So, it’s the 1st of July. You know what that means, right?
No?
Stand up. Look around. Choose a target. Sneak up on them and give them a pinch and a punch for the first of the month (this works best if they’re holding a cup of steaming hot coffee). I’ve been looking forward to today for the past few weeks. It’s been 30 days since I’ve had a legitimate excuse to pinch someone mid-way through a meeting, and I can’t wait to do it again.
Okay. I know what you’re thinking: why does this warrant a blog post? And you’re probably right, it doesn’t. I am excited for today, but the pinches and punches are only part of the reason. Let me explain:
When we launched SendSocial back in November, we came out of the starting blocks with support for Twitter and email. That was a fantastic place to start, but we were missing something pretty big: an integration with Facebook. Yeah, that teeny weeny social networking site a few of my friends use. You might have heard of it.
It’s a pleasure to be able to announce that, from today, you’re able to login to SendSocial using Facebook Connect, and you can link your SendSocial account to Facebook if you’re already a member of ours. Essentially, what this means is that you can now send items to any of your Facebook friends by clicking on their name within your account. When you send a request, it’ll show up on their wall and they’ll be able to deal with it from there.
This graphic explains things a little better:
I don’t know where any of my friends live, but I’m linked to all of them on Facebook. I’m really excited about today’s roll-out because I finally have an easy way of sending them half-decent birthday presents.
Now, I just need to see who’s birthday is coming up next…
The title of this blog post is in homage to a challenge we set one of the UK’s most successful business-to-business delivery networks back in January. We told them that the SendSocial story had only just begun, and asked them to ‘join us for Chapter Two’. They did.
Shortly afterwards, we found ourselves with a pretty mammoth deal on the table, and I am delighted – no, honoured – to finally be able to announce our partnership with ByBox. You might not have heard of these guys before, but I can safely say that I have never been so excited about receiving a book than when Stuart Miller, ByBox’s CEO, popped one into their network for me.
Not even 48 hours later, I woke up to find a text message on my phone. It read something like this: “Your parcel has been delivered into your chosen ByBox. Please type in 600679 on the keypad to retrieve it.”
Obediently following Stuart’s instructions, I hopped on a tube to Victoria Station, in Central London, and discovered the ByBox lockers outside by the car park. A few seconds later, and there I was: book in hand, amazed look on my face. I fell in love with the service instantly.
No more ‘missed delivery’ cards ever again, and a 48-hour service through SendSocial. The price? Just £2.99.
As well as adding ByBox as a delivery option alongside myHermes on SendSocial.com, the deal we struck with them means that we are now able to drive things forward faster than any of us had ever thought possible. Perhaps one of the most important things about our deal with ByBox is how incredible the people there are. We’d always said that if we were to take on investment, it would be from people we enjoyed spending time with, and people we could learn from. We didn’t want investment for the sake of investment, but ‘intelligent money’.
I was originally quite surprised by ByBox’s enthusiasm towards us, but I quickly realised where all their energy came from: they’re nice people. Stuart, Dan and Indi are the sort of people who I would more than happily spend my holiday with (although I’m not sure they’d share the same eagerness). They don’t have work hats, and their hours aren’t 9-to-5. They live and breathe what they do, and you can tell that they love every minute of it.
I’d like to extend a very public thank you to everyone at ByBox for their faith and support over the past few months. To Indi, for that first phone call, and for forcing Stuart to meet us. For working so closely with me. You rock. To Stuart, for letting Indi force you to meet us on that foggy January afternoon. Here’s to Dan, for your ‘that’s great’ attitude and help on the development side of things.
To the ByBox board: thanks for saying yes. Hats off also to ByBox’s developers, for working with Antony and James to make all of this happen, and of course a big thank you to the men and women doing the hard work on the ground. Without you we have nothing.
SendSocial is a business built on trust. We wouldn’t have even launched back in November had myHermes not agreed to take a leap into the unknown with us, but it is that faith and vision of what could be that is pushing things forward day in, day out.
It’s crazy to think that all of this started as an idea posted on Twitter. It’s even crazier to look back and realise that we’ve never actually all been in the same country at the same time, let alone the same room.
But the unconventional nature of everything we’ve done hasn’t mattered one bit. Why? Because I’m working with a dream team, whose commitment and dedication never staggers to amaze me. We have Antony, Marc and James, who slave away making our crazy demands a reality.
We’ve got Glen, our astonishing CEO, and Ben, who I can safely say is one of the most remarkable people I have had the pleasure of getting to know. You wouldn’t expect a non-exec to meet you at 10 o’clock in the evening, ‘just for a chat’, but Tom does just that and, to top things off, there’s Simon, who’s knowledge and expertise proves to be invaluable time and time again.
I’m having the time of my life, learning things no university degree could ever teach, and meeting amazing people every single day. I wake up every morning buzzing for the day ahead. I settle down by my laptop at 9pm, and before I know it the sun is rising and the birds are singing. And it’s so much fun.
Things can of course be a bit of a rollercoaster at times. There was a two week period not too long ago when I experienced the biggest highs and the deepest lows ever. Peaks and troughs that I didn’t even know existed. But as they say, what doesn’t kill you will only make you stronger. 2010 has really taught me the value of friends, so here’s to Chloe and Verity, Oscar, Steph and Nat, for keeping me going and pushing me on. Good luck for the rest of your exams, I know you’ll all do just fine. There would be so many more grey hairs if it weren’t for you guys.
It’s funny when I think about it. So much doom and gloom in the economy. A potentially unstable coalition government. Global warming, and a list of 100-or-so other odd things that are wrong with the world. Aliens must think we’re all mad. But then you sit back and realise that, you know what, actually none of that matters. To have a positive impact on the world and be the change you want to see, you first have to do one very, very simple thing: stand up and have fun.
Do that and everything else will follow.
SendSocial isn’t where we want it to be just yet. It might take us a few years. It may even take us a decade. But oh boy will we get there.
One tweet, eight people, and a desire to change the world. The SendSocial story has only just begun. Will you join us for Chapter Three?
I found myself strolling down Great Portland Street, in Central London, bright and early last Thursday morning. The occasion? Wednesday night had seen the premiere of ‘The Junior Apprentice’ and Radio Newcastle were keen to hear my views. So there I was: double espresso in hand, trying to hunt down an elusive BBC studio.
The show’s timing was quite interesting, given that our new government had just been formed and how politicians can help people into business will no doubt pop up on the agenda at some point in the near future.
Getting young people involved in enterprise is a big personal interest of mine, and I want to highlight an initiative that I think is doing a great job. My own opinion is that shows like ‘The Apprentice’, ‘The Junior Apprentice’ and ‘Dragons’ Den’ are hugely important in making the route of ‘entrepreneur’ a viable and respected career path but someone needs to step in on the ground. That someone shouldn’t be government.
Last week saw the awards presentation for the Make Your Mark With A Tenner competition. The idea is simple: loan £10 to 28,000 schoolchildren and see what they can do in a month. I’ve known about the competition for a few years now, but only this year did I begin to take an active involvement with it, as an ambassador for Enterprise UK.
And wow. If anyone ever questions the enterprising spirit of the youth of today, just point them towards one of the schools taking part in Tenner. I spent an hour back in March in a school in Newcastle (my old school’s arch rivals, as it happened) listening to some of the ideas that the kids had, and I was frankly amazed.
If the success of Scott Chapman, who turned his tenner into £537, is anything to go by, we are in good hands.
The key to getting young people to take the leap shouldn’t lie with central government. Nor should it lie with Business Link or the country’s regional development agencies. It’s down to initiatives like Make Your Mark. It’s down to people like us.
I turned 19 last month, and suddenly I’m beginning to feel very, very old. Turning 16 was great: I could become a company director and play the lottery. At 17, I could drive. Independence and motorway lanes were in my sights. And then I hit the ripe old age of 18, discovered a world of possibilities beyond grotty bars and could finally vote. Little did I know, it would be a downhill slope from there.
Each year was a milestone that came with some added benefit. And then I turned 19. I have fewer than 365 teenage days left, no more university, and I even have to do my own washing (luckily, though, I’m quite persuasive when it comes to getting people to cook for me).
It also dawned on me that I’ve spent almost a quarter of my life in business, and I’ve taken a look back at what kept me going when things weren’t going well, and what spurred me on further when things were going great.
Here are three of my tips and recommendations. Please do share yours.
People – it’s so important to surround yourself with the right people. I have had the privilege of meeting some incredible individuals over the past few years – Caroline Theobald, Oli Barrett, Mick Jackson, and of course Ben Way, to name but a few – and it’s hard to over-stress the importance of having the right network at your disposal.
Read books – yes, we have the entire internet at our disposal, but there is a lot of knowledge and inspiration hidden away in books. One book I’d insist everyone read is ‘Banker to the Poor’, by Muhammad Yunus.
Tell the world – when I have an idea, I tell anyone and everyone I meet about it. It drives me to follow through and when things aren’t going great, knowing that people are waiting for me to achieve something is a massive motivator.
As a parting message, I’ll leave you with an Eleanor Roosevelt quote that I had printed on the back of one of my first sets of business cards:
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Today we are celebrating our first birthday as a team! Ben Way formed the SendSocial team on 9th March 2009, by sending an e-mail to some of the respondents to his Twitter and Blog posts, inviting them to work with him in developing and launching the service.
All of us accepted the challenge, and a year on, we have launched and continue to develop the business. We recently introduced our API to online retailers, who are busy getting their sites ready so you can ‘Send by SendSocial’. We also have some other really interesting developments we will be revealing soon, so watch this space!
We have some thoughts already, but where would you like to see SendSocial in another year’s time?
Every blog post I write seems to begin with an apology for not writing as much as I’d hoped or promised. As good as my blogging intentions have been, it’s been hard to find the time to tap out a few hundred words here and there, especially when there is so much going on – both in my life and at SendSocial. Every hour feels like a commodity at the moment.
It’s Sunday night – well, Monday morning now – and I’d planned to go to bed hours ago, but my head is whirring away with ideas and I’m in such a creative mood that it would be foolish to waste that by climbing into bed. I wish it was possible to plan when these bursts of inspiration would come; then, maybe, I would be able to arrange to see my accountant on a day when I’d got more than only a couple of hours’ sleep.
I started my second semester at university in January convinced that I would be able to see my business management course out, at least until the end of this academic year. Not two weeks into the term, and I’d decided to take a leave of absence to pursue SendSocial and my other business interests on a full-time basis. Things were getting to the point where my management course was proving to be little more than a distraction from the excitement of being an entrepreneur, and the prospects of never having to write another essay or sit another exam were too much for me to ignore.
Most of my friends at university don’t know about my life as an entrepreneur (they probably think I’m just some lazy layabout who never manages to make it into lectures), and it has been weird juggling my entrepreneurial exploits with learning about Pareto efficiency and other obscure economic principles, on the odd occasion that I was able to drag myself to my university’s Waterloo lecture theatre.
So I did it. I took the leap.
And I don’t regret it.
A lot has been happening behind the scenes here over the past few weeks – things that we can’t talk about just yet – that have me more excited and confident than ever about what lies ahead. We quietly released our API a few weeks ago, and our first partner integration will be complete in the coming weeks. The prospect of being able to ‘send via SendSocial’ on your favourite ecommerce websites is something that I am looking forward to, and our API allows this to happen.
Part of me wants to spill the beans on everything else that we’re working on, but I’ll most likely wake up to a barrage of angry emails and phone calls if I do.
I’ll blog about them as soon as I can, and that’s a promise this time. Right now, I’m going to go to bed, open my eyes in the morning, and continue to enjoy the journey.
Somebody wake me up in three-and-a-half hours, please.
Since we launched in November, we have been amazed by the number of suggestions for how SendSocial could be used in other ways. We have also had interest from a number of organisations wishing to offer a similar service to their customers.
This got us all thinking – wouldn’t it be great if you could buy a gift for your friend from one of your favourite online stores without needing to look up their address?
We are therefore delighted to announce the immediate release of our API, which lets online retailers and service providers offer the same convenience and privacy that we offer on SendSocial.com.
Our Address Brokerage Service allows organisations to easily integrate the SendSocial process to their existing checkout procedure, releasing address data only if the recipient accepts the request. This allows our partners to use existing logistics arrangements, making integration with SendSocial simple and risk-free. There are no setup or monthly fees, and we only charge our partners when requests are accepted.
To safeguard our users’ data, we have a comprehensive application process before potential integrators can start using the API, with stringent terms of usage meaning address data remains private and is only used for the purposes of fulfilling requests that have been accepted. As a final safety net, any improper use of our API is subject to hefty penalties.
We are currently working with a number of online retailers and are looking forward to announcing the launch of our first partnerships very soon.
Please be aware that due to the adverse weather conditions, our courier partner myHermes is experiencing severe difficulties across many areas of the UK. Both collections and deliveries are impacted and myHermes are doing all they can to keep delays to a minimum.
If you wish to check the status of your delivery, please contact us on info@sendsocial.com.
Over the Christmas period there will be a limited delivery service, with no collections or deliveries between 25th – 28th December 2009, or 1st January 2010.
SendSocial wishes our customers and visitors a very happy Christmas, and best wishes for the new year.
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