What I do on my time off
Julie and I flew out to chicago to meet vendors and plan out more parts of our wedding. We saw bakers, photographers, caters, a florist and met with our musician. It was pretty jammed-pack day because I was still fielding calls from work, responding to emails, and in general pseudo-working. This is the worst thing […]
Mistakes were made
Mistakes are made daily in a company. Everyone knows mistakes are going to be made. We tell each other this, we tell ourselves the same, and so you’d think we’d all be ready as all get-out when a mistake is made. But it never happens that way, right? Mistakes get made, and we […]
No need to fear…..
It’s really hard. Working in a start-up, fear is your ally. it’s your go-to drug after coffee. It’s the benchmark for all adrenaline surges. But after a while, crises and problems melt into the background noise of the day-to-day. And you look up one day and realize that the problems are nothing to be afraid […]
Tech Giants on a Political pedestial
I’m obsessed with Podcasts, especially news podcasts. Here’s what I listen to The Economist Planet Money (NPR) WallStreet Journal This American Life (arguably news….) Bloomberg Radio Eco-environmentalists Ted-Talks One thing I’ve noticed….people tend to hate Giant Traditional Corporations like WalMart and Exxon but give a lot of Tech Giants a pass. Whenever you hear about […]
Back from the Beach!
Just got back from an AMAZING Company retreat at Long Beach Island. We flew out the entire Chicago office, and the NYC + Chicago family met altogether for the first time in a LONG time. The company probably hasn’t all been in the same place in over….a year? Probably since the launch of the Chicago […]
Old Friends
Dom and I just got back from an incredible wedding with friends we’ve known for 2/3rds of our lives. Bill, Tony, Dan, Johns, etc – these people are the core of what I aspire as genuine friendship. We’ve all gone through our struggles, and years go by without seeing each other, but every time we […]
I failed.
I hate failing. There seems to be a worship of failing in the Tech community that boggles my mind. I don’t “get it.” Fail fast, fail often, failing helps you learn, etc. No, failure = losing in my book. Anyone competitive hates to lose. It just isn’t in me to revel in losing. But back […]
Remember that Life’s a roller coaster
Hey it’s my 30th b-day! Every year on my birthday I had certain rules #1 – Never work on your birthday #2 – Get a great cowboy hat and wear it all day. Never stop wearing the hat #3 – Start drinking when you want to, stop when you’re broke. #4 – Hijack your friends […]
A + B does not equal C
There’s a conceit that if you add two variables, that the product will always equal a third predictable variable. In business, this is simply not true. If you take variable A, and add it to Variable B, then the two produce a by-product while simultaneously creating a feedback loop on each other and mutating the […]
Back from the Vegas convention!
Sorry for the lag in the posts! I just got back from Vegas, demo-ing D&T’s latest product BuildersBidNetwork.com at the ICSC convention. Here’s what I learned at the convention 1.) People tend to “trust” products over services. I think it’s because products have clear limitations, clear boundaries as to what they can/cannot do. Whereas […]