Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from 2013

Aldi's Expressi Coffee Machine and Flavours

After doing a bit of Googling it does seem that there is a lot of information about the Aldi Expressi Coffee machine but not that much about the flavour pods. I thought I'd pop some of our initial comments here about what we have found after about a month's of usage. Firstly about the machine... it's great in producing very consistent coffee. Coffee snobs may laugh at it but it produces consistently good coffee often much better than some of the cafes around. We're very wussy in our coffee drinking habits and tend to like: Instant = Nescafe Gold Blend or Moccona Vanilla Ground Coffee = Illy Medium Roast or Gloria Jeans flavoured coffee (Vanilla or Hazelnut) We have our coffees with milk so YMMV.  When I'm out I tend to go for a Soy Mocha... So... the flavours we like the best are: Perugia (strength 5) - smooth with no bitter aftertaste Tauro (strength 5) - another smooth one Milano (strength 10) -- very smooth and not as strong as the number seems to

We're alive!

Social media and eDMs are all happening next week.  But I'm excited... as www.oddswop.com.au is alive! Andre, Dave and myself celebrated today over lunch after a Product brainstorming session around our communities model.  There's more at the Oddstart blog as well.

Founder Institute Reflections

As a final assignment we're meant to write a paragraph about our experience with Founder Institute .  A paragraph... that'd be hard as there is so much to say.  I could have just put something on LinkedIn or commented on a blog ( hmmm I already did that !) or commented on a  Quora thread  but decided to put some of my reflections down before I forgot it all. This was my second go at FI.  Last semester I pulled out after suffering the really tough first week but realised that due to personal circumstances wouldn't be able to continue that semester.  I still had a burning desire to get Oddswop up and running with as much help and knowledge I could so I reapplied after doing a snap poll with James ( FoodOrbit ) and Neil ( Slidefish ) who both graduated from the Spring 2012 class. The first week I was smart and had some idea of what was to come so left quickly from the pub that first night so I could prepare.  It was amazing so many of us made it through the first week.  I

Graduated from Founder Institute (Sydney Autumn 2013)

I graduated on Tuesday night with 7 other graduates from Founder Institute . A number of mentors were there at the  Blue Chilli  offices including our directors Ben and Tom and Peter Cooper Garry Visontay Daniel Ringrose (aka Simon Baker) Adam Benson Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin Ari Klinger We also had the great interns Richard and Luke there jotting down all our pledges. Yikes my memory isn't that good and now I can't remember who else was there that evening.  It was also nice to see some of the grads from the previous semester there (Neil and Jeremy and I think Jake was there too). But a huge congratulations to all my fellow graduates: Alex with Insydr Dave with SuperPick Javier with Acento Paul with Wine Badger Sarah with Powerd8 Tom with Agile Weather Vincent with CarProfilez Yvonne (me!) with Oddswop Ah a photo of the grads, directors, interns and mentors (phew I didn't forget anyone)

Re Starting up

I've been busy and head down with a lot of things recently and it's hard to keep a track of it all.  The biggest thing is that I've started down the path again in starting up a start up. It's been a fascinating process and I had a bit of a false start last year when I joined Founder Institute ( fi.co ) and then dropped out for a number of reasons but essentially it was the wrong time.  I've joined again and in it's 3rd season in Sydney I'm hoping to stick to the end.  I've likened it to Survivor for Wantraprenuers to friends.  This semester we're now down to 12 which is a 50% drop off rate since the beginning.  Something like that anyway!  I'm not counting as I've been too busy with the assignments, building the actual business and still working. The new start up is a marketplace... much to the dismay of many of the mentors who make up the foundation of Founder Institute.  And worse it's a marketplace trying to take on the likes of Gum