Blog Archives

My Tpumps Adventure!

It’s always important to know what customers are thinking. Five Stars used this past Wednesday to catch up with card users at Tpumps, a boba house, in San Mateo. Needless to say, we had plenty of Five Stars swag handy. I personally passed out at least thirty pairs of Five Stars sunglasses.

The origins of this event date back to last last year. I thought it would be great to write a blog post about customer reactions. So here it is.

Leading up to the event, I was super excited, but soon realized I was in over my head. As the event date approached, I felt anxious; super anxious because I would be meeting tons of people I didn’t know.

This event accomplished many things, not least of which, was allowing me to break out of my comfort zone and connect with lots of interesting, unique people. It also gave me a deeper understanding of the program at the consumer level.

I asked a wide variety of questions ranging from what places do you use your Five Stars card at to what features would you like to see from Five Stars in the future.

Many of the people didn’t know that Five Stars was all over the Bay Area. When I told them we were in over 500+ and not just Tpumps they were shocked. I explained you can follow us on Foursquare or use fivestarscard.com to lookup Five Stars providers.

One really interesting suggestion I heard was from a guy named Gabe. He had a great idea. It would be nice if you could Five Stars points towards buying Five Stars branded merchandise on our website. We’re always exploring new ideas, so expect the unexpected!

What that really stood out to me was Alex, the owner. He signs up virtually everyone that walks through the door. This has allowed Tpumps to take off even more and bring in more customers, more frequently. Virtually everyone had a card that I spoke with. Talk about sweet rewards!

Overall, the experience was a lot of fun. My biggest take away from talking to people was that they love the rewards their earning, which keep them coming back. Essentially the program creates enduring loyalty. Bingo! Exactly what our team strives for everyday.

And yes, I give the experience Five Stars!…

Interning Round 2

People always ask me, “what is interning at a start up like?”

In the last article I touched on some of my responsibilities.

Through this post, I’ll paint you the picture, the whole picture and nothing but the picture (Jack Nicholson reference lol)!

I’ll take you on a voyage through the mind of a start-up intern. So get ready, start up, and go!

Core Mindset 1:

You MUST have an entrepreneurial mindset.

Most of the time I am expected to initiate projects. I am expected to identify tasks where I can improve FiveStars. Throughout the week, I work with Eric who is like my boss, but the nature of my work is very self-directed and dynamic. Realistically, I can take on ANY project I can conceive that will create value. It’s nerve wracking. It strange! But most of all it’s awesome! The nature of this dynamic keeps work fresh; super fresh! By virtue of this workflow, I always feel engaged to think outside of the box. Metaphorically, the balls in my court so I aim to dunk it every time. Bottom line: it’s all about creating projects and projecting success into them.

Core Mindset 2:

You need to be constantly aware; aware of the changes taking place around you. Everything is fluid. Everything is in flux. These means staying connected with my coworkers through cell phone, email, signal flair, Navajo Cyptology, google docs, beacons of Gondor, morse code, telepathy, and any other “in vogue” means of connecting. Being part of FiveStars means I am part of a team. Being part of this team means staying in sync.

Interning is a state of mind. In turning this page of my life, I have grown immeasurably. And for that I am thankful.

Over and Out,

Send a Comment, Send a Shout

-Tim

Get to know us: The Founders

Aug 26

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There is a time in every young entrepreneur’s life when they see a need and decide to fill it.  About a year ago, two budding entrepreneur’s did just that.  Working long hours at McKinsey and traveling all over the world consulting for Fortune 500 companies taught them how to creatively solve whatever need they came across.  But you don’t want to just hear the story of how FiveStars was launched again (although our children’s book adaptation will make great bed-time reading for young parents everywhere), you come to the FiveStars blog for the juice.  

Victor Ho – CEO and world-class super smash brothers player.  Also, apparently a ninja because you  can’t find him on google.  Or you can, because he is frequently confused for his namesake actor extraordinaire. Victor is a voracious, tenacious, and all around badass CEO.   To give you a better idea of his talents, he once fixed my boat’s engine when no one else had any idea what was going on (wait… our CEO is a mechanic too?) and rarely sleeps as he plans the future of FiveStars.  He is frequently found pacing the warehouse in the early morning hours with his hands behind his back.

Matt Doka – CTO and world-class wrestler.  Ok, I’ve never seen him wrestle but I would be scared to be his opponent. In fact, in the virtual office “who would dominate in a fight” Matt got everyone’s vote. Other than Victor, who voted for himself.  Matt is found at 37.418723, -122.094502 commanding the “devstar” our rockstar team of developers that have intimidatingly started calling themselves the devstar after the Starwars DeathStar.  Talents: board games, getting ripped and dominating the competition. He is frequently found under the florescent glow of multiple 23″ monitors muttering to himself “FiveStars FiveStars FiveStars”. He is also a really good person (see what he was doing before FiveStars!)

Posted in Get to Know Five Stars

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Happenings at HQ

Aug 12

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Everyone I know asks me if working at a start-up is like the Social Network. And no, it’s not. Well, our devs do get “plugged in” when they are pushing out an update to the site, or rolling out a feature.  And we DO work around the clock.  But it’s fun! and even more fun when you get to run ad campaigns like these on our FB page. 

And it feels epic here at headquarters.  It feels like a storm is building when you close 40+ businesses in a week (mad shout-outs to our sales team), and you start rolling out all the cool features that you’ll see soon on our website: Five Stars Card. Or you can just check out our map.

All in all we are rolling forward! We have around 150 businesses and are adding more everyday and working hard to bring Five Stars closer to you and the places that you love in the Bay Area! As for our team we are now 20 people strong and growing :)

If you have any questions or comments or are just a curious business owner, we are here for you, and here to help! info@fivestarscard.com

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The Office

Jun 16

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No… Steve Carell hasn’t shown up to Mountain View yet (still crossing my fingers), but we HAVE moved from our living room to an office.  The office means great things for our company. It means we have more space to bring on more developers to pump out cool features and more sales guys to get the Five Stars Card everywhere you are!

And it also affords us the opportunity to put co-workers staplers in jello, have costume parties at Halloween, and give meaningful titles to everyone: I name you Assistant to the Regional Manager of Five Stars!

Unfortunately for our waistlines, we moved across the street from Krispy Kreme and In-n-Out both of which don’t bode well for our general health and fitness.  (For me, I’m going to NEED to start biking to the office).

The most exciting part is the new additions to the Five Stars family!

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And I will make you fishers of deals…

Jun 14

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You usually don’t expect your lead programmer to be a master fisherman.  I always thought the guy liked dark rooms and Star Wars (Episode 4-6 only), but when he yanked three plump cod out of the bay on ONE LINE, I learned never to doubt the dev team.  Ever.

At 7 AM Sunday morning Five Stars had three ships in the water.  Two boats had experienced fishermen on board; I was on the third.  Sure, the noobie boat had its problems–stalled engine, snagged lines, and forgotten tackle.  But that didn’t stop us from pulling twenty five rock cod and vermillion out of the bay, keeping us even with the pros.     We even made it on the Capitola Boat Rental Blog: http://networkedblogs.com/j4T4o.

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Overall, it was a good day for Five Stars.  Each of our boats had a catch numbering well into the twenties, giving our account manager, Eric, a lot to work with as he fried up our flaky, sweet, and delicious fish tacos that evening.   If Eric ever decides to open up a restaurant (using Five Stars as his loyalty card, of course), I would be his best customer.

Oh, and Jingsong, our lead developer, made the Capitola Blog too: http://networkedblogs.com/j4T4n

Posted in Trips

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Everywhere You Are (Even a Blizzard…)

Jun 4

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The rewards you get from your Five Stars Card go with you everywhere.  They´re tied to your phone number so you never lose them, and you can access your rewards online (as well as getting free points for promoting your favorite restaurants/coffee shops/ salons on facebook).

But more than anything, the Five Stars team is dedicated to put Five Stars where you are (so much so that we tried to put a Five Stars Card on the top of Mt. Shasta).

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From ice axes to skis to crampons, we geared up for snow camping and a long climb, and made it part way up Shasta only to be stopped by a blizzard. Back in Mountain View (in one piece), we are working hard to bring Five Stars everywhere you shop, eat and drink!

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The Five Stars Card

Jun 4

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Read this if you are wondering, “how can I get rewarded for doing the things I already do?” or if you are the type of person who needs to be on the cutting edge of (let´s be honest) everything.

Let´s start simple. Pull out your wallet. Take out all the frequent buyer cards, the punch cards, the loyalty cards, and look at your wallet.  Thin, sleek, and sophisticated like… like you.

The Five Stars Card does that for you. For $free.99 (really). It is the universal loyalty card that enables you to use one card at every store in our network, to earn great rewards at cool places for coffee, tea, restaurants, salons, auto care (heck just about everywhere), and to manage your rewards online.

Check out the website, grab a card from one of our local retailers (in the South Bay), and start earning rewards today!

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