A small headache solved for me (and I'm sure others)

I don't know how many introduction emails I get sent each and every day. It's got to be at least... 5! And every single time I have to do the same thing --

1. Press "Reply All"
2. Click "Add BCC"
3. Copy the person in the "To" field (the person who made the intro) to the "BCC" field.
4. Copy the person or people in the "CC" field (those that I'm getting introduced to) to the "To" field.
5. Begin writing email with some funny/witty line (or a failed attempt at it) that says:
   • Thanks [Insert Person Who Made The Intro's Name Here] for introducing us. Moving you to BCC so you don't go insane due to even more email!

Well, I got fed up with doing that 5+ times per day (and apparently so did others):

4 every @500 intro email i get, wish there was single-click button that moved To: name -> BCC, & CC: name -> To: name. #IfWishesWereFishes

— Dave McClure (@davemcclure) January 8, 2012

 So I made a quick Chrome extension that solves my problem. Go ahead and install it and open an email, press "Reply All" and then click the new blue button in your Chrome extension bar and you should be all set.

Let me know if it works for you and if it helps you at all by emailing me or posting in the comments below. And while you're at it, look at what really keeps me (and my team going) during the day at GetBackstory.com. That product is wayyyy cooler than this extension.

Backstory enables websites to get to know each of their visitors and understand why they've visiting and how they're interacting with the site. Then we enable those sites to customize their content on the fly for each and every one and increase conversions (from tweets, to likes, to sales). And we do all of this with a single line of Javascript code.

So if you haven't looked at Backstory yet, what are you waiting for? I mean you'll have lots of time now that you don't have to copy and paste addresses in every email.

*Edited for grammer (because my wife said I should fix a few things).

FastCompany Interview about GuyHaus, GetMinders and WeWork Labs

While I try to use this blog for a lot of things that help others out, sometimes I have to just self-promote a little. For those of you who don't know, I'm a co-founder of GetMinders, WeWork Labs and GuyHaus (all based in NYC). One is a healthcare-related startup, one is an awesome office space for early-stage entrepreneurs and the last is my latest company which is focused on making ecommerce simple, useful and fun to use. Check out the article on FastCompany:

There's serial entrepreneurship--when someone starts company after company, handing over the reins at a certain point to focus again on the early stages of building a business. Then, there's simultaneous entrepreneurship, which involves starting and running several, not-necessarily-related ventures at once.

Two famous examples of the simultaneous startup CEO are Jack Dorsey, with Twitter and Square, and Bill Gates, who ran the photography business Corbis alongside Microsoft. Now, a host of upstarts (like Citelighter, a company we wrote about in August) are trying to make this method work, sometimes financing one business with profits from the other.

READ MORE AT FASTCOMPANY.COM

A great quote about success

I was reading an interview of Sachin Agarwal on Mashable today and one quote stuck out so I figured I'd post it here so I can look back on it later on.

"Success means being able to do what I enjoy every single day."

The WilmerHale/WeWork Labs Summer Legal Series!

Our goal at WeWork Labs is to help entrepreneurs and starts and that's what we're doing. Join us for our awesome legal series with WilmerHale! WilmerHale and WeWork Labs are pleased to present the 2011 Summer Legal Series. Attorneys from WilmerHale’s Corporate Practice present and answer questions on various topics of interest to emerging companies and entrepreneurs. Please join us for the final presentation in the series:  The Exit: IPO, Sale or Secondary Market? Presented by Bob Schwed With more than 35 years of experience in private equity, Bob Schwed has represented venture capital and buyout firms as well as companies in various investment activities, including early-stage investing, initial public offerings and leveraged buyouts. He is an adjunct professor at George Washington University Law School, where he teaches a course in venture capital law. WilmerHale is proud to be the law firm sponsor of WeWork Labs  and is dedicated to fostering collaboration among intelligent, creative and driven individuals.
WHEN Wednesday, September 7, 2011 5 -7 p.m.	WHERE WeWork Labs 154 Grand Street New York, NY
If you'd like to attend, please email me at jesse@guyhaus.com and I'll send you details.

What do you do when times get tough?

We may or may not be in a tech bubble today. Some say "hell yes we are" and others are still saying "what are you talking about?!" but one thing is for sure... things will change. They always do. In the case of raising money and building successful companies it's no different. Over the next 12-18 months we're going to see tons of companies close up shop like MyNines, fanvibe and Skribit but we'll also see people getting smart, real smart.

Two months ago a few others in the startup space and I were sharing a beer (well, I was having something gluten free) and we began discussing what happens when money and runway starts to run out. One option is to close up shop but the other, more reasonable and intelligent option is to get together and build something amazing. Right now we've got tons of super talented people spread out among every startup industry on the planet from fashion to finance and ecommerce to social. As times get tough, the best thing that can and will happen is that people join forces.

We're already seeing this type of thing (not necessarily because of money issues, yet) among startups. Just today, Health Month and Contagion Health created the new Habit Labs and only a couple of weeks ago, LocalResponse bought Philo and while it's not exactly a startup, recently Meltwater purchased IceRocket (which is still amusing to me).

I won't be surprised if this trend continues upwards. Got $1MM? Buy that other group that raised $250k started by a few smart guys, bring your dev teams together to kick ass and build an awesome product and company. That'll get you through this bubble, er, thin film of soapy money/tech/design filled with air. :)