g: the early years...

The dilemma defined

Seth Godin defines the dilemma facing many small brands in the natural space, particularly as they think about partnering with a mass brand. Do they lose that loving feeling as they try to get more Americans to use their product?

I am turning the tables...on Monday gDiapers will be announcing an aggressive takeover of Proctor & Gamble. It's going to make the Microsoft - Yahoo dance look like a tea party. Sure they do $56 bn in revenue, spend $2bn on marketing and have a market cap of $200 bn but if our staff and 1,000 gMums passed the hat around I bet we can get close. Still need to figure out how we are going to relocate all their staff to this old house in NW Portland.

Just don't tell my good friend and CEO of P&G, AG Lafley anything yet...it's a surprise! You read it here first.

2008 plan

As we head into 2008, we have many decisions to make as a company. Seth comes up with a good shopping list of the why's of what a company should do...

The thrills & spills of start up and becoming a parent...

This just in from former Apple Evangelist, Guy Kawasaki. One of our Board Members and I often talk about the similarities...

Horn tooting...

This is what the Washington Post's "What's hot and what's not in 2008" list looks like...

Why we moved 10,000 miles to set up shop in Portland, Oregon

People often ask Kim and I why we chose Portland, Oregon as gHQ. Well here are a few reasons:

A Top 12 travel destination in the world for 2007 (Frommer's Travel Guide)
Best U.S. airport for business travelers (Conde Nast Traveler) 2006
Best place to live in the U.S. (Men's Journal magazine) 2006
No. 1, America's most sustainable big cities (SustainLane.com) 2006
A Fast 30 City – Green Leader (Fast Company magazine) 2007
America's Best Eating Destination (The Food Network) 2007
Cleanest U.S. city (Reader's Digest) 2005
Greg Oden is going to recover next week and win the flag for the Blazers
Best U.S. city for walkers (Prevention magazine) 2006
Best U.S. city for cyclists (Bicycling magazine) 2006
Best U.S. city for seniors (Bankers Life and Casualty Co.) 2005
Direct flights to Hawaii if things get bad
Best U.S. city for dogs (Dog Fancy magazine) 2006
Most courteous drivers in the U.S. (AutoVantage Club Members) 2007
Parking fines are just $16 vs. $225 in Sydney
No. 2, Greenest Cities in the World (Grist Magazine: Environmental News & Commentary) 2007
No. 2, 10 Greenest Cities in America (MSN.com City Guides) 2007
No. 2, Healthiest U.S. cities (Cooking Light magazine) 2007
No. 3 Top City in the U.S. (Cities Ranked & Rated, Wiley Publishing) 2007
No. 3, Top 10 Cities for Independent Moviemakers (MovieMaker Magazine) 2006
No. 8, Top 10 underrated cities in U.S. and Canada (MSNBC) 2007
No. 9, Top 25 Fittest Cities in the U.S. (Men's Fitness magazine) 2007
Pacific Time means you can watch the 2007 Rugby World Cup at a reasonable hour
No. 10, Best Arts City in America (American Style magazine) 2006
One of the world's nine most successful cities (European Institute for Urban Affairs) 2006
One of the 20 most inventive U.S. cities (The Wall Street Journal) 2006
One of the 10 New American Dream Towns (Outside magazine) 2005
America's 10 Best Places to Live and Work for Those Under 40 (Monster.com) 2005
Top 10 Best Walking Cities (American Podiatric Medical Association) 2005

Lela Rose + Quinny + Kimmy = One rocking night in NYC

Kim stole away to NY last week leaving me with the kiddos (we had Macca's for brekky every day and donuts for lunch and dinner...that'll learn her). One of her appointments was a thoroughly New York partay, featuring Lela Rose and her limited edition Quinny stroller.
Kim had a fabulous time with Lyss Stern (LHS in the pic) from divalyssciousmoms and Summer Stowe (RHS in pic) from Pregnancy Magazine.

Lela Rose, known for her luxurious yet whimsical hand-finished designs, used
her own children as inspiration for the Thumbprint Collection. Her son,
Grey, and daughter, Rosey, literally left their marks on the limited edition
Buzz ($999.99) and Dreami ($399.99) by lending their thumbprints to the
plush fabric interiors. Bright red accents and cross-stitching adorn both
pieces, making the Thumbprint Collection the most distinctive Quinny travel
system yet.

Check 'em out here.

And Lela is a gDiaper customer no less.

(PS: Kim, for the welfare of your kids, don't leave again...please!)

Do as they said they would, not as they actually did...

We have a new member of the gTeam - Dawn, a terrific lead accountant. She hails from Enron. So gDiapers is now the proud owner of two Enron filing cabinets (thanks Jeff) and more importantly their Company Ethics book! A great read. A shame they didn't follow it...

Good Morning America

gDiapers scored well on this morning's Good Morning America . Go team! And well done Dr Heidi from the Weather Channel. If the weather ever gets you down, you can come help out here!

Cool or weird

I just came across some new technology: Pinger. The premise seemed far fetched but in the 48 hours I have known about it, it actually comes in quite useful. Basically if I want to send you a message but I don't want to bug you ( I know you are in a meeting, getting kids to nap, having dinner) you call the pinger number (a local call) on your cell. The first thing you hear is "who do you want to ping?". You say the name of the person, Pinger repeats and offers to add any other names (so you can say the same mesage to multiple parties) and then you are on...no lengthy prompts or "Dial star to exit the system, pound to send your number" (who ever does that?). The recipient gets a text message that prompts them to dial the local number and hey presto they get your voice message. I have had to get messages to people at odd hours and so have used it and it really is quite handy.
The only down side is that they use voice recognition technology. So an accent of any sort really buggars the system. I tried on six different Amercian accents to say one person's name...my deep south is a personal favourite but I still couldn't get no satisfaction....!

Dream Father's day

Does it get any better?

(1) Father's day and I have started a grand tradition for the day. Buy something I want, wrap it, give it to Fynn and Harper who turn around and give it back to me. I am blown away that they knew exactly what I wanted (they're only 4 & 2) and life is good and free of unwanted pressies...

(2) Aaron Baddeley is leading the US Open on the final day with some chump named Woods. If he wins that will be Aussies winning the US Open two years running and justification for renaming it the "Australian Open in America". All I need to do now is engineer a 5 hour nap for the boys and I am home and hosed...