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Hi. My name is Adam. I am the co-founder of Pure Adapt, Inc in Albany, NY. We own Detailed Image, LockerPulse, and a bunch of other websites. I write about our company, entrepreneurship in general, work-life balance, and whatever else interests me.
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How We Make Business Decisions – The CAG Model
I’ve noticed over the years that we’ve become very balanced in our decision making. I think that comes from having a very diverse set of partners. Almost every major decision involves a group discussion in which we discuss the pros and cons of the decision, as well as the priorities of making a decision (sometimes the best business decision is to just leave something alone). And, for the most part, we’ve been successful with this approach. Not like billion dollar successful, but continuous, steady, profitable growth in a down economy. I was thinking a lot about this the other day. … Continue reading
Warehouse Heating Problem Solved…3+ Years Later
When we first moved in to our warehouse back in February of 2008 we were less than thrilled with the heating situation. Don’t get me wrong – the place was the perfect size for the perfect price, and to be honest the low cost of operating it is probably one of our biggest assets…but the heating situation still sucked. There were two oil heating units, one for the office and one for the warehouse, both of which looked like they were no less than fifty years old. The place hadn’t had an occupant in over five years, so the oil … Continue reading
A Randomly Selected, Potentially Awesome Post From 2/6/2008
How I Feel a Day Later
That didn’t really go as I expected at all. Here’s what I thought would happen: Most people would question the business decision to get rid of clients. I know we went back and forth on it a lot, and clients have always been a source of revenue for me long before Pure Adapt, so there is a risk involved of cutting yourself off completely from that revenue. Clients would get back to me ASAP and my phone/email would be blowing up with questions. I’d have a real difficult time with a few bigger clients, especially ones that have 50% finished … Continue reading
Teamwork in Action
I’m writing this on Wednesday morning. Up to this point my work this week hasn’t really resembled what a “normal” workweek looks like for me. At all. I’ve spent the majority of my time in the warehouse helping the guys pack orders (we had a really successful early early holiday sale), answering customer service questions (which spike during big sales like this), and interacting with job candidates for our customer service position. Kind of a far cry from the usual web development and web marketing stuff. Why? Because while I was away Greg closed on a new house. Mike and … Continue reading
Do I Ever Get Bored Running Our Business?
Last week one of the students asked me whether or not I get bored running our company, being that we’ve been in business since 2006 and that entrepreneurs tend to have a lot of ideas. I thought this was a really good question. I answered that yes, I have gotten bored, but no I am not bored right now. To elaborate: Yes, in the past I have gotten bored. It’s usually when I’m in between projects, or when I’m working on a project that is long and tedious (and well, boring). Sometimes projects that are necessary to scale a business … Continue reading
Web Venturing Class Mid-Semester Update
I spent last week down in Harrisonburg, VA at James Madison University, giving my “entrepreneurship as a career choice” talk to two classes and also working with students from the web venturing class that I’m co-teaching. My original plan was to get down to JMU early in the semester to meet all of the students. I thought it would be good to interact face-to-face to form those personal relationships that are hard over Skype and email. Unfortunately, that pesky hurricane happened and I was forced to postpone my travel plans. I ended up giving the first lecture, on AdSense, from … Continue reading
A Big Deal For Detailed Image
Today we’re really excited to be the featured partner for the launch of Car and Driver Magazine’s Dashboard Deals as well as Road and Track Magazine’s First Look Rewards, their new Groupon-like daily deal programs. I’m traveling this week. More to come on this when I return.
Standing Desks are Awesome (and exhausting)
In August I pulled a muscle in my back. It was bad enough that sitting for long periods of time became uncomfortable. This was a big problem because, well, I sit all day long while I work. About a year ago I wrote about my efforts to sit less, which included using a standing station for my laptop sometimes. In that post I outlined all of the mounting research that suggests that sitting all day long can be bad for you. After that I continued to make a conscious effort to stand and move more in general. Still, I spent … Continue reading
New Pure Adapt Site and…We’re Hiring!
Over the years we’ve unfortunately neglected the PureAdapt.com website. Aside from changing a few bits of information, we hadn’t updated the design since the 2008 redesign. For better or worse there’s always been something more important to work on, and the old site got the job done, so we just left it. However, as we started to discuss our hiring plan, we realized that the Pure Adapt website all of a sudden became a more important piece of the puzzle. We needed something that showcased our work, our personalities, and our culture. Finally this past weekend we launched a new … Continue reading
The Inmates are Running the Asylum Today
Today, like many other days, I will be working from home. Mike and Greg however, will also be working from home. Meaning that for the first time in our company history, our warehouse will be run by our employees. In some ways this really isn’t a big deal. Charlie, our warehouse manager, has shown that he is more than capable of running the show. There have been many days where I’ve been in and haven’t had to do much at all to keep things moving in the right direction out there. I have all the confidence in the world that … Continue reading
LockerPulse Fantasy Player Tracking Launched!
On Saturday we wrapped up and released one of my favorite projects I’ve ever worked on: LockerPulse fantasy player news tracking. My partners and I have all been avid fantasy players for years (I was in leagues where Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith were the consensus top 2 picks!) and like all fantasy football players, we’re looking for any informational edge that we can get to help us win. Especially Sunday mornings, and especially when injuries are involved. There’s nothing worse than starting a guy who isn’t going to play. After launching LockerPulse it didn’t take us long to realize … Continue reading