One great thing about being next to Duke University is that we get to sit in on a lot of national and international conferences about topics relevant to Shoeboxed. Today, I am sitting in on a conference about intellectual property and ecommerce, two things we are obviously interested in over here.

Conference website.

The people involved in the conference are:

Iain M. Cockburn, Professor of Finance and Economics and Everett W. Lord Distinguished Faculty Scholar in the School of Management at Boston University.

Wesley Cohen, Faculty Director, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.

Dr. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, the former Vice President of Technical Strategy and Innovation at IBM.

Lew Zaretzki, Vice President of Consulting Services at ThinkFire

Tony Tramontin, an Associate Principal in McKinsey & Company’s New York office.

James E. Malackowski, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Ocean Tomo, LLC, an integrated Intellectual Capital Merchant Banc firm.

They are talking pretty theoretically right now about what defines and determines markets. Will there be a more efficient and and pure market for intellectual property somewhere in the future? Right now, we are seeing a lot of “patent trolls” for example, that buy up a lot of IP, but do not use them right away, causing the market to be less efficient. Is this bad? Should it change? Will it?

More to come in the comments section…

Well, we’ve never been shy about our obsession with Duke University. Most of us are Duke graduates, and some of us are current students there. So it made a lot of sense that when we wanted to get some photos taken of the team that we turned to Duke students. I mean, it was without question that we’d find a talented photographer from the obscenely talented and involved Duke student body. We were very impressed with what we found. Chase Olivieri, a freshman at Duke, took us all around downtown Durham today and took some great shots of us.

To check out some more of our photos, check out our Flickr account. There are photos from pretty much our whole history, including our summer in Berlin and our team trip to Jordan.

First of all, I just wanted to say Happy New Year, as this is our first entry of 2008!

In the first few days of this year, lots of people in the U.S. will be focusing their attention to Iowa, watching with great interest what will happen in Thursday’s caucuses. But today, I’m thinking more about Idaho. And North Carolina of course.

According to the Idaho Statesman (”Idaho’s #1 website for news and information”), Boise has had a hard time attracting businesses to the area because of what one businessman called “the lack of entrepreneurial culture” there. In this particular piece, the author says that Boise needs some entrepreneurial spark in order to attract new business and stimulate the economy.

So why am I talking about it here? Well, the author gives a shout out to Durham, Shoeboxed’s home base.

What does it take to build the culture? Look a the Stanford/Silicon Valley connection or Highway 128 around Boston and Harvard University. The Research Triangle in Raleigh/Durham near Duke University has that intangible culture… “It” is a combination of a strong university, either engineering or management oriented; an incubator area for new technical ideas to develop economically; and venture capital to fund it. You also need like-minded, competitive, risk-taking individuals who want to do their own thing and who are willing to share experiences and knowledge.

Durham is an awesome place to start up a company, and we’re happy to be a part of the “it.”

Over here at Shoeboxed, we’ve always been dedicated to the personal approach. We talk with users face-to-face, over the phone, and via e-mail everyday. We recognize how important it is to give you whatever help you need to get the most out of our service.

For a while there, all the calls that came into Shoeboxed forwarded to my personal cell phone. That resulted in some VERY early mornings, which I guess is understandable when you consider that Shoeboxed users organize receipts from all over the world, across time zones.

I’ve also spent a considerable amount of time answering e-mails from everyone who sends us one. We have a lot of users, and even a small percentage of them e-mailing us can be a heavy load, but I’ve always really enjoyed interacting with the people that use our service.

As we’ve grown, though, the volume of people contacting us–for whatever reason, from people who forgot their passwords, to people who want to tell us that we’ve come up with “the single most incredible idea I’ve ever heard” (Nic from Mississippi)–has greatly increased over time.

In order to offer the same personalized responses that you all have come to love, we are upgrading to a state-of-the-art support system, so that you can have the best possible Shoeboxed experience. We should be rolling this out over the next couple of days. Please feel free to keep contacting us at help@team.shoeboxed.com!

Being a college student, it’s hard for me to know what’s “in” outside of the campus. How do I know that those sweet pink striped dress shirts I bought in New York City over the summer are still the go-to Friday night apparel? I guess I wouldn’t find out until a trend-setter on campus, who spends his entire day staying informed of fashion trends, called me out about it at a local club for being a total loser.

I guess I could read about fashion trends, book, and movie reviews, and music ratings online to stay informed about the popular stuff out there. But, each blog entry or comment would only give me one person’s opinion on the topic and would require me to spend countless hours online checking out different websites to get a better picture of how each individual opinion’s creates a general trend.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a better way?

Shoeboxed is going green! If you aren’t convinced yet, check out my video. Being environmentally-conscious is a high priority for the entire team. We’ve made a lot of changes to our work environment and our lifestyles as we embark on our long mission to be a sustainable start-up company. Here are some of the latest green developments in the Shoequarters:

1. Recycling—Flyers adorn the walls of every room reminding everyone to recycle paper, cardboard, plastic, and aluminum products. Some team members made special containers to help separate out recyclables from the trash.

2. Energy efficiency—As an Internet start-up company, we use computers all day and all night. There are certain guidelines we all follow to cut down on our computers’ energy use. Here are some of those tips:
a. Turn off or set computers to a lower power setting anytime we do not use them.
b. Do not use screen savers, but rather use screen/monitor shutdown options.
c. Turn on printers and scanners only when they need to be used.
d. Use only products with ENERGY STAR labels.
3. Utensils—We use silverware and dishes that we clean after each use to avoid resorting to plastic utensils and paper plates.

4. Water use—Water use in the Shoequarters is limited; however, all team members make efforts to avoid keeping the water running when washing dishes or washing their hands.

5. Electricity—It is a rule in the office to turn off lights in rooms that are no longer in use.

6. Commuting—Some of us live within walking distance of the office and others live on the nearby Duke campus. Walking, biking, and carpooling are the ways we encourage team members to come to the Shoequarters every day.

Shoeboxed is moving in the right direction. The changes we are making in the Shoequarters and in our personal lives are significant. We are proud to display our environmentally-conscious efforts and hope to inspire others to follow our lead.

This summer in Berlin, we worked all the time. Days would go by when I didn’t leave our apartment/office. I usually worked straight from 11 a.m. to 4 a.m. Those precious hours of sleep were spent on an IKEA cot. Needless to say, I was tired for most of the summer.

Now with some pesky classes that weaseled their way into my daily schedule back at Duke, I seem to have less time that ever. Other people on the team are feeling the pinch too, and we’re looking for anything and everything to make the day longer and more productive.

I’m more of a traditional coffee and Pepsi fan for staying awake and alert. And it goes without saying that if you leave a Red Bull lying around the office, I’ll probably steal it.

But other people on the team are a little more desperate for feeling more alert. Matt, Tomas, and Justin are all trying a much-hyped sleeping schedule called polyphasic sleeping. This is where you get a couple of hours of “core” sleep at night, which usually lasts 2-3 hours. Then you take a 15-20 minute nap every 2 hours during the day. This series of short naps is supposed to make you feel really awake throughout the day.

The three of them have had a hard time in the beginning getting onto this insane schedule, but they all claim to feel amazing. They are writing a blog about their experience. Read it here.

And me? I think I’ll just go put on a pot of coffee.

When Taylor was convincing me to join the Shoeboxed team back in February, he talked about changing online shopping, about improving online security, and about making people think differently about how they can use the Internet.

Bold statements, for sure, especially when made in a college dorm room. But Taylor has had a really detailed plan for how to actually reach these goals since the beginning, and we’ve been tackling this project in phases. The first step for Shoeboxed was to become the leading online tool for receipt organization. The incredible success and support we’ve seen in this area is really promising for what’s coming next. Several of the most well-read blogs on the Internet have written about us, and we’ve exceeded pretty much every expectation we have had for growth. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished, but Shoeboxed is so much more than receipts, and we’re getting ready to unveil the newest part of the Shoeboxed Idea.

So what is it? Where is Shoeboxed going?

Well I’m about ready to pee my pants about what’s coming next. We’ll be building off of our receipt organizer, and making Shoeboxed useful in a new kind of way. Instead of just being about organization and security, Shoeboxed will soon be able to more closely mirror the real-world shopping experience. The size of the Shoeboxed community is certainly unbelievable, and we are so excited to be a more engaging, personalized, and fun service for anyone who’s ever made a purchase… ever.

Keep checking back for the new stuff, and get excited for a fresh new look too!

Shoeboxed.com has launched! It’s a great day for everyone on the Shoeboxed team, and for everyone who is ready to make their life easier.

From day one we’ve said, “there’s a better way”, and today you will have the chance to experience it. Nobody likes to spend countless hours organizing their financial information. It’s about time somebody made it really simple. Nobody likes getting hundreds of unwanted spam e-mails in their personal inboxes. It’s about time somebody gave you the power to get rid of them. Nobody likes to give out their credit card or Social Security numbers. It’s about time you were able to track your purchases and receipts without releasing your sensitive information. Nobody likes an overwhelming amount of communication from businesses in their personal e-mail inbox. Shoeboxed is a secure, free, and fun solution to all these problems.

It’s not everyday that I have the privilege to write on the Shoeboxed blog. But at Shoeboxed it’s about the team, and I’m proud that we have such a great lineup of talented and dedicated individuals who will do anything and everything for Shoeboxed. After all, it takes a unique group of twelve students to survive working and living out of a small apartment in West Berlin.

So today I want to personally invite everyone to see what the Shoeboxed team has been able to accomplish. It’s new, it’s different, and it has the potential to change the way you live your life. I also want to invite everyone to keep reading the blog, which will continue to give informative, relevant, and entertaining updates as time goes on.

We are hard at work making sure the site runs as smoothly as possible. If you have any suggestions, we would greatly appreciate feedback. You can contact the whole team at help (at) team (dot) shoeboxed (dot) com or me personally at taylor (at) team (dot) shoeboxed (dot) com.

Take a look, let us know what you think, and stay tuned for what is to come. After all, this is just the first phase for shoeboxed.com.

Last week we were really excited about being in Zitty magazine in Berlin. But Shoeboxed is moving up in the world. Not only have we been featured in another magazine, but now we are on the cover! Towerview magazine, a publication put out by the Duke student newspaper, has identified us as one of the “Ten to Watch” at Duke in the coming year.

This is a big honor, considering some previous “Ten to Watch” winners have included the editor of the Internet phenomenon MediaBistro, Provost Peter Lange’s vision for Duke’s Strategic Plan, the once-upcoming Duke lacrosse rape trial, the Duke Global Health Institute, and of course, our friend Anthony Vitarelli. Needless to say, we are extremely happy about this honor.

The writer of this piece, sophomore Chelsea Allison, only communicated to us via e-mail and when we called her from the run-down Internet cafe down the street, but she managed to get everything she needed to write a great story. It’s weird to think that the conversations we had with her in those hot, small, and loud phone booths turned into such an awesome cover story.

Never before our recent launch has detailed information been publicly available, and Chelsea certainly did our product justice with her article. She wrote the article at the beginning of the month with some advanced, top-secret knowledge of the product that nobody outside the team knew. Towerview doesn’t have the opportunity to break news very often, but we’re very happy with how they handled it.

The process of putting together this particular issue was probably a little more complicated than usual because they have been switching over to a new design system this summer, and had to create a lot of their layouts from scratch.

If you are a returning Duke undergrad or a first-year Duke graduate student, you will get a copy mailed to your home address, so definitely look out for it in your mailbox. If you live on or around Duke’s campus, you can pick one up anywhere you would normally find a Chronicle. Otherwise, you can just access the article online here.

Stay tuned for more updates about Shoeboxed making the news in the coming weeks!

Wednesday was an exciting day for us, as Zitty Magazine, a publication focusing on the city of Berlin, featured the Shoeboxed team in its latest edition. They don’t have the article up online, but you can read the German version or our English version here.

Once we confirmed that we had made it in to this edition, Taylor and I went down the street to a place that sells magazines and bought all the Zittys. I made Taylor translate it right there in front of the store as passersby gave us some weird looks. Giddy Americans frantically translating a magazine that shouldn’t be that exciting.

Anyway, we are really happy with the story that Christoph Koch wrote about us. He was very interested in the fact that American students chose to come to Berlin instead of taking consulting internships in the States, which pay a lot more than they do in Germany.

He also focused a lot on describing the apartment where we live, and how we have so many people here. And even though our apartment can get messy sometimes, Christoph said that we are probably “the most productive apartment in the city.” I wouldn’t argue with that.

I’ll keep you updated on our press coverage, so you can see how journalists are reacting to our idea and team.

Earlier today I had the opportunity to read a particularly insightful interview with Richard Brodhead, President of Duke University. It originally aired on June 16th on China Radio International (CRI), China’s only worldwide radio station.[link] The interview was conducted by Xing Zong, a fourth year Ph.D. student at Duke University. He had the opportunity to ask Brodhead about his unique life as an academic and administrator and about his long-term vision for Duke.

Some people have criticized Brodhead for his lack of business experience, but in the interview, the president made it clear that entrepreneurship is a priority at Duke. Here is what he had to say:

Xing Zong: Once students are admitted, one of the big goals of a great university is to cultivate their independent thinking. It is far from enough to just learn what the textbooks give to the students. How do you think Duke has done in this aspect, so that students can keep learning for the rest of their lives?

Brodhead: First of all, the majority of our classes are small and the majority of classes are based on discussion, rather than allowing the teacher the final word. Therefore mental activity and independence are cultivated at an early stage. Right now we are also expanding the opportunities for independent research. For graduate students, needless to say, you already have to start your own research, but it is also important for undergraduate students. On the teacher’s side, it is important for teachers to realize, when you teach the students, the students also have something to teach you. So I think the real question is that whether the culture of a university favors independence, favors students taking initiatives, and favors students raising their own questions and trying to find the answers. Fortunately, the answer to these questions for Duke is “Yes”.

Xing Zong: I agreed that Duke has improved a lot in this aspect. Still I have a friend who studies in Stanford. He told me that Stanford encourages students to drop out of school and start their own businesses. How do you think Duke would treat situations like this?

Brodhead: This is a very interesting thing. When you think about Stanford, you always think about Yahoo and Google. If you study in Stanford, you will never get your physics Ph.D. (laugh) You will become a billionaire before that happens. We have a lot of students who study engineering, or biomedical engineering and from very early on, the school teaches the elements of design. You also learn entrepreneurship; how to solve the problem. So we are now consciously trying to develop the skills of entrepreneurship. We haven’t had our first Google yet, but just wait.

There’s not much more that I can say other than GO DUKE!

Consumers have always been hesitant to buy clothes online that they can’t try on or see in person. But in recent months, online apparel sales have continued to grow at a rapid rate — outpacing even the online computer and software industries.

This isn’t all that surprising. I certainly buy more things online than I did three years ago. But I can’t say that I am any more comfortable with the idea of buying apparel online today — after all, I still have to take a leap of faith when deciding to purchase something that I’ve never actually seen. So what’s driving the trend? Rapidly evolving technology is making online shopping more and more appealing.

In the past, retailers had to focus on making secure shopping sites that worked, and the shopping experience remained limited to photos and simple product descriptions. These days, technology incorporates photos, videos, and even audio into interactive and flashy platforms — all of which look to reduce the information asymmetry between buyer and seller and better convey a company’s brand and culture. Virtual runways, online showrooms, and dynamic product pictures help make the shopping process fun, personal, and reliable.
(more…)

We’ve all headed to our respective homes for a couple weeks before making the big move to Berlin. Taylor is on car #3 and continues to make tracks across the country on his trans-American road trip. The stories are fantastic, and the pictures are even better.

At this point, we’re just excited to be reunited so that work can continue as usual. It tough to communicate when everyone is scattered across the country.

School’s out, the shoeboxed team continues to grow, and the we’ve got a new logo. We’re making some serious progress.

After a rough week of final projects, papers, and exams, the team has bounced back and is working around the clock to make shoeboxed.com bigger and better. In the past, we’ve always had schoolwork and extracurriculars looming over us–and at times we were forced to pass our classes. Well, I’m excited to announce that everyone has made it through another year–and shoeboxed is our one and only priority. No distractions. No excuses. It’s frightening. Someone please remind us to sleep. And just as we have put 100% of our energy into shoeboxed, we have recruited several new additions to the shoeboxed team. They are already proving to be tremendously valuable additions to the team. This summer couldn’t get much better.

And then there’s the hot new logo. What can I say? We all need a makeover every once and a while. And this is just the beginning–the entire shoeboxed site will have a fun new feel. Now that we have much of the shoeboxed backbone completed, it’s nice to finally be able to start focusing more on our branding efforts and the overall user experience.