Twentysomething

Andru Edwards says goodbye

Andru Edwards, founder of Gear Live Media and the Seattle Mind Camp Events has a very moving online eulogy of sorts to his father, George Budabin. I met Andru at his last mind camp and he seemed like a very stand up guy. My thoughts and prayers are with him at this time.

Social Shopping

Read/Write Web has a great article on the different Social shopping sites out there today.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/social_shopping_faceoff.php

The most notable portion of the article is the conclusion:

"Most notably, there is still big room for innovation in this market. Kaboodle has nailed the basic feature set, but much more can be done based on the power of masses and technologies like RSS. We expect to see many more innovations in 2007, such as personalized recommendations, product alerts and interactive chats based on where you are shopping."

Entering Startup

Starting a business is tough work. I've decided to use my blog to track my process as I go through it. This'll give me a way to write about lessons learned through this crazy startup I'm working on. The title for this post, comes from my friend Hans blog, which is similar to TechCrunch but dedicated to Seattle tech start ups and the entrepreneurship mindset.

So far here's what I've learned, some from those who have been there before like Guy Kawasaki, some from experience :

1. If you don't try it, you'll never know. This is a lesson a good family friend once taught me. If you don't try it, you will never know. This not only applies to going from conceptualization of a business to implementation but also applies to all other aspects of a business. It's important to always ask for what you want because at the end of the day all you're losing is time.
   
2. Hire people that are smarter than you (thanks Guy). It's also important to make sure you have a plan for a replacement in case someone decides to take off or you have to let someone go for whatever reason. The life of startup isn't for everyone and when you need to replace a crucial position, you want to have someone ready to go asap when you're in an early stage business.
   
3. Create a board before you need it. My board of advisors have been an invaluable resource whom will not be soon forgotten. Listen to your gut first, then your advisors and see how they fit in.
   
4. Read. This means reading blogs, newspapers, books, anything and everything that will help you think ahead of anyone else. In this day and age there are no excuses for not doing so. Although I don't always agree with him, I'm in total agreement here with Mark Cuban, who has an excellent post about this on his blog.
   
5. "Be prepared to be hit over the head with a hammer multiple times." One of my favorite quotes I've heard so far courtesy of Charles Higgins, a serial entrepreneur and local angel investor who had those words of wisdom to share with me.
   

Who's up for a buyout?

Now that the media fanfare over YouTube has died out to some degree, except for the Time article, it's time to look ahead to 2007, to the next company to buy out.

Front runners are Facebook and Digg. They've both received an incredible amount of press, their user base is increasing and their scope is ever increasing. I think Facebook will go before Digg though, as their monetization seems higher than Digg's.

What a mess

It's been an interesting month in Seattle. After reaching record rain fall last month, this week was the worst storm in over a decade! It's very interesting to note what happens in these chaotic situations. Here's the most notable introspections I found:

1. Coffee is like Seattle area people's crack . All other stores were closed around town except Whole Foods. Thinking it would be nice to grab a coffee, I made my way over to their cafe. Power was out throughout the city of Bellevue, which meant all other Starbucks were closed. The line at the coffee stand was no less than 40 people deep. I decided I didn't need a chai that bad, and later asked the clerk at the grocery cash register about the line. She mentioned the wait time was 45 minutes. Wow.
   
2. Panic sets in without power. Most gas stations around the area have ran out of gas, as panic set in and the desire to absolutely fill up your tank spread. Most gas stations that DID have power/gas had a line of around 30 cars at all times.
   
3. The internet is an addiction. Being unable to check my email for the past few days has been difficult. I'm so used to bringing up my feed reader to get my news, and I felt cut off from the world. Cable is still down but luckily Starbucks here in Issaquah has hotspots.
   
4. Overall, people are much more patient on the roads when disaster strikes. Typically, when a traffic jam occurs in this or any other city, residents become frustrated and anxious to get going. I constantly fall victim to this. The past few days have been a drivers worst nightmare, and almost everyone seemed extremely patient, realizing that slow downs are imminent. If only we could stretch this thought pattern to our day to day lives.

It's amazing how a couple days in the cold and dark will make you appreciate a warm shower. I'm not sure if this has any relation to global warming, although I'm sure some local pundits will make the assumption, but I do know that if disasters like this persist throughout the United States, climate change will become a huge issue in 2007.