General

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:

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.

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?

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!

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

A comment left on a recent Wall Street Journal article was made by “Jeremy B5″. While initial readers clearly knew this wasn’t me, some folk have taken the comments to heart, so I wanted to both address the comment head-on, as well as talk about one of the core issues of commenting today.

First and foremost, this comment was not made by me. Anyone who knows me or has seen me comment would clearly know this for a few simple reasons:

1. I always comment as me. Even when I later end up sticking my foot in my mouth or saying something stupid, I put my name beside it. I happily sign in with FaceBook Connect or similar services when possible so that folk know it’s me.  I don’t use psuedonyms, I don’t comment anonymously. And, hell, let’s be honest: if I did, I wouldn’t use a weird version of me to do it.
2. Come on, CEOs don’t get their own company’s names wrong. While Word sometimes capitalizes “b5″ as “B5″ at the start of a sentence, I’m religious about getting it right. Hell, at b5 we actually have a plugin that rewrites all references and all misspellings we could think of to the right name (feel free to try it on an official blog, not sure I have the plugin running here). It’s “b5media” or “b5″. Not “b5Media”, “b5 media”, “B5Media”, “B5 Media” or any other variation. And, as my team  knows, if I’m going to combine “b5″ and “Jeremy”, I’ll do it as “b5jeremy”. Lowercase everything. I’ve, in the past, used terminology like b5ads, b5shirts, b5gear, b5ranch, b5tweetup, etc.
3. The biggest reason is that this clearly isn’t how I think about the current situation or about Brightspark.

Mark and the team at Brightspark are completely professionals and, with their operational experience, some of the best VCs in the country. Not only do I believe Mark’s story that the reason they didn’t raise a fund was so they could focus on their internally incubated projects (probably not how he’d describe it, but y’know), I’ve heard from several LPs that they would have happily invested again (in case you’re wondering about ass kissing, several of these LPs have told me funds they wouldn’t invest in again – and then didn’t, so I believe them).

Brightspark no longer actively investing (they continue to support their portfolio companies, actively, including b5… and that support has been invaluable during these tough times because their operational background is critical to our success) is bad for Canada.

But, I’m excited for the future of what they’re doing, as them gaining more operational experience, especially online and media experience, will help dozens of companies should they return to VC (and I sincerely hope they do).

In short, the comment wasn’t made by me, doesn’t represent my views and and is completely unhelpful to the growth of startups in Canada.