Recently, I wrote a post about the launch of Prota Ventures, a venture building and early-stage investment firm. We've been hard at work on a number of items and dogfooding our own products (someone should come up with a better name for this) each week along the way. One that you can check out is MapleIQ. Need an intelligent, interactive, customer-focused landing page? This is the one for you.
One that I've been using nearly daily for the past seven weeks is Startup Rocket. During this time, I've been involved with everything from a hardware startup (making metal hairpin legs, more on that later) to helping about a half-dozen founders/pre-funded and pre-product teams work through their individual ideas while evaluating the steps of Startup Rocket along the way. We added in a few more features and steps to the framework to help take founders all the way from an idea through closing a first round of funding (if that's the path they choose to pursue; we've seen the framework also work for those bootstrapping or growing organically). Additionally, you can now see all of our current articles on the steps for launching a Tech Startup online at startuprocket.com/articles.
So, why write a post about this? Well, first - I committed to blog more, so am keeping up with that. Second, I've made a ton of notes throughout the past six weeks about why/how I find Startup Rocket valuable when working through the steps of launching a new idea.
Read MoreI'm excited today.
As an entrepreneur, most of us get a feeling when we're about to dive head first into a new journey. The feeling that you get when you're excited and nervous all at the same time. That feeling that can be described as the quiet sense of calm anxiety before the rollercoaster lets loose and the drop begins with ever-increasing speed and screams of excitement and fear begin. Yes, that's the feeling this morning as the next chapter gets underway.
Read MoreIn January I left the helm of one of the companies that I co-founded and was fortunate enough to grow for three years, One Spark. To me, the blessing of One Spark has always been demonstrated most through the amazing talent of people that were brought together (employees, volunteers, creators, city members, investors, students and so many more) supporting a single mission: to help people with great ideas get connected to the resources they need. We attacked the pain head on by creating what turned into the world's largest crowdfunding festival, but more importantly for our city and beyond - a movement that inspired thousands to create.
During those same few years, I also founded other businesses, advised dozens of startups, traveled hundreds of thousands of miles, met my wife, got married, spoke at conferences, gave a TEDx talk in Frankfurt, did hundreds of media interviews, completed an ironman distance triathlon (but not the blog), a couple half-iron distance races, moved three times, ran a few marathons and ultimately exhausted myself. I can still feel the physical and emotional ailments again just writing that list. Fortunately, my wife encouraged me to take a couple of months off before diving back in to any new entrepreneurial ventures. For that, I'm...
Read MoreThe first 10 days at KYN feel like they have gone by in just an hour… and yet, it’s been years in the making. Personally, it feels a little like a very big milestone is underway… as I recall touring this same space just two years ago thinking it would make a phenomenal home for a startup accelerator program. How things come full circle… :-)
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