Jacob Mullins

Emotional Experience (EX): The pinnacle of user and customer experience

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:24:00 -0800

Have you ever purchased a product or a service that just makes you happy? And every time you consider using it again, or repurchasing, you’re just happy to pull out your wallet and spend your hard earned money on it? Last week after hearing a company pitch at Shasta Ventures, I remarked to one of my colleagues that you know you have a winning product, when as a customer I’m immediately compelled to start shelling out cash. It got me to thinking, what is that feeling, where does it come from, what companies evoke it, and can it be productized?

In traditional service level businesses this Emotional Experience is key to driving customer loyalty and return visits. Think of the experience you’re provided at a five star hotel establishment, Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis. Somehow the staff always knows your name, never says no, and surprises you with amenities before you think of asking for them. Think of dinner at a top restaurant: the sultry ambiance, the amuse-bouche courtesy of the chef, a small army of attendants providing an immaculately timed experience – not to mention the food. These services depend on the demeanor, attitude, and performance of their employees to satisfy this high level of EX. Can this, and does this, exist in technology products?

Lately, I’ve found myself becoming a more frequent user of technology products that provide a high level of Emotional Experience (EX). Companies like Uber stroke my ego, making me feel distinguished and dapper. TaskRabbit makes me feel efficient with my time. UrbanDaddy makes me feel debonair, like a San Franciscan James Bond. The magic of Cherry brings me pure joy as I walk out to my sparkling-clean car, washed while I worked at my office. Instagram makes me feel like a romantic photographer. 8mm makes me feel like a coy New York film student. My iPhone makes me feel innovative and sharp. Warby Parker makes me feel intelligent and classic. What is it that each of these companies have done?

This grouping of companies spans the spectrum of industry: from hardware, to software, human services, even eyeglasses and car washes. Yet what makes them similar is that each of these companies has spent precious time going beyond traditional product UI and UX excellence. They take the entire customer experience into consideration and create an EX around the product to build a stickier and emotionally compelling brand. In fact, customers are actually spending more money on these services, than their traditional counterparts, so it seems that a high level of EX may even yield higher revenue and margins.

By gripping their customers with a strong Emotional Experience, technology companies are not only building a loyal user base, but also harnessing customer excitement to be their strongest evangelists. As venture capital investors focused on product and high level end-user experience, I’m intrigued at how I may apply the filter of Emotional Experience (EX) to companies within the Shasta Ventures Portfolio, as well as new companies that we have the opportunity to meet with in the future.

Leaving Microsoft: From Redmond to Sand Hill Road

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 09:16:00 -0700

After nearly three years at Microsoft, based in San Francisco and focused on our BizSpark startup business, I’ve decided that it’s time to move on and begin the next chapter. I will be joining early stage venture capital firm Shasta Ventures on July 11, 2011.

The past three years at Microsoft have been an incredible experience. I’ve worked with some of the smartest people I’ve ever met, had the opportunity to shape and launch global programs, and be inside of one of the world’s largest corporations as it strategizes, builds, and launches products which affect hundreds of millions of users. What continues to boggle my mind is the sheer scale at which this company operates. We’re not just an operating system software manufacturer, or just a database software company, or just a cloud services provider, or just an email service provider, or just an advertising company, or just a search engine, or just a gaming console manufacturer with one of the largest online communities of gamers, who recently set the record for the fastest-selling consumer electronic device in history. We don’t just help enable students to succeed, or workers to be productive, or banks to be secure, or intelligence agencies to be operational, and cities to be efficient. We do all of it. And it all needs to work, flawlessly. That is a big job.

I’ve had the great opportunity to work with some of our highest potential BizSpark startups, providing support and a tangible roadmap to success by helping connect the dots for them both inside, and outside, of Microsoft. It’s been an absolute pleasure working with the entrepreneurs behind companies like Huddle, LiquidSpace, Rally (née Piryx), Nutshell Mail, Apprenda, Lymbix, Spoke, SocialShield, and partner organizations like StartupWeekend, The Kauffman Foundation, Founder Institute, Orrick, and many many more.

It hasn’t always been a walk in the park. Having evangelized and marketed Microsoft products in Silicon Valley, and other startup hotbeds, I’ve received more than my fair share of snide remarks, insolent quips, and laughing fits in my face. However, over the past three years we’ve seen some incredible traction and positive change in how startups perceive Microsoft in general. We began at ground zero with not much more than spoken word and a banner, and through the tenacious leadership of Dan’l Lewin, we designed and executed a program specifically for startups. The first of its kind at Microsoft, BizSpark provides software, support, visibility and business development opportunities for startups around the world. We now have over 40,000 actively engaged startups in over 100 countries.

I’m not one to shy away from big obstacles, most of my life I’ve been creating new things, and I work best where I have a set of objectives and an undefined path to get there. I thrive at the opportunity to jump in head first, work tirelessly, and can make a tangible impact on the direction and growth of a business.

This is why I’m thrilled to be joining Shasta Ventures. The founding team, Tod Francis, Rob Coneybeer, Ravi Mohan and Jason Pressman have done a phenomenal job building their 6-year old “upstart” firm into an active, well-regarded Sand Hill Road VC firm with an outstanding portfolio including: Mint, LiquidSpace, TaskRabbit, Gowalla, Smule, Zuora, Spiceworks, and more. The team, which also includes Austin Grose, Sean Flynn and Joe Ryan, has brought together their decades of consumer, technology, and investing experience to assemble a firm with an absolute focus on the entrepreneur making a point of always being personally available and quick to provide assistance wherever needed. I have been struck by how genuine and truly approachable each member of the team is. Their honesty, transparency, and lack of ego are extremely important traits of a team that I’m soon to consider myself a part of.

In my role at Shasta Ventures, I will be tasked with meeting the best entrepreneurs with the biggest ideas, helping evaluate startup ideas as candidates for investment, and keeping a finger on the pulse of the industry to identify shifts and new trends as quickly as possible. To me, it’s a dream job, and I can’t think of a better firm or group of people to be joining.

I want to thank the many, many people at Microsoft who have contributed to my experience and believed in me enough to entrust me with some big-ass responsibilities, including Dan’l Lewin, Cindy Bates, Mark Hindsbo, Cliff Reeves, Matt Thompson, Joshua Waldo, and Michael Francisco. I look forward to keeping a close relationship with Microsoft, and all of my friends, in my new role at Shasta Ventures.

Beginning July 11, I’ll be on the lookout for the most innovative companies, strongest teams, and biggest ideas around. If you think there’s something I should see, let’s connect! Email me at jacob at shastaventures dot com; I’m @jacob on twitter, so reach out, let’s catch up, and let’s talk about the future.

I'm an ENFP.

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 23:43:00 -0800

I just took the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator test, I estimated myself as an ESFJ, but low and behold I’m an ENFP. The NFP were marked as “slight” while the E was “very clear,” out of four levels.

Long live SXSW: A brand marketer's paradise, and aren't we all brand marketers?

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:13:00 -0700

With all the hype and “SXSW-hating” over the past few days, much of which is focused on the overwhelming attendee growth and presence of big brands, though mainly written by an elite corps of self-aggrandizing people who make their lively-hoods on page views and twitter followers, I wanted to throw my personal opinion, that of a brand marketer, in to the ring. This is my own personal opinion, not that of my employer, Microsoft.

SXSW is a strong as ever, if it were a public company the stock would be off the charts, if we were in mainstream media we’d say it had its Oprah moment, and if we likened it to the annual debate of “Who was the Twitter of SXSW 2010?” we’d answer, SXSW, itself, was the Twitter of this year’s SXSW.

This year it did feel noticeably larger, I ran into less people that I knew, and there was as strong of a carnival-like feel as any year before. But guess what – SXSW is the physical manifestation of twitter, and while all the self-proclaimed social media experts complain about losing its quaintness, they seem to be overlooking the simple fact that social media is about extending your brand, be it personal or professional, and for the first time it seems as though SX has hit its inflection point of being able to provide the correct audience and scale to attract big brand advertisers. Is this not the goldmine of every startup, blog, or individual?

Before I engage in any marketing activity be it a digital ad campaign, integrated web sponsorship, or physical event presence, I ask myself three simple questions:

1) Am I reaching my target audience?

2) How many people in this audience can I reach?

3) By reaching these people, is there a way that we can ignite word of mouth chatter, and extend the brand through them?

In analyzing a marketing engagement at SXSW, the answer to every one of these is unequivocally, yes. Think of the brands, Pepsi wants reach for its “Refresh Project” campaign – an entirely crowd-sourced initiative for social good, Chevy was onsite with a sneak peek of its all-electric Volt car – a geek’s dream; Miller Lite, well, connected with all of us on one night or another, I’m sure. Bing, Azure, Windows 7, Silverlight, Windows Phone 7 Series – this is one of the largest launch years for Microsoft in history, and where are there more tecchies in one location? Aol., they’re makin a come back! In fact, aren’t all of these brands doing the same thing that this year’s startups, Plancast, Foodspotting, Foursquare, Gowalla, Mog, Solvate, and more, are trying to accomplish? Sequoia Capital’s Mark Kvamme just said yesterday that social media marketing can entirely replace traditional advertising.

Then why the hate? Is it really so hard to walk by a booth, or not take a free taxi ride, or just say “no, thanks” to a free snack?

You can’t blame the big brand, you can’t blame Mike from Cincinnati who came to Austin to meet more social media tech people, and god forbid, run into his favorite blogger and want to meet them in person! No doubt, SXSW is changing, but so is everything else. Twitter changed the way we communicate with each other, growing and strengthening our networks, enabling us to brand ourselves and spread the word about our causes. We shouldn’t be so shocked when the physical world around us begins to adapt: CNN, celebrities, service providers, and yes, brands and average people. Roll with it, we’re in the innovation business. Don’t take yourself too seriously; let’s head back to Austin 360 days from now, and I’ll be the first to buy you a beer.

Follow me on twitter @jacob

[Disclaimer: This post is my own personal opinion, and in no way reflects the opinions, beliefs, or strategy of my employer, Microsoft.]

"People say we didn’t communicate with Iran, but we did…when the Iranian leader was at..."

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:13:42 -0800

““People say we didn’t communicate with Iran, but we did…when the Iranian leader was at the United Nations saying the last thing Iran would do would be to put mines in the Persian Gulf, our navy was taking pictures of them doing it. So we boarded the ship, took some mines off for evidence, took the sailors off and sank the ship. Then we took the sailors to Dubai and told them, ‘Come get your sailors.’ So that was communication with Iran.” US Secretary of State George Shultz (under Reagan)”

NetHope: Providing the backbone of humanitarian aid, the ability to communicate with each other

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:55:00 -0800

I wanted to quickly write about and draw a little bit of attention to a key humanitarian organization that I support, and who I think offers crucial services in a way with which many of us ‘techies’ can easily relate. Think about how frustrating it is when a conference WiFi system is overloaded and you can’t load a webpage or send a tweet; or when you’re at a large public concert and the cell network is clogged to the point where you’re unable to send a text to a friend to coordinate a meetup location, or to a girl to set up a date for that evening. And we live in one of the most technologically advanced places on earth.

Now imagine a rural second or third world country, with already limited communications infrastructure, that has experienced a natural disaster of epic proportions rendering its existing infrastructure incapable. Examples quickly come to mind: the Southeast Asian tsunami of 2004, the Sichuan earthquake of 2008 leaving more than 5 million homeless, even Hurricane Katrina of 2005, and now Haiti. In the wake of these disasters what is left of local emergency units and first responders primarily focus on saving lives, while trying to survey the entirety of the disaster so they can create an actionable plan. However, with radio towers destroyed, land lines severed, and little electrical power, communication and coordination grinds to a slog.

Within the first 24 hours of news of this earthquake in Haiti, well over 25 countries acted by proffering their support with flights of support personnel, doctors, heavy machinery, search dogs, food and water, and any other usable supplies en route to Port-au-Prince. An airport that was built to manage no more than three planes on the ground at once, and approximately nine flights per day, has absorbed over 600 takeoffs and landings within the first five days after the atrocity.

With this phenomenal outpouring of support from around the world comes a new challenge – one of coordinating the people on the ground so they can be deployed around the small island nation with the necessary resources to provide the assistance needed to the places that need it most. This is where NetHope proves invaluable.

NetHope is a non-profit hub bringing together a consortium of the IT departments of 28 of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations, with some the world’s largest technology companies including Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, Accenture and others who provide both financial backing and core business services to better enable the humanitarian members. NetHope provides the communications infrastructure for all organizations to coordinate with each other to most effectively carry out their charters on the ground. Currently, 17 of NetHope’s members, including the American Red Cross, Save the Children, MercyCorps, and World Vision, are present in Haiti providing relief to earthquake victims, being supported by NetHope’s vital telecom link. However, NetHope’s working to improve comms even more.

At this moment in Haiti, NetHope is working with technology partner Inveneo to establish a VSAT/Wimax internet connectivity setup in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas to further support the flow of information and communication. To stay abreast of NetHope’s involvement in Haiti click here, and to donate to their cause go here.

And here’s a short anecdote, close to home, that underlines the importance of communication in disaster type situations. Yesterday, I chatted with a friend who is a Red Cross volunteer who spent his Saturday answering calls at the Red Cross Disaster Call Center in Oakland. He told me about a Haitian woman he spoke with who lives in New York, who had been able to connect with her brother in Haiti, over the phone. She relayed the situation: her brother and his family were marooned in a town only nine miles outside of Port-au-Prince. Most of the town buildings are destroyed, the survivors are camping in the church parking lot, and the roads are blocked. In the five days since the earthquake they have not seen one relief worker or aid truck. They have no food, and their only option is to buy a one-pound bag of rice for $7.00, in a place where the annual per capita income is $350 per year. Unthinkable.

Immediately after ending the call, my friend passed along the status and location of this village, and within three hours of the call had confirmation that the village was placed on the Red Cross high-priority list to receive attention and aid as quickly as possible.

The need in Haiti is obviously great, and there are countless options of organizations to support. But I like NetHope because I can tangibly understand the problem that they solve, enabling the literal flow of communication that is saving lives.

Fascinated by Cannes Lions and what it's about

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:45:00 -0700

Over the past two days I have become beyond-normally fascinated with the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Yesterday morning a spent two hours or so watching 5 minute long videos of their presenters, and this morning I’m spending time on Summize and created a Tinker page to follow the activity.

The conference fascinates me because it’s bringing together the most influential and creative minds in marketing and advertising from around the world, to sit and talk about what is Advertising today, and what has been successful this past year.

It seems to me however that most of the presenters, submissions and winners are mostly missing the boat. Advertising, as I see it, is totally broken. Spending millions of dollars on ad campaigns that shove their way in front of our eyes simply doesn’t work anymore. Even the cutsy ads that make you smile, do exactly that, make you smile - not more. Not buy the product. Which is the goal, right?

We need to speak directly to the consumer, not on a broad-level, not even on a targeted level, but on a singular and individual level. With advancing technology in mobile phones and proactive engagement of social media we are incrementally sharing our life, in bits and pieces. These bits and pieces, if pulled together and constructed correctly, would paint the picture of our likes and dislikes, passions, world view, beliefs and habits. The winner in marketing will be the one who can take that information and use it to provide extremely relevant offers - offers that I actually care about. Offers on musical artists I love, restaurants that I frequent, events that I pay attention to, and vacations to places that I dream about. This can only be done with technology.

It won’t be Madison Ave, London, or a fancy firm with three last names that figures this out. It will be Silicon Valley. The former are too focused on the $$$ that come with gaining the big accounts, they’re chasing the trend-line, focusing on one-upping the other guy to win the business. Silicon Valley is about thinking 5 years down the line, barely considering what people are doing today - which is the status quo of stagnant thinking.

As a marketer these thoughts excite me, as an entrepreneur these thoughts fire me up. For what could be more exciting than revolutionizing an industry that hasn’t changed in over 100 years? To quote the closing lines of Jerry Maguire’s most famous Mission Statement:

“Let us start a revolution. Let us start a revolution that is not just about basketball shoes, or official licensed merchandise. I am prepared to die for something. I am prepared to live for our cause. The cause is caring about each other. The secret to this job is personal relationships.”

I am so mentally exhausted it’s refreshing.

Thu, 14 May 2009 21:41:59 -0700

I am so mentally exhausted it’s refreshing.

Beer, girls, and a fresh perspective

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:31:46 -0800

Look at that sunrise – gosh it’s gorgeous, you can literally see the “god rays” splayed across the sky lighting up Ipanema beach. The water is cold rushing below my knees and I roll my head back laughing deep within my belly. I open my eyes and in front of me are people with whom I have memories and history, we have inside jokes, we poke at each other’s insecurities, and we seek the most personally abrasive nicknames possible for each other. And for some reason I decided to fly here, to the other side of the world, and spend money I probably shouldn’t, to be standing right here, right now, with them.

The vacation to Rio was amazing; yeah, sure, for all the reasons that you think: cans of beer on the street cost $0.80, the summer sun was warm and inviting, the women stunningly gorgeous, all taking place in a city where literally 6 million people stop everything but to put on silly costumes and party for four days. But I think an equal, if not longer lasting value came hours after I had returned home to San Francisco.

Upon landing at SFO I could feel a creeping anxiety coming over me as I reached for my phone, tapped my password onto the screen and went for the Airplane Mode OFF switch, but I stopped. I realized that my anxiety was coming from the anticipated uber-shock of rentry into the atmosphere without a heat shield. I was about to be deluged by a week’s worth of pinging text messages, ding-donging voicemails, endlessly scrolling emails, and continuously loading twitter messages. I made an executive decision and decided not to re-enter quite yet, and put my phone back to sleep.

I realized that I was in a rare and unusual sense of rapture, floating in the ether, away from the oxygen of ultra-connectivity that we need to breathe in our Silicon Valley lives. I only used the computer once in Rio, for less than 5 minutes, I never once used my phone. What an amazing gift.

I used the rest of the afternoon, from about noon onward, to sip coffee and to evaluate the priorities in my life. I journaled for a bit and came away objectively understanding that I spend too much time on things that don’t last past a headache in the morning, and not enough time on the things that will drive me forward for a lifetime. That said, I’ll still end up with the headaches, I’ll just try to adjust the balance between those and my other priorities a little bit better.

Then, slowly but surely, I re-entered the atmosphere, starting with email, then a tweet or two, followed up uploading my pictures. And now look at me, I’m laying on my hotel room bed across the street from my Microsoft office building in Bellevue, Washington at 11:30 at night, poking away on my computer with a 3G broadband card flickering out the side. I’m about to send a tweet from my phone, as my mind drifts away from this post, which is less than an arms distance away.

I’m definitely re-immersed, which is great, don’t get me wrong; I’m just so happy that I took those few precious moments between vacation and reality to realign my thoughts and my focus, because I think there’s nothing more important or valuable than having a fresh perspective.

Carnaval sunrise over Ipanema beach

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 01:06:00 -0800

Carnaval sunrise over Ipanema beach

At breakfast, after watching sunrise on Ipanema beach, about to...

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 01:05:00 -0800

At breakfast, after watching sunrise on Ipanema beach, about to hit the sack

Enjoying a caiprihinia in Buzios

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 01:04:08 -0800

Enjoying a caiprihinia in Buzios

Christ the Redeemer, high about Rio de Janeiro, picture taken on...

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 00:58:11 -0800

Christ the Redeemer, high about Rio de Janeiro, picture taken on Ash Wednesday 2009

Long time, no see

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 12:02:42 -0800

Wow. I just realized that I haven’t posted here in quite some time. How’s that for a New Year’s resolution…?

Oh well, I have been busy, productive and been having a killer time, I can’t complain.

During the last week of January I traveled across the US with one of Microsoft’s Corporate Vice Presidents to promote BizSpark. It was an interesting experience and I was surprised at the pace at which we were in and out of places. Though I guess that’s what big corp execs are for, right? The surgical strike to make a lasting impact and then onto the next place.

We hit New York, Boston, (I skipped Chicago), and Austin within a 5 day period, first meeting at 7:30am, ending with a dinner or reception in the evening - that’s one lonnnng day. Thank god for coffee. Mmm

To cap that week off, I met up with a bunch of old college buddies to celebrate our bright college years - part MAN. 9 of us converged upon Sin City, shacking up at the Stratosphere (thanks to Goldman Sachs who owns it, and one of their employees who got us dirt cheap rooms), and hitting the town hard. Highlights were golf at Wildhorse, bottles at Body English and Tryst, and losing a couple hundred dollars while watching the Superbowl at the Harrah’s outdoor bar.

Now it’s back to the grind for 14 days, resting, recuperating and otherwise getting mentally prepared for the trip we are calling Operation Come Home Alive - Rio de Janeiro for Carnivale. T-minus 8 days.

Touchpoint

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:09:01 -0800

Do you ever have an occurrence in your life, perhaps a chance encounter, a meeting with an old friend, or a familiar smell that shakes your life to the core? It causes instant introspection and evaluation of where you are, how you got here, and makes you think of all the things that have happened since your last touchpoint. We get so caught up in our daily lives and progressing from spot E to spot F that many times we forget how we got from spot A to spot E, and all the lessons that came in between, even though it’s because of those lessons that we are at spot E. You may think you have it all figured out, but in one fell swoop this old touchpoint can wipe you clean and refocus you on where you actually should be. Thank goodness for these moments, for these incremental epiphanies which re-give us relevant context to life and makes realize, just really how little we all know – and how much more we have to learn.

Aaron, Joey and me

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:29:00 -0800

Aaron, Joey and me

Kirkwood, what a beautiful day!

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:28:00 -0800

Kirkwood, what a beautiful day!

Me, midday

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:27:00 -0800

Me, midday

Keeping the refreshments cold.

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:27:00 -0800

Keeping the refreshments cold.

The Amazing Yodling Pickle, on Christmas Eve.

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 21:37:55 -0800

The Amazing Yodling Pickle, on Christmas Eve.