Work

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! :-D

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 :)