SavvyAuntie.com Has Launched!

Dear Readers, 

Have you heard the news? SavvyAuntie.com has launched in Beta, which means while they site is basically looking good, there are some outstanding issue we are resolving in this phase.

The last couple of days since the launch on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 1PM EST, have been overwhelming. In fact, I don't think I ever really understood what "overwhelmed" meant until that first afternoon and the day that followed.

Within an hour after launch, two of the largest and most prestigious technology and social media blogs posted very positive reviews of the site. Thanks evermore to TechCrunch and Mashable for their unbelievable support of our Beta launch.

Then yesterday, not one, but two articles were published in the Huffington Post about the site. I love the interview that Eric Kuhn of HuffPo did with me. It really enabled me to share my message about Savvy Auntie and what it's all about to his loyal fans. 

And the bloggers I have met on Twitter and other social media platforms came through for me too, proudly sharing the launch as they celebrated it with incredibly supportive posts.

The news of the launch was also covered in various other online news sources (too many to mention here) and I have not seen one negative review yet. (phew!)

Plus, great news is coming in from traditional media as well. Hopefully Savvy Aunties around the nation will hear about the site from their most trusted media sources. (Let's hope!)

And then there are the Aunties themselves, who have written in thanking us for recognizing their value in the family (and dare I say clout). It is incredibly empowering to hear from them.

The Beta Testers are hard at work completing the surveys that help us improve the site for our users. And the technology team is hard at work at the fixes. Thank God for Dave Finkelstein!  Dave worked tirelessly day and night and night and day and holiday weekend and everything in between to get the site up and running on time. Every last minute "emergency" that seemed impossible to fix in the time that remained, Dave found a solution for! And on launch day, at 12:54PM, as we were gearing up to launch at 1:00PM sharp, we found an issue on the homepage of all places! At first, it looked like one that could only be resolved with a complete site update, which we did not have time to do (and was much too risky to do at that point anyway). At 12:56 Dave had the solution. At 12:59  he stopped the fix to launch the site at 1:00PM sharp. At 1:01PM the issue was resolved. That's dedication. That's Dave Finkelstein.  Dear Reader, please clap for Dave. He's my hero.

And now, believe it or not, advertisers are emailing in asking how they can support the site. They recognize the power of the Savvy Auntie as a consumer, and want my help to engage them.

Finally, the second day after launch culminated in a party I had with friends and colleagues in Manhattan (that's a pic of me and my hero Dave from last night). It was overwhelming to see how many people came out in support of me and the launch of Savvy Auntie. Wow. Thank you all!

I must get back to work. There's so much more to do. But I'll be back soon to share more with you as soon as I answer a few hundred more emails....

XOXO,

Auntie Melanie