Tussle Interns Blog

From all of us here interning at Tussle this summer, here are our thoughts on everything. You can check out who we are right below.

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Bye from Lakshmi! I had a blast at Tussle this summer. Thanks for reading!

... and then there was one. 

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Great job to the TigerLabs accelerator teams... you were all amazing!

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Addendum to Office Soundtrack

Gems from today include Boyfriend by Justin Bieber, "Barbie Girl," and Bruno Mars's "The Lazy Song" (not exactly an office-productivity anthem). And of course, the standard two-to-three hours of dubstep.

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Office Soundtrack

If you'd like to pretend you're as cool as the people who get to work in the Tigerlabs office, put our office playlist on. I'm keeping track of the wacky, random music that plays in the office today and made this partial list:

Climax- Usher (because no office environment is complete without Usher crooning "I just need you one more time")

Coldplay ft. Rihanna- Princess of China

Wavin' Flag- K'Naan (morale booster courtesy of World Cup 2010)

Sex on Fire- Kings of Leon

If it's Love- Train

Glad You Came- The Wanted (wait, I thought I was the only teenage girl in this place...)

Human- The Killers

Young, Wild, and Free (so what we don't have desks... so what we wear Ts... we work at startups... so we don't care who sees)

Thinking About You- Frank Ocean

and, to make your morning truly epic... the Zelda theme song

Throw in some dubstep, Top 40, Eminem, and you're ready to DJ for the office.

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Princess Rene after losing a Mariokart Tussle

Jeremy's question- why is he wearing a Harvard shirt??

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Interns were just given the directive to test the site.

Hello, XBOX. 

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Competition is one of the few consistent truths that define life.

Phillip

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All About Audience

Today we worked in the conference room of the Tigerlabs office, where there is a TV and (amazingly) an xbox for our gaming pleasure. Whether it's volleypong, Mariokart, or FIFA, the interns sure do know how to distract themselves.

But hey, to quote Tussle's belief- if your motto is work hard, play hard, you're probably working too hard.

Actually, this ties with something Jason and I discussed today- what Tussle's brand voice is, and who our target demographic is. Being a politics junkie, I like to think of it in terms of running for political office, something that requires a lot of new people to start liking and trusting you, the way using a new website does. You need to attract a devoted base to even get to the real election, which is the point of a primary. But how do you keep those loyal fans happy while simultaneously opening yourself up to appeal to a wide range of people? This is not only a big question for politicians, it's also an important question for businesses, artists, and products. Look at the uproar that link-shortening website Bitly caused when they made it slightly harder to shorten links so they could also appeal to people who want a link-bookmarking service (article at http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/29/bitly-update-user-reaction/). On the other hand, Facebook has become a master of weathering outrage over its updates (see: the Timeline feature) until weary users finally accept them and they become the new standard. Or, for a different example, look at Taylor Swift's successful transition from niche country artist to Top 40 pop star. 

I don't really know how you make this shift. All I can say is, it seems like a balancing act to me. 

That's all for now,

Lakshmi

PS Unfortunately we said goodbye to Phil on Friday as he takes off for his road trip, but don't worry, he'll be back in a few weeks!

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Well, the week went by pretty fast after being away for last week. Got some good work in some bus dev stuff and helped Philip make the Princeton campaign plans really shine. Next week is my last week here at Tussle and hopefully all these final things I'm working on will help Tussle in the long run. 

Mario Kart Update: After returning from a week away, I was surprised to see how much Sam had improved. It was as if he had hired the Lebron James of Mario Kart to train him for a week. Either way, it only took me a couple days to beat a couple of his records...again. The video attached probably describes how Sam feels.

-René

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Claudine goes head to head with her capoeira instructor in Rio!

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Today Phil invented a new game called "rabbit in the hole."

This involves bouncing a ping-pong ball into a cup placed halfway between the players. You get one bounce per person per turn, and the ball must stay in the cup. It's like a stripped down, dry ring of fire derivative (for those of you in the know). 

Unfortunately, Sam beat Phil in the inaugural game.

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I think the reason we lost is that we were not in the Tussle spirit

Sam

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Sam, put your shirt on!

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The most embarrassing ping pong match to date

Having played ping pong since I was 6, I don't think I have ever been that badly embarrassed in a match as today. Sam and I foolishly challenged Jason and Jeremy to Volley Pong, truly believing that we could win. This turned out to be the farthest thing from the truth, as we found ourselves down 11-0 within the first 2 minutes of the game.

Things did not get any better. Playing 2 games of volley pong, Jeremy and Jason outscored us 42 - 4. While Sam thinks that we lost because we were lacking "the tussle spirit" (whatever that even means), I'm pretty sure it's because we were just terrible. Now we must refer to Jeremy and Jason as "your majesty" for the remainder of the day. I need a rematch because I cannot handle this sort of embarrassment. I will update how this goes. 

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It's kind of late, but I promised I'd upload Tanzania pictures! The trip was awesome, unlike anything I've ever done before, and I got to see lots of animals in action: monkeys, zebras, lions, cheetahs, baboons, elephants, leopards, and a bunch more, just hanging out there in the wild. 

Here are three competition-themed photos. The first one is of two cheetahs and their prey, a recently-killed gazelle. The second one is of some zebras and wildebeest pushing each other around at a watering hole in the middle of the Serengeti. The third one is two male impalas butting heads, probably over a female. Really shows that there are tussles everywhere!

-Lakshmi

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Things you find when you search for "tussle" on Youtube

The song "Tussle" by Big Tuck ft. Tum Tum (I am not making up those names)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O52TEGpTI1E

There's also a remix.

Tussle Remix- Big Tuck, Tum Tum, and Slim Thug

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogQohYOW35g

Enjoy.

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The pursuit for the perfect Tussle gear has taken me here...