Takara Swoopes Bullock

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My sweet and exciting love affair with Tokyo has finally come to an end. It was an awesome city. I had a great time. But it's over.

Early summer, I sat down with a trusted and respected person in the Tokyo start-up scene who pretty much advised me to get the hell out of Tokyo, if I was serious about my growing my business. 

I followed his advice and within a month, we'd packed it all up, said sayonara, boarded a plane and settled into our new home in the USA. 

So here I am, back in the land of the free :). We've chosen a charming little beach town on the Southern California coast where surf, yoga, coffee, sun, and 72 degree weather is in abundance throughout the year. It's not Silicon Valley, it's not Tokyo, and it's precisely where our family wants to be. Plus, it's a place that gives my business a much better chance for success.

Here's why I moved my start-up from Tokyo.

Tokyo isn't start-up friendly. Tokyo has so much bureaucratic red-tape when starting a business that it pisses you off.

Last year, I was a part of the Entrepreneur Mentorship Initiative in Tokyo and there was a panel of business leaders and government officials discussing all of the factors that make it hard for small businesses to thrive in Tokyo. Among the top factors were, bureaucratic red-tape for even registering your company, the hassle of setting up a business banking account, banking fees, the amount of time it takes for things, the high costs of office space, and the cost of professional service fees.  It was a sad panel and in the end, the panelists were at a stand-still as to how to fix it.

Tokyo has a start-up stigma.  Being an entrepreneur in Tokyo is considered too risky. It's no secret the Japanese are really risk-adverse. Multiply that times ten in the tech start-up world of Tokyo. There's a serious start-up stigma there. I've experienced it first-hand working as a recruiter in the tech-space for five years. Starting your own tech company in Tokyo seems to have an 'untrustworthiness' attachment to it.  As a result, the top talent steer clear or start-ups and you're better off saying which big companies you worked at previously instead of which companies you've started.

Tokyo is hard for foreign business owners. Japan is set up for the Japanese. Understandable, yes. However, in order to be a successful business owner in Japan, the odds of success are significantly increased if you are Japanese and greatly reduced if you are not. If you're not Japanese you're starting ten steps behind the start line. If you speak the language, then you're starting eight steps behind instead of ten. That's still a huge gap to cover once you're off and running.

Seriously, you need to have a Japanese 'face' for your company credibility.  (Unless you're starting an English teaching school, executive search company, or something that makes being foreign a commodity and not a liability.  And even then, having a foreign face is good- but it still helps if you have a Japanese partner, hehehe.)

Tokyo is unbelievably expensive. Starting a company in Tokyo is expensive. People will tell you otherwise but trust me, you don't want to listen to them. Speak with a business lawyer and accountant and understand the 'real big' and expensive picture. The money required to start-up in Tokyo is money better spent on building your actual product or service.

Further you have to be making serious cash in order to have a semi-comfortable standard of living there. Which, was fine when both me and my husband were headhunters and among the top billers in our past company.  But ummmm, when you're trying to be a lean start-up and watch you pennies, Tokyo is a major FAIL.

Side note: The seed money Japanese incubators provide is laughable. 

Tokyo wasn't my target market. I initially wanted to build Hitch'd up in a market that was missing my target audience, North American men and women getting married.  Yeah, call me crazy it's okay. I was trying to make the best out of my situation. I didn't want to leave Tokyo. But alas, the radioactive writing was on the wall. (Joking... kind of.)

 Tokyo has a very small pool of talent.  Speaking as a tech recruiter for five years, the talent pool in Japan is tiny and hard to access. 

Tokyo is the land of the late majority.  If you've read Crossing the Chasm, then you know what I'm referring to. The consumer market in Japan is all about having a LOT of traction before anyone takes you seriously. And, given the type of traction needed to prove yourself- you're no longer an early-stage start-up.

Tokyo is seriously lacking women in business and leadership roles. I believe you can tell a lot about a country and a company by understanding the role women play and positions women occupy within them, respectively.

Women simply are not starting companies or pursuing long term careers outside of the home in Japan. Thus, starting a company as a wife and mom there offers no support system or community to call on. Women in tech are few, and women in tech who are married with children are even fewer.

Contrast that with my current location- I just returned from a playgroup where two of the three other women were business owners with kids under three years old.

(Ironically, my Fulbright scholarship brought me to Japan to study the intersection of career, family and education choices of Japanese women.)

Tokyo has a LOT of earthquakes.  Which if you live there for as long as we did, earthquakes don't really bother you that much anymore. But after the massive earthquake in March, experiencing how strong it felt in Tokyo, and then riding out the endless aftershocks that were equally scary, it was just too much distraction for me trying to build a company and take care of my home and new baby.

The continuing radiation situation is still a MAJOR concern. This may not be the case to some and that is fine. But we have a 10-month old and the way the radiation situation in Fukushima has been and continues to be (mis)handled is simply disturbing. No thank you. （￣へ￣）

I could go on but, simply put, Tokyo is great place to visit and marvel at, but a lousy place to build a start-up and start a family. The only reason to EVER start or move your company there is if you are targeting Japanese customers, have a lot of cash, and are okay with constant red-tape, foot-dragging, endless ambiguity and earthquakes.

---

So Tokyo, because of these reasons, I bid thee farewell. I am forever grateful to you for being the place where I sharpened my sales skills making hundreds of cold calls, I abandoned my need for a car to get around, I found the love of my life, and I gave birth to my first child, my most beautiful blessing and gift yet.

I'll truly miss you, but I'm throwing the deuces.

PEACE!

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I live in the land of long line lovers (I love alliteration). If something is new, cool, and launching for the first time in Tokyo, you'd better believe there's going to be a two to three hour long wait to get in there. 

At first I thought it was a bit bizarre (Americans only stand in long lines at Disney World), until a few years ago, Krispy Kreme entered Tokyo and I found myself wanting a donut so bad that I actually contemplated standing in the longest line I've ever seen in my life!  I'm serious.  Don't believe me?  I took photos...

(Indeed, there is a such thing as a Krispy Kreme line monitor. ha!  I love Tokyo.)

In the case for Krispy Kreme's arrival, there was media hype, word-of-mouth, a fantastic product (mouth. watering. right now!), cool open kitchen window display showing how they actually make the donuts, and the longest line ever. This all made for a great launch recipe. The launch was so successful that they continued to have a line snaking in front of the store for months! I literally had to wait half of a year to get a freakin' donut!

I guess I'd consider myself to be an early adopter.  I love trying out new web apps in beta and have I've entered my email address into plenty of coming soon pages. And, I'm beginning to become a bit annoyed with coming soon pages (especially with my own, but for a different reason)  In particular, the latest incentive-based coming soon pages, that ask you to tweet, share via Facebook and yada yada yada to move you up further on the list.

Really guys?

I get it.  You want to build up your beta list. But, why would I invite my friends to sign-up, when I haven't even tested it out first?  

I think this is a major flaw with the popular viral launching soon pages. This 'hurry up and get access to something you haven't even tried out' push, seems to really only work under a certain set of conditions.  Please don't try to trick or force me into marketing for you. If I like you, I'll tell everyone I know about you.  But, I have to like you first. 

1.  If there's a long line of people waiting to get in already.  A long visible line coming out of the door, makes more people want to know about it and in some cases stand in line for it.

2.  If there's major media hype. Or someone with great influence has already used it and likes it.

We'll be taking our coming soon page down soon, yea boiiiii!  But, I think next time (huh? I MUST be crazy ) I'm going to try something different.  Maybe something like the following message:

Thanks for your interest in Hitch'd. 

We're still rough around the edges and are looking for a few opinionated early users to take us for a spin.  If that's you, enter your email below and we'll be in touch with beta access details:

or

If you'd prefer to be notified when we launch a more polished version, enter your email below:

I may just test this out anyway though...  I love the genuine tone of this.  I also love that it is segmenting our future customers beforehand, for customizing activation lists later.

hmmmmmmm.... NTS (Not toooooo Shabby)

What do you think about this LaunchRock?

Edit:  Changed the spelling from Krispie to Krispy

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I won't launch a thing until I get this metrics tracking system worked out and in place.  So this week, I am focusing all of my time and energy on creating a simple and thorough metrics tracking system, something so simple and good that I can easily look at what's going on and know without a doubt what's happened and what needs to be done.

I'm not a math whiz.  I'm not a programmer.  I'm a sales and marketing girl and former headhunter- so I understand the importance of tracking metrics.  I just don't know how to create a simple system for a tech start-up.  It's like a foreign language to me. Thus, a new challenge I MUST master.

I've come across some good stuff.  By far my favorite is Dave McClure's Start-up Metrics for Pirates.  I must have watched the video and viewed the freakin' slide a good fifty times now, trying to work it all out.  I narrowed it down to six metrics I'd like to track.  Now I need to set up a system where I can easily visualize this stuff and it all means something to me.

I need a simple visual system to 'plug and chug' numbers.  I'm thinking I can create something simple in Google documents, but I need someone to help break it down for me and walk me through it so I can really understand the numbers and focus on the right stuff.  I'm talking really simple.  Like, if traffic conversion is X then my chart should say "Hey, your marketing channels suck. Do something radical or you will FAIL soon."  Or if traffic conversion is awesome my chart will say "Yea boiiiiii!!!  Now we're getting somewhere.  Keep this up!"

I'm serious.  This is the type of metrics chart I need.  Not just something with numbers.  But I want the numbers to really come alive for me.

You never know if you don't ask.  So, I'm asking for help.  Can you help me? If you have a simple and genius system for tracking your metrics, would you kindly share that with me? Please.

If you can, email me at takara at hitchdbydesign.com

I can't pay you much ($50), but if you have the heart of a teacher and can spare an hour of your time by breaking it down for me via Skype, or emailing me your systems and sharing what's worked best for you I'd write a kind and sweet blog post about how helpful you were to me :).

Final plea, help a motha' out :).

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Why does this matter?  Well, my productivity with Hitch'd has gone through the roof!   The analogy that instantly came to mind was an image of the old childhood video game, RC Pro AM. (Ha!)  I have entered a productivity speed inducer.  Please refer to the little red truck visual above. See the arrows?  In this particular game, when you drive over the arrows, you're truck is given a speed boost to help you move ahead of the others.

It feels so good that I wanted to share with you what's worked and helped to accelerate my productivity. Here are six ways to improve your productivity.

1.

Shift Your Mentality.  The saying "whether you think you can or can't, you're right" is pretty spot on.  There's so much stuff out there floating around about how hard it is to be a start-up mom.  Or, how it's almost impossible to start a tech company and have a family.  Ignore all of that bs.  Make sure your mind is in the right gear and that you're doing things to reinforce the positives and purge the negatives.  Don't expect others to believe you can do it, if you yourself don't believe.

Also... don't compare yourself to the single crowd.  The truth is, you are very blessed to be able to have a family and start your own business.  Keep things in the right perspective.

One more thing.  Until recently, I realized that I was still operating with a college student's productivity mentality.  You know the one where you pull an all-nighter to get things done?  If you're not careful, the college productivity mind later translates to, working overtime and staying at the office longer than anyone else to make sure you are on top of your game.

Having just recently transitioned from super high-speed headhunter in Tokyo world, to super high-speed start-up mom with limited chunks of time, I realized that I never really learned how to be productive and how to properly use my time.  Thus, I have been stuck in college productivity mode.  (which sucks, by the way)

I am no longer stuck because I recognized I really needed a better system for productivity.  After this shift, my mind was freed and ideas just started flowing! 

So spend some time getting your mind right.

2.

Get the Apple Iphone.

I'm not going to spend time outlining all of the reasons you should get one.  I'll just say this:

If you don't have an iPhone and you're a start-up mom, you're seriously handicapping yourself.

That's it. 

Moving on.

3.

Use the Kindle for iPhone App. 

At times, I like to nap next to my baby because I love her smell, warmth, and I love that she is so cuddly wuddly :). I try to read as much as possible when she is sleep and I like for her to know that mommy is still very close to her. I've found the iPhone kindle app to be indispensable.

Hard copy books are good but...  are baby attention magnets and are noisy. I have a Kindle with a cute little purple cover that I absolutely love because it was a gift from my husband.  But you know what, I hardly use it these days.  My iPhone has replaced it. 

With the Kindle, Baby K will automatically be distracted by it and will forget about taking a nap and want to chew all over it.  I've found the iPhone Kindle App to be the absolute best for reading book when your baby is napping because it's so small and it doesn't make any noise.  Of course, she love the iPhone as well, but it's easier to hide underneath a pillow and she's already used to seeing it around, so it's like an old toy.

4.

Read, Live, and Breath Getting Things Done.

I'm happy to have my husband helping me with my business and productivity. He's awesome. He's also a huge Getting Things Done advocate.  A few years ago, he recommended the book to me and he bugged me about it so much, that I just lied to him and told him I'd read it.  Horrible... yes I know.

Anyway, I'm reading it now and it really is a great book.  There's a Things desktop app and a Things iphone app that sync and keep it all together.  I'm loving it.  Highly recommend!  My entire productivity operations and business operation are fashioned from this system. I set up my personal and business email system to reflect the system too.  It's great. 

Again.  Highly recommend.

5.

Download and Use Dragon Dictation.

This recommendation came from the book Referral Engine- love this book and love the app they recommended. I downloaded Dragon Dictation for my Iphone and now, instead of trying to steal a few minutes away to answer an email or jot ideas down for a blog post.  I just dictate a draft of email or blog post via this app and email the draft to myself.  When the time comes for me to sit down and work (when husband and Baby K are down for the night), I already have drafted emails and blog postings waiting for me.  So I can just quickly edit them and send them out.

6.

Use Moment Garden.

My home town is in Alabama.  My husband is from Oregon.  We live in Tokyo.  We both come from really big and super loving families who absolutely hate (but understand) us being so far away.  They want to see Baby K's every move. I use Moment Garden to capture quick moments of Baby K via video or phone and I send it via e-mail to Moment Garden, where it's uploaded for all of my family to login and see.  I share at least five or six moments a week.  It's a big hit with the fam.  Some people use facebook for sharing baby moments but I don't that's the right medium for sharing photos of your kids. I don't want everyone seeing my baby.

I also love that Moment Garden is also a new start-up.  Send them some start-up mommy love!

At the end of the day, you don't want to be a stressed out crazy woman whose husband, children, and extended family feel misplaced by your company.  Moment Garden is a great way for me to keep in touch with everyone and share Baby K moments with ease.

---

So, these are the things working great for me right now.  I'd love to hear what works well for you, do please share with me!

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Two weeks ago, my seven month-old was teething, had the worst diaper rash I'd ever seen in my life, and had a fever plus a cold. It was a weekend I will never ever forget.  Ever.

Sometimes being a mommy makes being a start-up founder seem like a breeze... Of course, that's until you peep your competitor's latest activity.  Nothing like a good old punch in the gut every now and then to give you perspective.

When you're building a business and being a mommy, you absolutely must have a sense of humor!  So I give you, 8 Ways Start-ups Are Like Babies. This is supposed to be funny, so try not to take it too seriously and feel free to add your own in the comments.

Here goes:

1.  There's always crap to either clean up or crap you're about to clean up.  And the crap gets more intense the older they get.

2.  Pregnancy and labor are like pre and post-launch.  At first you think the former is the hard part so you spend all of your time reading about pregnancy and labor, but then you have the baby and realize, that was nothing compared to what's really in store.

3.  You can always be a better parent and spend more time with your kids.  You can always be a better founder and spend more time with your business.  Catch 22. 

4.  Both are major c-blockers. (ha!)

5.  Both seem like really good ideas... at the time.

6.  Both give you proud moments when you are just filled with absolute joy and feel on top of the world, then you have a seriously crappy day and it all sucks.

7.  You see the absolute very best and the potential in both of them.

8.  For both of them you're thinking, "I wish a ---- would utter a negative word about either of them..." (See Ced the Entertainer King of Comedy to get this)  "That's us partna, 4 AND 5." (From 3:38)

hahahah!  Okay, back to the baby and business grind I go.

Happy Monday.  What else should be on the list?

Edit:  one more... they both keep you up late at night.

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We are fine.  I am writing this brief post from my in-law's home in Oregon with my lovely little Baby K sound asleep at my side.  G is still in Tokyo, missing us :) and we are truly missing him.  It's been a long and intense past few weeks, but things are beginning to get back to normal and we hope to return to Tokyo at the end of this month.

I truly appreciate everyone's sweet messages and prayers.  With the excepton of a minor inconvenience it caused our family, we are fine.  However, the Tohoku region is not fine and my guess is that it will not be for some time.  The Tohoku region holds a very special place in my heart, as I considered Sendai my "Japan Hometown" since I attended Tohoku University.  I am still in disbelief over what has happened there.  Please, keep the region and victims in your prayers as they begin to get their heads around it all and attempt to rebuild.

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Just read about Google's venture into the wedding space via this Techcrunch article, "You May Kiss the Bride, Thanks to Google Weddings".  In short, a host of to-be-weds use Google documents and various apps for their wedding planning needs because they're FREE!  Google recognized this and put all of these commonly used apps together on a wedding-styled site and voila, Google Weddings.

I'm launching a start-up soon in the wedding space soon (details here) and I am often disappointed with the lack of innovation in the industry as a whole.  Admittedly, this was one of the appeals of having a web start-up in this space. I've joined several wedding and bride focused communities over the past year to track conversations and I am amazed at how behind industry leaders are in technology use.

Aesthetically, the online wedding space is outdated (still very pre-web 2.0, very flat) and there seems to be an old-school versus new school debate emerging among wedding service providers.  A popular blog topic these days among wedding professionals is, "When to Disclose Your Price to the Bride." The old school is against up front price disclosure, citing price shouldn't be the only determining factor for couples making a decision.  How idealistic and a weeee bit delusional.  This way of doing business may have worked pre-internet, but it's generations x, y, and younger marrying today.  We like social media, shiny things, and great looking websites with information about your service and price.  We often equate a company's web presence with level and quality of service.

Crappy website = Clueless business owner and questionable service. 

No Price Listed = Email List bait and a waste of my time.

As for the technology used in the wedding space, most of the new online apps consists of different variations of wedding planning software.  And, wedding content portals such as TheKnot.com still rule supreme, despite their broken wedding vendor services advertising system. Interestingly, the predominant existence of TheKnot.com has created an 'alternative' community of wedding bloggers to fill in the gaping whole of the lack of fresh wedding content and ideas.

Thus, I truly believe the wedding space is primed for technology disruption and more modern methods of doing business online. 

So, to Google I send a big fat thanks!  People pay attention to Google, (even if the TC comments section think Google Weddings is a big joke).  Truth is, weddings, like other female-focused online consumer niches just don't attract much attention from tech, start-ups followers, or VCs.  However, female focused consumer niche start-ups have great potential, often times a very engaged audience and a lagging innovation drive making it perfect for disruption. (Yeah!!!!)

So, while most of start-up bubble world is busy creating apps for themselves (the new start-ups to help start-ups trend), I am focused on creating a needed app for a niche very much in need of an online technology upgrade.  Indeed, Google + Weddings = A very much needed attention to the online wedding space.

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Here's an interesting technology find that could be a wonderful tool within the wedding stationery design and print space.

Mac Funamizu has created an Electronic Origami machine (concept only), which helps you print paper 3D models. When I read about this, I instantly thought of couples getting married looking to add those special touches to their day- which are often DIY and painfully time-consuming.

I am personally really excited about the technology adoption happening in the wedding space?  In only five years, I can only imagine how much technology will have changed the wedding industry drastically.  And, you know what that means...  Old, bitter, disgruntled anti-DIY wedding pros who hate innovation will finally throw their hands up and say to hell with it all.  [*happy dance*]

Until then, I'l sit and wait patiently for the Wedding Cake Create and Bake Machine :).

Read the full article here: "Dream Paper Concept"

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We've been receiving a lot of interest in our wedding stationery builder lately, which is making us even more excited about our upcoming launch :).  *happy dance* 

So here's a peek at what we've been working on.  And here's the back story "Why I'm Building a DIY Wedding Stationery Creator."

There is new type of couple emerging in the wedding industry who is more resourceful, creative, and budget-focused. Our stationery design tool was created specifically with the creative and budget-conscious couple in mind to address their needs in the wedding stationery market.

Looks like we'll be able to have our first batch of testers as early as February.  As we draw closer, we'll continue to release more details. Help us spread the word and if you'd like to give it a whirl as an early tester, sign up below. 

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Here's a snapshot showcase of their excellent design work! We've also created a stash of wedding cakes, mini-cakes, and cupcakes below.  Pop over to the full site for a true design experience.

Follow Cake Sweet Cakes on Twitter & Like them on Facebook!

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If you could change anything about the planning process, what would it be? Looking back on planning for my big day, there were a few things that annoyed me a bit. Thought I'd share a few with you.

1.  Wedding information overload.

Wedding stuff is everywhere on the web... but you still have to piece it all together like a puzzle. I had no idea what I was getting into when I began planning my wedding.  I was disappointed with the lack of concrete and comprehensive resources available online.  This was a serious problem for us during our planning. 

I didn't really take to the wedding portals (ie. The Knot, Wedding Wire, etc.) as I would have liked to.  They felt limiting.  I tried them all out, but preferred blogs over portals. Thing about blogs though, there were only a few in 2008.  Plus, you have to dig into their archives. Also, most blogs are about inspiration and not so much about the planning process itself.   

2.  Preferred vendor lists. 

I know I know, everyone is doing it. But I'm not a fan of preferred vendor lists.  I understand why lists like these exist and have become popular, but the issue I have is, it's often unclear how the recommender is benefiting, thus seriously compromising the trust factor. 

3.  Bride-centric everything.

Bride bride bride. They say it's all about pleasing the bride, but you know, it's really not. I think bride-centric days are numbered.  I'm not saying grooms will start tweeting 'Dude, check out these mason jar cupcakes!" but, I think grooms are becoming much more involved in the details of the day.

4. Keeping everyone up-to-date.

I hated this, but boy was it important. We created a wedding website using Weebly. It was alright, but I probably would go with another service (Wedful!) if I had to do it all over.  Our wedding website was just one more thing to remember and-- I seldom remembered to update it. 

What worked best was, I created pdf newsletters to introduce our wedding party to each other and to keep them all informed. It was a big hit. But keeping family updated and answering questions all of the time... it was tough.  I'd probably use Facebook to communicate with everyone now. 

5.  Wedding websites using flash and music. 

Why is this still happening? There's nothing worst than opening up a page that has a random song blasting. It's distracting. I usually just exit immediately. 

As for flash, you can't right click and save details from the page.  Boooo!  We're all about saving stuff for later these days!

6.  Wedding services provider websites missing phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and prices.

Come on now...

7.  The follow-up. 

I was shocked at the ratio and quality of follow-ups in the wedding space. Some people followed-up, some didn't.  Some called.  Some emailed.

I noticed though, there is a HUGE quality gap. There's the top and the rest. We were really focused on quality of service and didn't mind paying a premium for it so we gravitated towards the top.  Who knows how things would have turned out if we'd done otherwise.  

This should serve as motivation to the really good service providers who get it-- keep it up!  You guys really stand out!  It's evident right away when you have it together. When it was time for us to decide, we chose the service providers who were more professional, more polished, and had great communication and follow-through.  Our wedding planner was awesome!

8.  Wedding professional egos. 

Okay, so you've been featured a few times on X- blog and Y- TV show, awesome, happy to hear  it's all working out for you.  But ummmm, let's keep in mind my wedding isn't for you to showcase YOUR vision for my day.

9.  Gift registries.

I hate gift registries. You have to dedicate so much time to selecting and choosing and yada yada yada.  Since we were in Tokyo and there were no international registries I just didn't want to deal with the hassle of it all.  We tried Amazon's wedding registry, it was a joke and it seemed broken or something.  We ended up going with Target and some department store.

10.  RSVPs.

Something that really annoyed and amused me was RSVPs. I was excited to receive them, but before long, I noticed a trend.  His side RSVPd quickly and the return rate was like 80%.  My side, however, didn't do it quickly and the return rate was about 15%. My side either emailed me, told over the phone, or assumed I knew they were coming.  Seriously!

I was warned by a friend, "Black folks do not RSVP".  Ha!  In our case, it was so true.  And to make this even funnier, after I shared this with my side, all of a sudden, I started receiving RSVPs from them.  WTH?

Tell me, if you could change anything about the planning process, what would it be?

Like this?  Tell us! Say "Hi!" on Facebook and Twitter.

Give Hitch'd a Whirl- Try it Out and Tell Us What You Think!

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Waiting // Engagement Time Lapse from Kien Lam on Vimeo.

Garry and Steph met and fell in love in SF. For their engagement video, we metaphorically recreated their meeting and first date. This was made with about 1000 photographs.

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Can you believe 2012 is just around the corner?

I thought I'd kick off the week with more wedding start-up inspiration. Since our first wedding start-up watch, I've uncovered six more services to add to the growing list of start-ups entering the wedding space. A few have just launched, while others have been going for months.

I've poked around each one and there are some great ideas being developed. Definitely visit their sites, sign-up, and show them some love on Facebook and Twitter.

Here's the latest round-up!

Dress Rush

Guilt Group + Groupon For Weddings

The Gown Swap

Wedding Attire Marketplace

Marry This

Wedding Guides for The Smart Bride

SnapKnot

Wedding Photographer Directory

Wedding Planner Love

Wedding Planner Directory

Wedit

Wedding Guest Produced Videos

Well done fellow founders!  I'm looking forward to seeing how these develop over the next year!

Like this?  Tell us! Say "Hi!" on Facebook and Twitter.

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When you have caring, supportive and awesome people in your corner, it makes a world of difference. 

This is Rob, founding partner and CTO.

This is Keryn, our Graphics and UI Designer.

This is Sean, our Front-end Developer.

I'm the luckiest girl ever because I get to work with each of you. Thanks for all of your hard work and devotion!  We still have a long way to go, but I coudn't have a better team to get there with.

Mwah!!

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Created by the awesome Rob, Hitch'd CTO! Enjoy ;)

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I'm loving how wedding fashion and design are evolving, aren't you? I was just admiring runway looks for 2012 and thought I'd curate a collection that I'd love to see in the new crop of wedding looks this spring.

Loving the jewel studded gowns by Giorgio Armani (see the trio below) and the chic Jil Sander paisley pencil dresses.  I could see all of these in a wedding- one with a handsome budget, that is.

Did you know we're launching something fun?  We'd love for you to join us!  Sign up and we'll be in touch with details!  Hitch'd FAQ

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Welcome, new Hitch'd-sters!

We are so excited to finally send out the first batch of invites to Hitch'd. It has been four months since we first began accepting invite requests and we are working as hard as we can to process all of the requests for access. We hope to have the entire list processed in the next week, so hang tight.

We are launching Hitch'd with a sincere desire to make saving all of your online wedding stuff and discovering new wedding services and products much easier. Like many of you, we like to collect stuff online for referencing later and sharing.  Hitch'd was created to to help digitize the 'wedding stuff' collection process.

While there already exists excellent services for bookmarking images (pinterest) and for saving wedding inspiration (lover.ly), Hitch'd was created to help you save EVERYTHING wedding related into neat little stash of stuff to visually reference later.  Keep your stashes private, or share the publically, it's up to you.

In the coming weeks, we have much more to share and introduce to you. For now, have fun getting to know Hitch'd!

Happy Hitch'ding!

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What is it Hitch'd-embed?

1.  A fab new way to display your collections of wedding stuff!

2.  A much easier way to polish up your blog, without all of the technical stuff :).

3.  A true time-saver, embed on your blog within seconds!

We hope you like it!

To create your own Hitch'd-embed (public and private), like us on Facebook go here for early access to Hitch'd.

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Hello Hello Hello!  We're back and oh so excited to announce our new location! Hitch'd is now in California!

Last Wednesday, we settled into a lovely Southern California city located in North San Diego County, Encinitas. Let me just say, it is truly a gorgeous little beach town and the weather is UNREAL. Seriously... gorgeous all of the time. This place is wedding heaven.

Since relocating and despite the recent blackout, we've been busy connecting with nearlyweds, wedding bloggers, photographers, and wedding pros for feedback. We can't wait to show you everything we've been working on!

If you haven't already signed up, here's where to go for early access to Hitch'd!

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If I've been bit quiet over here, it's for a good reason. We've been hammering down details of some exciting news and I can finally share it.

Hitch'd is moving to the USA!  Woohooo!

When I began working on Hitch'd, being based in Tokyo didn't seem like such a big deal. However, with our ambitious goals, we think it's better we're back home in the US, so we're moving!

More details to come, but it's okay to get excited with us now!!

Yay!!

Our tiny mover

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The wedding space it such a unique industry to be a part of. I am truly thankful and blessed to even be able to launch a business in this space, from Tokyo.

I have a lot to learn and I'm enjoying connecting with and making new friends.  I must say, so far the reception has been very warm and welcoming (sans a few unanswered emails, but hey... all inboxes are not created equal!)

Anyway, prior to my current wedding start-up founder pursuits, I spent my days helping international online media and e-commerce companies entering Japan, find senior talent. In other words, I was a headhunter.  And for four years, I recruited bilingual Japanese to foreign companies in Tokyo.

I had a lot of fun, met some awesome people, and learned many great lessons.

One of the most important lessons working in that space taught me was the value of being helpful to others. I learned to ask the question, "Is there anything I can help you with?" I was often surprised at the response I received from clients as well as candidates.  First, shock. Then, a smile. Then a genuine response, no guards up.

Often in the business world, we get so caught up in 'making it happen' that we forget the real reason our company or position exists.  To help. 

As Hitch'd draws nearer to launch, I genuinely want to know, is there anything I can help you with?  What problems are you encountering planning your own wedding?  If you're a service provider, what problems are you encountering and trying to solve?  I'd love to hear from you.

Let's connect, I love making new friends Linkedin. Or, email me at takara at hitchdbydesign.com You never know, perhaps in the future we could help each other out.

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Have you caught the visual bookmarking wave yet? If not, hop on or at least give it a try, as I think it's only the beginning of a new technology that will be sure to have an impact on the wedding industry, soon. 

Visual social bookmarking sites, some which are also social commerce sites, let you go around the web saving things you like for referencing later, through the use of a bookmarklet. It's a fantastic way to organize, visualize, and have a lot of fun saving all of your inspiration and sweet finds from everywhere on the web, in one place.  And, from a practical standpoint, it's so much better than sifting through a long list of bookmarked sites.  Which is exactly why it's such a wonderful technology for the wedding industry!

Visual bookmarking is a welcome upgrade to the limiting and frustrating clipboards and notebooks currently used by popular wedding content portals.

There are currently a dozen or so visual bookmarking sites serving various niches on the web. Since we will soon be launching a service with visual bookmarking targeting the wedding space, I thought I'd share a list of similar services for you to check out and spend time with, until we launch.  Of course after we launch, you'll become a loyal Hitch'd Stasher :).

Here are 10 Visual Social Bookmarking Sites to Inpsire Your Wedding...

Fancy

Fashiolista

Hitch'd (Wedding Focused)

Lover.ly (Wedding Focused)

Lyst

pinterest

svpply

Wanelo

Weddzilla WedMark

Wingtipit

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 Follow @HitchdDesign

If you haven't already, sign up to be among our first users when we open our doors. Consider this your personal invitation to be a part of a smarter way to organize wedding favorites.

Also, I love helping new friends, so feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook and let's connect.

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I was born in 1980 and my very first memory of attending a wedding was when I was five or six years old.  I remember hot purple taffeta bridesmaides dresses with puffy sleeves. I thought they were the prettiest dresses ever!

I probably wouldn't think that now.

Today, I'm introducing a new series to the Hitch'd Blog, "Throwback Thursdays".  Every Thursday, we'll be taking a look back at some of the fab and not so fab wedding trends from back in the day. 

Today we're taking it back to the 80s and 90s cake era... with columns. Prepare yourself.

(sigh) This is so much fun.

source

Source

Source

And we're done.

Happy Thursday :).

Follow @HitchdDesign

If you'd like to connect, reach out to me via LinkedIn, Twitter, and or Facebook. I love making new friends!

Did you know we're launching something fun?  We'd love for you to join us!  Sign up and we'll be in touch with details!  Hitch'd FAQ

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Are you aware of the innovation going on in the wedding space these days? 

There's a new generation of wedding start-ups emerging and starting to make waves in the calm wedding industry waters. I've counted nine new web-based companies that have either entered or are entering the online wedding space this year, nine (Hitch'd included).  This is exciting!

{Waves} *Hi-ya fellow wedding start-up founders!* 

I have a feeling we're about to see the wedding industry pick it up a notch in the tech and innovation category. We may even see new business models emerging, woohooo!

Right now, seven of the nine are hidden behind virtual curtains (coming soon and sign-up pages).  The remaining two, The Aisle New York and Wedding Invite Love, have already launched and seem to have been received very well by the industry.

I am curious to see how the remaining start-ups will develop over the next year.  There may even be the next Knot, excuse me XO formerly known as the Knot (heheh), or Wedding Wire among this class!

Here's the roundup. 

Bridesview

Daily Aisle

Hitch'd

Loverly

On the Go Bride

Something Borrowed

The Aisle New York

Wedding Invite Love

Wed Over Heels

Founders, I gathered this information fairly quickly so feel free to chime in with additional details, photos, and links. If you'd like to connect, reach out to me via LinkedIn, Twitter, and or Facebook. I love making new friends!

Follow @HitchdDesign

Did you know we're launching something fun?  We'd love for you to join us!  Sign up and we'll be in touch with details!  Hitch'd FAQ

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You ever wonder what makes a Facebook fan page successful? (Hint:  It's not the number of fans.)  I've been asking this question a lot lately as we just began improving our own Facebbok page.  Facebook represents an untraditional way of marketing and engaging your customer. Not everyone will agree, but I think Facebook can really enhance your business if done right.  Thing is, exactly what is right?

To help answer that question, I've been spending some time learning more about using Facebook as a business.  I took a little time out to wonder around Facebook wedding page land to learn a few best practices from other wedding related sites who have experienced success with their pages.  I finally settled on Style Me Pretty.

Here are three things that stand out about the SMP Facebook page.

1.  They ask great questions.

2.  They interact regularly with a genuine voice.

3.  They promote content and finds not related to their domain.

I also like that SMP likes to give wedding services and brands a voice on their page as well.  I've noticed that often times, it's the wedding pros that are chiming in on most Facebook pages as much if not more, than nearlyweds themselves.  Nice that they're not hushing them.

I'm new to this Facebook business thing, so I'd like to know from you, what works?  What makes you join and interact on a Facebook page?

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Say Hi on Our Facebook Page

Did you know we're launching something fun?  We'd love for you to join us!  Enter your e-mail below to be among the first to try Hitch'd.

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