Entrepreneurship

Add Constraints

When I first graduated college I had virtually no marketable real world skills. What I did have though was drive, and an endless amount of time and energy. The way I made myself valuable at that time was to be willing to work 80 hour work weeks to get things done in a small but growing business. Every time someone…

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

My 100th Blog Post!

Somehow this is my 100th blog post which is worthy of celebration in my book! In honor of this milestone, I thought it might be fun to just post briefly about the blog itself and provide some context and anecdotes. How It Started This blog originally started under the domain of MarketplacePartner.com in 2012. This is a company I co-founded…

Continue Reading

Operations & Technology

8×8 Reviewed

It seems every year I have to try out a new phone system. In the past I’ve reviewed Vonage, Talkdesk, and Genesys. We’re now on 8×8 and I believe it’s the best yet for our purposes. While 8×8 boasts chat capabilities, after the demo I realized they were even less advanced than Genesys, so all I’m using is their phone…

Continue Reading

Operations & Technology

Olark Chat Reviewed

Any CX professional worth their salt will tell you that inbound calls are generally decreasing in volume, while chat is on the rise. This is excellent news for us in eCommerce because chat is a substantially more efficient way to service a customer. A phone agent can speak with one person at a time whereas a chat agent can usually…

Continue Reading

Book of the Month

Great Books I Recently Discovered – Part 2

I’m back again with my second installment of great books I’ve recently discovered. If this recurring theme should tell you anything it’s that I’ve been opting to do a lot more reading in the evenings than blogging. These books aren’t necessarily newly published, it’s just that I’m getting to them now. You can see my prior recommendations here. Tim Ferriss –…

Continue Reading

Entrepreneurship

Count Your Blessings

One of my favorite parts of being in management is that you’re exposed to so many different people from different walks of life, different backgrounds, and different mindsets. In e-commerce especially, I feel as though I’ve been exposed to people that I had never been exposed to growing up in Austria or going to college. E-commerce requires everything from the seasoned…

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

Commuting By Bike? In Dallas??

Back when I lived in Raleigh, NC I was able to live close enough to my office to justify selling my car and commuting by bike. I always remember that time fondly, especially after leaving Raleigh to deal with the New York commute that was at least an hour each way daily. When we moved to Dallas I was a…

Continue Reading

Book of the Month

Recently Discovered Awesome Books

It’s been a long time since I posted anything, but it’s been a REALLY long time since I posted any book recommendations. That used to be the whole premise of this blog back in the day, so I thought what better way to get back to posting regularly, then share some awesome books I recently came across. These aren’t necessarily…

Continue Reading

Entrepreneurship

Leadership Talking Points #4

There was a conflict last month that prevented me from having this meeting, and therefore this post, but I’m back again with the latest round of leadership thoughts. To get the full context of this series start at #1. Never complain. This is just a good life practice regardless of what position you’re in. People that complain are seen as lazy, negative,…

Continue Reading

Entrepreneurship

Company Bragging – Round 2

Earlier this year I shared some accolades and attention our company received from various sources. We haven’t slowed down so I thought I’d share the latest! We are number 40 on the Inc. 500! This one is obviously huge and has gotten us lots of attention. Our 5,907% growth rate over the last three years has not gone unnoticed. The…

Continue Reading