I caught up with fellow Luxr.co alumni Tony Stubblebine the other day at his offices to catch up and grab a beer. Tony is the co-founder of Lift.do, a company funded by the Obvious guys and operates out of their offices. I dropped into the Obvious offices to meetup with Tony and end up playing poker with him, his co-founder Jon Crosby a few of the Obvious guys late into the evening. It was a great to chat further with their team and learn more about the ins and outs of poker.
Today’s Luxr session was fantastic. We had Eric Ries, the author of the best selling book The Lean Startup come by to have a fireside chat with us, moderated by Luxr co-founder Janice Fraser. It was a great session with Janice asking some very relevant questions that allowed Eric to explain his thoughts on the lean startup world. He told some great stories, including a funny one about his experience on Fox News.
Eric is a very sharp individual who has taken the tech community by storm with his lean startup concept and it was a pleasure meeting him again. (Mike and I met up with Eric a while back in Whistler, which indirectly lead us to Luxr and moving to San Francisco) As part of our bulk purchase of Eric’s book, we get 4 hours with him to chat about whatever we want. I look forward to having him over to the PayrollHero house and showing him in more detail what we are up to. Sounds like mid December we will have that opportunity.
Here are a few pictures from today:
(L – R) Piotr Banasik, Stephen Jagger, Eric Ries, Michael Stephenson, Adam Baechler
Eric Ries signing 1 of our 500 copies of The Lean Startup (watch this blog for book giveaway details)
Janice Fraser of Luxr and Eric Ries
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
After the first session at Luxr, we wanted to get to know the group as soon as we could so that we could get the most out of the Luxr Residency and fast track the relationships with the other members of the cohort. So, we did what we know best, and threw together a cocktail party at the house for all of the attendees of the Luxr program and the instructors. It was a great way to meet the other teams, share a few stories and learn more about what they are up to and where they are going. (complete picture set here)
Where cocktail parties always seem to gather (the kitchen)
(L – R) Adam Baechler, Piotr Banasik, Tobi Adamolekun, Toni and Jason Fraser
(L – R) Bryan, Janice Fraser, Michael Stephenson and Jesse Martinez
(L – R) Stephen Jagger, Tony Stubblebine and Jesse Martinez
We have arrived at Luxr.co, for Day 1 of the Lean UX Residency. We have had a few people ask about how we ended up at Luxr? how did we hear about it?