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	<title>AllThingsD &#187; 37signals</title>
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		<title>Assistly Extends Customer Service to Facebook Walls</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20110216/assistly-extends-customer-service-to-facebook-walls/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20110216/assistly-extends-customer-service-to-facebook-walls/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 16 Feb 2011 18:08:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Liz Gannes</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/?p=3669</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Assistly helps small businesses provide Web-based customer service and support with a platform that combines more traditional methods like email, chat and phone with Twitter and, as of today, Facebook.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When something breaks, we users ask for help wherever we think we can find someone responsible. Or maybe we just stand up on our social media soapbox and whine.</p>
<p><a href="http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/files/2011/02/Assistly.png"><img src="http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/files/2011/02/Assistly-150x54.png" alt="" title="Assistly" width="150" height="54" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-3675" /></a>Either way, <a href="http://www.assistly.com/">Assistly</a> helps companies deal with our problems by providing a Web-based customer service and support platform that combines more traditional methods like email, chat and phone with Twitter and, as of today, Facebook. The idea is to make support more efficient and coordinated.</p>
<p>So now, if you post about your problems on the Facebook walls of Assistly customers like 37signals, Vimeo, Rdio, Grooveshark and even Twitter, you might get a quicker and better-delegated response from employees there. (Though the new Assistly Facebook option just rolled out today, so they may not be using it yet.)</p>
<p>There are many (so, so many) social media management tools, but Assistly is more competitive with customer support providers like Zendesk. (Both Zendesk and Assistly already offer Twitter support, but Assistly is first to offer Facebook. Twitter itself uses Zendesk for customer support via email and Assistly for customer support via tweet.)</p>
<p>Assistly CEO Alex Bard and members of his team have been working on customer support software dating back to 1996 with eShare Technologies, followed by eAssist Global Solutions, founded in 1999. More recently they made the Goowy widget analytics platform that was bought by AOL in 2008. Their current company has raised about $5 million from investors True Ventures and Social Leverage.</p>
<p>For its own customers, Assistly starts at <a href="http://reg.assistly.com/free-trial">$39 per month</a> per full-time user, but it also has an hourly rate so companies can spread the responsibility for customer support across all their employees.</p>
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		<title>The Men and No Women of Web 2.0 Boards (BoomTown&#039;s Talking to You: Twitter, Facebook, Zynga, Groupon and Foursquare)</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20101221/the-men-and-no-women-of-web-2-0-boards-boomtowns-talking-to-you-twitter-facebook-zynga-groupon-and-foursquare/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20101221/the-men-and-no-women-of-web-2-0-boards-boomtowns-talking-to-you-twitter-facebook-zynga-groupon-and-foursquare/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:44:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kara Swisher</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=38810</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Simply put: The five top Web 2.0 superstar companies have no women on their board of directors.

As in zero.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2010/12/our-gang.jpeg"><img src="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2010/12/our-gang-275x210.jpg" alt="" title="our gang" width="275" height="210" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-38826" /></a></p>
<p>In one memorable episode of the famous old short films &#8220;The Little Rascals,&#8221; after not getting invited to a party, the Our Gang little dudes decided to form their own group, comically called &#8220;The He-Man Woman-Haters Club.&#8221;</p>
<p>In other words: <em>No girls allowed!</em></p>
<p>While it was wink-wink cute when Spanky, Alfalfa and Buckwheat huffed and puffed about keeping out Darla&#8211;which they never ever could do&#8211;back in the last century, it&#8217;s not quite as adorkable when it comes to the boards of all the major Web 2.0 hotshots these days.</p>
<p>That would be Twitter, Facebook, Zynga, Groupon and Foursquare, none of which have any women as directors.</p>
<p>As in <em>zero</em>.</p>
<p>What&#8217;s most remarkable is that most of these start-ups are run by what I consider enlightened and open-minded entrepreneurs, mostly young enough to be part of a generation more inclined to value equality and diversity in the workplace.</p>
<p>In addition, each of these companies has a massive base of women consumers, in some cases well over 50 percent of its audience.</p>
<p>Thus, it would seem logical that in casting about for those to help guide these companies, one or two women leaders might slip in.</p>
<p>To be fair, it&#8217;s not for lack of trying, but of completion, as was the case with Twitter&#8217;s <a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20101215/exclusive-twitter-raises-200-million-at-3-7-billion-valuation-adds-mccue-and-rosenblatt-to-board/">recent addition of three new board members</a>.</p>
<p>They were longtime Silicon Valley exec Peter Currie, Flipboard CEO and co-founder Mike McCue and former DoubleClick leader David Rosenblatt.</p>
<p><a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2010/12/182.jpeg"><img src="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2010/12/182-380x97.jpg" alt="" title="182" width="380" height="97" class="aligncenter size-Medium380 wp-image-38827" /></a></p>
<p>All are deeply qualified for the Twitter board, which is obviously prepping for its next stage of growth and maturity.</p>
<p>But in its search, the San Francisco microblogging site did not manage to cast the net quite wide enough.</p>
<p>While sources said at least one prominent online woman exec was considered, there were some legitimate issues with her appointment, and it was not completed.</p>
<p>Still, one might imagine Twitter could have tried harder to find other workable choices.</p>
<p>Currently, the Twitter board is made up of the new trio, as well as Benchmark Capital&#8217;s Peter Fenton, Union Square Ventures&#8217; Fred Wilson, Bijan Sabet of Spark Capital, CEO Dick Costolo and co-founders Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey.</p>
<p>Things are not any better over at Facebook, which has several prominent women execs running the show, most especially its high-profile COO Sheryl Sandberg.</p>
<p>But, inexplicably, though she does attend board meetings, she is not yet a director of Facebook, nor is any other woman.</p>
<p>In fact, here is Sandberg on topic at a recent TED event for women, in an eloquent speech titled &#8220;Why We Have So Few Women Leaders&#8221;:</p>
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<p>Instead, the Facebook board is all men, all the time, composed of CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, prominent techie and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, investor Peter Thiel, Accel Partners&#8217; Jim Breyer and Washington Post head Don Graham.</p>
<p>It is no better at three of the most prominent recent Web 2.0 start-ups, which one source attributes to the lack of woman VCs, who are often the first board members after major investment rounds.</p>
<p>At Zynga, the hot social gaming company in San Francisco, it continues, with an all-male board, despite a very heavily female audience for its casual social games.</p>
<p>That would be co-founder and CEO Mark Pincus, COO Owen Van Natta, investor Bing Gordon of Kleiner Perkins, investor Reid Hoffman and Brad Feld of the Foundry Group.</p>
<p>The same is true at woman-targeted&#8211;spas, spas and more spas&#8211;social buying site Groupon, which has an unusually large board for a start-up and made up of&#8211;as per usual&#8211;all men.</p>
<p><a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2010/12/cautionmenworking.gif"><img src="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2010/12/cautionmenworking-275x195.gif" alt="" title="cautionmenworking" width="275" height="195" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-38828" /></a></p>
<p>The list: Co-founder and CEO Andrew Mason, Accel Partners&#8217; Kevin Efrusy, former AT&#038;T President and COO John Walter, New Enterprise Associates&#8217; Harry Weller and Peter Barris, former AOL exec Ted Leonsis, 37Signals co-founder Jason Fried and early investors Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell.</p>
<p>And, much smaller, is Foursquare&#8217;s board, which is the trio of co-founder and CEO Dennis Crowley, co-founder Naveen Selvadurai and Union Square Ventures&#8217; Albert Wenger.</p>
<p>New investors&#8211;Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz and O&#8217;Reilly AlphaTech Ventures&#8217; Bryce Roberts&#8211;have observer status and both are, needless to say, dudes.</p>
<p>There is no question it is tough to make sure there is a good balance of qualified women leaders to men in tech&#8211;it is an issue we wrestle with every single year for the program of speakers at our own <strong>All Things Digital</strong> conference, although we are most excellent on this issue on our Web site and conference staff.</p>
<p>But it can be done, especially at public tech companies. Google has two women on its board of nine directors; Yahoo has three of 10; even Oracle has two of a dozen.</p>
<p>But a grand total of zero at the leading companies of Web 2.0 is not just a coincidence.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a shame.</p>
<p>Tomorrow, BoomTown will post a list of great women who would be superb directors for any of these companies, but until then, let&#8217;s not follow in Spanky&#8217;s steps:</p>
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