About Stephen Jagger

Co-Founder of PayrollHero.com

50 Coffees: Rob Hayes, First Round Capital

Posted on November 19, 2011 by Stephen Jagger

I had the opportunity to meet up with Rob Hayes at First Round Capital the other day. Rob has led investments in companies such as Mint.com (acquired by Intuit), HomeRun (acquired by Rearden Commerce), Uber, TaskRabbit, AppFog, Get Satisfaction, and DNAnexus.

I actually had the opportunity to see Rob speak when he was in Vancouver, BC for GrowConf a few months ago. Rob has a great style about him where he says exactly what he thinks, there is no guessing how he feels about something.

When we met, we chatted about PayrollHero and the direction we were going with it. It was a fantastic meeting, although quite quick (his assistant has him doing back to back 30 minute meetings all day it sounded like), where Rob asked some solid questions about our business and had some great insight into the business to business marketplace.

(50 Coffees)

50 Coffees: Ben Jacobs of DCM Ventures

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Stephen Jagger

We met up with Ben Jacobs this morning of DCM. Ben was introduced to us by the guys at Taskus as they all grew up in the same neighbourhood in Los Angeles. Ben took us out to breakfast to chat further about what we are up to. It was very interesting to chat with Ben as he has lots of experience in the payroll world and overseas ventures. (Interesting note, Ben speaks Mandarin) Ben talked about how DCM works, where they like to invest (US / Asia) and what his thoughts were on PayrollHero and what we were doing. After breakfast we walked back over to the house to show Ben the “window” into the Manila office. (what is 50 Coffees?)

(L – R) Michael Stephenson, Ben Jacobs, Stephen Jagger

Who Are The Other Luxr SF5 Companies?

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Stephen Jagger

There are 4 companies attending the 10 week residency at Luxr.co. But before we get to them, what is the Luxr 10 week residency? “The 10-Week Residency is a design program for early-stage product teams. The program is radically low priced and tailored to serve lean, agile startups.” (complete details)

PayrollHero.com – Super Human Capital Management Software delivered via the cloud to browsers and mobile. Businesses whom seek to attract quality individuals to their workforce, must find new ways to interest them in their careers. PayrollHero.com helps businesses automate the tedious & repetitive functions of payroll administration, source deduction contributions, attendance recording and maintenance of their related banks, paystubs and annual reporting.

Lift.do – Tony Stubblebine and Jon Crosby have created an interesting new application for unlocking human potential through positive reinforcement.

Giggo.net – Giggo is changing how consumers connect with merchants and brands.

ScootDoodle.com – When you can’t be together in person, Scoot & Doodle offers a fun, new way for parents and kids to get together with friends and family online.

(L – R) The PayrollHero team: Piotr Banasik, Clark from CarbonFive,
Adam Baechler, Michael Stephenson, Stephen Jagger

500 Copies of The Lean Startup By Eric Ries

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Stephen Jagger

When Eric Ries new book, The Lean Startup, was about the be launched, he put up 3 unique packages online. All were bulk book deals with some “extras” added in. We bought the single “Luxr Bonus Package” which included 500 copies of The Lean Startup, entrance to the Luxr program, 4 hours with Eric Ries and much much more. This purchase triggered our move to San Francisco, the return of some of our team from Manila and a laser focus on getting PayrollHero launched in North America by year end.

If you want a copy of The Lean Startup, drop your email address in here, we will be selecting a few and sending them free copies of the book in the coming weeks.

Here is what 500 copies looks like packed into a car:

50 Coffees: Brendan Baker of Greylock And AngelList

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Stephen Jagger

Mike and I met up with Brendan Baker of Greylock (formally with AngelList) for dinner tonight. Brendan was introduced to us by Luxr co-founder Janice Fraser as a person that we should meet with. Janice mentioned that Brendan had vetted over 3000 pitches for AngelList and has great insight into the VC and Angel financing world, plus he is a Luxr graduate and is Canadian (he is from Vancouver as well).

It was great to chat with Brendan, as advertised, he has tons of experience in dealing with startups. One thing that he mentioned, that makes us happy, is that he likes the name “PayrollHero.com”. Brendan had lots of insight into the financing circles in Silicon Valley and was able to answer lots of our questions about the tech world here.

(L – R) Stephen Jagger, Brendan Baker and Michael Stephenson

(50 Coffees)

50 Coffees: Vy Le CEO of Rudy’s Barbershop

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Stephen Jagger

We had the pleasure of meeting up with Vy Le, the CEO of Rudy’s Barbershop. Vy is a busy public speaker, hitting many of the technology events. I first saw her speak in Vancouver at GrowCon and saw that she was coming to San Francisco (she lives in Seattle) to speak at event tomorrow. So I dropped her an email to see if she had a moment to meet up. When she was in Vancouver, she mentioned on stage that she had a “wish list” for all the developers in the room. She then put up a slide of the technology she wished she had for her Barbershop chain. One of those items was payroll software. Vy responded to my email and agreed to pop by the PayrollHero house to learn more about what we are doing and explain her needs for her 14 stores (with more on the way) across 3 states. It was a pleasure meeting Vy and she had lots of insight into the payroll world. I look forward to meeting up with her again in the near future.

(L – R) Stephen Jagger, Vy Le, Michael Stephenson

(50 Coffees)

MobileMonday: Secrets to Building A Successful Business On Mobile

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Stephen Jagger

“Mobile entrepreneurship is alive and well. How does a company build their business on mobile? Hear from app developers like Hotel Tonight and PunchTab how they drive downloads and monetize mobile apps, learn how the Barnes & Noble NOOK has become the “sleeper success story” for Android developers, and find out how to create and manage mobile apps for the enterprise from AppCentral.”

Tonight I ventured over to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to check out the MobileMonday event. This was a well attended event at the University that brought together a panel of 4 mobile entrepreneurs to talk about their products in the mobile space.

The event was moderated by Scott Schwarzhoff, VP of Marketing, Appcelerator and the panelists included Ranjith Kumaran, CEO of PunchTab, Chris Bailey, CTO of Hotel Tonight Ted Patrick, Chief Evangelist & Developer Relations of Barnes & Noble and Ken Singer, CEO of AppCentral. It was a packed event with lots of different takes on the mobile space.

Entrepreneurs Roundtable @ Pillsbury

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Stephen Jagger

Tonight there was an event held at Pillsbury Law Firm, where 4 VC-backed game startups presented their companies and how their experiences worked with their respective VCs.

The main event was Margaret Wallace, co-founder/CEO Playmatics and Shadow Government. Previously she co-founded Skunk Studio and Rebel Monkey. Prior to that, she worked at Shockwave, Mindscape and PF Magic as game producer of many game titles. After Margaret, the other 3 companies each took a few moments to tell their stories.

It was a great event with a very international crowd. Attendees from South Korea, Lithuania, Canada, Greece, Mexico, Australia to name a few. Fantastic job by Shirley Lin for putting the whole event together.

Pillsbury

View from the middle of the room

50 Coffees: Tim Smith, CEO of Inman News

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Stephen Jagger

Tim Smith, CEO of Inman News (the CNN of real estate) dropped by the PayrollHero house tonight to meet the team, check out the product and grab dinner with Mike and I. Tim comes from the real estate technology world, but before that was in charge of Oracle’s technology events around the world. He is a wealth of information on many topics and doing a fantastic job growing the Inman News business.

(L – R) Michael Stephenson, Tim Smith, Stephen Jagger

Tim Smith having a video chat with Tin in Manila, PH

(50 Coffees)

50 Coffees: Dan Martell and Christopher Golda

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Stephen Jagger

Today Mike Stephenson and I met up with fellow Canadians Dan Martell and Christopher Golda at the Samovar Tea Lounge in downtown San Francisco. Dan is a proud Canadian entrepreneur who has been living in Silicon Valley for quite a few years. I emailed Dan to see if he had some time to meet up and he agreed as well as brought along fellow Canadian Chris Golda.

Dan recently sold his company Flowtown to Dreamforce and Chris was the founder of BackType which Twitter bought earlier this year. It was great to meet up with them as they both had unique views on Canadians living in the US and how the VC world perceives tech startups from Canada or with teams straddling the boarder.

(L – R) Stephen Jagger, Michael Stephenson, Christopher Golda and Dan Martell

(50 Coffees)