Good day RUNmyERRAND! It’s Steve here wishing everyone a season’s greetings from London, UK where I’m studying for the year. Among other things, I’ve been checking out the entrepreneurship scene here and there’s some pretty cool stuff going on! Here’s four companies to give you a taste of what the Brits have to offer. Who knows, you might even start seeing these names in the States soon:

7digital: When it comes to digital music, the market is dominated by iTunes and Amazon, but 7digital is trying to break their dominance. The company has secured rights to a fairly large library with many of the mainstream hits of its larger rivals as well as some indie artists. However, 7digital is trying to differentiate itself with its online locker feature, which remotely backs up all your music. It also has a pretty strong B2B business going and there are plans to add video and ebooks soon. 7digital is available in the U.S., so check it out!

eCourier: This one has a strong American connection (founded by Dartmouth grads) and may be particularly interesting to RUNmyERRAND fans. Unlike traditional family courier operations, eCourier uses GPS, algorithms, and scale to optimize the effectiveness of its courier network. The company’s main clients are banks, law firms, and other business clients who need to send highly sensitive documents. They hope to become the UPS of same day local deliveries. eCourier is only available in London right now.

DIY KYOTO: DIY KYOTO makes the WATTSON, a cool little device for all those environmentally conscious consumers out there. It plugs right into your electric meter and helps you monitor how much electricity you’re consuming. You can also hook it up to your computer and get additional details about your energy consumption and effect on the environment. The WATTSON is not available in the U.S. yet, but as people become more conscious about the energy they use, don’t be surprised if you see this and other devices in a Brookstones in the near future.

Skimlinks: Calling all bloggers and online retailers out there! Skimlinks provides an innovative way to advertise on the Internet. It places links for products mentioned on a certain website to a retailer that sells it. In exchange, the webmaster earns a commission for every successful conversion. This works great for sites and blogs that review products and services. Skimlinks should be available in the U.S., so this could be a good way for some of you to earn some extra bucks!

Of course, one thing we don’t have here is RUNmyERRAND! With the crazy London weather and traffic, I sometimes wish we did. For those of you in Boston, take full advantage of it!

Have a safe and happy holidays everyone! Cheers!

The word on the street is true, RME closed a $1 million financing from West Coast firms, including Maples Investments and Baseline Ventures.  Team RME is just thrilled.  Both have impressive portfolios including Twitter and Digg, and we are excited to be working with these two firms because of their expertise in the field.

We’ve got a lot of work to do, but it is very exciting to think about all the possibilities and potential that lie ahead.  We will be focused on aggressively scaling the business here in Boston, and plan to open an office in San Francisco in due time.  Many, many, people along the way have helped us get to this point, and especially the current RME community of Senders and Runners have been fantastic supporters.  We are so grateful to have such wonderful users, who want to help this business succeed.  Doing simple things like telling their friends, writing in blogs, wearing their RME t-shirts, or passing around post cards, have all helped … so thank you very much for your support!

As I wrote in my personal blog, I love what @dharmesh had to say about raising another $16 million for Hubspot: “Startups: Closing a funding round is not value creation. It’s the *opportunity* to create value.”

We have an exciting opportunity ahead of us, and we look forward to continuing to pioneer Service Networking!

Thanks to Xconomy and Mass High Tech for the stellar write ups!

Boo! Happy almost Halloween.

Hi, Robbie Vorhaus here, RunMyErrand’s chief storyteller, back to talk about my favorite subject: great stories and, of course, RunMyErrand.

Let’s go back a couple years to my best Halloween costume ever. I wrapped my entire head in white gauze, stretching the last layer thinly across my eyes so my head appeared completely covered behind very dark sunglasses. I wore my grandfather’s felt Fedora hat from the 1920s, a deep blue double breasted suit, white button down cotton dress shirt and conservative rep tie, and after I covered my wrists with more gauze, I wore black leather gloves. Not an inch of skin showed anywhere on my body; I was the Invisible Man.

There was no identifiable part of my body, I couldn’t talk, and aside from my posture, there was no way to know I was me. I attended several parties that night, closing the evening on a friend’s roof deck, a little chilled from the night air, although enjoying my anonymity.

Just before I was ready to leave, a 20-something, red haired woman dressed in a Cinderella costume asked me to dance. She grabbed my hand just as the music changed to a slow tune. She said only one thing, “My name is Amanda, and I don’t care who you are. Just hold me close, say nothing, and when this song is over, walk away.”

Cinderella and The Invisible Man intimately dancing under the stars on a cold Halloween night, not saying a word, yet connected by a warm, intimate, anonymous embrace. I never forgot that tender dance with a stranger I will never know, and it reminded me of Ralph Ellison’s 1952 bestselling book, The Invisible Man, as he expressed how society often discounts the unknown – the invisible – yet for those who believe in opportunity and potential, there is great power, almost super power, in the unseen.

There was, indeed, a short time when RunMyErrand was invisible, but no more. We’ve been discovered and it feels so good.

Since this summer, on an invitation from Zipcar’s CEO, Scott Griffith, we’ve been based in Cambridge, operating and incubating out of Zipcar’s headquarters.  Also this summer, our founder and CEO, Leah Busque (our superhero), won Facebook’s prestigious fbFund Rev 2009 incubator program, and spent most of the summer in Palo Alto, CA, working alongside Facebook’s leadership, investors, mentors and other entrepreneurs. And get this: RME was the only east coast company to win!

Scott Kirsner wrote a fabulous piece about us in the Boston Globe, and Robin Hauk featured Leah and RME in her popular blog, Misstropolis.

And while I’m tooting our horn, Leah Busque was named 2009 Hall of Fame Start-Up/Small Business honoree for the Boston Herald’s Women’s Business Hall of Fame. You go, girl!

And also now great companies like IBM, Caturano and Company, Mass General Hospital and Zipcar are offering RME discounts to their employees. More to come!

I’m still trying to decide what to wear for this year’s Halloween, so if you have any ideas, please let me know. Also, tell us about your best Halloween costume. Share with us your favorite RunMyErrand story. Or just take a minute and tell us why you’re happy being alive. We love your stories, and can’t wait hearing more about your adventures.

Last week, after working in the office all day Monday, Steve and I thought we’d get out and run an errand on Friday. I offered to help carry some of the boxes, but Steve wouldn’t have it. With my hands free I decided to try out the video recording on my iPhone. Enjoy.

Side note: In the process of posting the video, I discovered Youtube’s AudioSwap feature. It allows you to legally use music in your videos. The bands benefit from an ad which makes it easy for viewers to purchase the song on iTunes and Amazon. There isn’t the biggest selection, but I managed to find one of my favorite groups: Brand New. I’m happy to see that these guys get it and aren’t locking down their content. Although I doubt I’ll put them at the top of the iTunes chart like Jill and Kevin did for Chris Brown, I hope I send some people their way.

Last week, I was lucky enough to receive an invitation to TEDxBoston- an independently organized TED event.

“TED is an annual event where some of the world’s leading thinkers and doers are invited to share what they are most passionate about. “TED” stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design — three broad subject areas that are, collectively, shaping our future… The diverse audience — CEOs, scientists, creatives, philanthropists – is almost as extraordinary as the speakers, who have included Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Frank Gehry, Paul Simon, Sir Richard Branson, Philippe Starck and Bono.”

Well, we didn’t have any Presidents at TEDxBoston, but we did have my favorite speaker, Benjamin Zander, leading the Youth Orchestra of the Americas to Beethoven.  Here is a video of Zander in action at a previous TED event.

Here are  a couple connections between TED and RunMyErrand:

-  TED exists because there have always been people breaking assumptions, and now TED has devoted itself to spreading these ideas for free! For any dreamy entrepreneur, it is relieving to connect with other people who have their own BIG dreams and aspirations.

-  Like TED, RunMyErrand is site where people connect in a community and share resources.  TED makes these connections in a virutal community, and RunMyErrand does it in a physical community.  The power of this technology is making connections where they didn’t exist before.

RunMyErrand and “Service Networking” are ready for TEDxCambridge-  tweet @tedxcambridge on our behalf!

When Leah was selling me on working for RUNmyERRAND.com, she never mentioned  TV appearances. What can I say? Stars are bound to shine and I was burning bright on Friday’s Fox25 Ziptrip to Charlestown. I expected to be discovered earlier in my career but at least now I can avoid the illfate that comes a long with being a childhood star.

Fox pulled out all the stops for their new talent and had Olives restaurant cater some lobster for lunch, which I was told Todd English cooked himself. They weren’t stingy with dessert either and my pallet appreciated the gourmet cupcake from Biga Bread.

Of course as a celebrity I had to do some meet and greets. Here’s a pic of me about to shake hands with Mayor Menino(I expect Obama to be calling next).    

Fox wanted to ditch the RUNmyERRAND segment and use the time to interview me, but I figured I’d throw Leah and Rylan a bone for letting me know about the Ziptrip in the first place. I might even stick around as their intern despite a guaranteed spot on a new Fox reality show.

Hi, I’m Steve Liu, one of the @RUNmyERRAND summer interns. I’m going to be a junior at BC this fall and I’m excited to contribute to RME for the rest of the summer. I officially started last week, but I’ve already earned the nickname “The Researcher.” Part of this has to do with my background as a research assistant for @gallaugher at BC.

I’m interested in how smart businesses use social media such as blogs, Facebook, and Twitter to their advantage and recently, it seems that the food industry is taking note. Take for example @WholeFoods which posts discounts on their Twitter feed. That’s cool, but if you’re like me you’d rather find a nice place to grab a bite than try (and fail) to make something on your own. Well there’s something for those of us devoid of culinary talent as well. A recent Globe article highlighted several area restaurants Twittering about their menus and recipes. See what’s cooking at @LESPALIER or  @myersandchang. Or if you want the big picture you can check out @eatboston and @BostonTweet. It’s a great way for restaurants to engage their customers. @tupelo02139 built up a following even before it opened!

But why stop there? @kogibbq, an LA Korean barbeque known for their short ribs taco (yum) takes the concept even further. Kogi sells their food through two wandering trucks whose locations are announced on Twitter. Or if you prefer dessert, there’s @COOLHAUS which features five architecture inspired “prefab” flavor ice cream sandwiches. Can’t wait for either of these places to expand to Boston!

Don’t have the time to track down a roaming ice cream truck? Try posting an errand on RmE to have someone pick up your order. Place a lunch order from your favorite place and have it delivered to the office. Or better yet, jump on a group run. One runner gently lets you know that there is a planned errand or food run to a specific location, like Mike’s Pastry, Target, Costco or Cosi. Simply jump on the run with a list of your needs and voila, those items are delivered once the run is complete.

There are tons of great restaurants out there to try. What’s your favorite place to eat? Where would you like to see our runners go on Group runs? All this talk of food is making me hungry.