Category Archives: The Making Of

Voyij at PlugAndPlayTechCenter Sunnyvale 7-8-08

Voyij, a startup in the travel deals space has a cool space at the PlugAndPlayTechCenter facility in Sunnyvale.

PlugAndPlayTechCenter is like a big college dorm, but only for startups. There is great food, all the amenties you could ever want to keep you hacking into the wee hours. Lots of other startups are in there, adding to a unique camraderie.

Betaworks Moves Into New Meat Packing District Office 7-26-08

We finally have our very own office, now in the Meat Packing District just next to Pastis. Yesterday I saw for the first time hanging carcasses of meat outside – and I thought the Meat Packing District was just all hipster bars now!

We’re in the old warehouse/building of Collier Encyclopedia, whose globe still adorns the main entrance.

Love the high ceilings and loft style openness! Thank god for IKEA whose inexpensive furnishings adorn our new home. We’re also right down the street from great restaurants, bars, the swank new Apple Store, and Google is 2 blocks away.

Stealth Startup in SF 6-13-08

Yet another (stealth) startup in their second location, and up to 6 people.

This building is one of those housing a few other notable startups. Many such buildings exist in SF, and the startups all seem to pile together in these old buildings whose remodeled interiors make conditions much more bearable inside.

Betaworks in New Office 12-20-07

I just got involved with a new venture called betaworks out of NYC. It’s a new business creation platform which hopes to serve the east coast market for socially driven early stage internet startups, with close ties to the west coast. We just moved into our official first location with Daylife:



I’m excited to be part of this team. We’ve brought together a group of people with wide variety of experiences and are working through our operational details now.

Outspark Explosion 9-27-07

I was over at Outspark the other day and was floored by their growth. Back in February, they were still just filling out their space with IKEA furniture:

When I walked in this last Thursday, about 7 months later…

What amazing growth after only 7 months. They are moving like gangbusters on their game platform and watch for cool things to come soon!

Voxpop Moves to Pier 9

Voxpop just moved from their high rise offices in the financial district to a space much more cooler and startup-chic:

Pier 9 is owned by the city. The rent and view are AMAZING. Looking forward to beer parties on the pier overlooking the Bay Bridge this summer!

GRRRR ROWRRR ROWRRR

This is an impression of a “tough dog”, as performed by entrepreneur whose determination is shown through gritted teeth and never failing optimism in the face of rejection, sleepless nights, and stress at starting a new company.
It’s easy to give up. Retaining confidence, determination, and forward moving energy is super tough in the face of constant adversity. Rejection, business deals moving too slow, running out of cash, wondering when revenue is coming in, investors and partners beating on you, your staff is not working out and you need to fire them – the list goes on and on of things faced by new entrepreneurs.
But you can’t give up. If you do, then you may never realize your dream of watching your company and idea flourish and grow. You need to learn that the world is going to constantly try to beat you down and you have to live with that, roll with the punches, and keep moving forward. There will be times where it will seem you’ve hit rock bottom, but only to fall even lower. You, the budding entrepreneur, need to expect this, prepare yourself, and keep saying to yourself that it will get better, and to drive towards making it better.
Because if you can’t adapt, then maybe you shouldn’t be an entrepreneur. You’ll die of despair and never get anywhere. Know yourself before you embark in entrepreneurism.
Or…learn how to say:
GRRRR ROWRRR ROWRRR
It really works.

FanLib Company Get-Together Numero Uno!

February 27, 2007
The first company get-together for FanLib, bringing all the investors and company together to celebrate and show the incredible progress they’ve made:

I love group pictures like this, especially as they record history. They are all special moments in a company’s history and need to be saved.