4 years, 9 months ago

Noonhat: Changing the World Through Lunch

http://www.noonhat.com/lunch/' target='_blank'>http://www.noonhat.com/lunch/



Noonhat is a simple Django web app that lets people find someone to have lunch with. It provides an opportunity to meet someone who has different opinions than you. To use it enter your email address, a date for having lunch, and you adjust the radius overlay on a Google Map to show how far you're willing to travel. The morning of your lunch you'll be sent a mail that introduces you to two other noonhatters; the rest is up to you.



Article:

http://radar.oreilly...noonhat_changin.html

5 years, 1 month ago

check out:





http://www.zoodango.com/http://www.zoodango.com/ />




Its a similar idea, and its the company that the runner up on the apprentice ran...

4 years, 11 months ago

I think, LinkedIn would be more appropiate choice when compared to Facebook. As LinkedIn is built more around the professionals, who are most likely be using JL type service. Whereas Facebook is a social networking site, and mostly people join it not for professional networking.



However, if a mixture of both the APIs could be possible that would be great. In that way, JL can capture both the audiences.

4 years, 11 months ago

This techcrunch article gave me some interesting ideas on how Jumble Lunch could be built on LinkedIn's API or it could just bypass LinkedIn altogether and just build Jumble Lunch on Facebook.



Some interesting possibilities.

5 years, 1 month ago

I'm really close to having a project champion for Jumble Lunch. We're waiting for one last detail and then a little bit of paperwork. I hope to announce something soon, but sometimes paperwork can really slow the process.

5 years, 2 months ago

It's an interesting idea and a good question. I don't see why we'd limit it to the US, but the initial growth would probably be english speaking. I'd say we'll probably follow the model that LinkedIn has used. I think that Jumble Lunch will definitely look at creating multiple meeting points, but not in the first iterations.

5 years, 2 months ago

My questions is Will JL work in North America? Most business people are busy busy people, this would work wonders in japan, or china where the personal relations ship is everything in business. In North American society people don't just sit down and talk about their business one on one... What if JL was more of a networking system, hosting events that brought together lots of people, this would mean that you could network with many people and not just one...

5 years, 2 months ago

Hi. What you mentioned was already in the plans for the CH site but not through Jumble Lunch. Might be a good thing though. But don't worry, CH is aware that many members need some coaching.

5 years, 2 months ago

I considered submitting a unique idea for business mentoring but frankly, I think it is better to contribute to existing projects now.



I'd love to see jumble lunch used to connect project managers (i.e., CH members who have launched projects) with business mentors. As CH gains the attention of entrepreneurs, there is increased scope to utilize the wisdom of these entrepreneurs to help get inexperienced projects managers up and running on their ideas.



I think this is essential to ensure that CH members with little business experience (e.g., me) can receive guidance and support from people with proven track records.

5 years, 2 months ago

Don H and I worked on the Jumble Lunch site and animation. If you guys need anything, please ask. Might be a good idea to add us as project members, even if we are not active on that project currently.

5 years, 2 months ago

I notice the site is up. What kind of tasks need to be done?



Is that designed from your idea? or did you talk to CH about what you wanted to see?

5 years, 4 months ago

Hi guys. We temporarily shut the public site for now. As soon as I've got more info, I'll let you know.



Thanks to all who participated and commented.

5 years, 4 months ago

Guys, you can start registering and inviting all your friends to try the JumbleLunch pilot.



Let me know what you think and if everything works well for you.



Just go to http://www.jumblelunch.com



Thanks for everyone who commented and of course my teammates Don and Kyle.

5 years, 4 months ago

Hi guys. We temporarily shut the public site for now. As soon as I've got more info, I'll let you know.



Thanks to all who participated and commented.

5 years, 4 months ago

On January 18, 2007, 4:36 pm Tarzan said:



Ok. A few more changes were added. Tournesol, there's a Flash Player 9 available for your version of Linux.

Thanks! The animation works great with flash 9.

And the black circles have been replaced by the orange JumbleNow! buttons



Still, can't those animated buttons be made without flash ? It would look much better to those without the latest version of Flash...

5 years, 4 months ago

Ok. A few more changes were added. Tournesol, there's a Flash Player 9 available for your version of Linux.

5 years, 4 months ago

Hi Tarzan,

I don't hear the sound of the animation with Firefox 2.0.0.1 and Flash 7.0.25 on Ubuntu.



The color scheme is nice and the text is clear, but I don't understand the black round logo. Maybe a red tomato or two green peppers hand in hand would be more cheerful ?



Personally, I think having twice the word 'connection' makes it look too utilitarian. Or maybe it's a good thing ? What about 'a random lunch partner' or 'a great future acquaintance' instead ?

Just my $.02



I can't wait to register for the beta!

5 years, 4 months ago

Hi. Still tinkering with the site continuously. Could explain some of the problems with the animation when I'm uploading a new version. I'll be updating and making changes all day. I'm also working on a workaround for the animation.

5 years, 4 months ago

The site looks good for a start. Good job.

The intro flash video is cool and funny, but cheesy though thats if you are trying to attract business professionals.

5 years, 4 months ago

Hi Tarzan,



I checked out the site. I really like the mock up. When I played the video however, there was some download (I guess) lag that made it difficult to understand what was being said.



I think the color scheme is great...looks professional and tight. Good all around information on the site as to what it is about and how someone can participate.



Keep up the good work.



Merman

5 years, 4 months ago

Hi I know I should wait, but I couldn't! The JumbleLunch site is up right now, but IT'S NOT READY!!! There are still some changes and updates that we have to do before we're ready to unveil it for real. But you guys can go and check it out.



If you have any comments about the animation or the site, send them my way. But like I say, DON'T TRY TO REGISTER FOR THE BETA!!!! JUST DON'T. It's not ready yet



http://www.jumblelunch.com

5 years, 4 months ago

On January 11, 2007, 6:02 pm yoparts said:



Good Stuff Don..



I think that there are some great advertising avenues in some forums like startupnation.com / techcrunch.com/forums , smallbusinessbrief.com/forum and meetup.com. I would target big markets (i.e Boston /New York etc.) community boards as well maybe New York Times board etc.



Another interesting area would to be advertise on specifically target podcasts that are heavily downloaded. I think that it is important to initially target potential users that would be inclined to use such a service.

I think you definitely have to find a way to catch techcrunch's attention and get them to write about what's happening. I've wondered why CH hasn't been able to get Techcrunch's attention either. That should be an easy first stop for CH getting so much funding. Although, now you might have to wait for the next round of funding to complete. Or some other significant milestone. They'd probably love the white laptop too.

5 years, 4 months ago

On January 11, 2007, 2:24 pm Tournesol said:



Ecademy has regional clubs. Maybe members could announce JumbleLunch on their club's forum. Any opinion from active ecademy users here ?

I've been a paid Ecademy user for a couple years. It is a great target for the Jumble Lunch crowd. The userbase is primarily European, though there is a growing North American base as well. In London, there are regular Ecademy events for a number of groups. I've never attended one, so I can't say for sure. What's interesting is that while there is some overlap b/w Ecademy and LinkedIn the two serve very different roles.



If CH is looking for potentially passionate users, Ecademy (and LinkedIn) would be a fantastic source for Beta users. One thing though, each community has it's own rules of etiquette. As a cheap test strategy, I would recommend hand selecting a few paid power users (Black Star's in Ecademy lingo) and emailing them personally to see if they might be interested.



I think it could work. Might make sense to target a specific geography though - my recommendation would be London as it is a large metro area with critical mass of Ecademy users.

5 years, 4 months ago

Good Stuff Don..



I think that there are some great advertising avenues in some forums like startupnation.com / techcrunch.com/forums , smallbusinessbrief.com/forum and meetup.com. I would target big markets (i.e Boston /New York etc.) community boards as well maybe New York Times board etc.



Another interesting area would to be advertise on specifically target podcasts that are heavily downloaded. I think that it is important to initially target potential users that would be inclined to use such a service.

5 years, 4 months ago

Thanks for the information!

5 years, 4 months ago

Ecademy has regional clubs. Maybe members could announce JumbleLunch on their club's forum. Any opinion from active ecademy users here ?

5 years, 4 months ago

Yes, welcome Hyphen! And thanks for passing along my contact info too, Techguy.



JumbleLunch is launching a test market within the coming week. We are using a Flash commercial on the home page that will guide people through the JL process in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek infomercial format. It's quite a hoot - I think it'll both entertain and inform.



The test market will ask people to apply for the beta program and are being given a full year premium membership after the beta is over. After applying they will land on a page that will allow them to enter up to 10 email addresses of their contacts for invitations to the beta too.



We'll run the test supported with advertising (Google adwords plus ads on blogs and podcasts) for about a month. After that we analyze the results and determine whether it should go into development. If anyone has suggestions for good spots to advertise a networking application like JL, please post them or send me a message.



We're very excited about JumbleLunch here in the office and it has been garnering very good attention from the CH community with several offers already to help out with things when we begin development! Does anyone else want to get involved? If the market test is successful, we'll be needing designers (graphics and layout), developers (php, database etc.), and marketing (SEO, SEM, planning etc.). Send me a message if you want to get involved or you have any questions.



cheers,

Don Holmsten

5 years, 4 months ago

On January 10, 2007, 12:11 pm Hyphen said:



When is the actual golive date for the test?



I'm very interested in this, and can probably get my network interested in this.

This is a very good offer Hyphen. Since DonH didn't mention how nice it is, I'll say it for him. Maybe he sent you a PM. As a Technical Recruiter with Eagle Professional Resources I can see how this type of service could be very useful for you.



I haven't heard a timeline set for this idea. DonH is in charge of this market test so hopefully he'll address the timeline further. You can always PM him and let him know what your interests are in the project.



Welcome aboard!

5 years, 4 months ago

In LinkedIN you can download your contacts into outlook contacts - you might be able to use a similar portal for this. It involves transferring these files to .cvs files then (outlook, yahoo mail, mac os mail) can all be transferred.



Just an idea.

5 years, 4 months ago

Thanks yoparts! That's an awesome list. We're planning on finding a way for users to grab their info from LinkedIn or other similar sites so they don't have to spend 20 min entering all their data. (I'm not a develper - I'll have the back-end folks look at the API possibilities)

5 years, 4 months ago

This is a really viral idea... the key of course is "traction" so..how could you gain traction fast? Is there a way to pull data (ID's) from existing social communities i.e flickr etc. or sites w/ open API's to integrate widgets for certain sites to use this service.



Here are some sources of Open Api's http://www.programma...eb.com/apilist/bycat









Hope this helps...

5 years, 4 months ago

When is the actual golive date for the test?



I'm very interested in this, and can probably get my network interested in this.

5 years, 4 months ago

Working on something for demo days. I can predict a couple of late nights this week

5 years, 4 months ago

On January 2, 2007, 4:54 am Tournesol said:



That's a great idea!



Conferences usually give out bags of goodies to the attendees. It may be easier to include a JL flyer in it than have them change the registration app.



That's a lot of people in the same location. Perfect for the market test!

It would be ok with the bag of goodies. However, I think it's better if you can sign up and schedule lunch with people before you even go to the conference. This could also include bird of a feather sessions that I've seen before and other "group" lunches that are done. Add in a few sponsors that will pay for people's lunch and you've got a great product offering.



If you do do the give out in the "bag of goodies" then I think you need to offer some sort of prize to all those that register. For example, free lunch or dinner at a nice restaurant with someone important in that industry. Guy K at an entrepreneur or marketing conference. Scoble at a bloggers conference. David Brailer at a healthcare confernce. Etc. Etc. Etc.

5 years, 4 months ago

I like it. Rather than using conferences to test market, I think it could be a great way to build the membership once it's launched. We could offer it to conferences in exchange for a sponsorship.



Super idea.

5 years, 4 months ago

That's a great idea!



Conferences usually give out bags of goodies to the attendees. It may be easier to include a JL flyer in it than have them change the registration app.



That's a lot of people in the same location. Perfect for the market test!

5 years, 4 months ago

I just signed up for the CES conference here in Las Vegas after one of my colleagues said he was going. He told me that the CES conference is a great place to network and that he gets about half of his consulting jobs from the CES conference.



This started me thinking about how JumbleLunch could be a great offering for conferences. You basically have a large group of business professionals. I know at the conferences I've gone to I would have loved to set up lunch with other people at the conference. Enter JumbleLunch.



It could possibly be given to conferences as a way to build the JumbleLunch database. As part of the sign up process people could be asked if they want to participate in the full JumbleLunch. Advertising for restaurants near the conference could be another source of revenue.



What do you think?



By the way, if any of you will be at the CES conference in Las Vegas then I'd love to JumbleLunch with you.

5 years, 5 months ago

I love the maps mashup idea - it's got the cool factor and it's very practicle for this application - especially in centers with a big sprawl.



About recruiting, I think it's a natural fit. The big thing we need to emphasize is honesty. If you say you're looking for someone for your firm in your invite it will prevent people giving you a bad comment/rating. If you obviously have a hidden agenda, I'm sure people will make negative comments. I.e. the site will be self policing. Same goes for sales people. If you say you are an life insurance salesperson and that you want to talk about insurance at the lunch - only those who want to learn about insurance will accept and therefore no negative comments. Someone who puts on the hard-sell who said they just wanted to chat will get a schwack of thumbs down.



I think the site will naturally move toward the soft sell approach - companies meeting people they can contact for future positions. Sales people and contractors meeting with potential new clients for a 'getting to know you' session. etc.

5 years, 5 months ago

On December 21, 2006, 10:49 pm Office_Samurai said:



You could do a compatibility type questionnaire like eharmony.com to match up people of similar interests, but perhaps different jobs.



Plus, if i missed it, could build in some kind of google maps type of intelligence to make sure working locations would be close enough together, and then use a 'transportation available' modifier to expand the normal foot traffic range for a lunch period.



A possible revenue stream could be from companies looking to hire a few people and would pay a corporate rate to have a few of their people matched up with some very good potential employees. Rather than sending in recruiters (which are pretty obvious) companies can send really good people persons and just talk about the company.



That's just my two cents for this evening.

Excellent ideas. A google mashup for these things is perfect. People love this type of visual view of who they could meet.



I think we have to be careful with making Jumble Lunch a recruiter tool, but I see that it could be a very cool component. I would just think that we'd want the power to be in the hands of the employer or the recruiter. That way an employer wouldn't get bombarded with resumes or lunch invites when they don't have anything. If they wanted that, they could just go on Monster.



Of course I think people would specify in their profile if they are open to recruitment or not so they wouldn't be bothered either if people were happy where they are and just wanted to meet people and not be recruited. I hope this makes sense.

5 years, 5 months ago

You could do a compatibility type questionnaire like eharmony.com to match up people of similar interests, but perhaps different jobs.



Plus, if i missed it, could build in some kind of google maps type of intelligence to make sure working locations would be close enough together, and then use a 'transportation available' modifier to expand the normal foot traffic range for a lunch period.



A possible revenue stream could be from companies looking to hire a few people and would pay a corporate rate to have a few of their people matched up with some very good potential employees. Rather than sending in recruiters (which are pretty obvious) companies can send really good people persons and just talk about the company.



That's just my two cents for this evening.

5 years, 5 months ago

Hello,

How about a quick way to import one's profile from LinkedIn ?

Just linking to LinkedIn is useful, but to in order to search for specific interests, companies, etc., the data would have to be accessible to the jumblelunch servers.

Nobody likes entering the same profile again to yet another networking site.

Maybe something more fun to build a profile ? A quiz game, a not-so-serious personality test or something ? It It may not be a dating service, but there may be some inspiration to be gleaned from them...

Users could upload their blogroll, or some readily available personal data, and let language processing algorithms, automatically sort it out to generate matches ?

5 years, 5 months ago

I think you are on the right track. I really love the idea about having a group lunch where the presenter provides lunch. Possibly have an option that lets people leave them self open to these types of lunch invites. Otherwise, people hosting group lunches could leave them open for anyone that wants to sign up.



I think there should be a significant amount of the service that is freely available. This type of service needs to be free at least until the community is large and diverse enough for people to want to pay for the service. I think the key to success will be finding a way to get a large community of professionals quickly. Having a resource full of professionals should be the goal.



On that note, what about offering the match up for lunch is free during the "beta" period, but if you want to have a group lunch then you have to pay.



I'm going to throw this out there. My original thought that this should be built focusing on a target area like San Francisco, LA or New York where there are a ton of professionals in close proximity. Calgary might be another good option since we have a group of professionals at CH that could be the first members that people can go to lunch with. In fact, it might be beneficial for CH to go to lunch with other professionals in Calgary. How else is MJ going to hire 30 more people? I digress.



There is something to say about going nationally with the idea for those business people that are traveling to new areas and want to meet people. In fact, this idea was really born because Scoble (probably the most famous blogger who use to blog for windows) would always blog that he'd be in some city and would love to do lunch with other bloggers. (On a side note: I'm sure he'd do a vlog piece on CH and this idea.) However, focusing on a few specific cities would prevent people from coming to the site and never finding anyone else in their city that has signed up.

5 years, 5 months ago

On December 5, 2006, 4:41 pm donh said:



JumbleLunch.com (any other name suggestions?)

How about lunch.net? Looks like a squatter has that, but I don't know what the price is they'd demand. How much is CH willing to spend on a domain anyway?

5 years, 5 months ago

Hey Folks! It's time to think out the lunchin' test market. We had a brainstorming session at CH HQ yesterday - here's some of the ideas we're tossing around. Please rip 'em up and toss in some of your own to the mix.



JumbleLunch.com (any other name suggestions?)



It's a free service with premium upgrade plus pay for points.



JumbleLunch will be a web site to facilitate meeting people for lunch networking opportunities. Inviters (lunchers?) select whether they are paying or it is "dutch" as well as the proposed location.



There will be two ways to find a lunch partner (lunchee?) - jumble button gets you a random person within your geographic region (10 jumbles a month - or whatever - for the free account). Or, for a more specific match-up you can search for interests, occupations, companies etc. (pay service only? or limited 1/mo. for free acc't).



Group lunches. If a person wants to give a short seminar on a business topic (obviously related to their area of expertise) they can post a subject and day/time and the minimum/maximum number of participants. The presenter pays for lunch and gets to approve each of the participants. (e.g. a photographer can give a talk on creative uses of photography to help build customer loyalty; a real estate developer can give a talk on diversifying your portfolio with property etc. etc. etc.)



The memberships could work like LavaLife where you pay for points that you can use at your own pace and on the services you want rather than a monthly fee. There are a certain number of things you can do for free (as suggested above) and the rest is point based. Here's a suggestion: $20 buys 20 points. Each push of the jumble button (random lunch partner) is 1 point. Each invite from a directed search is 4 points (whether or not they accept). Each lunch seminar costs 10 points. Accepting a request is free. We could give 4 points for each person a user refers to jumblelunch and who buys a min. $20 points pack. We should also offer a Power Jumbler option for $50/mo. for unlimited everything.



the member area will list business background, personal interests, a blog, who you want to meet and why as well as comments/ratings from your previous lunch partners.



That's it - go at 'er.

5 years, 5 months ago

Never eat alone ...

Is the mantra behind the national best selling book Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time.



It also happens to be the premise behind our Golden Axe Tournament champion's idea:



It's Just Lunch for Networking from techguy.



Congratulations techguy!



For this market test, we thought we'd first start the forums to get ideas from you the community on what would be the best way to execute the market test. We'll set up svn and be posting our thoughts/designs as we go along as discussion points. Working together, I'm confident this will be our best market test yet!

5 years, 5 months ago

Well after seeing ItsJustLunchForNetworking get more evolved it seems like the concept has merged partially with an idea that was knocking around my mind a couple moons ago. Maybe it can lend something to JumbleLunch, or maybe it is just too different of an angle for it.



It is a very different revenue model for dating, though it is different from any dating site. It guarantees a full social calendar and eliminates feelings of rejection. It is like free blind dates (not just lunch necessarily) that you go on without any expectation of a second date. Actually if the process works and you meet someone you like, you have to pay the site to stop your social calendar from getting filled.



Said in another way, you get a reward for rejecting someone (avoid having to pay up) so there is no hurt feelings for not pursuing someone. Also, you pay when you meet someone you like, which takes the risk out of the financial aspect. There is certain ways to see it as similar to the MTV show NeXT.



It was too ambiguous to me if this is a separate idea or an alternate take on the JumbleLunch concept, so her it is.



I was thinking of a name like notdating, macrodating, slowdating (as opposed to speed dating), butterflies (as in social butterfly), nextilicious, or CalendarMagic.



-motiggidy

5 years, 5 months ago

It seems like you could add some professional images of people in the boxes that say the type of jobs. Also, possible put a face with the testimonial on the right side.



I agree faces are a nice touch on this type of site.



Also, don't waste too much time on what I think you see as an "animation" of careers on the main page. It's not worth the effort to code the animation since it is just eye candy that could be accomplished with a static image.

5 years, 5 months ago

On December 15, 2006, 7:03 pm cybercerberus said:



Yo Angie. I think human faces would be fine, as long as you make sure the people look professional and serious, not like they want you to jump in bed with them.

Thanks Cyber, that's a good tip... if i don't look so professional and serious i could improve the odds... I love this community, i am learning so much... hehe



Seriously (oops there go the odds again)... what about two avatars... talking heads... having a phone conversation, setting up a lunch meet as a marketing angle?

5 years, 5 months ago

Yo Angie. I think human faces would be fine, as long as you make sure the people look professional and serious, not like they want you to jump in bed with them.

5 years, 5 months ago

Hi everyone,

I"m glad that you're all liking the design,



I expect there will be a fair bit of content changes in the upcoming weeks so we'll make sure to try and keep the look and feel of the site similar...



From a viewer's perspective, how would you feel about seeing some human elements on the site? My own personal thought is that it might give the impression that JumbleLunch is a dating site, but I've had comments that we're missing some friendly faces.



I'd love to hear some feedback.





Cheers,

Angie

5 years, 5 months ago

Donh...congrats...that is one clean and focused website. I really like the color scheme, the way it is laid out and how you navigate through it.



Thumbs up from me on this one.

5 years, 5 months ago

hey mmarrone, thanks for pointing those out!

5 years, 5 months ago

The design looks excellent.

This may be a typo on the "Why Jumble" page...

"pushing the Jumble Button and setting up a meet with the first person"...

Should it not read "meeting". It does work that way though...



Also on "How it Works", a sentence reads "get matched with based on the..."

missing a word in there somewhere I think



Otherwise looks really great. I think the design and copy is effective at selling the idea

5 years, 5 months ago

On December 14, 2006, 3:25 pm Tournesol said:

I see your point, but for a beta, isn't getting many users as quickly as possible more important ?

Unlike the gmail model, users should be interested in meeting new people, so inviting friends of friends may not yield the most diverse group...

I love your idea, and congratulations for making it to the market test!

I agree that you want to get as many people as quick as possible. I'm not saying that getting an invite from a friend is the only way to become part of the beta. I'm just suggesting we use that as another method of getting people to invite their friends.

It's more like Google Analytics where you could submit your name as someone interested in trying out Google Analytics. Then, at some point in the future you would get an email saying that you have qualified for their beta test.

This email made you feel special like somehow you were "worthy" to participate in that program. Sure, I had some ideas about why Google would market it that way, but it definitely left the impression that they only wanted qualified individuals to participate. I think this is exactly the feeling that should be created by JumbleLunch to be successful. People need to know this is a legit website and not a website of spammers and salesman.

5 years, 5 months ago

On December 14, 2006, 1:41 am techguy said:



I think it's a good idea to make the beta some sort of almost "exclusive" thing that people want to feel like they are apart of. Possibly follow the gmail model that you can request to be part of the beta and we may grant you access, but if you have already been accepted then you're allowed to invite 10 friends to participate also.



I think we want JumbleLunch to be seen as a community of quality individuals. By making the beta test sound exclusive, I think people would get the impression that it isn't just a bunch of spammers, but that we are creating a quality network of real professionals. Plus, people just want to be part of exclusive organizations.

I see your point, but for a beta, isn't getting many users as quickly as possible more important ?

Unlike the gmail model, users should be interested in meeting new people, so inviting friends of friends may not yield the most diverse group...

I love your idea, and congratulations for making it to the market test!

5 years, 5 months ago

I've only had a chance to take a first look over it. My first impression is that I love the beta idea. I also love the phrase that says, "We're looking for a good mix of people for our beta."



I think it's a good idea to make the beta some sort of almost "exclusive" thing that people want to feel like they are apart of. Possibly follow the gmail model that you can request to be part of the beta and we may grant you access, but if you have already been accepted then you're allowed to invite 10 friends to participate also.



I think we want JumbleLunch to be seen as a community of quality individuals. By making the beta test sound exclusive, I think people would get the impression that it isn't just a bunch of spammers, but that we are creating a quality network of real professionals. Plus, people just want to be part of exclusive organizations.



One other thought is after you've requested to be part of the beta, we ask people "Prove you're a business professional" Give us 10 of your contacts that we can invite to participate in the beta. The more professionals you sign up for Jumble Lunch the better chance you have of participating. That might be a harsh tone, but essentially the idea of getting professionals to recommend other professionals.



One last thought for tonight. Where it says, "Please, this is not a dating site." Why don't we add something like "if you want a dating service, click here." It seems like this link would be worth a lot to some service like It's Just Lunch. If someone is interested in dating professionals, then let's direct them to the right place and get It's Just Lunch to pay us for it. Or at least cross advertise, or some other sort of partnership.



Great work. I also love that you're involving the community. I just hope you give us enough time to give feedback since most of us in the community do have day jobs, family, etc.



What about posting a nice blog post summarizing the various community driven discussions that are going on right now? Or a PM to the CH community members or some other nice promotion to get more CH community members involved.

5 years, 5 months ago

That's freaking nifty. That makes me want to click into the wee hours of the morn'. Great design.

5 years, 5 months ago

Well, this may not be very helpful, but I love the look of it. It looks fresh, modern, and has lots of clean lines. I vote it up.

5 years, 5 months ago

We have posted some comps for JumbleLunch test market. You can find them at test.jumblelunch.com We are planning to go live by end of Friday Dec. 15 - so feedback sooner than later would be cool. (There is new text for the "Why Jumble?" page that should be up before Thurs. morning.



cheers,



Don H

5 years, 5 months ago

On December 13, 2006, 1:05 pm Imhotep said:



This is a great & concise overview, like it !!!! Nice job, hope to see more of this for other market tests !





On the restaurants, some thoughts



- jumblelunch could indirectly be advertising for restaurants, discounted meals/events in restaurants could indireclty be advertising for jumblelunch

- if restaurants would give discounts for people that organize jumblelunch at their place

- ability to organize/launch "jumblelunch events" on rotational basis with serious discounts + marketing campaign on jumblelunch.com

- link jumblelunch events with jobevents, where employers & potential employees mix casually

Great suggestions. Thanks Imhotep!

5 years, 5 months ago

This is a great & concise overview, like it !!!! Nice job, hope to see more of this for other market tests !





On the restaurants, some thoughts



- jumblelunch could indirectly be advertising for restaurants, discounted meals/events in restaurants could indireclty be advertising for jumblelunch

- if restaurants would give discounts for people that organize jumblelunch at their place

- ability to organize/launch "jumblelunch events" on rotational basis with serious discounts + marketing campaign on jumblelunch.com

- link jumblelunch events with jobevents, where employers & potential employees mix casually

5 years, 5 months ago

Hey all -



In order to start some discussion here's an excerpt of the mktg plan for Jumble Lunch - thoughts and discussion encougaged! hmm maybe I should have created 1 new topic per section? We'll see how this goes.



Business Objectives:

- Build a vibrant network of business professionals who want to expand their networks over lunch



Potential Product names:

A. It's just for lunch networking

B. JumbleLunch.com

C. RocketLunch.com

D. LunchOn.com

E. MeatUp.com



Tag line options:

A. You never know who will change your life.

B. You never know which person will change your life.

C. Lunch is the most important meal of your career!

D. Could a lunch change your life?



Website Objectives:

- To achieve 1,000 signups per month



Potential Revenue streams:

- Upgrade to premium service

- Advertising

- Network clubs (they already are into networking)

- Restaurant sponsors Jumble lunch (regional sponsors )

- Points system?

- Service boards (future)

- Job boards (future)



Target Audience: - career people (this is NOT a dating site)

Region: National - global

- Self employed people

- Professionals

- Linkedin.com users (clearly motivated to network) who want to expand networks of people they know in real life (e.g. not former co-workers or people they have already met in person at events)

- Jigsaw.com - members



Competitors:

- http://www.meetup.com

- http://www.chamberof...com/public/index.cfm (Is this really a competitor? Maybe just for local business people but I don't think people working in non-locally oriented businesses would think of this)

- http://www.linkedin.com - Could build something like this as a premium service.

- Association networking groups

- facebook.com - more a competitor for the corporate version as they have an ability for employees in a company to join a network



Related sites:

- opentable.com

- http://www.meetup.com

- canada.tribe.net

- elance.com



Possible backend ?

- ning.com



Competitive Positioning:

How you are different from your competition and the factors which will make you a success?

- Nothing ike this exists currently; main competition is "eating alone" or eating at your desk.

- It's a safe way to expand your network for your current job and future careers

- Different than the chamber of commerce (more diverse group)



How will we convince them?

- You never know who is going to change your life

- It's all about who you know. JL lets you make meaningful work connections ongoing.

- Get inspired by meeting people you wouldn't normally meet.

- You are a business person (career driven) THIS is not a dating service

- On the table at Restaurants have advertising i.e. JumbleLunch dice or something

- No sales pitches

- No gimics, it is about meeting a variety of people

- Mentoring, want to mentor

- Privacy

- Open it up to cell phone jumbles

- Your profile will link to your linkedin.com

- Restaurants and Cafes (45m)

- Opt out features

5 years, 5 months ago

This is very cool. I'm impressed that Forbes.com would be interested in a press release. I hope that's a good sign for what media attention this idea can draw.



Thanks for letting us know about it.

5 years, 5 months ago

Everyone loves a great idea, that why I LOVE being a part of Cambrian House. Being surrounded by good ideas makes me feel smart.





Part of my day involves working with journalists to tell them about what we're doing at Cambrian House in hopes that they tell the world. So, I was thrilled when Forbes.com plucked our press release from the news wire and posted it on their website along side other big news of the day (as defined by Forbes). Way to go team! And congrats techguy!