Having won another victory over grapes, duck livers, snails, AND the recession, we had no choice but to celebrate. We decided that the rest of the night would be devoted to Guinness. We wound our way to the Latin Quarter, resolving to stop at every bar we encountered that advertised Guinness. The fact that we didn’t know exactly where the Latin Quarter was (In fact, looking at a map now, we may have actually already been in the Latin Quarter when we embarked!) only supported our Guinnessification.

Our meandering took us into places ranging from dodgy pubs to swank cocktail lounges. In one of the latter establishments we saw advertised a Cocktail du Jour. We asked the bartender, who must have been 8′ tall, what it was and she didn’t know; we were the first to inquire about it all day. Naturally, we had to have it and it turned out to be a foaming, glowing punch bowl of sorts with lots of straws. So much for our Guinness-only night but we figured that a diverse porfolio never hurt anyone.

Finally we arrived at a bar that was playing great rock music. Plus we met some law students from La Sorbonne who were cool so we decided to stay. A couple of Guinnesses turned into a few, flaming shots were ordered, and here the details start to become hazy.

Our bar eventually shut down and the girls invited us to come with them to an after-hours location. We headed off toward this mystery destination but one of the girls got very upset when I jokingly tried to sell her to her friend for 10 euros. This meant one of two things: either this girl was a total drama queen or I had had enough to drink that things I found funny weren’t quite as amusing to others. In either case, we figured it was time to call it a night.

Sunday morning came too early and I had over 100 new emails to sift through on the train back to Lausanne. Oh well, what a great time and I’ll be back there next weekend!

Weekend in Paris

As I write, I am speeding along the French countryside in the TGV. I am following my progress on Google Maps on my cell phone; any of my friends on Google Latitude can see where I am in real-time too.

During this 4-hour train ride I have spent my time napping and reflecting on the lift conference. I was very, very pleased with lift for a few reasons. First of all, from Poken’s perspective, our new conference badge prototype worked very well. There were a few small glitches and there are clearly some usability issues to address before we release a final version but the product was functional and we had three days of testing with great users who provided very insightful feedback. Fortunately, many of the suggestions we received are features/fixes we are already working on.

One of my objectives in taking the position with Poken—and even in coming to IMD in the first place—was to expand my global network. Lift showed me that I was definitely making baby steps in this direction.  I bumped into several venture capitalists and business owners I had met at previous conferences. I met in person for the first time several people who had corresponded with me online about Poken. I bumped into two sets of entrepreneurs whom I knew from the IMD Startup Competition/MBA Projects. I had lunch with a Google product manager whom I had interviewed with back in October. And, of course, I pokened with plenty of new contacts.

Amazingly, I found that my Rice network extended to lift as well. One of the staff members had worked in Teach for America in Houston, where she knew Melissa, the legendary Baker president during my term as Lovett president. I was delighted to find such a connection halfway around the big earth/small world!

My wingman from Houston is on a project in Paris so I am heading up to spend the weekend with him. We will, no doubt, rock Paris like le hurricane! But it is hard to talk of le Perfect Storm when the weather is beautiful and not even that cold. Could spring really be in the air? Or am I just being lulled into a false sense of security before more snow? On verra!

My Underwear Is Inside Out

The last time I shared a hotel room with a friend/colleague was in Kenya last summer. My IMD classmate, Dongao, shared both a room AND a tent with me, in fact. Before that I shared a room in Orlando with one of my mom’s NASM coworkers at a Space Shuttle launch. Going even further back I have fond memories of sharing a room with my fellow Rice CS alum/entrepreneur/R7 Solutions employee at a GIS conference in San Diego. We were both working day and night to finish our presentations while also trying to finalize version 1.0 of our first software product at the same time. Somehow we still found time to see Terminator 3. Going even further back, I shared a room (albeit in a dorm not in a hotel) in college with an All-American Baseball Pitcher who would throw pillows at me if I snored at night–97 mph, OUCH!

Yesterday I spent all day at lift, where Poken debuted a version of our product that is integrated into a conference badge. Instead of exchanging business cards or writing down contact info, attendees can connect with each other online just by touching their badges together–by pokening! The conference badge poken is, of course, compatible with the original poken and I was pleased to see that several lift attendees showed up with their own pokens in hand and ready to network.
Several other Poken reps and I spent the day providing support to the conference users: helping them create their Poken accounts, answering questions, and just mingling/networking. Afterwards our Founder/CEO, Stephane, and I were invited to dine with the Sandbox Network at La Broche. The event was well organized and featured very stimulating conversation about the future of identity (along with good food and wine, of course!) with passionate, informed participants.
As we wrapped up, it was nearing midnight. Stephane and I contemplated the prospect of driving an hour back to Lausanne only to turn right back around in a few hours. Instead we agreed just to crash in Geneva for the night. We found a hotel near the restaurant that had a room available with two beds so we took it. The hotel was sketchtastic but we were so tired that we hardly noticed. When I protested that we had no change of clothes, Stephane suggested that underwear could be turned inside out to extend its usage. And so, on a night when we hit a sales milestone that would have had most companies breaking out the champagne, we instead crashed at a sketchy hotel in Geneva. Lol, I do love the startup lifestyle!
Now we are wrapping up our second day of lift and man, I am wiped. Many thanks go out to our CIO, Dave, who brought us not only fresh t-shirts but also tooth brushes, tooth paste, and deodorant this morning. I was interviewed a few times today so hopefully I wasn’t too disheveled! Having shared a hotel room with Stephane, I now feel somehow like a tighter bond with the company has been formed. And hey, at least Stephane doesn’t have a 97-mph fastball!

Can’t Sleep

Even if there weren’t a million things on my plate right now, I would still have a hard time falling asleep. There is just so much excitement going on at Poken right now that my mind is flooded with energizing thoughts each time I close my eyes. Some of them recount what happened today, some of them anticipate what will happen tomorrow, and some of them are completely new. The new ones especially motivate me to shirk off sleep to get up and document them in case I forget tomorrow.

This is a big week for us: another user interface update, major work on our API, and participation at LIFT,  where we’ll be unveiling a little surprise. 😉 Oh well, if I can’t sleep, I can at least get some work done. After all, tomorrow is a busy day–and it kicks off in just a few hours!

Sunny Saturday

I was woken this morning by a call from a number I didn’t recognize. It turned out to be two Dutch entrepreneurs. They had driven all night from Amsterdam and were ready to take delivery of the 1080 pokens they had ordered. As I live just around the corner from the office, it falls on me to service such requests. Bleary-eyed, I threw on some clothes and met them at the office. They were thrilled to receive their first order of the tiny devices that are all over the media in their country and I wish them the best of luck for their new webshop–and for their 10-hour drive back!

Last night was a lot of fun. We’ve been pushing the team hard so we decided to have a small dinner at Poco Loco, a local “swiss-mex” restaurant whose owner is a poken fan. The food was good (although watching the swiss eat fajitas with a fork and knife was…entertaining!), the guava margaritas were cold, and the company was great.

We were surprised when, at the end of the meal, the lights went out and a cake was brought to our table. it was a poken cake! Everyone sang happy birthday as it’s been about a year since Stephane really started pushing it forward in earnest.

A quick note about the music I’ve been listening to recently. I’m in the j’s right now and I just finished Jethro Tull. Wow, was I ever surprised by the quality of their works! I expected Aqualung, Locomotive Breath, Bungle in the Jungle, and then a bunch of forgettable, flute-filled songs that I would never listen to again. Instead, in the Anniversary Collection, I found two very full discs of compelling, melodic, lyrical songs that enticed me to relisten several times.

Now it is a gorgeous (albeit still very cold) Saturday so I am off to . . . work on Poken! 🙂 Congrats to the IMD MBA class of 2009 for finishing their first Integrative Exercise today. Just remember, that which does not kill us . . . 

Poken Is Hiring!

Poken is struggling to keep up with 1,000+% growth and we are augmenting our product development team. Below is a summary of the position for which we’re hiring but, in a nutshell, we’re looking for really, really, really, really, really ridiculously awesome Java developers. Ideally you should be already in Europe but, even if not, let me know if you’re interested as we may have some flexibility for the right candidates.

The full post is at here:

Java Developer, Lausanne

Passionate Java developer/engineer who can execute quickly on consumer facing N-tier Java/AJAX web apps with a web 2.0 mindset (agile development, mashup, social networks).

Knowledge of JSF, MySql, j2ee, junit, linux, eclipse is an advantage.

Poken (http://www.doyoupoken.com) is one of Europe’s fastest growing start-ups. It employs 10 people and is based in the centre of Lausanne.

Required profile :

Swiss nationality, Swiss C, B, G working permit, OR EC European nationality
passion for developing robust consumer Internet applications
excelent Java and AJAX skills
fluent English