I Am Jolly » bikes

Madsen Cargo Bikes

Robert — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:58:03 +0000

I rarely write for personal reasons (a.k.a. on this site) anymore. But, I often want to. Now is as good a time as any, right?

Madsen Cycles is giving away a bike a week to those who help spread the word about their line of cargo bikes. They truly are great bikes, as I had some up-close and personal time with one of their bikes during the Bikehugger Mobile Social event at South By Southwest this past March.

So, check them out by clicking on the banner below or following this link: http://www.madsencycles.com/

SXSW and related activity

Robert — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:49:27 +0000

I’ve been in Austin, Texas for the annual South By Southwest interactive conference. A lot of my activity here has been focused on cycling and triathlon training, talking with new, current, and prospective clients/colleagues, and exploring ideas related to the web industry. Bikehugger put on another amazing event (the Mobile Social SXSW), which I’ll be writing more about over on bikehugger.com.

For details on my posts for Bikehugger, visit http://bikehugger.com/people/robert/.

More updates will be posted here as soon as I’m back home from Austin.

The Austin CarShare offers vehicles with bike racks.

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SmartyPig goes live!

Robert — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:28:16 +0000

A little over a year ago, I received a call from a guy named Mike Ferrari who had what sounded like a fantastic idea for a website. Simply put, he wanted to build an online bank offering high-yield savings accounts with a social twist.

Problem solving ideas

With people sliding into debt for small, medium and big ticket items, why not offer a way for people to establish accounts with specific savings goals? And why not allow users to share their goals publicly so that family, friends and even perfect strangers could contribute safely and securely? Couple those ideas with additional discounts offered by best-in-class retailers when savings goals/accounts are redeemed, and that’s an idea a whole lot of people can benefit from.

Our work together

We (Happy Cog) worked with Mike and the team at SmartyPig to refine the banking experience, which is often overly complex and rigid, into a easily understood and pleasing process without forsaking valid security concerns and controls.

About my savings goal

I’ve been working with a highly-regarded, Austin-based bike builder named Whitney Moyer. I decided to set this up as my first public SmartyPig goal. Feel free to contribute as much as you wish to my goal or setup your own account and take advantage of the savings system built with users in mind.

If you want to check out the progress on the bike build, just let me know by commenting below.