We are not buyers

"You could die in here and nobody would find you for weeks" was the last thing I wanted to hear out of Tom as we explored deeper into (what could only be described as) the catacombs of the San Francisco Gift Center.  Decrepit mannequins stared out unflinching from darkened exhibition spaces, following our moves past shuttered doorways.  Boxes littered the hallway while the occasional lighted portal would showcase rotund Greek men with bug-eyes bulging through loops as they tinkered with jewelry.

Tom and I had entered the twilight zone.  Or more correctly, the exhibition space at the San Francisco Gift Center, which was supposedly hosting a consumer product exhibition but for all intents and purposes could have served as the set of a zombie film.

Technically, this show was "open to the Trade only" [sic].  Why the Trade was capitalized, or how we could become one of the Trade, was a mystery.  Apparently, all we had to do was show a business card at the front desk and the gilded doors to the expo were opened.  It was rather lackluster, however, until we stumbled onto the fifth floor.  What had been shambles of jewelry turned into acres and acres of tableware--like the Valhalla that plates you accidentally break in the dishwasher go to.  We met some great contacts and some good competition, but it's fun to be part of the Trade...even though we don't really know what it is.

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Posted by Michael 

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Practice makes perfect

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You would think that taking a simple photograph would be easy.  Boy were we wrong.  What started out as a simple operation on our dining room table turned into something so much more.  We realized that you can't do things like mix natural, fluorescent and tungsten light (unless you want all your photographs to come out brown).  We realized that if you photograph on a dark-wood surface, you get dark-wood light reflected into what you are taking a picture of, and it doesn't look right at all.  After a few failed attempts on the dining room table, we moved to the entryway hall, where Tom created an immaculately constructed diorama box that we hoped would light the Salsabol the way we wanted it.  I took about a hundred photographs and was content that we would get something good.

A week later when it came time to finish the site and add the photos, it turned out nothing had come out right.  The lighting, the background, nothing we wanted had worked out, and we had given it our all-- "We tried our best and couldn't do it," said Tom.  Luckily our friend Anne was able to suggest a budding professional photographer friend named Abe.  When we walked into their studio in an old converted chemical factory, we realized that they actually knew what they were doing.  We were elementary school T-ball to their major league setup.  It took them less than half an hour to snap all the photos we needed, in massive high resolution shots that came out beautifully.  And that's what we have on our website today.

I don't know if there's a moral to be taken from this or not.  The closest I can come is "if at first you don't succeed, get help from somebody who knows what they are doing."

Posted by Michael 

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A well deserved rest

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After packing a total of...two press-kit boxes, Tom decided that he had earned himself a siesta on the carpet.  This wouldn't be an issue except he decided to use the stack of flat boxes as a pillow.  We've still got a long night ahead of us, but I think I'll let him sleep a little while longer.

And yes, that is a copy of the 1997 bestselling publication, Learn To Surf sitting on the coffee table.

Posted from San Francisco, CA
Posted by Michael 

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Salsabols like pope hats

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Our Salsabols came in from the warehouse today, and I went ahead and got a dozen crates so we could begin sending out samples.  Unfortunately, "a dozen" cases on paper seems a lot smaller than "a dozen" actually is in real life.  There are Salsabols literally strewn about everywhere in my apartment.  I can't get from the couch to the bathroom without completing a Nickelodeon Guts style obstacle course.

 

It reminds me of one of my favorite "best of" craigslist posts, which is probably my favorite because it reminds me so much of real life.  It has been reposted below:

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Because of this terrible economy, I'm having to shut down my business. I have OVER 1300 Pope hats (replicas) that I REALLY need to get rid of. The pope hats came from China and are a little too small for most adult heads and are also irritating to the skin, so you would need to have long hair or wear a smaller hat underneath (just like the REAL POPE). Dogs do not like to wear these pope hats, but maybe a large cat or maybe a nice dog would wear one. My dogs will not but they are not very nice and always hate being dressed up like for Halloween when we tried to dress them up like batman but they became very very agitated and bit a neighbors kid. I will lock the dogs up when you come get all of these pope hats. 

My wife is a devout catholic and she finds the presence of all of these pope hats all over the house to be blasphemous. I have pope hats in every closet, pope hats under the sing, pope hats full of other pope hats. She will not stop talking to me about getting rid of the pope hats and has started lighting candles all over the house for my soul but these pope hats are extremely flammable so its a problem in my house (there are pope hats everywhere) 

I payed 10x what I'm asking for when I bought these pope hats. I still think there is a market for them maybe when the economy turns around. Act NOW! Don't miss this great deal! I have 1,325 total (I counted this morning). 3 of them have some dog bites and one of them is burnt to a crisp, but you can take that one or leave it. Bring 2-3 strong friends. 

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/phx/1258405496.html

Posted from San Francisco, CA
Posted by Michael 

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WE'RE BACK BABY

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Hey everyone!

After what feels like several lifetimes of waiting, Salsabol HQ is finally back in action. We've actually been quite busy since Christmas making vast improvements on the Salsabols, but its been hard to feel like we've done anything at all because we've had no bowls to show for it.

Now we have new colors, great boxes, a new factory, and lots of exciting opportunities to look forward to for the rest of 2011. AND...We have a visual!

The POS Yantain sailed under the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco on its way to its final destination at the Port of Oakland in SF Bay. We've been tracking her for a few days now, excited that we happen to live in the city where the bowls are being delivered. At around 4 pm today, we ran down to the water's edge to salute the Salsabols and welcome them to their new home! The pictures on the post are of the Salsabols cruising past Alcatraz. Nice!

That's all for now. We'll be posting more news in the coming days as things heat up in the Salsabol world. Yeah!

 

Posted by Tom 

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Lights! Colors! Packaging!

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Yesterday Christmas came early...again.  We got our packaging hot off the printers, and we have to say--it's a big step up from the cardboard with "MADE IN CHINA" stamped in 300-point typeface on both sides.  Combined with the new colors that arrived last week, our new lineup is looking fantastic.  Can we..maybe..almost call ourselves a real business yet?

Posted by Michael 

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Totally out of Salsabols!

Hotcakes

With our final shipment to our primary retailer, Uncommon Goods, we have officially sold out of our first order of Salsabols!  Fear not, if you still want one you can grab it from their website, but act fast because apparently they are selling like hotcakes.

We have some fantastic new things coming down the pipe, so stay tuned and we'll be unveiling photos of our new colors which are fresh from the factory floor!

Posted by Michael 

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Kathie Lee Gifford wants a thousand salsabols

Todayshow

In typical Salsabol-business fashion, things always happen while we
are asleep. In this case, I was roused by Tom bursting through the
door shouting "Michael get up and LOOK ON THE TELEVISION." Without
even bothering to don clothing, I rushed out to see Kathie Lee and
Hoda give cries of exclamation to the scooping prowess of the Salsabol
on this morning's Today Show.

While we don't know how it happened, we're grateful for the publicity.
See the whole clip below.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/29054368#41425247

Posted by Michael 

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Salsabol Field Trip to NYC

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Last weekend before the holiday, I took a Salsabol field trip to NYC to meet some of the people we’ve been working with over the past few months to promote the ‘Bol.

My first stop was at Brooklyn Salsa’s HQ out in Queens, where I met Rob and Casey to talk salsa.  I was there to pick up some cases of their Manhattan Pure salsa which we taste tested a few months ago. We’re using the salsa as part of a promotional project.  They were going to ship the goods down to Philly, but that was expensive and a pickup gave us a great excuse to meet up.

The BK guys are running an incredible salsa operation out of NYC. (Check out the second picture in the slideshow. That view is from the deck of their warehouse/office building.)  They just released their seasonal “Harvest” salsa which I got to sample—it’s a serious winner.  We talked about how they got started and what they’ve done to reach so many markets so quickly.  I was definitely inspired by their story and their daily drive to sell salsa.  BK is a definitely further along than we are, but it’s good to know we’re not alone out there in the world of dip related products and services. Their salsa is all over NYC, heading into CT and NJ, and I'm sure will soon be in a grocery store near you. Check them out online for BK salsa asap. 

My second and last stop was back in Manhattan at Open Sky’s headquarters.  Open Sky is an incredible startup whose mission is to provide a marketplace/e-commerce platform for bloggers, vendors, and online shoppers to share and sell unique goods. Basically, bloggers become members of Open Sky and can list products from Open Sky’s vendor network on their blog stores, letting the growing number of bloggers who review products actually sell them in their own personal stores.  The actual backbone of the Open Sky Project is much more complicated than I’ve just described, but I think that’s pretty much the gist of it.  We got hooked up with Open Sky in August right after they launched their new site; we are very excited one of their many vendors. 

Anyhow, they are a rapidly growing (30+ person) company and they are really taking the blogging marketplace world by storm.  We feel very fortunate to be a tiny part of their network, so a visit was in order.  When I got to Open Sky, I was greeted by Salsabol’s good friend, Gen (pictured above with hoolahoop), who actually just started working at Open Sky a few weeks ago.  She claims that she is a marginally more popular there because she knows “the Salsabol guys”; I find this basically impossible to believe.  Gen introduced me to a bunch of the Open Sky team members and I learned all about how they work and what their goals are.  I even got to meet the CEO and all I do is make some measly Salsabols!—an indication of how committed Open Sky is to connecting with the little guys out there.  It is a very exciting environment; there is that unmistakable feeling in the office that the company is about to explode with popularity.  In the meeting room there were big plans on the whiteboard with the names of some very famous chefs and celebrities mixed in.  Things are about to get crazay at Open Sky.  Icing on the cake?  I got to do some product testing during Open Sky’s Friday happy hour. Check the pics to see me in action. 

All in all I had a great trip to the city, hanging with the BK Salsa dudes and meeting the incredible team at Open Sky.  Over and out! --

 

 

 

 

Posted by Tom 

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Salsabol HQ Mandatory Cartography Lesson

Posted by Tom 

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