A Personal Blog
Archive for May, 2006
Soccer Season
May 30th
Evan starts soccer tonight. We nearly didn’t get him in (money is as tight as it’s been since I left my full-time job, and we really can’t afford it… but we couldn’t say no either), but it worked out.
So he’s got his jersey, got his soccer ball, got his outfit… He has no idea how to play, and he’s playing in an under-4′s team with one of his ‘friends’ (do kids have friends at 2.8 years old?). So it should be interesting. Hopefully he gets right in there and runs around (fear 1: that he’ll just sit back and watch) or get run over (fear 2: everyone’s bigger than him and he gets frustrated and cries because he can’t get the ball or something).
We know he’ll love it long term, but it might take a few practices and lots of loving words from mama and daddy. Who knows, though, recently he’s started wrestling with Alex so he might just hold his own on the field (though the concept of ‘rules’ will likely be a touch foreign to him).
Pickle Jar'ing It
May 20th
Huh, I got “Lifehacked” this week (no link to Ensight though). It was from an old, old, old article I wrote on time management called the Pickle Jar Theory of Time Management. Anyways, it was a fairly positive article (even though I don’t work this way anymore). Some commenters ripped on me for “stealing” Stephen Covey’s ideas. Which is false, since both my piece and Covey’s say this is a church teaching (Covey’s mormon, I think, and the use of analogies is standard in both his and my church’s).
Either way, glad to see this getting some visibility. Everyone needs more structure, more simplicity and more discipline in their day. If this helped some folk, great. Maybe I should illuminate how I now schedule my day sometime…
Rick Segal: VC Ambassador to the World
May 19th
Yes, I’ve got about 20 posts to write from this trip. Some will likely be self-censored, but I’m hoping to find the energy in the next 2 weeks to write them all :D
Yesterday Rick Segal, one of those guys everyone says “Oh, Rick? Yeah, he rocks!” about, is doing a worldwide trip to find great entrepreneurs.
I love this kind of stuff. One of the things I’ve seen in the last few weeks is a marked increase in overall “entrepreneur health”. I put this in quotes because it’s really a combination of a few things:
1. More young entrepreneurs 2. More original ideas 3. More people being creative with their ideas 4. More VC’s watching (even though most aren’t yet investing) 5. More companies being built around actual business models instead of just features (ie: a focus on the fundamentals)
This is all good stuff. In fact, specifically in Canada, I want to see this fueled over the next few months. Sure, we want to avoid a crazy psycho bubble, but if we can encourage kids from high school on up to think creatively, build businesses, build relationships, think strategically and then to execute on those things … Well, the cultural effect would be dramatic. Entrepreneurialism in Canada has for too long been “let’s build something that will get us bought by an American company”.
Honestly, I think this is hurting us long term, and I want to see us as a community doing more to keep Canadians in Canada, keep Canadian VC returns up, see more Canadian businesses founded for the long haul instead of just for a 2 year run, etc.
I’m not quite coherent yet, I know. It’s been a very draining few weeks, but I’m sure these conversations will keep swirling around (conversations that were started months ago by Rick Segal and others, were planted during CVF and started getting exciting during mesh).
Good times ;-)
What Do VC's Want?
May 19th
No, I’m not going to talk about b5′s experience with VC’s over the last few weeks. That’ll be a story for a book or something, heh.
But, my mentor through this process, Sean Wise, wrote an article last week which goes into a critical aspect of what I’ve experienced: VC confidence in management.
If you are at all considering raising funds (and, based on conversations these last few weeks with Toronto folk, more and more folk are considering it), this is a foundational article to read.
Conferences Done
May 18th
Well, it’s now been 2 weeks of conferences. I’m done. Spent. Heading home Sunday, but I’m taking today to just totally die. I’ll be back online tomorrow though to start working through the inbox.
