#uberlunch

[boy-eats-world]

I'm done with finals, back at home and can finally start blogging again! We all know Uber, the rapidly expanding car service provider that for many has obviated the inconvenience of hailing a taxi. But what many may not know is that Uber is a very socially forward thinking and philanthropic company. Amongst the many programs Uber boasts is UberMILITARY, dedicated to providing 50,000 jobs for service members, veterans and their families. Their most recent act of giving has been UberCHEF and UberLUNCH. UberCHEF is a collaboration with kitchen surfing, an online marketplace for chefs, offering for this week only an on-demand chef service on the Uber app. UberLUNCH is a collaboration with various local restaurants in cities around the country to deliver lunch in under 10 minutes. All of the proceeds from these initiatives go to support the No Kid Hungry foundation, which is fighting to end childhood hunger in America. Hunger is much more prevalent in America than one may think. According to No Kid Hungry, 16 million or approximately 20 percent of children in America face food insecurity, which has devastating implications for the physical and educational development of the next generation. Uber was able to reach their target goal of donating 3 million meals in 48 hours; their next goal is 1 million more. It is heartwarming to see a company employ their recent success as a means of giving back and fighting for a better America. While I am glad to be home, I would love to be back in Boston: enjoying a gourmet meal prepared by a professional chef all while supporting Uber and No Kid Hungry in the fight against hunger.

[skinnyredefined]

Thanks @uber, @uber_nyc, and @sweetgreen for the delish lunch. I did doctor my salad a bit to make it mine 😉 I tossed the chicken, added avocado and spouts, and used my own dressing to make it that much more amazing 😋Glad that today's lunch money went toward @nochildhungry. #uberlunch #almostvegan #kindofvegan #activepeopleactivelydoinggood #nokidhungry #Uber #sweetgreen #kalesalad #kalecaesar #ilovekale #nom #yum #mylunch #fromwhereisit #mylife #guiltfree #werk #nyc #newyorkcity #citylife #citylivng #skinnyintheNYC #skinnyinthecity (at www.stayingskinnyinthecity.com)

[rydubs]

Their image may be in the gutter for now but seems like a good cause #3MillionMeals #NoKidHungry #UberLunch

[ubersenseblog]

A Look Inside UberSense: Support

We recently started a weekly tradition at Ubersense HQ, and we call it UberLunch. The goal of UberLunch is to get everyone together once a week to hear a presentation on an interesting topic. It can be a topic directly related to our work at Ubersense, one that has nothing to do with what we do here, or somewhere in between. We even have a waiting list of speakers and topics. The schedule is booked into the summer with interesting talks ranging from the back end infrastructure that supports the Ubersense app, the basics of Photoshop, an intro to analytics, and how to shotgun a beer. I'm going to tell you about our first UberLunch, given by our Community Manager Alex. He spoke about our awesome support department. Giving Ubersensers top notch support is something that we take very seriously. Alex wanted to give everyone a glimpse into the communication he has with the community each and every day. The first thing he told us was what makes providing support important. By understanding the pain and frustrations that people have when using the app, we can use that information to make our product better every day. While everyone working here uses the app for our own athletic endeavors, we know that there are a lot of people in the world who want to raise their game using Ubersense. Alex gave us a few examples of emails he gets from Ubersensers, telling us about how much they use and love the app, features that they really appreciate, and just wishing us a good weekend on a Friday. Next up, a few examples of some less positive emails about features that don't work as well as they'd expect. And finally, he showed us an email calling us names we can't publish in this family friendly blog. It was eye opening for me to see examples of these emails, because as an engineer I don't often have exposure to what real life people think about the product that I'm building. After going through examples of emails he receives, Alex introduced an awesome new program - a weekend rotation of handling support requests. Each and every person in the company is going to spend a weekend being the point person for incoming support emails. From the CEO to summer interns, it's a great way for everyone to hear what people are saying about the product outside of the office. It's not a huge time commitment, but a quick way to get a glimpse into customer reactions to Ubersense. I took my turn last weekend and enjoyed my time engaging a few customers in a conversation to understand the problems they were having, giving other people a link to a blog post or how-to video, and even filed a bug report about a small issue in the app. It's exciting to work in an office where we're constantly sharing information, where we ensure everyone is growing and learning. I've never been the point person for incoming customer feedback, so my weekend to get a taste of that made me appreciate how tough it can sometimes be, but how important it is for how our company is perceived by our customers. Check back soon for a recap of other interesting UberLunches, and send us an email at support@ubersense.com to tell us how we're doing!