Startups: Steer Clear of Bruce Keltner in Tulsa
Sometime in your startup’s life you’re going to bring on consultants that CAN deliver the moon and the stars… just like they suggest they could. Other times… you’ll wish you’d never brought that consultant on. Such is the case with my experience with Bruce Keltner of Keltner & Associates here in Tulsa. What he did NOT deliver was 180 degrees opposite of what he set my expectations for.
While Grocio’s engagement with Bruce was not a positive one he’s probably achieve good results for someone. Not us though. I’d just not recommend him if you’re a pre-revenue startup. And, while each company’s situation is different… I’m a big fan of returned phone calls and better performance from a consultant.
So… After contracting him he said he was leaving the country next day (I should have run the other direction when I heard that). Not only did he NOT leave the country… He didn’t return emails during that period (and several days after). I relied on one recommendation for Bruce and should have requested more (many more). I’m not sure that would have changed things though… what’s he going to do? Give me disgruntled references? So, I suspect I’d be in the same boat. Which is why I’m putting this out there with Bruce Keltner’s name all over the place… to help other startups learn from another one’s experience.
Don’t do retainers with Bruce Keltner folks. Just don’t. Pay for performance would be a better deal. If he’s not willing to work on those terms… He’s not going to get it done for you.
Again, this is just one startup’s experience under what I’d consider ordinary circumstances. Steer clear of Bruce Keltner in Tulsa.
OKC.Grocio.com (Atlanta too)
Happy to say we’ve added Oklahoma City’s local grocery deals site.
I’m getting interesting feedback on what these sites could include over time. So, if there are things you’d like to see… don’t be shy.
PS – Atlanta’s local Grocio.com was launched at the same time.
Launched Tulsa.Grocio.com
Tulsa now has it’s own local Grocio mini-site.
This is our debut local site and many more will follow (some later in the day). Initially, these will give shoppers immediate access to local bargain information like circulars and coupons. As soon as our grocer partners are on board… we’ll launch the big enchilada.
~Gerald
Beta.Grocio.com is Now Open
We’ve made a substantial amount of progress on the comparison shopping side of Grocio.com. To the point now we’re opening the Beta to all shoppers. Grocio’s beta will remain open right up to launch and will see frequent updates.
A couple of things to keep in mind:
1) Limit your comparison shopping to 74114 zip code (and surrounding Tulsa area). While you certainly can check your home zip code (and I’d encourage you to do so) you won’t be able to select grocers to comparison shop. If we’re missing grocery store locations for your zip code… please let me know via email, Get Satisfaction or even here at this blog.
2) The product database, while large, is incomplete. We’ve loaded ONLY food items at this point and no cleaning or hygeine products. Also, when you shop for something like “Cheerios” we’re not yet presenting varietals (or sizes, colors, etc).
3) The pricing database is NOT accurate. Please, don’t expect a $.18 two liter of anything 
We’ve randomized the pricing just to gain a sense of how things scale and to tune for response time. Repeat, these prices are not accurate. Don’t rely on them for your shopping trips until we issue the all clear.
4) There are no coupons loaded into the shopping database just yet. My hope is to create some test coupons so as to show how the whole thing would work. Right now, I’m on vacation and have four little kids climbing on me routinely for fun and attention. But, I’ll get to it soon.
Have fun and please let us know what you’re experiencing (good and bad). You’ll find we’re super responsive to feedback and give your suggestions a lot of thoughtful consideration.
BETA Launch!
Just a moment ago I pressed “send” inviting all 18,000+ registered shoppers of Grocio.com to commence the latest round of beta testing. To really sock it to us. I’m on pins and needles as this is a really big moment. The tech sure feels solid. I think we’ve done our homework. But, if it’s a big belly flop we’ll learn our lessons, dust ourselves off and do it again.
And that’s what makes this so fun – I have a great band of family, friends, developers, investors, grocers and registered shoppers who are rooting for this to be something special. To each of them, for bringing things to this amazing moment… Thank you!
Time to expand! Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit & Tampa
Grocio just launched the Oklahoma City grocery and coupon widget. I’d embed it here… but the hosted WordPress doesn’t allow me to do that. Easy enough to click through and see Tulsa’s in action on Grocio.com though.
What I’m looking for now are helpers in the following cities:
- Atlanta
- Chicago
- Detroit
- Tampa
I’m ready to make assignments to people for this past weekend’s circulars as soon as tonight!
Who I’m looking for are people who
- A) have access to the PRINTED local Sunday paper of the city in question
- B) have internet access on early Sunday mornings
- C) can type well and
- D) can commit to doing this on a weekly basis.
For the sake of speed I’m not inclined to assign all circulars to a single person in each city. There’s also the possibility you want to go on vacation or take a week off… whatever… so it’s necessary to have a few willing/capable people in each city. I will (and do) make special exceptions though.
Send me an email and let’s talk turkey!
ANNOUNCE: Local Widgets
Always keep up to speed on local grocery sales and coupons!
Grocio’s first widget is available! http://bit.ly/xILkU Your feedback needed & most definitely welcome.
The neat thing about this is you can see all the local stores, their sale items, all the locally printed coupons as well as the coupons available via the internet.
But, perhaps the most useful of all the tabs in the widget are the matchups. If you’re already couponing you know about matchups and stacking. If you’re new to the whole couponing thing… matchups are when you get the biggest bang for your buck… A coupon plus a sale! The matchups for this, our first widget, come from Sarah Roe, the 918CouponQueen.
For now, I hope you’ll download Grocio’s first widget at http://bit.ly/xILkU and give it a spin. Then, let me know what we need to do to make it even better.
Local grocery and coupon RSS feeds
Grocio just keeps pumping out the goodies. Due to good old fashioned midnight oil and caffeinated beverages.
So, I’m super happy to unveil our latest - localized RSS feeds. Lots of times people ask… “Did such-and-such have so-and-so on sale this week?” Or, “Were there any coupons for so-and-so?” Local RSS feeds will help solve that.
We’ve started with Tulsa to perfect the process (as we do with so many things it seems) and this one will immediately get applied to Oklahoma City. From there we’ll take a more deliberate approach to the rest of the U.S.
To see our current crop of RSS feeds:
Licensing?
You bet! Some enterprising folks out there might realize just how much data we’re on the verge of gathering and how they might be able to put that to use… All I ask is that you give Grocio, Inc. proper attribution. Yes, I’m specifically stating you CAN use the data but you must first obtain written permission (the gathering of this information doesn’t come cheap) and provide proper sourcing in your own work, ie. “Data provided by Grocio.com” The licensing term will be for one year.
I’ll be very interested in knowing what you think and how these can be made better. Simply email me or comment here.
Introducing Local Sales & Coupon RSS Feeds
Today marks Grocio’s entry into local grocery RSS feeds.
- Tulsa Homeland Sales Circular (ready NOW)
- Tulsa Reasors Sales Circular (tonight)
- Tulsa Food Pyramid Circular (tonight)
- Tulsa Warehouse Market Circular (tonight)
- Tulsa/Oklahoma City Coupons
Tulsa will be our first market for the grocery sales RSS feeds and the free standing inserts (coupons) which appear in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City newspapers will be our first local coupon RSS feeds. Each will be updated weekly. Oklahoma City will be our next market and will debut VERY soon.
As this is our first step towards syndicated local content it would be great to know what we’re doing well, what we need to consider doing beyond this and what needs to be modified to be more useful. An idea coming to mind… “matchups”. We also suspect RSS may be only one of many way’s you’d like to hear about the new sales and coupons in your area. You tell me!
I’m excited to be bringing this new Grocio product line to you and I hope to understand more about what you need/want it to become.
~Gerald
Make MORE $$ From Home
We’ve just about perfected the whole “transcribing grocery circulars” project. We’ll be moving onto Oklahoma City’s Daily Oklahoman next and then expanding quickly into some very specific larger cities. The local free standing inserts (FSI) contain all the printed coupons. These are usually different from city to city.
As we turn our attention to other cities new opportunities are opening up. If you’re interested in committing to a little bit of Sunday morning work give me a shout. We’ve settled on pricing and need to line up our commitments. I’d prefer to work with folks who can make regular commitments from week to week and build up their proficiency. It’s steady work and easy extra income.
The payment settlements can happen via check, PayPal, Amazon Payments and even via TwitPay. Pay is usually sameday as the work. So, no lengthy waiting for the mailman unless you just prefer that paper check.
