Scribbles

It’s been an interesting year for my personal ventures. While business has been humming along, I’ve been working on several early stage projects, partnered with various people. And even though nothing has officially launched yet, I’ve learned a tremendous amount in the process, specifically thinking hard about customer discovery (and business model discovery), technology, emerging markets, software lead generation, startup founders, and handling getting backstabbed in a startup deal. (More details on the last one in a separate post.)
 
A great book that helped me put all this in perspective has been Founders at Work. The book consists of a series of interviews with famous founding members of tech startups, like Steve Wozniak from Apple and Max Levchin from PayPal, presented in their own voice. They tell the stories of their struggles and successes. Quarter through the book so far as an entrepreneur I can’t praise it enough. So many late nights recently, as I nodded through sections where I commiserate experiences, gain insight from their thinking, I always closed the chapter inspired. There really exists that unique character that puts them in their position today.
 
Speaking of startups, a b-school classmate and good friend of mine is at one of them: Lattice Engines. They provide software for large companies like Dell and HP for sales intelligence and B2B Marketing. The reason I bring up their work is the way he described how their product analyzes large amounts of data and providing recommendations reminded me of the social media sentiment analysis space. As the way businesses and consumers operate change so quickly, it is really hard to build something in anticipation of these disruptions and being in place in the right time. Since I started researching social media analysis and online marketing efforts, I appreciate how truly hard it can be. All in all, great technology that while half a step ahead of the curve, is still trying to create a market to validate itself. (Not that Lattice Engine needs that much more validation.)
 
As my year wraps up, I look back on my learnings with fondness and look forward to the upcoming intensity of work to follow. On a self-serving note in hoping for my own progress, I wish that your ventures, personal or otherwise, come to fruition. Savor the journey and assume upon yourself as much responsibility as possible the outcome of your work.