Steak and egg sandwichEarly bright moonUnder the covers with a mooseBudding photographerBuilding a snow wallHe upgraded to a bigger shirt stuffed with more stuff Serious smashing going on#sumo kids


Instigator Clothing for the Holidays!

Just in time for the holidays, Instigator Blog has it’s very own line of clothes!

OK, that’s not entirely true…but check out these Instigator Pants a friend of mine, Alistair Croll, found at a store recently. He thought of me, snapped a picture and sent it along:

No surprise, these are top of the line pants…with articulated knees no less! I’m not much of an alpine climber mind you, but I’ve yet to find any pants with a cooler name.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

I want to wish everyone a happy holidays and a great New Year. I may be posting tidbits throughout the holidays, and then ramping it up again in January. 2009 is going to be an absolutely insane year.

Best wishes to you and yours. Have fun, be safe and keep instigating…

5 Things That Keep Me Awake At Night

Experienced entrepreneurs (who have “been there, done that”) often ask the question, “So, what keeps you up at night?”

Short answer: My kids. And more specifically, my younger son, Quinn Alexander Yoskovitz, who recently turned 1 year old. He’s been a bit under the weather, teething like a werewolf and grumpy like a seriously-constipated old man (and if you’ve ever met one of those, you know what I’m talking about!) This all translates into a complete lack of sleep. For the past year I’ve lived on about 4-5 hours of sleep per night. Some nights are better. Some are worse. A couple nights ago I got a grand total of 2 hours of sleep! The night ended (and the day started) with me driving Quinn around the city so he’d sleep in the car. A large coffee, bagel, triple shot cappuccino and chocolate biscotti later, I dragged my ass home, exhausted (having driven around for 1.5 hours), with a vicious stomach ache. That was some day!

On a positive note, look how freaking cute he is…

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What Would an Apple-Run City Look Like?

We all know how vigorous and serious Apple is about their brand. Even when there’s a hiccup. Apple’s mastered the product launch, and gets everyone talking about them constantly.

The biggest lesson from Apple is really how far they’ll go to create a specific image to maintain and enhance their brand.

Apple’s currently planning to open a superstore in Montreal.

Great news for Mac fans.

And now we have news that Apple asked the city to remove 3 parking meters from in front of where the store will be to “simplify the look.” Parking meters are ugly after all – hardly representative of the Apple brand.

Apple was willing to compensate the city for lost revenues over 5 years. And guess what the city said? No.

It could have been a very interesting PR move for the city. They’d be promoting a reduction in traffic downtown (one of their goals), promoting the economy, and be able to climb on the back of Apple even further to promote Montreal as a cosmopolitan, techno-savvy place.

As the article says, “But bureaucrats say no; that’s what they do. ‘We’ve never done it before, so we can’t.’”

It makes me wonder what a city would look like if Apple managed it? What would Apple City look like?

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About Ben Yoskovitz
I recently joined GoInstant as VP Product. GoInstant changes how we use the web, making it shareable like never before.

I'm also a Founding Partner at Year One Labs, an early stage accelerator in Montreal. Previously I founded Standout Jobs (and sold it). I'm a hands-on startup guy, helping companies grow successfully from the idea forward. You can reach me at byosko at gmail dot com.

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