It’s Mahout’s first birthday!
What a year it has been. A year packed with both successes and failures. And as it turns out, the boundary between those two can be pretty fluid. Time to share our first successful failure.
Getting off to a good start
A year ago, when founding Mahout, we decided to send everyone in our network a New Year’s card to tell them about our new startup. You know, to create some exposure. We selected a design and iterated for hours perfecting the text and correcting all typos. Super proud, we sent out the cards, convinced that this would make a great first impression on everyone.
Guys, I’m getting this fine for a card you sent. What’s going on?
A surprised recipient
A New Year’s wish gone wrong
The feeling of pride lasted exactly three days, until the first text came in: “Guys, I’m getting this fine for a card you sent. What’s going on?” Turns out, our whole network got a fine because the cards were insufficiency stamped.
After overcoming the first shock of embarrassment, we invited everybody to have a cup of coffee with us to make up for the fine. In the end, that was a more effective door opener to a lot of interesting opportunities than any plan we could ever have come up with.
“Never change a winning concept” they say, so we’ll never stamp our mail again.
(Just kidding)
Would you also like a cup of coffee on us?
