Avi Karnani, our tenacious CEO convinced me to forgo dreams of the west coast and join the team in New York. I started in the beginning of September as the Product Manager.

What are we doing?

…we’re building the first on-line, 24/7 financial advisory for young adults. We help people in their twenties and thirties gain control over their financial lives by helping them figure out what to do with their money-aside from spending it!

The Loudwater Labs team had been hard at work with Thrive before I joined, and I’m honored to be working with such a talented group of people. The website is ready for you to use it, so try it for free and tell me what you think in the comments below.

p.s. We’re also looking for talented software engineers to join the team.

He told me that he asks people to follow a few simple rules when sending him email. These seem obvious, but Im amazed at how many people don’t know them.

To: Adding an email address to the To field implies you want the person to take action. Either they owe you a response, or they need to act on some instruction in the email.

CC: Implies that the email is for information only. No action is necessary

BCC: Best used for large lists. If you’re sending to a lot of people, don’t have 50 people in the CC list. Invariably someone will click “reply all” and send uninteresting information to everyone!

Additionally, if forwarding a message where there is only one person in the “To:” field, you can modify the subject line to say “NRN” at the beginning. This tells the recipient there is “No Response Necessary”.

As email volume increases day by day, simple methods can help us stay sane.

Send these helpful tips to the worst offenders you know.

Maybe.

But so far, we’re not there yet. The best bicycle seats money can buy have been made by Brooks Saddles pretty much the same way since 1866. Their flagship model for first appeared in the 1898 catalog! Sure, the process has probably been improved, but the widget is pretty much the same.

I first learned about brooks saddles through people who have been touring the world by bike since 2002. They have much more experience than me and claimed it is the best bike seat. The people at the bike shop agree. When I asked a guy “would you ride across the country if you weren’t using your brooks saddle?” He said no.

In a world where newer is better. It’s refreshing to see something old be the best there is.

Today, I replaced my b0rk3d hacked iPhone with a new one from Apple. Here’s how I did it.

1. Put the AT&T sim card back in the phone
2. Restore the iPhone to 1.1.2
3. Get pre-auth code from an AT&T store (if needed)
4. Activate on AT&T
   
5. Whoops, it looks like the phone functionality needs to work to activate
   
6. Make an appointment with the Apple Store
7. Say something like – “I bought it a while ago but it’s been in the box”
8. Get replacement phone (now activated)
9. Return home with new iPhone

At this point, you can choose whether or not you want to stick with AT&T, or go back to your old provider. I decided to give them a shot and port my number over. Here’s why:

• There is a delay in getting new features on a hacked phone
• Recracking the phone after each update is a pain
• Visual voicemail seems cool?
• The cost saving on t-mobile was $10 a month (after the $175 cancellation fee).
• The hassle factor of being wholly responsible for the well-being of my phone is annoying.
• I can always crack it again if I want to use it overseas on someone other than AT&T

Time will tell if this was the right decision!

Number of times I moved: 4
Number of companies with which I had a full time job: 4 (incl. my own company)
Amount of time spent away from home (wherever that was): 3 months
Countries Visited: 4 (not counting transits)
Distance Flown: 80,872 mi
Longest Bike Ride: 73 mi
Longest Car Trip: 1,845 mi

Being unsettled created an amazing amount of stress for me in 2007. However, I couldn’t be happier where the year is ending. The bike ride statistic was accomplished yesterday when Ben and I biked from our place in Cambridge to Newport, Rhode Island. Im a little sore, but dancing tonight should loosen me up. See you next year!

Where to cut back

I can’t stop my hair growing. As hard as I will it to stop, my hair keeps on trucking. To prevent myself looking like Cousin Itt’s twin brother, I need to take care of it. That generally means going to get a haircut. I’ve gone to chinatown in boston to save a few bucks, but the guy didnt speak english and I ended up with a great fade, but a terrible haircut. I’ve also gone to newbury st. but ended up with a mediocre haircut for a big price. It’s really not that hard to cut a guys hair. So, my buddy Ben “Le Coiffure” Winterroth does it for me. It’s a great way to save some loot. There are times however, that going the cheap route is not better.

Where to spend top dollar

Ramen is not nutrition. Say it with me Ramen is not nutrition. Food is one area where I will never try to be cheap. The picture to the left is my dinner from Friday. Chicken breast with broccoli and spinach-carrot salad. My diet might change when I’m in Argentina, but in general I buy organic, and cook dinner at home. If you try it for a week, I guarantee you’ll notice the difference in your alertness, happiness and overall well-being.

These are just a couple of suggestions for how to and how not to bootstrap. What are the things you would never give up to save some cash?

Clearer desk, clearer mind.

Thanks to Nate Aune of Jazkarta and BetaHouse fame for the link!

We all have in us the potential to be a pessimist, or an optimist. We also have in us the ability to create our ideal future. Those people you know who are successful. It probably seems that everything goes right for them, right? Wrong! Those people have just as many problems as the pessimists. It’s how they deal with them mentally that makes the difference.

But colin, I don’t know if I am an optimist or pessimist!

Personality tests are fun. If you answer honestly, you might get some insight into yourself. Take a look at this Optimism / Pessimism test. You can see how I did by clicking the image on the left. It’s kind of funny in the test that the lower your score, the better. I guess optimists can handle that better than pessimists!

Ok, I could be more optimistic, how can I get there?

This is by no means a comprehensive list… just a few suggestions on what I do:

• Celebrate every small victory – at BetaHouse, it has become a tradition that we take a vodka shot every time we roll out a new release of software. This happens a lot in the Agile Development Method. You don’t have to shoot vodka! But, you should develop your own ritual to celebrate victory.
• Focus on your goals, not what prevents you from reaching them – There will always be a reason why you cant do something. Forget it! You see a mountain in front of you. Your goal is to get to the other side. The optimist thinks “what can I do to achieve that”. The pessimist thinks “I can’t achieve that with what I have”. The optimist then goes to buy a bike to go around, or some climbing gear to go over.
• Do exercise – Set goals for yourself at the gym. When you achieve them, celebrate with a small victory. This is even better if you do it with a buddy who encourages you (thanks Ben!).
• Give out positive vibes – Think about how you can raise others up instead of criticizing them and bringing them down. When is the last time you told someone at work how much you respect their work ethic. Positivity breeds positivity.

Most of the time you can change a day or an outcome based on your state of mind. The tips above help me to tweak my mind on a daily basis to stay on the positive / optimistic track.

How do you stay optimistic in everyday life?

Now is a great time to leave your current job and get into tech. If you’ve been thinking about it, If you’ve been wondering “when should I start my business”, or “when should I apply for jobs at a startup?”. The answer is now

Here’s a laundry list of why:

1. A friend of mine at a Venture Capital firm told me that in the first half of 2007, Boston based web startups had more investment than San Francisco based startups. I think the balance may have changed with the facebook $740 million
2. I spoke with a recruiter recently who told me companies are doing significant hiring at the moment
3. Companies are getting investment based on ideas without a product yet
4. Investors are giving companies crazy valuations again (Facebook $15 billion valuation)
5. The cost to start a web company compared to 7 years ago is relatively small (ruby on rails, amazon ec2 & s3, slicehost)
6. People are attending local entrepreneurship and technology events like never before – if you’re in boston, check out Marks Guide for upcoming events

All of these combined make the time ripe for starting a company or getting into a Web 2.0 startup. When are you starting your business?