As a marketer at a start up in the Valley who also happens to be a mom with two little kids, I live and die by Evernote. It's an amazing tool that I can carry around wherever I go to keep track of everything - from my piles of to-dos at work to my daughter's summer camp schedule and everything in between. Of all the mobile apps I got on my iPhone, Evernote is my favorite. I. Love. It.

Evernote started as a general purpose notetaking tool that's amazingly powerful. It’s there whenever you need it. When I checked out the company website recently, I just realized they’ve been attempting to expand its user adoption with new apps like Evernote Food, Evernote Hello, Evernote Clearly and probably a dozen more down the line. This is a pretty common approach that companies take. After all, startups are all about scaling growth rapid and vertical product expansion seems to be the obvious way to do it. Gilt has done it. Many others have done it.

The only problem is that it’s a fine line to walk between brand extension versus brand confusion. The question one should ask before making any decision on product line expansion is: what is the ONE thing that your brand stands for? Another way to think about it is: what is THE problem your brand tries to solve? It’s that simple and it’s that hard. To me, Evernote is about productivity. It is my right hand, my second brain. It remembers things better than I do so I can be better at what I do.

While I absolutely expect (and want) Evernote to roll out more useful apps to make my life easier, the last thing I want from them is another thing that smells social networking. So when I found out recently that Evernote now has Evernote Food – which essentially claims to archive your food experience with your friends, I was in shock. Taking on lifestyle and social networking when your brand is so rooted in productivity is like taking your high horse power Ferrari off the race track. Instead of heading straight to the destination, you’re taking a detour to do sightseeing. You’ll be lucky if your car isn’t crashed into pieces.

It’s tempting to extend your product line when your brand is going strong. It’s been done gazillion times in the CPG industry and many big tech companies have done it. Look at Google, right? But when you see the fact that Google Plus isn’t making a dent against Facebook despite spending tens of millions of dollars and running billions of ads, it’s clear that Google too has fallen into the trap of over-extending its brand. Google is smart and efficient. Google Search, Gmail, Apps, Maps and Analytics fit into that category. Google Plus doesn’t.

Consumers are really straightforward. They only see you in one bucket. So Evernote, please don’t try to be someone else. I love you just the way you are.

I'm no entrepreneur but if  you have been around long enough in the Valley you know It's true. Eight out of ten businesses face with fail within the first three years. This insight post on Business Insider today is a good reminder for anyone who works at a startup on what to watch out for.

What's interesting is that five out of the thirteen things he listed all go back to product marketing:

• Understanding what motivates investors (and more importantly your target)
• Defining target audience
• Crafting the perfect positioning (and pitch!)
• How you scale marketing / sales
• Go-to-market strategy

A good reminder for anyone who works at a start-up on the priorities before taking a product to market. 

Everyone makes schwags and SXSW is noisy, making it that much harder to stand out from the flock. But Etsy did it without having to scream from the top of the mountain. With this handmade "hangover kit", it speaks directly to the crowd here and represent everything about the Etsy brand.

With a little bit of thoughtfulness, you can make something that most would throw away into a viral, memorable collectible.

It's hard not to feel upset after watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution as a parent.  Yes, the part documentary, part reality show is filled with quite a bit of self-promotion for sure.  But, so what?  His core message is absolutely the right one - our kids deserve to eat real wholesome food, not things that are filled with tons of additives, artificial coloring, and preservatives.  Those things should stay in the labs, not in our bodies.

As a working mom, I tried "outsourcing" cooking lunch for my then 3-year old preschool daughter by ordering school lunch for her at the beginning.  After 2 weeks, I had to stop and ended up cooking for her as she wouldn't eat her school lunch.  She's always been a very healthy eater and loves fruit and veggie.  When all she's presented with at lunch were pepperoni pizza, hotdog, chicken nuggets, hamburger and a pathetically thin slice of fruit, it's a shock to her system and no wonder she didn't like that.  The question is - why would things like that even be okay on a school lunch menu for preschoolers?

We are what we eat.  Currently, 1 in 3 kids in United States are obese.  As parents, we have the responsibility to show our kids how to eat healthfully and the right to demand well-balanced meals with real, nutritional food be served to our kids.  Here are some ways you can be part of the change now:

• Pay attention to what you buy at the supermarket
• Urge your Senator to support the Child Nutrition Act 
• Get cooking

• iPad has become the device to enjoy the internet.  Laptop is for work only
• On an iPad, the Internet feels really personal (literally) because you're holding it
• Holding the iPad makes you feel cool.  The sleek design, glassy screen, color, UI, and of course all the hype in the media make it hard not to
• App discoverability is an issue.  Who has the time to discover new apps – wish there were a mechanism to automatically recommend / add apps based on the type of Apps I have and where I am
• iPad should integrate with home entertainment devices to enhance the consumer experience using Apps.  It should sync and be able to “talk” to your TV , your iPod, Wii / PS3, etc
• iPad will be the computer of choice for my kids (and many others) to access the Internet.  It’s scary to see my 5-year old daughter and my 65-year old uncle alike could use it intuitively
• iPad is the prince on the white horse to save the publishing industry.  Reading magazine and newspaper is such a joy on this device.  If I were the CEO of any newspaper / magazine company, I’d move the business model to digital only – now.  It should adopt a “freemium” model instead of offering merely premium service  
• Marketers and developers will be thinking the iPad advertising experience differently as compared to other mobile devices.  The ads on iPad should be the richest and most interactive