Tools Of The Trade : Angus Bradley from Safedrop
Posted: April 8th, 2011 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Interview | 1 Comment »Tweet
Tools of the trade is a new series where we cover the tools startups use and how they try to be productive.
Angus Bradley From Safedrop
Tell us about yourself in 280 characters.
Founder safedrop & Projectfusion. Interface and security obsessed entrepreneur libertarian who loves: people, laughter, simplicity, design, gadgets, sailing, Bushmills, philosophy, quick hacks, green tech.Hates: waste, interruptions, reinventing the wheel, bureaucracy,high taxes.
What 3 web services or software can you not live without?
Campfire – Our team lives in 37 signal’s campfire. We’re spread over 4 locations, across 2 timezones, and found that instant messaging was too annoying (you’d just get your head into a problem, then a message would pop up). Campfire lets us share information, ideas and photos without interrupting each other. And it keeps a great record of what’s been happening.
Lastpass Most of my passwords live here, and I can get them on the phone or ipad. A great solution to a common problem
great phone answering – People want the human touch, and love phoning us. So Timeetc and Jam answer the phones for us 24×7. They often know our clients by name, filter out sales calls, and only patch calls to us when they need to. It’s kind of a web service, as they email us messages, and if it’s urgent, they’ll text everyone.
What services or software do you pay for?
The list is long and keeps getting longer!
My pomodoro timer – Well it’s not exactly a web service, but there’s a website and an iphone app. I even sent you a pic!
Google mail and docs. Mail is great, we don’t use the docs so much
Pivotal – really, really nice way to manage projects
Postmarkapp – takes the pain away from managing server email
Pingdom – great server monitoring
highrise – easy contact management
amazon – ec2/s3/cloudfront
peer1 – hosting
Evernote – awesome note storage
Zendesk – great help desk and knowledge base.
mac os/x – best os for keeping things moving
Show us your dock!
What’s 1 service you love most people don’t know about?
awayfind.com is awesome. I hate the way that mail pings and dock updates make me just want to check my email continually like some kind of pavlovian info monkey. So I only check mail 4 times a day, and awayfind texts me anything I need to action quickly.
If our readers could solve any problem. What should they build for you?
Mmh. Good question. A group videoconferencing iPhone app would be great. Or a version of campfire with better history and audit.
How do you stay organized / productive?
GTD keeps me on top of tasks, Awayfind stops me checking email. I also use the Pomodoro Technique to stay focused. Basically it’s a way of working in 25 minute bursts. You write down what you’re going to work on in advance, start a ticking timer, and go for it. When you start a work period, you don’t stop for anything else (that means no emails, no phone calls and no surfing). The ticking of the timer reminds you to stay focused on that one thing.
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