Thanks for following the YayTrail story. Last Tuesday, February 23rd our co-founder Tom Kehoe had his first encounter with the London social media scene!
Here’s what he had to say;
Courtesy of Paul Walsh (Irish Opportunist, a founder chair, CEO, Mentor and Advisor to Internet and Mobile companies) I was invited to meet London’s biggest and brightest entrepreneurial tech talents at the “Open Soho 16 event”.
I must admit I was a little anxious prior to going to the event (at a secret location in London’s west end) but on arrival I was so impressed at how laid back and relaxed the vibe was about the place! Within minutes of signing up I was immediately welcomed to the group like a long lost friend and this alone made me feel instantly relaxed to go about trumpeting the efforts of the YayTrail project to date. Of course this always helps with the aid of a free-bar and again while it lasted, YayTrail enjoyed the host’s generous offerings!
It was refreshing to see so many creative people in attendance, each one of them having a story to tell and those who have tread the path, and been successful, only too happy to help in whatever way they can. This sort of advice and networking is truly priceless for start-ups like ourselves.
The evening was pretty much as it says on the tin for networking purposes, with a brief interlude coming in the form of a guest speaker, on this occasion, Mark O Neill (Chief Information Officer for the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport ) who gave a 15 minute brief on “how do organisations innovate?”
Some thanks are in order:
Yaytrail would like to thank Victoria Atherstone and Poppy Dinsey (http://www.schoolforstartups.co.uk) for their kindness and generosity in introducing me to their circle of influential friends. Also a big up to Timothy Bosworth (www.thinkbigbebiggroup.com), Paul Tanner, Sheetal Mehta, Sam Sethi, and once again special thanks to Paul Walsh (particularly for listening to my 30 second Yaytrail pitch! Hope you liked it! ) and finally the hosts Iomart hosting and BT TradeSpace for sponsoring this excellent event.
I can’t recommend this event enough; everyone who has an interest in doing business in fun and relaxed surroundings or just wants to learn some more from some of the most creative minds around should be here. We are already looking forward to the next one!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Feedback buttton & Why I used YayTrail today.
Thanks for continuing to follow the YayTrail story. As we continue to add new YayTrail followers we have been looking to find a quick way to provide the all-important feedback that we need in order to build the best posssible product for you. Of course, you can all do it by just clicking anywhere on the page (a la our preferred YayTrail way!) and we will see your comment if we’re following you that is!
Alternatively you can just post a comment to us on our blog at http://yaytrail.blogspot.com/ or email your comments to us at feedback@yaytrail.com.
In the absence of all that, we have installed a nifty little feedback button (this will be a grey feedback button) which will be located on the right hand side of the webpage. This is very easy to use, just click on the feedback, a pop-up box will appear allowing you to post your comments and that's it your done.
We are very encouraged by all the feedback so far. In the main it has all been positive, most comments have been that it is an innovative idea (of course we agree!) while others think that "there is a small learning curve in getting familiar with it." Many others have commented about the need for newcomers to the website to be given some form of crashcourse to learn how to use it. We're taking all of this on board, and are currently working on improving the usability and look and feel for the site. We think you will like what you see when we release our next version, scheduled to be before the end of March.
One other piece of feedback came from a regular YayTrail account holder who would prefer not to be named, we very much liked it and with his permission we reproduce it below. We think it very subtly makes a powerful message about the uses of the YayTrail product.
Why I used YayTrail today.
"The author Terry Pratchett recently made a speech on the subject of ‘assisted suicide’. It was a deeply moving speech not least because the author himself has a very rare type of early onset Alzheimer's disease. The speech was carried by BBC television as part of the Richard Dimbleby series of lectures. I tuned in by accident and quickly became transfixed by what Mr Pratchett had to say. His speech was at times moving, funny, profound, deeply sad yet also full of life.
You may wonder what this has to do with Yaytrail. Well, I am not a skilled writer, and I am certainly not in the class of Terry Pratchett. I wanted to share what he had to say with others but to let his words speak for themselves. I also have no wish to preach or to convert others but simply to share a very beautiful human story. In doing so I didn’t want to summarise what he had to say. I also didn’t want to share my interpretation of his words as I believe those words will touch different parts in all of us.
This is why I turned to Yaytrail to share Terry Pratchett’s speech. As I watched and listened I felt drawn into his inner world. I felt like more than just an objective observer but rather, for a short time, that I was sharing a part of his subjective world. When I reflect on my experience it seemed like I needed to communicate what it was like listening to him. Sending a link in an email to the speech seemed cold and detached. I thought that making an ‘inline’ comment on Yaytrail would express the fact that for around fifty minutes I felt part of what he had to say. Yaytrail seemed like the best way to communicate my experience without in any way detracting from his words. Of course I could have used other methods but at times in life we make decisions to communicate with others by certain means not solely for technological reasons but also for personal reasons. If a friend is going through a difficult time we sometimes alter our method of communication out of sensitivity for their feelings. I thought that Yaytrail would allow me to share how I felt listening to Terry Pratchett but to do so without making the story about me. So this is why I used Yaytrail today".
Alternatively you can just post a comment to us on our blog at http://yaytrail.blogspot.com/ or email your comments to us at feedback@yaytrail.com.
In the absence of all that, we have installed a nifty little feedback button (this will be a grey feedback button) which will be located on the right hand side of the webpage. This is very easy to use, just click on the feedback, a pop-up box will appear allowing you to post your comments and that's it your done.
We are very encouraged by all the feedback so far. In the main it has all been positive, most comments have been that it is an innovative idea (of course we agree!) while others think that "there is a small learning curve in getting familiar with it." Many others have commented about the need for newcomers to the website to be given some form of crashcourse to learn how to use it. We're taking all of this on board, and are currently working on improving the usability and look and feel for the site. We think you will like what you see when we release our next version, scheduled to be before the end of March.
One other piece of feedback came from a regular YayTrail account holder who would prefer not to be named, we very much liked it and with his permission we reproduce it below. We think it very subtly makes a powerful message about the uses of the YayTrail product.
Why I used YayTrail today.
"The author Terry Pratchett recently made a speech on the subject of ‘assisted suicide’. It was a deeply moving speech not least because the author himself has a very rare type of early onset Alzheimer's disease. The speech was carried by BBC television as part of the Richard Dimbleby series of lectures. I tuned in by accident and quickly became transfixed by what Mr Pratchett had to say. His speech was at times moving, funny, profound, deeply sad yet also full of life.
You may wonder what this has to do with Yaytrail. Well, I am not a skilled writer, and I am certainly not in the class of Terry Pratchett. I wanted to share what he had to say with others but to let his words speak for themselves. I also have no wish to preach or to convert others but simply to share a very beautiful human story. In doing so I didn’t want to summarise what he had to say. I also didn’t want to share my interpretation of his words as I believe those words will touch different parts in all of us.
This is why I turned to Yaytrail to share Terry Pratchett’s speech. As I watched and listened I felt drawn into his inner world. I felt like more than just an objective observer but rather, for a short time, that I was sharing a part of his subjective world. When I reflect on my experience it seemed like I needed to communicate what it was like listening to him. Sending a link in an email to the speech seemed cold and detached. I thought that making an ‘inline’ comment on Yaytrail would express the fact that for around fifty minutes I felt part of what he had to say. Yaytrail seemed like the best way to communicate my experience without in any way detracting from his words. Of course I could have used other methods but at times in life we make decisions to communicate with others by certain means not solely for technological reasons but also for personal reasons. If a friend is going through a difficult time we sometimes alter our method of communication out of sensitivity for their feelings. I thought that Yaytrail would allow me to share how I felt listening to Terry Pratchett but to do so without making the story about me. So this is why I used Yaytrail today".
...
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Monday, February 8, 2010
Thoughts & Highlights from the Dublin Web Summit
Thursday saw the meeting of some 400+ internet professionals and entrepeneurs for an evening of panel discussion, key-note addresses from some big names and plenty of networking at Trinity College Dublin’s second Dublin Web Summit. From our start-up perspective it was amazing to see the strength and diversity of interest present – as overheard being asked in the crowded queue to enter, who knew there were so many ‘Internet people’ in Dublin?
If the summit was anything to go by, the Internet industry here is in pretty rude health. The atmosphere at the conference was pretty overwhelmingly one of optimism and possibility. Some of the things that struck us:
- The amazing story of DoneDeal.ie. Less than 5 years old and and now one of the busiest places to sell goods online in Ireland, with over 50,000 currently active ads. Back when this site was founded, it’s likely few thought there’d be any room left in the market for online classifieds, with the likes of eBay already so well entrenched. But as is turns out, there was ample potential for a new local startup. A very welcome sight.
- Chris Horn’s warnings about the treatment of failure in Ireland, including a startling comparison of the bankruptcy process in Ireland compared to the UK. In Ireland it seems the cost of failure is high, and there was much nodding agreement with statements about the need to destigmatise failure in business in Ireland if it is to have the kind of entrepeneurial culture we might hope for.
- Wired UK editor at large, Ben Hammersley’s advice on so-called ‘information overload’ – stop subscribing to stuff! Content filtering and the need to improve content discovery in an age of information abundance was a recurring theme at the conference. On an adjacent point, there was much skepticism over attempts to erect paywalls around news online, certainly beyond the short term. News just isn’t special anymore – but analysis and investigative reporting might still be able to command value.
- Matt Mullenweg’s one-sentence advice to everyone in the room: Learn to code! Ben Hammersley’s? Make it – whatever it is you’re making – beautiful. In time of fast and cheap commodistation of ideas, apparently it’s the beautiful things people remember in the long term. Though Craig Newmark, who was also on the panel, might have something to say about that (he of the hugely successful, but unashamedly unpretty, Craigslist).
The evening was packed with interesting case studies, shared anecdotes and insight – a big success for its organiser, Paddy Cosgrave, and his team. Looking forward to the next Dublin Web Summit, apparently due in a few months.
If the summit was anything to go by, the Internet industry here is in pretty rude health. The atmosphere at the conference was pretty overwhelmingly one of optimism and possibility. Some of the things that struck us:
- The amazing story of DoneDeal.ie. Less than 5 years old and and now one of the busiest places to sell goods online in Ireland, with over 50,000 currently active ads. Back when this site was founded, it’s likely few thought there’d be any room left in the market for online classifieds, with the likes of eBay already so well entrenched. But as is turns out, there was ample potential for a new local startup. A very welcome sight.
- Chris Horn’s warnings about the treatment of failure in Ireland, including a startling comparison of the bankruptcy process in Ireland compared to the UK. In Ireland it seems the cost of failure is high, and there was much nodding agreement with statements about the need to destigmatise failure in business in Ireland if it is to have the kind of entrepeneurial culture we might hope for.
- Wired UK editor at large, Ben Hammersley’s advice on so-called ‘information overload’ – stop subscribing to stuff! Content filtering and the need to improve content discovery in an age of information abundance was a recurring theme at the conference. On an adjacent point, there was much skepticism over attempts to erect paywalls around news online, certainly beyond the short term. News just isn’t special anymore – but analysis and investigative reporting might still be able to command value.
- Matt Mullenweg’s one-sentence advice to everyone in the room: Learn to code! Ben Hammersley’s? Make it – whatever it is you’re making – beautiful. In time of fast and cheap commodistation of ideas, apparently it’s the beautiful things people remember in the long term. Though Craig Newmark, who was also on the panel, might have something to say about that (he of the hugely successful, but unashamedly unpretty, Craigslist).
The evening was packed with interesting case studies, shared anecdotes and insight – a big success for its organiser, Paddy Cosgrave, and his team. Looking forward to the next Dublin Web Summit, apparently due in a few months.
...
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Friday, February 5, 2010
First media coverage
Just a quick note to highlight our first little bit of media exposure at Irish technology site SiliconRepublic. As an Irish outfit we're really pleased to have a local media outlet introduce us to new people. Check out the article here:
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/15133/new-media/irish-brothers-set-out-to-redefine-the-internet-experience
Their coverage of the Dublin Web Summit is also worth a look! YayTrail was there, and we'll have a blog on some thoughts from the conference a little later.
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/15133/new-media/irish-brothers-set-out-to-redefine-the-internet-experience
Their coverage of the Dublin Web Summit is also worth a look! YayTrail was there, and we'll have a blog on some thoughts from the conference a little later.
...
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