Just in case you missed it...
Mac & Cheese Is The Ice Cream You Never Thought You'd Need And Now It's Hard To Get
Happy Friday, friends!
Now let's get to it.
Be Helpful (Be First Customers)
Alright, I'm going to date myself here. Bear with me.
Last Friday, I felt like George Costanza in Seinfeld Episode 147: The Comeback. You know, the one where he's upset that he didn't have the right comeback for a joke made about him while eating shrimp at work.
I felt like this after sitting on a panel at the newly-opened Roundhouse in Hazelwood Green. Jim Gibbs, Arun Venkatadri, and I were speaking with a group of emerging leaders from Kansas City, and someone asked the question,
"What can we do to help startups in our city?"
I didn't give the answer I wanted to give, so I wrote about it.
Matt Mercurio: A True Rough Rider
A couple of weeks ago, the Lanespotter team was sitting on Matt Mercurio's front porch when he said these words:
"I think we can spin this up fast using the Fish Fry map."
That's all we needed to hear. We instantly pulled the trigger 🚀
Matt is a map nerd in the best possible way. He's also the co-founder and Geospatial Technology Officer at CivicMapper. This team provides geospatial technology solutions to decision-makers on the front lines of climate, infrastructure, environmental, and mobility issues.
This leads us to...
Lanespotter V2 0.0.0
(Sure, that sounds right)
These are the faces of people who just added safety ratings to Lanespotter for the first time in over two years ☝️ This is huge, people!!!
Matt "The Wizard" Mercurio (I just made this up. Sorry, Matt) built a prototype that we can use to collect safety ratings and test a new database. We reached out to our community to activate ambassadors, and the response has been so much fun.
Bike lovers across the United States - as well as in Brazil, Bulgaria, and Australia - have signed up to help test 🎉
Interested in adding ratings and testing the prototype? Talk to Grant.
Good Media
The kiddo was on vacation with his dad last week. This meant extra work (lots of it), extra bike rides, extra naps (lots of them), and extra Netflix.
When browsing Netflix, I noticed a category called Hidden Gems for You. This was the first one on that list. Released in 2014.
My Beautiful Broken Brain (on Netflix)
After suffering a massive brain hemorrhage, 34-year-old Lotje Sodderland woke up to a new existence of distorted reality where words had no meaning and her senses had completely changed. Lotje started charting her recovery by making videos on her iPhone. She shared some of the videos with David Lynch, and now this documentary exists.
Road Rage, ‘Zipper Merging’ and a Stress-Free Path Through Traffic (from New York Times)
I so so so wish people in Pittsburgh (and everywhere, basically) understood zipper merging. Unfortunately, according to this article, while experts love the zipper merge, drivers are just as likely to see it as others rudely cutting their turn in line.
Don't worry, though. There's a video on YouTube that explains it.
Four Online Community Platforms to Compare for your Startup or Small Business (by Noele Flowers)
We're lucky to work with a lot of engaged, passionate people regularly. When we open our calendars to talk, they schedule time. When we ask for help testing, they raise their hands. So, I've been thinking a lot about the best way to interact with them. This article helped me with that thinking.
💡Solid reminder from the post: You should always start with your vision, or a problem you're trying to solve, and choose your tools to support that outcome.
Download Chapter One
If you're looking for something to read over the weekend, here's a hot 17 pages for you👇
Until next time,
✌️Lynsie
#blacklivesmatter #womxnrule #legalizeit #investinthemidwest