Berberian's Blog

Push the Button a Million Times

We're searching for the little magic button that delivers a deluge of food pellets to our cage.  We've been pushing a blue button for six weeks and have only gotten a few pellets.  We think there might be a red button – but we haven't found it.  Or perhaps we simply need to push the blue button harder and longer.  Maybe we need to pull the green lever.  So now starts the Zenie Bottle period of rapid experimentation where no idea is too wacky. Here's what is happening in the next seven to 14 days:

• Opening a retail kiosk in the local mall
• Experimenting with different lists and zip codes to seed the market
• Reaching out to all our contacts to make some connections with celebrities
• Opening up the web site so anyone can buy a bottle or create an account
• Launching our facebook application
• Enabling our text messaging features
• Interviewing experts on our demo to perhaps engage as advisors
• Considering the possibility we are resonating with a different demo
• Start production on our web series
• Reaching out to local media to tell our story
• Brainstorming crazy bottle stunts – like leaving bottles all around a town in every Starbucks or shipping 100 bottles to a radio station

At this point, we are still just a concept.  Once we find out what works with the market and the best distribution mechanism – we'll push that button and become a business.  As a matter a fact we'll push it so fast we might drown in food pellets. Like a rat in a cage – just gimme some positive feedback.

Here is a bottle of our team:

View more Zenie Bottles

What the hell is this and who sent this to me?

Actual quote from a Zenie Bottle recipient. How you respond to these types of emails can make the customer love you or hate you. When we reached out to her – she was elated.

1100 bottles were shipped into the wild last week. About 700 have found homes (45%+ have converted to users so far) – the rest are still in transit. Unfortunately, Mother Nature took a bite out of us this past week and delivered a record cold spell across most of the nation. The Zenie's are designed to withstand temperatures of 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Below that, we have issues. Looks like some 200 arrived frozen. Now this isn't all bad. It turns out it's an opportunity to make these young adults really happy. Check this out:

From user Kristen:

I recieved a free bottle through the Zenie promotion along side a few of my friends. They arrived to us broken with all of contents soaking the box! This is simpl unacceptable. I would like to requesst another bottle free of charge. If you deny me of this I will write reviews about your company's terrible customer service and treatmet. I did surveys and feedback for your company so I hope you grant my request

Our reply:

Kristen,

Thank you for contacting Zenie Bottle, with record lows across the country we have had some of our bottles freeze and break. I'm sorry that your bottle was one of those that broke. Our bottles are designed for a freezing level of 15 degrees but not -10 degrees!

If you're in a cold weather location, we will re-send you a bottle as soon the weather warms up. If you're in a warm weather location we'll send you one immediately. In the meantime ….

Do you have a specific bottle color that you like? Checkout...

Jim and the Zenie Bottle team

Her final response after a few exchanges:

Thank You Jim. You are so great! Thank you for your kindness.

No substitute for great service.

Brighton Beach Memoirs

My daughter is playing Laurie in the Neil Simon play Brighton Beach Memoirs opening at the Longmont Community Theatre tonight. I've seen the rehearsals – it's going to be a great play. Longmont Theatre puts on great shows – everyone involved gives so much to each production. This is Marlo's 5^th play at the theatre. The sets for an all-volunteer staff are amazing – they're better than many professional productions I've seen. The theatre is unusual as far as community theatres go. First, they've been around for 50 years (most die after 7 years when the founding members move on to other things). Second, 85% of their operating budget comes from ticket sales – donations only make up 15%. So to survive this long on ticket sales speaks to the quality of their productions. Actors drive from all around, including Denver to audition. Too bad Boulder doesn't have a theatre as well run as Longmont. If anyone wants to go (PG-13 content) – email me and I'll hook you up with tickets. (Or you can buy them online here.) Here are some photos of the set (imagine a life size dollhouse).

Sponge Castle

Last week my daughter had to make a scale model of a castle for her history project. She wanted to be different. She didn't want to use cardboard or balsa wood. She wanted to use an unusual material. She asked her teacher if she could use rice krispies – but he said no. She asked me for ideas. I had to be careful. If I suggested the wrong material – I'd be the one making a scale model of a castle. We decided to go to Home Depot and look around for ideas. I found the perfect material – sponges. This was a brilliant idea. Soft, flexible, easy to cut and shape and no need for parental involvement (she's in 7^th grade so she needs to do stuff on her own). I thought it was genius and I convinced my daughter to take my advice. We bought a bunch of those cheap rectangular shaped cellulose sponges and Marlo went to town. I asked her if she wanted to let them dry out first since they typically shrink after they are wet. We talked about it and she and I assumed that if you never wet them – they'd say fresh looking like they are when you first open the package.

After two days working on her project she was done – good thing since it was due the next day. The final step was painting the castle – which she did. She left to go to rehearsal for the play she is in and came home late at night. She finds me and asks me to look at her castle. Well between the wet paint and the drying in the open air for two days – the castle was all shriveled up and deformed – it even buckled the glued on cardboard platform. I started to laugh – I couldn't stop – the whole thing was just hilarious – come on a sponge castle. It was my mistake but Marlo was taking the heat. She got upset and started to cry – she became very articulate on why her castle sucked and how it would bring disgrace to her and her family. On top of that, the teacher made a comment in class that morning, "Well tomorrow should be very exciting, Marlo is bringing in a SPONGE CASTLE!" Which really isn't as bad as it sounds; Marlo has the highest grade in the class – and he is a great teacher – but she wanted to show everyone she wasn't crazy. I simply couldn't stop laughing – Marlo ran up to mom asking her opinion of the shriveled up castle. Mom said it was fine. By 1:00am Marlo finally calmed down and went to bed.

My laughter subsided and I started to feel bad – really bad. I was exhausted but I knew my fatherly duty – I had to fix the castle while she was asleep – ugggh (just what I was trying to avoid). I started work at 1:00am – by 1:10 I had the glue gun, cardboard, scissors, paintbrushes and the castle. I went to work and started to cut and glue and buttress up the curving sponges. I'd get one wall set and then the pressure of the curving sponges would force another to pop out. By 1:45am – I made little progress. I started to laugh again. What was I thinking – it was a sponge castle. I finally gave up.

In business, sometimes you just have a sponge castle – no matter how hard you try to make thing go your way – it's still a sponge.

Here are some pics of the final sponge:

P.S. She got an A – I'm sure for originality – but when she brought it home it went straight in the trash – at least she is laughing with me now.

Zenie Bottle Story

One of the unseen elements of the Zenie Bottle experience is the bottles have a story.  This part of the business is a total blast to work on (well really the entire business is a blast).  In about 2 months the story will be unleashed in full force - but here is an early teaser... Enjoy! Oh yeah - buy a bottle, you'll be glad you did - click here to get an invite code:)

Zenie Bottle is Live

On February 27^th, 2007 we founded Zenie Bottle. Today we are shipping out 1,100 bottles to our seed group – teens between the ages 13 to 18 (plus a handful of friends and family). The initial strategy (cuz every startup has an initial idea then changes when they get some market feedback) is to make the site very exclusive (the only way to get an account is to buy a bottle – the only way to buy a bottle is to know someone who has one and they chose to invite you). We'll see if this works – with a group of pre-launch folks we got some feedback that this might be too exclusive. We'll find out soon enough. In the meantime checkout the site – and if you want a bottle – and you know you do – ask me for an invite or click the big green button on the site.