Reboot 10 Copenhagen, Here I come
Posted on June 17, 2008
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So it’s that time again, time to Reboot (http://www.reboot.dk/) the mind. I was only 2 short years ago I was at my first Reboot, Reboot 8. It was at that time I was floating around this idea of starting a new project, one that involved helping diabetics manage their disease online from any where in the world. As I had already put the idea off for 8+ months with the excuse “It’ll just be too big of a project…”, sharing my idea with others and getting their positive feedback pushed me to persue my idea and get things started. And thus SugarStats.com was born
Even starting part time it was so rewarding to be working on such a project. A year later things had evolved, we had grown and we were ready to launch our public beta pilot. Now it’s a year after that and we have thousands of users in 24+ countries, I love it. I love how we’re utilizing all the great new innovations, technologies and trends in the web space to address real issues in the world and actually improve a diabetics health, lifestyle habits and help keep them informed to make better decisions.
So now, Reboot 10. Pretty fitting as we’re finishing up with a complete rewrite and redesign on our initial launch for SugarStats. I can’t wait to partake in the conversation, disruption and thought process evolution that is sure to ensure next week, June 25th-26th, in Copenhagen Denmark. Won’t you join me?
If you’ll be there, drop me an email. marston@sugarstats.com
Find me on the Reboot website: http://www.reboot.dk/person-624-en.html
Tags: Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, Innovation, Reboot, Reboot 10, Reboot Copenhagen, reboot.dk, SugarStats, Web conference, Web Tech.
Posted on June 17, 2008
Filed Under Art & Design, Business, Daily Thoughts, Design, Diabetes, General, Health & Food, Startup, Tech, Travel, Web, WebDev
Intruders.tv Interview with SugarStats.com at TheNextWeb 2008 in Amsterdam
Posted on May 9, 2008
2 Comments
Back in April at TheNextWeb I Met up with two great guys, Jude and James, who were shooting tech startup interviews for Intruders.tv.
I was able to do a quick 6min SugarStats.com interview and they were finally able to put it up on their site.
I was able to go over the how we started, the problems with diabetes as well as a little about our technical setup and where we’re going as a company.
Check it out:
http://uk.intruders.tv/Marston-Alfred-of-SugarStats-com-Online-diabetes-management-tool_a410.html
Tags: Amsterdam, Intruders.tv Interview, Marston Alfred, Online Diabetes Management, SugarStats, SugarStats Interview, SugarStats.com, The Next Web 2008 Amsterdam, TheNextWeb.
Posted on May 9, 2008
Filed Under Business, Design, Diabetes, Entertainment, Podcasts, Ruby on Rails, Startup, SugarStats, Tech, Travel, Web, WebDev
BrainTree vs TrustCommerce for Credit Card Processing and Recurring Billing
Posted on April 23, 2008
1 Comment
We’ve been using TrustCommerce.com for a over a year with SugarStats to do the recurring billing/subscriptions and credit card processing. Overall it has been a pleasant experience even though we had a few bumpy bits.
I’ve recently found out about BrainTree which seems to offer everything TrustCommerce does and then some in an all-in-one solution. While I’m a big fan of the “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” saying, we’re considering switching.
TrustCommerce Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Great Rails/Ruby Integration and API
- Fairly good support
- Great security and risk/fraud protection practices
- Decent prices
- Excellent recurring billing/subscription support
Cons
- Support has slowly been going downhill. I even hear sales is non-responsive to new accounts.
- Online Web Portal is a bit lacking and cumbersome for statistics
- Need a separate company to be the merchant
- Can’t combine multiple apps into one TC account
BrainTree
Pros
- Seems to also have a superb API.
- Rails/Ruby integration via a few diff plugins and especially great support via ActiveMerchant
- Active community
- Quickbooks Export/Import
- Good reporting/Analytics tools in web control panel
- All-in-one solution which includes merchant and gateway
- Can have multiple sites behind one web control panel login
- Great security and risk/fraud protection
- Supports both major credit cards AND Paypal/Google Checkout/BillMeLater
- I hear support is great
- Fee’s: ???
Cons
Don’t know yet.
The real benefit I’m seeing is the multiple sites behind one login, Paypal/Google/BillMeLater payment and the active community/ActiveMerchant support. If the web control panel interface is at all better than TrustCommerce I’ll be very please as well.
Tags: ActiveMerchant, BrainTree, Paypal, Recurring Billing, Ruby on Rails recurring subscriptions, Subscription, SugarStats, TrustCommerce.
Posted on April 23, 2008
Filed Under Analytics, Business, Design, Hosting, Ruby on Rails, Startup, SugarStats, Tech, Web, WebDev
The Next Web 2008, Health 2.0 NL, BarCamp IV and Lunch 2.0: A whirlwind of good times and opportunity
Posted on April 16, 2008
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The past few weeks have been a whirlwind, I’ve just barely had a chance to catch my breath.
After being in Holland a few days I was able to attend the amazing TheNextWeb 2008 Conference in Amsterdam. The conference was top notch and was executed beautifully. The after parties, dinners and a live Diggnation were icing on the cake. I’ll definitely have to write a more indepth review about it but if you’re ever in the area while it’s going on I suggest you go.
Also last week I attended the Health 2.0 NL Unconference in Amsterdam which was just as great and surprisingly in a smaller volume. 50 or so people passionate about tech, health and how the 2 merge met up for a series of talks and networking. It was hosted and coordinated also by a top notch group of motivated go-getters and I have to say it was a smashing success. It was great to meet everyone here as well as give a presentation on SugarStats which was well recieved. I can’t wait for the next one as well as Health 2.0 Europe
Then of course there was the BarCamp IV Amsterdam which was put on by Peter Robinett, of course in Amsterdam too. Had a lot of great talks and got to meet a lot of bright, forward thinking folks. A keg of beer didn’t hurt all that much either 
This coming Friday is Lunch 2.0 in Amsterdam, should be a blash as well. So much to do I’ll have to defer a more in-depth post till later. Till then…
Tags: BarCamp, BarCamp IV, BarCamp IV Amsterdam, Health 2.0, Health 2.0 NL, Health 2.0 NL Unconference, Live Diggnation Amsterdam, Lunch 2.0, Lunch 2.0 Amsterdam, NextWeb, NextWeb 2008, SugarStats, TheNextWeb.
Posted on April 16, 2008
Filed Under Business, Design, Entertainment, Health & Food, Mobile Tech, Tech, Travel, Web
CEO Space, Updates and the Latest Happenings
Posted on December 20, 2007
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Been a while but so much has happened in the last few months.
CEO Space – Los Angeles
For the last few weeks I’ve been in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Diego. Part vacation and part business, we’ve been able to get a TON done regarding the business end of SugarStats. CEO Space was a huge success for us and we we’re able to meet literally hundreds of amazing business contacts and potential investors who share our vision. If you haven’t heard of CEO Space, I highly recommend you check them out: http://www.ceospace.net/
Viva Las Vegas!
We also took a nice road trip to Las Vegas which was really nice as I haven’t been there in years. While most of it was for fun and play, I was able to have an excellent studio interview and meeting with Charlie Cherry of the DiabetesPowerShow.com podcast. We had Manny Hernandez of TuDiabetes.com conference in and we recorded an live episode regarding diabetes goal setting and resolutions for the new year. I’ll post when that episode goes up.
As for accommodations, we stayed at Treasure Island and I have to say they have some of the most comfortable beds I’ve ever slept on. It was literally like sleeping on a cloud 
Thats a good thing considering the price. Over all the stay was excellent and it was great to see so much more new development happening.
SugarStats.com Updates
I mentioned a bit of it above, but theres a ton happening here. We’re ready to ramp things up and really get things going. We’re working on a ton of small changes and have some larger ones in the pipeline and already hashed out. With all the great contacts and people that we met at CEO Space who share our vision it will only greatly improve SugarStats as a whole and as a company. You can expect big things happening in the coming 3-6 months!
Tropical Paradise – Volcano, Hawaii
Now that CEO Space has passed, we’re all back together in Hawaii. Being literally on top of a volcano and in the middle of a tropical rain forest is amazing. I have to say it is also nice to be in the same building, let alone timezone, as my partners finally as I’ve been working out of Holland for the past few months. Only downside is we’re so far in the forest that we can only get dial-up!! 
I guess I’ll have to deal with it 
Tags: CEO Space, Las Vegas, SugarStats, SugarStats.com, Volcano Hawaii.
Posted on December 20, 2007
Filed Under Business, Design, SugarStats, Tech, Travel, Web
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I'm Marston and here you'll find my rantings, rhetoric and other useful info. I dig tech, photography, quantum physics and organic food. I'm the founder of SugarStats.com and thats my days developing.
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