Escapingthe9to5: One Girl's Journey to Become a Self Made Man

An Object in Motion…

By Maren Kate On May 9, 2012 · 13 Comments · In Startup Lessons

One large iced green tea, one small extra-hot, hot chocolate. It’s the sweet and sour of this drink combination, the hot and cold nature duality of their natures that I love. I’m sitting in the same Starbuck’s that I have spent many a late night brainstorming the future of Zirtual at—the idea that started in a similar coffee shop in Las Vegas two years ago and has grown into a 25 person company based in the heart of San Francisco.

A year ago, when I was living in the Tenderloin, subsisting off of Ramen and Red Bull dropping $5 for two drinks at Starbucks would have caused me physical pain. I pinched pennies like nobody’s business and still do. Even today I feel a little silly/guilty over the indulgence of buying myself my two beverages when I’m just one person.

Regardless, as I wait to pick up my friend at the nearby BART station I decided to drop into my old haunt and enjoy a beverage—or two—and reflect on the last 18 months of my startup life. Read Full Article →

The Joy of Working

By Maren Kate On April 7, 2012 · 5 Comments · In Startup Lessons

When I was a little girl I have many fond memories of my mother in the kitchen, she was and is a phenomenal cook and took great pleasure in making everything from a batch of brownies to a 4 course meal. Susan, who also blogs — about food no less — owned a well loved cookbook called The Joy of Cooking. I remember puzzling over this book as I grew older because — even though I was raised in a house where the kitchen was central — I despised cooking and couldn’t imagine how it could bring so many people such “joy”.

Today I understand my mother’s plight. Saddled with an ungrateful child who would eat her good food but turn her nose up at the idea of slaving over a meal for hours. I enjoyed the fruits, but didn’t respect the labor involved.

I now find myself in a similar situation with what I call The Joy of Working. We live in a world where people consume more than ever — services, products, experiences — but rail about “work life balance” and turn their nose up at people who live to work, versus working to live. Read Full Article →

Red Butler: A Case Study in a Customer Service #Fail

By Maren Kate On March 15, 2012 · 4 Comments · In Awesome Sauce

I have a rule about not writing things about our competition, but like most rules – this one was made to be broken. It came to my attention the other day that one of our ZAs had been asked by her client to cancel his Red Butler account. This wasn’t an odd request as we often get people who try several virtual assistant companies to no avail before they hear about Zirtual.

The ordeal that followed boggled my mind in so many ways that I just knew I absolutely had to bring it to light. It’s a story of awful customer service, stall tactics and faxes – lots and lots of faxes.

Let’s go back in time to last Monday. Our killer ZA Tiffany started her day off like most. She coordinated a few meetings, did some research on vacation spots and was asked by one of her Executive clients to cancel their Red Butler service – something that, at first, seemed pretty straightforward.

Tiffany’s client had contacted Red Butler via email to ask them how to cancel his account. They responded that he had to fill out a form and fax it in to cancel – yep – fax it in. Read Full Article →

A Not-So-Typical San Francisco Startup Story

By Maren Kate On January 29, 2012 · 42 Comments · In Startups

I want to create thousands of jobs. Tens of thousands actually. I want to give millions of people more time on this Earth. I want to change the world.

Exactly one year ago, almost to the date, I incorporated a business called Zirtual. I had a fuzzy idea of what it was going to be, some sort of job board for freelancers – or something. I wasn’t really sure.

All I did know is that I wanted it to become a $100 million dollar company. I would chant this to myself, like a miserly monk, a hundred times a night, while I fell asleep on an uncomfortable cot in a hostel I was crashing at because I couldn’t afford anything better.

I chose a $100 million dollars because I knew that someone who built a company, from scratch – with no experience, in one of the most competitive cities in the world – would be deemed “a success” (and since I was a child I have always craved success, stability & the freedom that extensive financial means allows one).

Little did I realize how completely silly & short-sited I seemed every time I told someone I “was going to build a hundred million dollar business” – but, looking back, I’m glad I did. For two reasons… Read Full Article →

Live Like 2012 Really Is the End of the World

By Maren Kate On January 15, 2012 · 7 Comments · In My Life

The other day I saw this exact sentence scrawled on the wall of a mansion some startup guys were launching their new incubator from. The walls of the massive rooms were covered in Idea Paint and covered with thousands of great concepts. This idea though struck a particularly deep cord, so much so I haven’t been able to shake the words for days now.

What would your life be like if you thought this year may be your last?

I’m not saying you have an absolute guarantee that it would be your last – if that was the case you may drop out of the workforce, live on a beach and spend your days writing letters to your loved ones. More the feeling you’d get if every day you knew you had a 50/50 chance of dying. You may still live within the rules somewhat, but you’d also take a lot of chances that could produce amazing results – because in reality, what the flip would you have to lose?

Imagine that feeling – living like 2012 is the last year you get to live your life the way you’ve always wanted.

That freedom, that amazing, tantalizing fearlessness comes only from having nothing to lose. This is why people can go from complete anonymity to extreme fame in only a few short years (think Lady GaGa). If you have nothing to lose – and everything to gain – you can take risks that the rest of the World would never fathom. Read Full Article →

Transforming into Your Ideal Self for 2012

By Maren Kate On December 18, 2011 · 10 Comments · In Transformation

In some caterpillar’s lives there is a moment when they go from stodgy, slow and land-locked to beautiful, delicate and airborne. Not all caterpillars enjoy this fate. Many stay on the ground and live a life of leaf-eating. Caterpillars (from p.o.v.’s of the one’s I consulted for this post) are relatively clueless, unenlightened creatures – rarely contemplating the meaning of their existence and more consumed with basics, like day-to-day survival… but still some of them transform into glorious creatures, almost overnight.

Human beings, though being far more enlightened, often fall into the same fate of living life day-to-day and never contemplating what a different existence could be like. The beauty of the human mind is our ability to imagine, it’s great shame is our proclivity to forget by becoming distracted by the day-to-dayness of life.

We have the distinct capability to envision the person we want to becoe, the life we want to lead and the things we want to do – without having experienced them directly. You may never have so much sunk your toes into a sandy beach, but you can know from reading and television that you one day want to visit Bermuda. An ugly duckling child may wear ratty clothes and grow up poor, but still know that one day she wants to be a super model and enjoy the finer things in life. Read Full Article →

My Epic Website Platform: A PageLines Review

By Maren Kate On December 6, 2011 · 4 Comments · In Blogging

Andrew, PageLines' founder and myself at their pre-launch in LA this October.

I am a notorious technophobe, which is odd since I’m the CEO of a web company and an avid writer on this little thing. But for years I couldn’t so much as tweak the sidebar of my beloved blog because I didn’t know how to code and couldn’t figure out most WordPress themes.

That all changed one afternoon when fate smiled upon me and I ran smack-dab into PageLines‘ founder Andrew Powers. That day I learned about PageLines and their fabulous drag-and-drop framework which quite literally allows me to change my site on a whim by pulling my cursor across the back-end of this blog. I quickly switched over to PageLines and was amazed by the ease of use and attractive simplicity it’s design offered.

The reason I’m sharing this with my Escaping audience now is because PageLines is launching their 2.0 version and the PageLines store at LeWeb in Paris right now (I know I’m green with envy too). Here’s why I redesigned my site on PageLines and why you should too… Read Full Article →

John Wayne (Almost) Ruined My Life: A Cautionary Tale

By Maren Kate On December 1, 2011 · 3 Comments · In My Life

Damn you John Wayne, you handsome devil

First of all, let me preface this by saying… this is an incredibly hard post for me to write.

I have a problem, and it’s one that has festered in me for years all the while growing increasingly difficult to face. It’s part addiction, part pride and part deep-seeded insecurity (ha, classic “problem”).

I hate to ask people for things. I think it comes from never wanting to be looked at as a “charity case” and always wanting to be able to hold my own. Values I’m assuming I absorbed from watching one too many John Wayne films as a child. I also grew up strongly disliking braggarts – usually because these people got shot in the aforementioned movies, often right after they won a game of poker. Regardless, because of these long held beliefs I shy away from talking at length about my life or business in front of most people.

Looking back the major problem with this attitude has been that it’s crippling effect when it comes to selling one’s business and can make you awkwardly aloof when it comes to personal relationships. In an attempt to “not need nuthin’ from no one” I’m realizing that I’ve done a disservice to both myself and our team at Zirtual (I’m sorry guys, gals and hundo – our sweet little money tree).

If I was in therapy (which I would be if I wasn’t ruthlessly bootstrapping) I’m sure my shrink would give me some sort of exposure-therapy homework. But, since I can’t afford the finer things in life at present (like an overpriced MD) I get to “pretend” and not only be the patient, but also the doctor. Which is both fun and awkward, especially when my roommates walk in on me lying on a coach, talking to myself in a soothing voice, saying things like “how did that make you feel” and “tell me more about your childhood”. Read Full Article →

25 Quirky Things to be Thankful for

By Maren Kate On November 23, 2011 · 5 Comments · In My Life

I’m writing this from a hotel room in downtown Charleston, West Virginia. My brother mentioned, as we were walking back from a sumptuous dinner at Le Chili’s, that center of this city reminded him of a post-zombie-apocalypse movie – hello Appalachia.

I’ve had a hell of a time getting here. 10 hours, four airports SFO > DEN > IAD > CRW, lost tickets, misplaced bags- it would be oh so easy to bitch. But instead I’m going to be thankful. I’m surrounded by family I haven’t seen for ages and have a chance to reflect on this last year and all the things I have to smile about.

Being thankful, or grateful, is hands down the best way to live. You’ll live longer, be happier and enchant others with your positive outlook versus boring them to death with your whining. So in honor of Thanksgiving I wanted to jot down 25 things that I’m truly thankful for and maybe you can be too. Read Full Article →