It’s pretty incredible that, of a team of ten, we have three Google Glass Explorers here at Tomfoolery. On Friday, our very own Sol Lipman shared his thoughts on what it feels like to live with Glass.

But for those of us who weren’t lucky (or flush with cash) enough to be amongst the handful of people chosen to try Glass, is there any way to replicate the experience?

Well, we think we might have the answer. Like Glass, you wear it on your head. Like Glass, it attracts admiring glances (and the occasional awestruck question) from passers-by. But unlike Glass, it doesn’t make anyone suspect that you might be invading their privacy.

We’re talking, of course, about our snazzy Tomfoolery snap-back hats, courtesy of our multi-talented designer Davy (“Lindsay” to his friends).

Our hats will not show you text messages in front of your face, provide ambient turn-by-turn directions, or enable you to stealthily search for porn during your daily commute, but they will make you look rad, to the envy of just about everyone everywhere.

“So how do I get one?”, you ask. In much the same way you could have got Google Glass. Simply follow us on twitter (@tomfooleryhq) and then tweet us ideas about how our hat would make your life better, using the hashtag #ifIHadAHat. The best 5 ideas will win a free Tomfoolery hat in their choice of “classic” Black and White, “steezy” Gray and Red, or “shameless hometown pandering” Black and Orange.

TL;DR: You could win a fabulous hat! Go to twitter now and make it happen! Your head will thank you.

- Simon

This post is about the emotions of wearing Glass.  It isn’t about the features or how cool the technology is.  Because all of that is really, really amazing.  This is about what if feels like to wear Glass.  I am greatly appreciative that Google allowed me to be a Glass Explorer.

Glass Emotions

I’m not a developer.  I’m a product guy and an entrepreneur.  So, I feel like part of my job is to try every new thing I can get my hands on.  Actually, that’s what I tell my wife so that she can justify my gadget addiction.  I have drawers full of electronics.  You want to be near me when I move offices.  I have spare batteries with USB ports, charged and ready for the zombie apocalypse.  I’m like Scoble in that I get very excited about the latest thing and how it will affect us.  I even take showers.  I’m not like Scoble in other ways.  I’ll leave it at that.

Last year at I/O my co-founder, Ethan, grabbed my arm, leading me to a booth and said, “you need to sign up for this Glass Explorer thing.”  I looked at him and said, “dude - that thing is $1500.  I’m an early adopter but $1500.”  He reasoned with me, “if they release it and you don’t want it you don’t have to pay for it.”  I considered that for a minute.  “Well, okay,” I thought, “I’ll sign up for it and at least I have an option - but I’ll never pay $1500 for it.”

Two days ago I picked up my Glass at Google HQ in Mountain View.  The people there were literally amazing and made me feel like I had joined the coolest club on earth.  They served me coffee, fitted my Glass and answered every question I had (thanks Mariella and Patrick).  I got the Tangerine one (it’s orange) because I figured if you’re going to have this computer on your head you might as well go all the way - it’s not like you can hide it.  

The night before I was hanging out with a friend in San Francisco.  Google I/O is going on so there are a lot of people out and about wearing Glass.  While driving we passed a very attractive lady wearing Glass.  My friend said, “even she looks ridiculous.”  It was the night before my fitting - he knew that but didn’t hold back.  It made me nervous.  I had just charged $1600 and change on my card prior to my fitting.  Was I about to pay $1600 to feel self-conscious?  Was I joining a group of people I don’t really belong in?  Was I an outsider to Glass people and then simultaneously separating myself from non-Glass people by wearing Glass?

I drove home that night thinking about whether she looked ridiculous.  I mean, she looked different, right?  Then it hit me.  What kind of bullshit grade-school reaction is everyone having to this device?  I look different every day from the hipster startup scene in SF.  I also don’t fit into the tuck-in-your-shirt Valley scene real well.  Have some confidence, Sol. Don’t listen to the haters.  Should a dude grow his hair long?  He should if he wants to.  I’m sure he looked ridiculous in 1960.  

So I wore my Google Glass pretty much nonstop for the last 48 hours.  I can’t help but be self conscious as people notice me.  You can see some people snickering.  I’m probably being sensitive but yeah, they are snickering.  Others are fascinated.  Can I put it on?  I think this is why Google built a demo mode right into the software.  They knew everyone would want to play with it.  It is a little strange to share such a physically personal device with so many.  This thing is on my head, touching my ears and nose.  

My wife thinks that it’s cool but is a little self conscious when I’m wearing it.  “Are you taking a picture?”  Funny that everyone assumes that it’s best feature - spur of the moment point-of-view images and video - is somehow about to invade your privacy.  Like we all don’t carry around heavily mega-pixeled cameras all the time.  I guess when it’s on your head it has more potential to be creepy.  I put it on my son’s head - he’s five.  He said “this is like magic” when pictures of him appeared.  Quite like the iPhone he was able to grok the user experience in seconds.  Adults have more of a learning curve.  “Wait, the side is a touchscreen that I can’t see but responds when I touch it?”  

So, is it all worth it?  Let’s put aside the cost for a second.  I feel like I’m wearing something that is part of the future.  I’m not sure it makes my life easier but it is cool to have access to ambient data especially when I’m working.  I think as an early adopter you have to embrace the potential for standing out.  I remember getting the first iPhone and then going almost immediately on a vacation to Alaska.  I was the only guy with an iPhone.  People would stop me on the street and want to see it.  That made me feel cool.  Glass makes me feel cool but strapping a piece of technology on your head also makes you self aware - you almost can’t blend in.  

We have three Glass Explorers (that’s what we’re called) in our startup, Tomfoolery Inc.  When we go to coffee or lunch together it’s like a nerd convention.  It’s all we can talk about as we learn tips and tricks.  We talk constantly about how having Glass makes you feel.  Ethan says that he feels like he’s part of a social experiment.  I agree.  We once did some consulting for Jawbone who makes excellent products.  When they were mostly focused on bluetooth headsets they would often describe themselves as a fashion company.  Why?  Because making wearable technology fashionable was the chasm they would have to cross to find mass adoption.  I think Glass or something like it will have similar challenges.  Humans are judgemental, resistant to change and ready to reject things that challenge the norm.

I’m glad to be part of this social experiment.  The technology is cool and useful.  My mind is whirring with ideas about how this might change the products we build.  Will this be the product that disrupts the norm?  I’m not sure.  But, I can see where one day we will all have something like this.  People want it.  Look at the success of GoPro.  For now, Glass stays out of my electronics drawer and on my head.

- Sol

Friends and co-workers everywhere, today on International Workers’ Day, we salute you.

So much has happened in the last 100 years or so of the Labor movement — but sadly, so much more still needs to happen.

We can make a difference.  Let’s work together to Make Work Awesome.

We believe work has to feel like a part of your life at Tomfoolery. Here’s how I make it work. You’ll hear more stories about life & work from time to time from the Fools who work here.

Though the debates raging about leaning in or installing a nursery in your office have been fascinating to read — they miss the point of helping women (and all parents) figure how to really make it work. Thriving children, ambitious career, happy spouse, and sanity — is it really possible to have it all? As a start-up CEO without enormous cash flow and an amazing (but also hard working) husband, and two adorable (but young) kids, I’ve been juggling this conundrum for some time. My answer — yes, absolutely.

But like anything worth having, it requires commitment and some foresight. Here’s how I make it work.

1. Invest in your process

Some executive moms have passels of nannies and handlers, but most of us don’t. Technology can help.

• Google Calendar is your friend.
• Share a calendar with your spouse. Make sure they share one with you.
• Create a calendar for your kids’ schedules, and make sure you, your husband, and your child caretaker (if any) can all read and write to it.
• Be obsessive about keeping it up-to-date. Gluten free cupcakes needed for preschool? Make sure there is a reminder in the calendar for the weekend prior.
• Create a culture of over communication.
• Share photos of kids with each other — even a photo or two a day can help take away that feeling of “missing out” that eats at your soul.
• Make time for facetime / Skype. Especially when traveling, but even when you aren’t, that small touch point means a lot to your kids, and it’ll make you feel great too.
• Share your work life with your kids. Tell them why do you do it. Share what was good about your day, and what wasn’t. Invite them to do the same. Create bridges. Bring them to the office on weekends if you have to go in (Steve Blank has a great post in the WSJ where he discusses this).

2. Plan for success

Overcommit in your infrastructure, learn to delegate (at home and at work), assume that you’ll be far busier and more needed that you can imagine.

3. Be ready for failure

There will be bad days. Your co-founders will think you’re a slacker, your email will build up, you’ll miss an important school function, the kids will need an emergency doctor visit, there won’t be any clean underwear, and dinner will be out of boxes. Sometimes all on the same day.

You have to be emotionally ready for those days and know that you and your village will be there to pick it all up the next day.

4. Pick your team carefully (Part 1)

Find co-founders who complement your strengths, but can also cover for you if needed. Being a SPOF can feel very gratifying in the short run, in the long run, it will kill you.

5. Pick your team carefully (Part 2)

Same applies to your team at home. I couldn’t agree with Sheryl more — you have to agree to 50% with your partner. You have to find caretakers who will support you - not just by being part of your kids’ schedule, but also, in supporting your success. Find friends who can help in emergencies, and make sure you can give back to them in some way too.

6. Don’t divide your life by hours

In modern work, you can’t be CEO from 9-5 and mom from 6-9, and so on. Neither work nor home life work that way anymore. The flu doesn’t wait for the weekend and a PR emergency doesn’t wait for 9am. You have to build a system that allows you to live both lives at the same time. Technology can help (sign up for Tomfoolery!).

7. Don’t restack the dishwasher

The incredible Pat Yarrington, CFO of Chevron, admonished us not to do this when she came to speak at my business school 14 years ago. It’s the single best piece of advice I’ve ever gotten. Figure out what’s important to control, and let go of the rest. I recently asked my husband to plan my son’s birthday party. The goody bags weren’t organic, the food was basic at best, and maybe the party didn’t move along a carefully orchestrated timeline. But, everyone had a great time, and the kids were delighted. It was all ok, and now he’s the toast in our Mom’s groups.

8. Celebrate success all the time

You can’t wait for retirement to judge if you did a good job. Every week that you’re happy is a success to celebrate. Make time to do it. Write thank you emails to people who help along the way.

9. Actively plan time to recharge — from all your roles

The best Mother’s Day gift I ever got was a hiking/camping trip on my own. Turns out — I’m a pretty interesting person even when I’m not a mom-CEO!!

10. Re-evaluate your priorities regularly

It’s far too easy to fall into the trap of measuring success by what others do. Remind yourself that you’re doing it your way, and check in with yourself to make sure that this is the life you want. Knowing you’re choosing to do this goes a long way when those bad days come along. It’s your journey — own it.

 - Kakul

note: this was sent to our mailing list of friends and supporters.  If you’d like to be on that mailing list, go here and enter your email address.  We won’t spam you with anything but our own thoughts.

The Tomfoolery Semi-Regular Newsletter of Happiness and Joy

Dear Friends of Fool,

Not only are you good-looking, but you are wise!  You signed up on our website and showed interest in what we’ve been working so hard on - Tomfoolery Incorporated and the eventual Republic of Tomfoolery when we fulfill our dream of purchasing an island Larry Ellison style.  

We wanted to take a moment to reach out and say thanks.  Our goal isn’t just to build rad products for people at work, but to build a great community of friends and collaborators.  Your feedback and participation will be invaluable to the journey of our little startup.  We also recognize that doing everything is better with friends.  

The goal for this newsletter is to keep you posted on all things Tomfoolery.  We’re going to use this channel to send company news, screenshots and generally announce all the cool stuff we’re up to.  

So what have we been up to?  We’re building our first product and it’s called Anchor.  It’s an awesome mobile-first, people-first app for work.  We’ve been designing, coding and generally obsessing.  We’ve also been building an unstoppable team, and are now at 10 full time Fools.  We’re even getting ready to move into our first real, adult-like office in San Francisco.  It has been a wild time as we only started Tomfoolery a few short months ago.  Soon, we’ll be ready to share our first product with you in detail so stay tuned.  

If you’re interested in participating in the Anchor Alpha, we’re going to open it up to a few special teams and let them in on what we’re up to.  If you’re thinking “I am a pioneer and have a great team that would love to try out a rad workplace community tool” email Misty. You will always be able to say you tried it before it was all huge.

As always, you can opt-out of this crazy kinda-regular missive below but we hope you’ll stick around and be a part of our community.

With sincere appreciation,

The Tomfoolery Team

FYI: We got this blog thing going too so if you want to check out there, click on this link

Also, we hear that this Twitter thing is going to take off so follow us there.  Finally, we have a page on Friendster so give us a big thumbs up!

 

Baldwin and I were carpooling down the 101 when a billboard caught my eye.  It said, “don’t suffer from premature collaboration.”  As someone who has the maturity of a fifth grader, I was 100% confident that somewhere in a marketing agency there was a guy just like me who thought that was super funny.  And it kind of is.  I chuckled utilizing my inside voice (which is Beavis and Butthead btw) and said, “huh huh, he said premature collaboration.”  Baldwin smiled patiently as he wondered whether or not carpooling with me was actually worth it.

But, at that very moment I had that feeling of panic you get when you might have discovered a competitor!  Collaboration - either premature or on-time - is what Tomfoolery is supposed to be about.  And these people are using humor!  Weak sexual humor but, hey, that’s my mainstay.  That doesn’t happen in the Enterprise.  I was concerned.  Luckily, Baldwin was there to humor me.

Me: Dude, go to prematurecollaboration.com and see what we’re dealing with.  (I was driving)

Baldwin: Um, alright.

Me: Do they have a mobile site?

Baldwin: Well, no it’s not bad on mobile but it’s not mobile-specific.

Me: Are there good looking “work” people wearing “professional” clothing?

Baldwin: Yes.  They are advertising something called Samepage. Everyone seems to be sharing things.  Ever heard of it?

Me: No, is there a screenshot?

Baldwin: Yes.

Me: Okay, let me describe it…

Now we break from the awesome recounting of this exciting dialogue.  I can describe this or any enterprise app with shockingly accurate detail.  I’ve now seen so many of these collaboration tools that I know what they look like.  They all look the same.  Now, I’m not harping on SamePage (which is an ironic name).  It actually looks like one of the better tools out there (look for yourself).  And, they have entertaining marketing (at least to me).  My job is to struggle with making tools that appeal to people at work.  I can’t help but think that everyone is building the same basic collaboration tool over and over again.  The following is a description of the pattern we are witnessing in the “Social” Enterprise.

How to Make an Enterprise Collaboration Tool in Four Easy Steps

Step One:  Cut a hole in the box.  Make a BIG Page!

A BIG PAGE that might be iPad optimized but definitely isn’t mobile:

Step Two: Decide how the employees work and put it on the left.

Okay! Now you add a nice left table - make it like a quarter of the page.  This is your organizing principle!  So, however you want to divide up what you perceive “employees” do.  This might be groups of people, tags, folders, projects or the very raw hierarchy of the workplace.

Step Three: Put a feed in the middle of the page

Good job on the left table thing.  You had to make a tough decision there because you want people to collaborate and the organizing principle can be limiting.  Now comes the moment of truth.  I want you to take the rest of the available page and divide it in half.  You’re going to put posts in the middle of the page.  Everyone is just going to work here.  No one is going to post pictures of their children or anything like that.  We don’t care about people’s kittens.  Everything must be all about work.  So, files, files, files.  Nothing says “work” like documents. There’s the occasional screenshot when things get super crazy.  But, no one is at lunch or at Starbucks wondering if they can pick something up for someone else.  No one is doing tequila shots or making fun of each other. So, let’s share some files.  Socially.  You know, let’s collaborate!

 

Step Four: People are going to comment on feed items like crazy-time.

Alright, last but not least, you need to add an area for comments.  People are going to be all over the posts because they like files so much that they can’t help themselves.  These are super addicted employees who are more productive because you’re speaking their language.  You’re building inspiring products with purpose.  Whoa!  

Bonus Steps:

You’re going to have to do the usual things - registration, login, etc.  But, you’re going to do one thing that is going to be very important to your success.  Do everything you can to make it viral like an outbreak.  This includes trying to get people to invite other people at every turn and emails with updates, digests and notifications.  You have to get this thing everywhere as fast as possible.  Remember: the real money is in making your not-so-secure social thing, super secure as an upgrade path.  That’s your sales channel.

Concluding Thoughts…

Companies are struggling with this idea of social at work.  But, social at work isn’t anything new.  People who believe they have a best friend at work are 7 times more likely to be engaged.  That’s the tangible benefit of social at work, and has been since the day people left their homes to go to work.  One of the reasons I love the Tomfoolery team so much is that most of us have a consumer background.  While this provides other challenges, we’re able to focus on key behaviors that inform our strategy.  Our approach is to stop separating consumer and enterprise apps into two buckets.  The same people will use both and those people are using beautiful social applications in their day-to-day life.  Those social apps make people happy and create strong connections.  Why do we abandon that for 10+ hours a day?  And why aren’t “work” tools made for mobile?  That’s the most social tool we possess and it’s so commonly a strategic afterthought.  

Finally, I reserve the right to build a product that looks exactly like every other enterprise product out there so you can’t throw those screens back at me if our stuff looks something like that.  :)

 -Sol

It’s 10:46 pm, but in here, it’s as if it’s the middle of the day. David Speiser, the head of our PR agency, is strumming “Bad Moon Rising”. There are conversations happening about how we show user status in our Profile, security layer, viral growth — and at the same time, there are a few folks who are deeply focused and in a flow state. There is plenty of food, and, of course, plenty of alcohol.  We started working around 9am — and if I pulled anyone aside to ask them how they’re doing, I’d get blinding smiles and the simple statement, “this is awesome.” Camp is the brainchild of our C3PO, and resident Camp Director, Sol Lipman, and it is, indeed, awesome. 

We hear a lot about individual productivity — and there are so many, many tools to help you do your best.  But group productivity is still a black art, part science, and part magic.  The science comes from clearly defined priorities, a shared vision of success, and the opportunity to practice our craft to the best of our abilities. The magic comes from the strange alchemy of mixing a diverse set of people and a joint belief that we are building something far bigger than any of us individually.  

This is how we practice our craft at Tomfoolery, and this is the blood, sweat and tears we pour into the software we build. 

-Kakul

Marc Andreessen wrote this great article about why software will eat the world.  A similar seismic shift is happening because of the sensor-rich computers we carry around in our pockets. In the consumer space, the shift is obvious — mobile devices beat desktop & notebook PC shipments, time spent in mobile apps beats that spent on the internet (daily!), and we’re awfully close to catching up to TV. Mobile usage will be even more disruptive in the enterprise space because it’s accompanied by three tsunamis of changing work behavior:

• We have broken through cube walls: As people increasingly work remotely from each other, it will be imperative to collaborate from wherever we are.
• Power belongs to the People: Mobile workers are not only choosing their own devices, they are choosing their own apps. And these apps better be good, because they know how powerful an app can be, how amazing it can look, and how much it can offer.
• Career employees are gone forever:  The parallel forces of hyperspecialization and job fluidity are requiring teams to be more flexible than ever before.

Though we are already able to see early benefits from mobile use at work, this is just the beginning. Location-aware, context-aware, human-aware computing is here, and as an industry, we are just beginning to understand the possibilities.

At Tomfoolery, when we set out re-imagine how teams communicate and work together, starting with a mobile-focused approach seemed not only smart but it felt like the only way to do it.

Today, we are thrilled to share that an amazing group of investors have come together to back our mission to build mobile enterprise software that doesn’t suck.  We count pioneers of the internet, creators of corporate culture on a global scale, early social enterprise innovators, technical architects at genius scale, passionate connectors, and some of the greatest investment brands in the valley as our investors.

Thank you so much, Team Tomfoolery!

-Kakul

At Tomfoolery, we are students of how great teams are created.  Just in our small group, we have many times over the requisite 10,000 hours of practice at building phenomenal teams. But beyond our own experience, we seek out great leaders everywhere and learn from them. And, here is what we have learned.

• Great teams kick ass at communication. They maintain closeness, no matter how remote, viewing their coworkers as friends and work as an extension of their social lives.

• Great teams always pick people over process.  They root out bad habits like forcing people to submit status reports or the overhead of reading and processing irrelevant and meaningless information. They perfect the art of just enough structure.

• Great teams are flexible — not just in their processes, but as individuals — staying sensitive to environmental stimulus. Sometimes salespeople have to write specs, and engineers have to write copy.  Sometimes the product is all wrong. And sometimes, you just have to start over.  You figure it out, and keep going.
  
  
• And, most important, great teams have a ghost in their machine. Somewhere in between emails, tasks, presentations, meetings, and documents, there is a soul — a shared set of values — that defines a team.  People are not motivated by getting tasks done or making it to payday.  Instead, they are driven by some magical thing that is created because of who they work with and a shared passion to make something great, together.

We believe all teams want to be great teams, and that any team can be.  At Tomfoolery, we build tools that give life to the ghost in the machine.

-Kakul