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Maximizing your effectiveness with Jott

I enjoy using Jott, so I couldn't resist mentioning the post from Sales 2.0: Maximizing your effectiveness with Jott: " by Karl Goldfield

If you didn't already know:

Jott.com allows you to call a toll free number and leave yourself or others a message. That message once complete is e-mailed to you or anybody you connect with your account.

Here are just two of Karl's uses of Jott:

• I call Jott every time I buy something and log the purchase in my inbox. This has saved me an unbelievable amount of time when my wife and I do the budget. It also eliminates the several hundred dollar adjustment do to discrepancies. I lose track of something each month and the wife is not appreciative of this habit. While this may not be a problem for the rest of you, I am happy to be more on top of things.
• Jott gets a call anytime I am driving and have a good idea. Man this one is hot! So many of my ‘ Eureka 's’ or powerful messaging statements come to me while I am in the car. In the past, by the time I can get it to paper or the computer, it has been diluted by time.

Like Karl, I use Jott to email "hot ideas" to myself -- and just to make sure I capture that elusive "to-do" item that crossed my mind in the middle of my morning commute. (Did you ever think of something you "really need to do" but somehow it slips your mind before you get it written down?) With Jott, a quick call on the cell phone puts that idea or to-do in my email in-box so I get a reminder when I get to work. It's a very handy tool, and it's free.

Marc Andreessen In praise of dual-class stock structures

In a recent blog post, Marc Andressen argues for dual-class stock structures for public companies:

A dual-class stock structure means that a company has two different classes of common stock. Each class of stock has the same economic ownership of the company, yet different voting rights.

In a typical scenario, Class A shares have a single vote per share, whereas Class B shares have 10 votes per share, for any shareholder vote.

Using this mechanism, for example, the Class B shareholders might only own 20% of the company in economic terms but have a clear majority voting position relative to the Class A shareholders.

Although he used to be a believer in single-class stock, Andreessen lists a number of reasons why dual-class stock is in fact a good thing. Most of them have to do with the factors that cause companies to do the wrong thing for long-term success because of the pressures imposed on management by the stock market itself. His summary comment:

The huge advantage of a dual-class stock structure is that it lets the company's core management simply ignore most of this stuff and stay focused on the long-term goal.

Portland Tech Survey

Legion of Tech member Audrey Eschright has posted a survey of the tech community in the Portland area.  As Audrey said in a blog post:

I’ve been talking about doing some kind of survey of the local tech community for a few months now, but today it’s up and running. If you’re in Portland, and involved with any kind of technology activities for work or fun, please go to http://moourl.com/lotsurvey. The more responses, the better, since we want to see the breadth of our community, and whether Legion of Tech events are on your calendar. Tell your friends, coworkers, and neighbors. I’ll be posting here and on the Legion of Tech blog when we’ve crunched the numbers.

Don't know about the Legion of Tech?  They brought you BarCamp, Startupalooza and Ingnite Portland 1 and 2 (and the just announced Ignite Portland 3), for a start. Check out the survey at http://moourl.com/lotsurvey

How to make Better Presentations

If you'd like to improve the effectiveness of your presentations, you might start by reading Guy Kawasaki's post about his discussion with Garr Reynolds, author of Presentation Zen.  There are lots of worthwhile insights.