I took a trip out to Boston recently to visit a few Kin customers. Boston’s one of my favorite places in the world. It’s where I met my wife, where I got a degree in musical composition, and it’s where oysters, history, excellent bike makers, and Kin customers converged into my 2.5-day adventure.
The excursion started with an early morning bike ride with a friend and fellow product designer named Richard Banfield. Richard owns a company named Fresh Tilled Soil, writes books, and knows his way around the northern reaches of the metro Boston area. We did a little mixed terrain riding which included some nice trails through Minutemen National park – I never thought I’d ride a bike past the spot Paul Revere was captured by the British.
We started and wrapped up the ride at an awesome coffee shop in Lexington called Ride Studio Café. Someone at some point realized there’s a need for coffee, bikes, mechanics, and baristas who don’t cover their noses when filthy cyclists walk in. This is that place!
First up: Rock & Roll Daycare
My first stop was to Rock & Roll Day Care – a company owned by a husband and wife duo who wanted a good place for their kids to begin their early education. Most folks might start shopping around for a preschool. Chris Vuk and his wife, Zaure, decided to roll their own – complete with music classes and a streak of montessori philosophy.
They’re split across three locations in Cambridge. I know this because I went to the wrong one, causing a few minutes delay in my meeting with Chris.
Chris and I have a couple of things in common: we both graduated from Berklee College of Music, we have (too many) kids, and we dig the Montessori way of learning. So, not only did we dig into Kin a bit, we also discussed his vision to expand Rock’n’Roll Daycare’s music program, and this super cool initiative going on in Paraguay called the Landfill Harmonic.
Next up, Intrepid Pursuits
Next up was a trip to a mobile app development shop named Intrepid Pursuits. Like Rock & Roll Daycare, they’re located in Cambridge – across the river from Boston.
I spent time with Intrepid’s Director of Talent, Andrea Garvey, who told me about their killer apprenticeship program that not only provides a hands-on way to pick up mobile development chops, get a head start on a start up, and to learn the ropes of working in client services – and for many, to land a killer gig at Intrepid :)
Oh, they also have socks. Yellow ones. One last thing: they’re hiring! https://jobs.lever.co/intrepid
Finally, Help Scout!
We’ve been using Help Scout‘s awesome customer support software for DoneDone and Kin since day one of both companies. Their service and support are role models for us at Kin, and their product has helped us be the best we can be with our own customer support.
So, we were kinda flattered when we saw them sign up for Kin. When we started using Help Scout, they were just a couple of folks building an awesome customer support tool. Now, they’re 21 employees spread around the world, and Kin is helping them run a tight ship operationally as they continue to grow.
I met with product manager Nick Francis at their office in downtown Boston. We talked about the old days of Help Scout starting up as a company (DoneDone was an early customer of theirs), product design and management, and the incredibly awesome content these folks put out every single week.
When in Rome
Seven Cycles
Did I mention bikes yet? I took my titanium-steed with me on the trip. It has its own suitcase. It also was made just outside of Boston, at an awesome company called Seven Cycles. They’ve been building custom bikes by hand for about 18 years and they’ve mastered the experience of having a bike designed around an individuals riding habits and unique physiology. Before I got my Seven made, I had three bikes. I now have four – three of which sit gathering dust in the closet. This year alone I’ve put almost 3,000 miles on my Seven and a huge part of my motivation to get out on the road is because of the awesome ride I have beneath me.
A fella named John Lewis gave me a tour of their production floor. These folks got their process down. They don’t batch produce, rather, each person in the production process pays attention to one frame and one frame only until their work is completed according to their rather high standards.
SoSo Unlimited
A few weeks ago, we hosted a group of company owners from around the world here at our Chicago office for a few drinks and conversation. They were all in town for Owner Camp – if you don’t know what that is, it’s three days of awesomeness that you can read up on here. One of the fellas I met, John Rothenberg, owns an art and technology studio called SoSo – they were right up the street from where I was staying in Boston.
Check out some of their work – they’re doing some really cool stuff, like this chandelier installation that acts as a low-res display illustrating global data like GDP growth rates.
Oysters!
Life is way too short to be skipping out on food and instead ingesting Soylent while burning out at a desk. I gotta be honest though and say I didn’t get a chance to sit down for either breakfast or lunch a single time during my visit.
What I lacked for in daytime nutrition however, I more than made up for in my evening intake, namely, at Neptune Oyster in Boston’s North End. It’s one of my favorite places. Period.
