I'm Back! And Working Full Time

After another long hiatus, I've decided to try to begin writing regularly again. There are lots of times over the past few months when I thought about putting pen (keyboard) to paper (screen), but just couldn't get myself to do it. Part of it was the fact that my life was in flux and I was just trying to figure out where it was going.

Well, I started a job as a Sr Product Manager at Symantec two weeks ago. I had been busy interviewing at several places, but decided that this position was best for a variety of reasons. Most surprisingly though was, and is, how entrepreneurial it is. I'm working on emerging products on the consumer side (NortonLive), in a group that is separate from the core Symantec products. Though working full time at Symantec, I am still working on Vyoo. It is my dream and I won't let it die a quiet death until I've pursued all avenues.

The real reason I ended up getting a job was not because I've given up on my idea, but because I couldn't pay my minimum monthly balance on my credit card anymore. It was that high! And my part time gigs just weren't cutting it. Sometimes in life you gotta do what you gotta do.

I'll leave the details to future posts, but wanted to get something out on my blog in the interim.

My Long Hiatus - Machu Picchu

I seem to be taking off large chunks of time from writing this blog. I always said I wouldn't do that, but some days it's hard to write.

Quite a bit has been going on these last few weeks, including a two week trip to Peru. I have to say, Machu Picchu was well worth the effort. It's truly an amazing spectacle.

For full disclosure, I've been struggling with what to do about Vyoo for the past month. I received a credit card statement last month in which I could barely make the interest payment. It was then that it hit me. I'm dead broke (really beyond broke). I have no income. I have no expectation of any real income, and if I raise money, it's months away.

It was depressing to say the least. And while I vowed not to let money dictate the fate of Vyoo, it certainly has played a role in how I'm deciding to progress with the company. We've recently finished the product and rewrote our algorithm... again. I've started pushing more invites out and I'm planning on doing a full launch in the next week. Concurrent with this launch, I've started looking for work to begin to pay the bills.

I'm still incredibly passionate about what I'm doing, but it comes with several caveats. I think it's time to begin progressing my career professionally, meaning moving to a more structure company with financial support. It's time to start paying my bills and my debt down, because I'm not getting any younger. And it's time to generate some cash so I can invest it into the company.

Anyway, I've always vowed to be open and honest about what we're doing, so I didn't want to sugar coat anything. It's been a rough month - one of the reasons I've slacked on posting anything here. But what I've learned more than anything else is that I'm an entrepreneur. And while I may get a "real" job, it's with the intention of getting back to the startup world somewhere down the road.

What a Great Story - "Telkom ADSL speed beaten by pigeon"

I had to share this. Here's an example of a company that is probably resting on its laurels. From Business Day (here):


"Homing pigeon Winston has made history by beating a Telkom ADSL line in delivering 4GB of data from Howick to Hillcrest, outside Durban in far less time than it takes to download the data using the state-run Telkom’s data network.

It took Winston 2 hours 6 minutes and 57 seconds, whereas the ADSL download was still under 5 % downloaded by the time the bird landed.

Winston took off from Howick after 10:00 this morning and travelled 80 kilometers, or 70 as the bird flies, to ensure the data arrived at it’s destination quickly.

Financial services company The Unlimited decided to test Telkom’s ADSL speed against World War I technology - the ancient technology won.

While the ADSL line was actually given a head start of almost half an hour, Winston still beat the service by 95%.

There has been no comment by Telkom."

We're Switching Teams - WSGR

Two years ago I met with WSGR to discuss legal representation for our startup. I met with one of their parnters, Mark Rienstra, who I got along with really well. After much deliberation, we decided that their deferred payment terms were too high. So we went with Fenwick & West at the time. Unfortunately our partner at Fenwick left for Reed Smith and we got lost in the shuffle. As we approach funding now - I want all of our ducks in a row - and they're not quite there yet. We determined we needed more support and therefore re-engaged several law firms to discuss working together. I reconnected with Mark and sat down for a meeting.

Their terms for the deal were more fair this time around and since we had a relationship already, it made working together much easier. So a few weeks ago, we signed a deal.

GeckoGo

Yesterday afternoon I met with travel startup GeckoGo. They're part of the Facebook Fund startup class and are developing a travel content provisioning system. They've been around for a couple of years and have some pretty good traction in terms of users and even content. They were founded for some of the same reasons that urged me to start Vyoo. Discontent with existing offerings.

Looking at what's out there, it's a shame that there's so much money pouring into the travel space and some large incumbents, but nobody up to this point has captured enough of the market or even created a viable, one stop shop.

Looking at GeckoGo's offering, they are trying to put something like this together. Even such things as finding the right time of year to hit a destination haven't been done well, until now.

Ugggh.... Dell, What Are You Doing to Me? Dell Sucks!

Two weeks ago I had an experience with Dell that made me think twice about their crappy customer service. I've been a Dell customer for fifteen years. They sold me my second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth computers (my first was custom built). I know them well. Their customer service used to be top notch - award winning. Until about 5 years ago. They shipped most of it offshore. And they obviously began cutting costs, including the implementation of VOIP, making it difficult to try to work with the technician on the phone. And they began to treat you like the village idiot. A typical comment, "Sir, have you tried powering off for five minutes?" Are you kidding?

Unfortunately, there was a constant need to talk to tech support, because their products became suckier and suckier.

Anyway. Two weeks ago, my computer broke. I mean, broke! The screen just went black. I could boot into safe mode but that was it. I spoke to customer support. My computer (which was already a replacement for another broken Dell computer that heated up to unfathomable levels) was out of warranty. But the nice tech asked if I'd like to extend the warranty and then get it repaired. Was this a joke? I honest to god thought it was. So for a hundred and something bucks I bought the extended warranty. While they probably made money on the transaction, I undoubtedly saved myself from buying another computer. So they came out to fix my computer, on site. They replaced my LCD, my hard drive, and my video card. I felt like I had an almost new computer. Everything worked like a charm. For two weeks. Then the same problem happened again. This time they fixed it on the phone by fixing a driver issue. But the problem started again the next day. Now I need to send my laptop back to Dell...which will take 8 days, at least. Fortunately I have my roommates computer...but WTF?! I mean...how am I supposed to work on my business like this?

And now I'm wondering if the computer will ever be fixed? I mean, they replaced most of the guts of it already. And message boards are filled with customers experiencing the same issue.

So take at least 2 days (on each end) out of getting anything done when this happens - because not only do I have to try to fix the computer, but I have to setup all of my software again. What a damn hassle! The way I look at it, Dell owes me about 8 days + 8 (for sending it back) days of compensation. Or how about at least a computer that works?

For the record, I love the Thinkpad T60 I'm using.

What's Up?

It's been a while since I've blogged. For good reason. I've been incredibly busy with the business. While I'd like to explain everything I've been doing, I'm not at liberty to discuss it all. We haven't secured funding, but we've been having successful meetings with people.

One the business front, we've experienced out ups and downs with developers, UI people, psychologists, consultants, friends, family, etc. over the past two years.

This taught me two very important lessons or at least confirmed what I already thought I knew:
1) Involve yourself and your company only with people who share your passion. I'm not talking about someone helping you craft a mission statement or coding a few lines of code. I'm talking about people you bring into your inner circle.

While it's nice to just get people working with you (and sometimes that's a necessity early on), it will end up taking up even more of your time if they're not in it for the right reasons. This is a hard thing to realize. What I'm saying is, recognize people's value, passion, and interest - and plan accordingly. Don't make someone a founder just because you think you need someone. Don't bring on a CTO just because you need one.

2) Money talks.

For all of those tasks you need completed that don't require a vested interest in your company - find a way to pay people. I've had to ask for a lot of favors through the past two years. And it sucks, because nobody is on your timeline. I want things done yesterday. Realistically - they won't be done until next month. I imagine if I were paying these people fair market value, that would probably change things. It's a bit of a catch 22.