Ensight – Jeremy Wright

Nov 03 2009

Football? Me? Erm… No Comment…

Category: Business, General — Jeremy Wright @ 2:20 pm

To any of my friends, it’s no secret that I’ve never liked football. Hell, I’ve publicly mocked it on stage, on Twitter and in conversations. Even to professional football players. I’m classy like that. Classy, I tell ya!

However recently I decided to give football (NFL, not CFL!) a real shot and watch a full game. Why isn’t important. Neither is it important why I chose the New Orleans Saints to cheer for. But I did. Not a bad team to pick, they were 5-0 going into last week’s game against the Dolphins, and having been to NOLA in the recent past, I felt it was a good game/team/time to give the sport a serious shot.

This had to hurt…

So what happened? What did I think of America’s pastime? Is it still on par with baseball in my mind, or is it a real sport?

If you aren’t sure, I highly suggest reviewing my Twitter stream from last night’s Saints/Falcons game. Cause, erm, I was clearly into it. I’ve now watched 2 games in a row, both highly emotional, highly charged games, and I think I’ve realized why I didn’t give football it’s due before:

I didn’t grow up in the states: this should go without saying, but the reality is Canadians don’t get excited about football. We’ve never been to a tailgater. We probably can’t even name 3 QBs (hell, half of us probably think you’re talking about a certain smelly province of ours).
Football is a social game: now, most sports are best watched with others. But watching a NEW sport alone? Not so hawt. Twitter changes this. Being able to chat with Aaron and jam with other Saints fans during the game is a whole nother expeirence!
I had no emotional ties to the teams: I’m a Leafs fan. Always will be. Even this year when they’re playing like the farking Ducks. I’m a Leafs fan cause I AM CANADIAN and I AM TORONTONIAN. It’s what we do. How we roll. Why we’re idjuts. I had no emotional connection to any NFL teams or cities, so there was no emotional investment in the game – which always makes the game 10x better. Don’t believe me? Try watching women’s lacrosse.

My halloween costume …

Since I’ve now watched a game, have folk I can talk to during games and have a team/city I care about… well, football is a very different experience. And, as much as it pains me to say it: it’s an experience I actually enjoy.

I can’t say I’ll watch every Saints game. I won’t. I can’t even say I’ll follow the stats religiously, cause I won’t. But, like the Leafs, if a game’s on, or a friend invites me over, or I snag tickets: I’ll be there and prepared. I won’t become a football freak like Aaron, but I will no longer mock the sport. Specially when the saints are playing.

#WHODAT!

Comments (8)

Sep 02 2009

Got Twitchy Finger? Vote for SxSW Panels (Toronto, Friends & Mine)

Category: General — Jeremy Wright @ 12:04 pm

: Image by dpstyles™ via Flickr

Every year, the panel submissions and voting for SxSW sneak up on me. Normally I don’t have time to submit a panel idea, so I’ve only really been able to speak once when I was selected last-minute. This year, I decided to be different, and proactively reached out to some folk well before the deadline to put together panels that:

I’d go to even if I wasn’t speaking (which is saying something, cause I only go to about 3 panels per conference)
Were different from the “normal” panels you see at conferences
Have people I respect/admire/care about on the panels
Challenge assumptions
Provide value

Most of the normal things I’d speak on, were taken out by point 1/2. And most of the fluffy ideas that I’d normal brainstorm on were taken out by points 4-5. But point 3 is ultimately what drove the discussions.

My Panels

When I pinged Lu, Patrick and Dave about doing panels with them individually (or vice versa on Dave, maybe), as well as a few others, it was because I ultimately wanted to be on panels with them. And what we talked about, I felt, should be a meshing of our experiences.

: Image via Wikipedia

As a result, the opening call with Lu was basically shooting the shit for half an hour, before realizing we were going through similar types of transitions. Both from different extremes, but both basically looking to find balance, bliss. And so Ditch the Old to Build Your Dream Life was born. It was deadsimple to brainstorm Chris and Erin would be perfect. Both people I love, respect, admire, look up to, etc.

Similar discussions happened with Dave, leading to F#$% Keeping it Simple. Being a mobile guy, Dave wanted to talk about how too simple in mobile was limiting the potential of the device. I wanted to focus on how simplicity in startups is as much a curse as a helper. It’s a crutch people use to put ideas down, instead of thinking outside the box and trying to do stuff right.

That said, I’ll freely admit that much of the brainstorming for the session with Patrick around How to Recover from a Brand Collapsee was Patrick’s idea. Patrick’s been running communities for ages, is wicked smart and I’ve known him since before either of us could just say the name of our company and not have to go into elevator pitches everytime we introduced ourselves. Patrick’s recent post on How to Recover from Social Media Failure (paraphrased) is a great example of his thought leadership in this space.

And, well, the last panel I submitted is still quasi confidential. Some folk are aware my wife and I split awhile ago, and that I now have a girlfriend. Very few folk know who she is because we’re being fairly incognito about the whole thing. But the interesting thing that folk always love when we tell our story in person is that we met on Twitter. So we found a few other folk who had as well and put together Twitter and Dating in 140 Characters or Less.

So those are the panels I’m hoping to land this year. Each of these is unique for me, and challenging, and I know that I’ll learn.

Toronto Panels

: Image by Cliph via Flickr

In addition to my panels, I want to encourage folk from Toronto to vote for panels from folk from Toronto. The Canadian invasion last year (powered by #canLIT) was in full force last year, but we weren’t organized enough to have a significant number of panels. That should change. While there are lots of high profile wicked smart people like David Crow, Joey DeVilla, Saul Colt, etc in Toronto, there are way more wicked smart people who don’t yet have the profile they deserve. So, hop up and vote for your local talent!

Kev Richard (a fellow mobster) put together an amazing list of Toronto panels. Click through and send him a thanks, follow him on Twitter, etc. Here’s his list:

F#$% Keeping it Simple presented by Dave Coleman, Saul Colt and Jeremy Wright

Community Management : Future Skills You’ll Need to Know presented by Saul Colt

Tweet Your Way to Your Next Job presented by Saul Colt

Putting a Fork in The 30 Second Spot with panelist Andrew Lane

Life After Wii Fit: Geeks On Fitness presented by Wesley Hodgson

Make Me a Damn Good Manager! presented by Andre Gaulin

Millionaire or Artist? How About Both? with panelist Amrita Chandra

Distributed Micro-Patronage: The Future of Getting Paid: presented by Josh Newman

Building Blocks of a New Economy For Music: presented by David Dufresne

Colour Trends -Palettes to Pick for 2010 presented by Paige Dzenis

Brilliant Second Acts You Must Steal Tricks From presented by Jaime Woo

How to Recover From a Brand Collapse panelist Jeremy Wright

Twitter and Dating in 140 Characters or Less presented by Jeremy Wright and special guest!

Ditch the Old to Build Your Dream Life with panelist Jeremy Wright

Gaming’s Final Frontier- Moving Towards Monetization & Improving Experience presented by Troy Ross

Passionate People: The Key Ingredient to Social Media Success: with panelists Meghan Warby , James Topham and Ryan Taylor

A Different Documentary : Online Story Telling and Social Change presented by Boyd Niel

Documentary Games: Playing with the Truth presented by Tony Walsh

Multi-Platform Storytelling with panelist Andrew Lane

SXSW SARS with panelist Jay Goldman

We are Family: Web Applications Band Together Now! presented by Sunir Shah

How to be a Customer Support Rockstar presented by Grace Antonio

Experimental Design:Your User Interface is Your Laboratory presented by Mike McDerment

Exploiting Chaos– How to Spark Innovation During Times of Change presented by Jeremy Gutsche

News 2.0 – How Old Media Companies Are Inventing New Models presented by Maggie Fox with panelists Laura Conway, Mathew Ingram, and Candice Faktor.

Friends

In addition, I’d like to highlight Brandon Eley’s panel ideas, and encourage you to vote for him as well:

So There

SxSW Panel Voting ends on Friday, so if you’re interested in voting, don’t put it off. Vote now. For mine, for local ones, for your friends. Hell, search for great terms and support the wide base of submissions that are in for this year.

Comments (3)

Aug 31 2009

A Diary of My Workcation / Life

Category: From My Life — Jeremy Wright @ 10:19 am

This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series Finding Balance

This is a reflective post. No real content, so if you aren’t a friend or don’t really care what’s going on in my life feel free to move on. I’m a blogger, I’m allowed a narcissistic post once in awhile! What follows is a fictitious timeline of some of the things that’ve been going on in my head over the last few weeks.

25 July, 2009

Woke up. Realized I was about to leave my baby, my team and my family behind. Panicked. Ate poutine. Panicked. Ate ice cream. Passed out. Panicked. Wrote emails to team, bloggers, partners, etc. Scheduled to send out on 27th. Felt like shit. Ate more ice cream.

26 July, 2009

Didn’t sleep last night. Probably won’t sleep tonight. Oddly feeling okay with that. Feeling like maybe I deserved to be punished, and not in a good way. Flying out to begin my “workcation” before shit hits the fan with my quitting. Want to be “on the ground” and away from Toronto when it happens.

27 July, 2009

: Image via CrunchBase

Wow, okay, wow. My two biggest fears were that a) nobody would notice I’d left and b) that I’d get absolutely lambasted. Given TechCrunch/WSJ/NYT coverage (and lots more besides), clearly A wasn’t an issue. And outside of a douchebag or two and a few disgruntled ex-employees B wasn’t an issue either. Spent about 4 hours dealing with the swell of coverage.

Then I walked away from the computer for the afternoon. Figure I might as well practice this workcation thing sooner than later. When I came back, there was stuff to respond to, but what had to be said had been said.

30 July, 2009

: Image by Laurie :: Liquid Paper via Flickr

Came back online to find hundreds of emails, tweets, DMs, etc either offering support, jobs or saying “we should meet”. When pressed on what we should meet about, response is invariably “no, really, we should meet”. Wondering if folk actually think I’m in the mob due to new branding around the consulting agency.

3 August, 2009

Head to visit best friend in Raleigh for a week. Manage to “catch” epic allergies. Like 6 drugs and still doing 2 boxes of kleenex a day type of allergies. Don’t sleep much. Spend no more than 3 hours a day online. 1 hour catching up on client stuff, 1 hour on leaving b5 stuff and 1 hour trying to figure out whattf I actually want to do!

5 August, 2009

As is a 10-year tradition, I continue to beat my best friend senseless at football video games. This despite the fact that he nearly went pro and feels football in his bones and that I actually have no clue how football even works. I mean, come on, they’re running … why can’t a touchdown be called a home run? Geeeeze.

Realize that it might be easier to figure out things I don’t want to do than things I do. Ponder this over the world’s best burger and fries. Come out with the fact that I don’t want to:

Become a hairdresser (my hands shake)
Start another bootstrapped startup (a revenue generating or funded startup is fine… and I’ll also almost certainly do a from-scratch startup at some point in the future… just not now)
Move to LA

7 August, 2009

After getting plastered with best friend’s buddy (who spent most of the night trying to explain to me how to make a coke-can bong), head back to best friend’s apartment, with new buddy, to play more football. Lose a game to best friend. Kick buddy’s ass in ways that won’t be repeated. Realize I also don’t want to move to Dubai to lead the “North American Strategy” for a major UAE media holding company. As insanely cool as that’d be (if for no other reason than regularly being able to fly in one of those wicked tricked out planes, first class), I’d be too far from my boys, which I’ve decided totally ain’t cool.

: Image by Anirudh Koul via Flickr

9 August, 2009

On plane on the way to London, UK, to visit friends, realize I also don’t want to join a big media company in a “strategic” role (big paycheque = nice; politics all day long = not so much… I’d rather Get Shit Done). That said, there is a very large, very strategic role, in a media company that I’m holding out for.

11 August, 2009

Much drinking, much relaxing, much curry make me realize I’m gaining weight. Decide I won’t care until I’m back. Entered workcation at 225 pounds. Currently over 230. Realizing that I do need everything in moderation, including weight-loss. At least right now.

12 August, 2009

Wake up for the first time without any stress at all. It’s taken me 2+

: Image by bitzcelt via Flickr

weeks to let all the stress from b5 and changes and stuff wash off of me. Realize that 2 weeks isn’t really that bad given marriage failing, taking 60%+ pay cut, leaving job, handing baby over to new CEO, new girlfriend, boys getting older way too fast… This sense of “relaxing” (new word to me) comes and goes over the next two weeks.

Some days I hyperventilate with stress, some I don’t even get out of bed. It takes until the 18th of August for me to actually stop this cycle of up/down-ness. My therapist (how weird is that to say) is confident I’m coming out of the “valley”.

16th August, 2009

Last night in London, and I decide not to get drunk. Realize I often used to get drunk to destress. But since I’m not stressed, I can just go chill with friends. We catch a movie, chill, and just “hang” (a foreign concept to me) until the very wee hours of the morning. I get lost on the way back to my hotel, confusing Leicester Square with Covington Gardens. Thankfully a bum is more than happy to walk me to my hotel in exchange for my watch. Very kind of him. Joke’s on him, it’s just a spiderman watch.

: Image by Eneas via Flickr

22 August, 2009

Preparing to head home, after more workcationing while landing a new client, gaining weight (232 at last check) and starting to book meetings. As I book meetings and figure out what excites me, I realize they all have a few key things in common. They all:

Involved being entrepreneurial, even if it was inside a larger company or an agency
Involved Getting Shit Done, whether by leading products/projects or by helping clients get Big Wins
Had freedom and flexibility to do conferences and such, assuming they add value and that I’m continuing to Get Shit Done
Had me learning something I’d never done before
Were local (ie: no further than NYC/Montreal/Ottawa). I have 2 boys, and don’t want to be any further than that from them

24 August, 2009

: Image via Wikipedia

Arrive home in Toronto after hellacious travel home, involving missing bus. Missing another bus. Then paying 200$ for a cab ride home cause I just didn’t fucking care anymore. Intend to sleep. Can’t sleep. Intend to clean. Don’t clean. Decide to go out to local party to actually show my pretty face. Am honestly unsure if anyone will care. If they do, should they? If they don’t, should they? Decide to just hang with friends, not let the stress creep up on me and not get drunk. Cause, y’know, I don’t need to cause I’m not stressing.

Party starts slowly, but picks up once I steal @verneho’s nametag and wear it around for an hour. He doesn’t realize I have his nametag, even after we go “searching” for it together. Even after taking pic with him and I in it, me wearing his nametag. Pic is epicly good. I’m gonna have it bronzed. He still claims he knew the entier time. Riiiight

Night was great. Folk seemed happy I was back. Convos with friends were great. Ended the night when someone convined random chick it was my birthday. Also convinced her my name was Jorge. Pronounced “Whoregy”. She sang “Happy Birthday Dear Whoooooregyyyyy” twice too often.

27 August, 2009

After nearly 20 meetings last week, and half a dozen offers, I was able to trim my list down to 5 positions. Each of these are exciting in some way or another, each of them are more than just “a job” that I’d take for a year, and each of them are with companies and teams that I could invest myself in in a real way.

The positions are everything from EIR in a VC firm to leading a digital media agency to taking the helm of a startup that’s about to raise funding thinking red,green and black and that I really believe in, in a space I love.

Now

So why write this post? Mostly because I’ve talked to a half dozen people over the last two weeks that are stuck on the “what do I really want to do?” question. So I thought I’d share some of my ruminations. Because while blogging’s matured and become less freeform over the last few years, I figure as an “old timer” I’m allowed to occasionally just freestyle it. Maybe no value to anyone but me, but yeah.

Lessons I Learned While Gone

But, seeinng as how blogging HAS become more polished, I figured I’d share some lessons I learned while I was away on workcation:

Figure out what makes you smile, and do more of that
Figure out what makes you stress, and do less of that
Don’t be afraid to fail (I used to live by this, but sometime in the last year I lost it)
Sleep
Friends and family matter

I figure if I can’t do/have those 5 things in a job, it’s not really worth doing.

I also learned that girls in New Orleans still flash their boobs, even if it’s not Mardi Gras. And it’s generally not worth seeing. Girls Gone Wild has skewed the number of hawt chicks flashing in New Orleans. It’s fiction! Fiction I tell you!

Anyways, it’s great to be back. This week will be a week of decisions. But more importantly, this week is a great week to practice balance.

Comments (6)

Aug 26 2009

Cleaning Out My Domain Portfolio (7 Domains for Sale)

Category: Business — Jeremy Wright @ 10:08 am

: Image via Wikipedia

Okay, I’ll admit it, I’m an addict. I buy domains for any idea. Even expensive .it ones ($75 for a domain?!!). But while I’m an addict, I’m not a complete packrat, so I figure it’s time to look at selling some of the domains I had plans for, but no longer plan to use anytime soon.

So, in the spirit of both spring cleaning (a bit late) and, y’know, letting friends/family get first crack at stuff before putting them up for public sale, here are the domains I’m currently looking at selling:

blogbacker.com
blogbackers.com
blog-consultant.com
blog-consutlants.com
bloggerlunch.com
cellephony.com
geekrank.com

If you’re interested, feel free to email me an offer and we’ll get it done

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Aug 24 2009

Best Out of Office Replies Evar

Category: Business — Jeremy Wright @ 9:04 am

: Image by Yogi via Flickr

I wonder what’d happen if I actually did one of these…

1. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.

2. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.

3. I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me until I return from holiday on 4 April. Please be patient and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.

4. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged £5.99 for the first ten words and £1.99 for each additional word in your message.

5. The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and trysending again. (The beauty of this is that when you return, you can see how many in-duh-viduals did this over and over).

6. Thank you for your message, which has been adde d to a queuing system… You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.

7. I’ve run away to join a different circus.

8. I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical reasons… When I return, please refer to me as “Margaret” instead of “Steve”.

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Aug 21 2009

11 Hawt WordPress Plugins I’ve Fallen In Love With

Category: Blogging — Jeremy Wright @ 9:14 am

: Image by Thomas Hawk via Flickr

As part of building out that whole agency thing, I’ve had to do some digging for clients on interesting WordPress plugins. In doing that I’ve found a bunch of interesting plugins that I had never used before, so here are 11 of the best (my girlfriend asked “why 11″, and I answered “cause it’s better than 10″… yeah, I iz wittay).

Featured Content Gallery: If you’re not familiar with it, it’s what sites like b5’s Bizzia use to do the whole content rotator thing. It can be a touch cumbersome if you don’t already have a “Featured” category setup, but not overly so. Just read the setup instructions one.at.a.time.
Preview Theme: If you’re ever wanting to edit one theme while having another viewable to the public, this is perfect. Not a huge innovation, as there are other ways to do this, but for idjuts like me it’s just dead simplestest!
Quick Subscribe: There are probably more fully featured, better ways of doing this, but for an easy, “in WordPress” way to alert readers to new posts this one’s just dead easy. If you have a better one, let me know in the comments!
Shockingly Simple Favicon: Favicons in WP can sometimes be a pain. This removes that pain.
Thank Me Later: One of the best tools to increase readers coming back is to email them a thank you for leaving a comment. Problem being that you either have to make it automated (and look like an automated-tool-using-idiot when they get a “personal” email 1 second after commenting) or slog through them one at a time. Enter Thank Me Later, which has a random delay on it, and a bunch of other settings, to make the email (and its timing) more personal and less automated… while still letting you be an automated-tool-using-douchebag
Tweetmeme: One of my favourite plugins of all time, Tweetmeme lets users RT posts from within your post, and then tracks those RTs. If only this integrated into the next plugin I’d be in heaven…
Twitter Blog: I actually went looking for something like this, and this is the best I could find. If there’s something better out there, let me know. But basically what this does is tweets out when you post (duh), but then tracks replies to those tweets and then integrates them (if you’re lucky/good) into the comment stream for your blog. More comments, more interaction, more juicyness! Again, there’s probably something better out there (ideally that used bit.ly and others’ reverse-APIs to actually track ALL responses… and REALLY ideally integrated into tweetmeme… but yeah, this is hawt)
Wordbook: Updates your Facebook wall/news feed/etc when you blog. Tends to result in, well, more traffic.
wp-AuthorComment: Lets you style comments by the blog’s author differently. So you could change colours, indentation, background, whatever. Dead simple, but very cool.
WP Greet Box: Okay, I’ll straight up say this plugin is a bit overkill in how many services it lists, but anyways… Basically it looks at a user’s referrer, and then displays a custom message, with a pretty graphic, based on where they’re coming from. It’ll also do more advanced things for search engines like show related content. Someone comes from Twitter? Encourage them to subscribe to your Twitter feed. From Digg? To Friend you. From Fox News? To get a clue. Setup’s easy, but having to change the default message that encourages each site’s users to “subscribe to my feed” is a bit tiresome.
Youtube Profile Field: Again, there are probably better plugins for this, but this allows you to integrate with your youtube account, have shortcodes for most recent videos or a video feed (for insertion in a page), etc. It’s a touch clunky around setup, but once it’s working you can just leave it be.

So there you have it. When my girlfriend saw the title of this post she took exception to me saying I fell in love with plugins. I had to reassure her that if she was a WordPress plugin I’d have a list of 12 plugins. Her response? “You’d only need 1 of them to make you happy”. Rowr.

If you have better suggestions for any of these features, or cool plugins “outside the norm” you think I should try with clients, let me know I’ll happily beta test hawt new features. I did the same for the “hawt even in beta” GravityForms!

Comments (23)

Aug 19 2009

Answering 4 Frequently Asked Questions Since “The Announcement”

Category: General — Jeremy Wright @ 9:24 am

: Image via Wikipedia

Ever since announcing my resignation as CEO of b5media I’ve had a tonne of email. Well, less than I did while I worked at b5 (cause I don’t get the mountain of internal email), but a lot of email specifically addressed to me that asks for a specific response. I’ve managed to answer most of these (one of my todos is to get my inbox empty for Wednesday) in the midst of my “workcation”, but realized that it might be easier to post a bit publicly, and then refer the simpler questions to this post.

Not to be antisocial, but at some point you get tired of answering “so, are you sad?” (no, I won’t answer that in any detail here, cause it should be obvious … no, and yes, at the same time).

In the spirit of openness, and efficiency, and just of, y’know, getting back in the habit of blogging, here are some common questions and my deep, thoughtful, wise answers:

: Image by law_keven via Flickr

Q: So… What’s Next?

This is the question I, understandably, get asked the most. The short answer is “I don’t know”. The medium answer is “I’ll be running netmobs and doing consulting for clients while I find the right fit… which could end up being netmobs“. The long answer is “I’m talking to companies, agencies, startups, etc about finding the right fit, but I’m in no hurry”.

Ultimately I figure I have 3 options right now (outside of the “do another startup” one, which I’ll answer in a sec): a) join a larger corporation in a senior strategic role (a friend suggested “EVP Social Media” or similar), b) join a midsized, profitable, agency or startup either for a finite period (to help them reach Goal X) or permanently or c) join a media company or startup, likely in the US, in a senior role around BD/media/social media/product development/etc.

At this point, I come back from my “workcation” on Tuesday, I have a bunch of lunches/meetings/coffees, and I’ll have a better idea by the end of the month. Right now I’m listening, talking, strategizinng and figuring out not just what I want or where I can add the most value, but where I fit.

That could be netmobs, it could be a “regular job”, it could be in a VC firm or it could be something totally random. Which is why I’m taking some time, listening, hanging out and helping folk when and where I cna.

: Image via Wikipedia

Q: Are You Going to Do Another Startup?

Kind of related to the above question, some folk want to know if I’m going to do another startup. Especially after the oddly skewed WSJ article made it sound like the issue was some kind of inability to hack it in the startup world.

Granted, I was pretty tired (any job where you work 80+hrs/week without taking breaks for months/years will burn you out), and things do need to change in the startup world around helping CEOs finding balance (especially in Canada where we tend to eat our own young), but the issue around b5 was pretty simple: I was working too much, I had been at it too long, and I lacked perspective because of the huge amount of history there (none of it bad, but history nonetheless).

So I made a clean break so I could reboot. The last 4-6 weeks have basically been the equivalent of rebooting and putting more RAM into a Windows machine that’s been running 24/7 for 4 years. I feel good, I feel very fresh, and you could install some hawt new apps on me and I’d purr and be happy. As long as I remember to reboot on a more regular basis, I should be good.

Does that mean I’m going to do another startup? Probably not right away. Probably not about to start another media/software/internet business in the near future. I’ll probably play around with ideas. I’ll definitely continue to build out netmobs, which as an agency is kind of like a startup. And one of those things might turn into a Real Business. But I won’t be looking to place my life, passions and livelihood completely on the line at this point by starting or joining a startup that isn’t profitable.

Q: Are You Still Involved at b5media?

: Image via CrunchBase

Yes and no. I’m no longer involved operationally, which means if you want to know a) if b5 is doing something, b) when b5 is doing something, c) why b5 isn’t doing something, d) etc… I won’t know or speculate, but I can introduce you to the person who will know and may or may not tell you (heh). However I’m still a founder, shareholder and board member, which means I get to have input, watch my baby grow and try and stay out of the way. Not a bad deal really!

: Image via Wikipedia

Q: What Would You Have Done Differently?

I know a lot of folk write those kinds of long, reflective posts immediately upon leaving a startup. Might gut says it’s a way to decompress, make a clean break, reflect, etc. For me, though, I don’t have the necessary distance or perspective to put together a list of 5, 10 or 100 things I’d have done differently, that I learned, etc. Ask me again in a year and you’ll likely get a useful and coherent answer.

Bonus Q: You Got Divorced?

I don’t talk about personal things in this kind of public way very often, but I did mention a new girlfriend in my leaving post so folk asked about my marriage… and suffice to say that I’m no longer married, but that (see: girlfriend) I’m not single either. So, David, please stop sending me topless pictures of yourself.

Drive-by Thankyous

Before I head back to my hermit-like last few days of my workcation, though, I do want to thank a few folk who’ve helped me over the last few months through this transition.Some of it has been simple encouragement, some has been outright advice, all have been incredible, incredible friends.

I’m sure I’ll forget people, so I’ll also just say a generic “thank you” to anyone who was helpful, supportive, caring or even just gave me a swift kick in the pants. I hope to see you all at BWE, SxSW or in a random airport/bar/marina.

Reem
Merlene
Aaron
Erika
Rachel
Rick
Micah
Brad
Ted
My dad
My mom
Dan
Paige
Lee
Jay
David

Comments (2)

Aug 17 2009

The Next Step in Standardized Term Sheets: VC Declarations

Category: Business — Jeremy Wright @ 11:50 am

: Image via Wikipedia

There has been a lot of fantastic chatter over the last few weeks about standardized funding docs. I caught wind of it from (no surprise) Brad and Fred’s fantastic posts on the VC side, which led to Chris Dixon’s also amazing post on the entrepreneur side of the equation.

I love the fact that some firms, particularly law firms, are starting to release standardized funding docs.

A Lil’ Bitta Background

If you’re familiar with why standardized funding docs are important, skip this section

If you’ve never raised a round of funding before, you might be really surprised to learn that you can often agree on the principal terms (valuation, round size, board composition, etc) within a couple of weeks of pitching for the round. You then go through a period of Due Diligence, which is pretty normal, and finally you move on to LEGALS.

The challenge is that not only can this take 2 weeks to 2 months, but that:

Each side is on the hook for their own legals if the deal doesn’t close (there are few things scarier than watching your legal bills go over the $20K mark, when you only have $10K in the bank)
When sides do negotiating, particularly through their law firms, you can often have 3-10 lawyers in a room negotiating at $300-500/hour each
This process can end up costing 50-100K

Some Sample Docs For Ya

Everyone involved agrees this is silly, which is why standardized funding docs are so critical. Both sides agree on a pair, both sides negotiate primary terms, both sides get a lawyer to look over final docs, closing docs, deal book, etc, and you’ve just shortened your time to deal completion by likely weeks (if not months). As my friend Mario would say, Hey bada boom bada bing!

For context, here’s TechStars’ standard docs, Y Combinator’s and some standard terms from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA for short).

The Next Step Is…

Brad says the next step is for all the big startup/funding law firms to actually standardize their docs. While that’d be great, I actually think there’s a more constructive next step: for VC firms to declare, publicly, that they agree with any or all of these docs on principle.

I kind of look at it like the whole RSS 1.0 / RSS 2.0 / Atom debate from a few years ago. Sure, having all of the teams standardize on a set of docs (a syndication standard, if you will) would be great. But ultimately, having a set of standards is the big thing. Pick one, pick all of them, entrepreneurs don’t (or shouldn’t) really care. They’re all quite reasonable, after all. Knowing a firm supports a standard makes our job of picking a firm and planning a funding round’s timeline 4x easier.

Ultimately if VC firms publicly declare their support for specific standards (even if it’s just via Partner blogs, like Brad and Fred’s), they’ll not only shorten the deal time, but they’ll also put themselves firmly in the middle camp of being focused on getting good deals done. And, as an entrepreneur, that actually ratchets up my respect for them.

At the end of the day, we need to focus more on getting back to business, and less on an archaic process on the VC side of weeding out the chaff by putting them through some convoluted gauntlet. Either your interview/partner/DD process works or it doesn’t. If it does, don’t use Legals as a second gauntlet. If it doesn’t? Standard/good/bad legals are the least of your worries.

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Jul 28 2009

Workcations: My First Step in Finding Balance

Category: From My Life — Jeremy Wright @ 3:43 pm

This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series Finding Balance

: Image by daniel pozo via Flickr

I’ve always said I could work from anywhere. I’ve decided to see if that’s really true by trying out a “workcation”, basically a vacation where I work… or a work schedule where I take a vacation… Or, in essence, go somewhere vacationesque and work no more than 3-4 hours a day.

Sure, part of this is an attempt at finding balance. But mostly it’s hoping that this “workcation” thing actually works. Cause if it does? I can do this more regularly. From the beach… from a mountaintop… from a canoe… It’s not about slacking, it’s about that awkward place between “I don’t have time to take a vacation” and “I don’t have the unction necessary to work”.

So, yeah, while I figure out what I’m looking for, what’s missing, what I want next? I’m gonna work from the beach, from the lawn chair, from the porch, from the bed. I might even work from the bathtub.

Here are my basic rules for workcationing:

Go somewhere you aren’t surrounded by workish people (ie: this isn’t a staycation where you reduce your work hours)
Go out and meet people, it’ll help stretch your horizons a little bit
Read
Work no more than 4 hours a day
Don’t “check” your email/phone after 8pm

This is the beginnings of my question to find some sense of work/life balance. How do YOU find work/life balance?

There is No Work-Life Balance, Only Work-Life Choices (queercents.com)
The Long Weekend Off (realfreelancelife.com)
Life Balance: The Snapshot of Your Life (beyondhorizoncoaching.com)
Work-Life Balance Interview (feld.com)
The Dangers of Working 24/7 (markevanstech.com)

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Jul 27 2009

Handing Over the Reins at b5media (Or: A Year of Transition)

Category: Blogging, Business, From My Life, Work, b5media — Jeremy Wright @ 12:14 pm

At the beginning of this year (literally, the 4th of January), I took nearly 2 weeks off work from b5media, the company I’ve been lucky enough to serve as CEO for the last 3 ish years (the original year or so was as a group of founders). I didn’t make it public, I told the management team ahead of time and I went totally offline for roughly 10 days.

I did it because I was tired, burnt out and recognized that my life wasn’t what I wanted it to be. I was working too much, unhappy at home, unhappy at work and just felt completely blah. Basically I did it because a friend asked me what I wanted my life to be… It was then that I realized not only was I unhappy, but that I had no idea what I wanted my life to be.

Over the course of my time off, I realized a bunch of things, but the relevant one for today was that I was no longer happy, passionate or energized in my work. This wasn’t b5’s fault, or anyone’s fault really. It was really just that I’m a builder and a fixer, and b5 had moved beyond the point of its life where it needed that. Sad? Yes. Tragic? No. In some ways I always knew the day would come where I’d have to step aside and hire my replacement, so while this was a bit of a shock, it wasn’t one of those “zomg I can’t believe this is happening” shocks, it was more of a “wow, huh, okay then…” type of shock

So… What’s Up?

Over the last 6 months I’ve made a bunch of life changes outside of work to find a bit more happiness, but today marks the culmination of the work-related changes for this current season of my life. As of today, I am stepping aside as CEO of b5media, and we are bringing on Elaine Kunda as the new CEO. I say “we” because I’m still a board member, still a shareholder, still a founder and still a huge, huge b5media fan. And I’ll remain available to b5, it’s employees, Elaine, our bloggers and our investors because I flat out love the company, team and bloggers. This ain’t me abandoning ship, it’s me handing over the reins to someone who can take things to the next level (which is actually pretty darn exciting!).

Over the last 3 years, I helped turn b5 from an idea into a reality; from a loose gaggle of folk into a real business; helped to raise millions and millions of dollars; helped establish blogging as a real industry and helped to hire the absolute best team possible to rawk this puppy for all its worth. The journey was incredible, scary, fun-filled, sad and totally, totally worth it.

I want to be clear that this is a personal decision. There are seasons of every entrepreneurs life where you work your 80-100 hour weeks and you thrive. Then there are seasons where you need to breathe for a change, damnit. And this, for me, is the latter season. I’ll still work my ass off, but I’ll do it in a more balanced way. I’ll exercise more, spend more time with my girlfriend, spend more time with my boys, maybe even take up (or renew) some hobbies. I’ll probably start to play drums again, spend more time meditating and praying and generally remember what it is that makes me “me”. I’ll probably play with some startup ideas, help some younger companies and CEOs out and I’ll take on some consulting work (more on that later) so that I can pour everything I know and can do into a project for 2-3 months and then take a break if necessary instead of going so hard and strong that I literally collapse in exhaustion for 3-4 days.

Whatchoo Talkin’ ‘Bout Willis?

For those who love to attempt to read between the lines let me save you the trouble: yes this is my choice, no I’m not being kicked out, yes b5 is doing incredibly well and yes the team is absolutely going to kick ass. While sometimes CEOs leaving reflects on the CEO or on the company, in this case it reflects on one thing and one thing only: I need a bit more balance in my life, and I need to find my flow again.

I want to publicly say how very proud and honoured I am to have worked with such an amazing group of employees, bloggers, advisors and VCs. Really, I (and b5) wouldn’t be where we are without you guys and your efforts, passion or energy. b5 has become more than I ever dreamed it would be, and while I’ve worked my ass off, so have all of you guys and you all deserve a huge round of applause and at least a dozen beers (Elaine’d probably prefer if this was done after work hours, heh). This goes doubly for our bloggers who have stood with me, the other founders and the company through a myriad of changes, most of which have been good but some of which I know have been really, really hard. So thank you, thank you, thank you!

Back to the Future, Episode 4: Return of the Errrrngh

For those who are wondering what’s next, the answer is pretty simple: I have no idea. For the short term, I’ll be working with clients via a quasi-agency I setup to do that: netmobs (site is a work in progress, so be thou gentle), I’ll also be taking a bit of time off, I’ll be thinking about what really makes me happy, what really makes me passionate and how I can take what I’ve learned over the last half dozen startups I’ve done and both have fun with it and do something really interesting.

If you have any questions or whatever, you can reach me in any of the standard ways (email is jeremy@netmobs.com, cell is 416 726 3602, skype is jeremy_wright, Twitter is @jeremywright). Oh, and feel free to comment/ReTweet, whatever. It’s great news for b5, great news for me and my happiness and even great news for the industry that we continue to evolve, survive and thrive.

I guess that’s it. Another chapter from my 20s closes. Next, I think I’ll learn to skydive. Always wanted to do that! Or maybe I’ll take up ballet. I think the pink’d really bring out my eyes!

Mark,

As Satish mentioned, we tried to interpret what was effectively amy’s “art” into something that was truly a “logo”. As Satish said, some of this involved “un-arty” things like simplifying the look and so forth, but we still tried to maintain her core concept. In doing this, we realized that there were effectively 2 paths we could take, and your confusion to the logo would tend to support that assumption:

Path 1: Go the “art” route, where everything’s very free-form and flowy. We believe this will potentially look more arty, but won’t necessarily result in more purchases in the long term … and may actually end up distracting from Amy’s products.

Path 2: We believe a cleaner, perhaps more retro look (per amy’s examples she sent) will be professional, fun and, most importantly, will let the work speak for itself instead of potentially distracting a user, reader or potential purchaser.

While we do recommend path 2, we are good with either path

As Satish mentioned, we’ll be bringing some design samples on Saturday, which we think she’ll actually really enjoy. We think it captures the spirit of what she’s trying to do, keeps things neat and tidy, but also lets the work stand on its own. But if Amy prefers to go down the “art” route, we can definitely make that happens as well.

Hope this helps, and all the best

Tags: b5media

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