A Great Girl: This ones for you Rosie

Posted on 02/16/2013 by DANNY

Today my dog Rosie died. I got a call from my mom at 4:30 California time. For the first time in the last 8 years, tears came down my eyes. Last time I cried was sophmore year of high school when I watched my Nana take her last breath, she was and still is a hero to me. My Nana had polio and even to walk a few feet would have to use crutches but she could move mountains.

They say a dog is a mans best friend. The saying comes from a quote in 1870: ”The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him and the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog.”

When we got Rosie my family was going through a difficult time. My Dad decided to leave being a doctor, and he went from running a decent sized company to sitting at home. He changed and became a different man. For almost 2 years he was a different man. Until we got Rosie. Rosie changed and maybe saved my Dad’s life. They became best friends and spent every minute together. Rosie changed my brothers life. The dude just fell in love with Rosie.

And today Rosie changed my life. Every time I saw Rosie, her tail would wag and she would jump on me. Whenever I was in my bed at home, I would wake up to see Rosie sleeping at the foot of the bed. I would wrestle Rosie to the ground, put her in a headlock. She always kept nudging you and licking you until you petted her. I never had the same affection for Rose that my Dad or brother had. Until today.

Life is about give and take, you put something in and you get something in return. Even if you win the lottery you still have to put in money. With a dog there is only unconditional love, never any problems, or anger. They are literally happy every time they see you and will often follow you to the end of the earth. They ask nothing in return. I can think of nothing else in life like it. Maybe welfare?

The most difficult moment I have had was a few weeks before graduation senior year of College. My first and most difficult final was the next day. Around 5pm I found out I was on the hook for close to a million dollars in fines for a business that I created and executed. Even worse, I was fully responsible for fucking up the lives of people that helped me execute the business.

I felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders. I locked myself in a library room until 5am and just thought of ways to fix the problem and come up with a solution. However, with death no amount of thinking solves the problem. You are left with a hole that heals over time, but hopefully realize that you never appreciate what you have until it’s gone.

Rosie, will always appreciate what you did for my family.

A Semi Recent Meeting

Posted on 01/11/2013 by DANNY

Early December I met with somebody who was recently let go from his job. He spoke with me about how the company changed during his time there and how a few months before he wrote himself a memo about his companies culture changing and his thoughts which I will publish below.

He then told me he will give the entrepreneur road a try until January 1st. About 3 weeks time. He was afraid if he gave it anymore, that if his idea failed, nobody would be interested in hiring him. I explained how 3 weeks is enough time for an extended vacation not to launch a startup. He hesitantly agreed to give it an additional month until February 1st. After his memo, I will publish his thoughts 3 weeks into startup life.

————————————————————————————————-

“I made a note to myself a couple months back about my feelings at work. This shows my opinion hasn’t changed just because I was let go:

Company Culture

Give into the system, play the game, keep your paycheck
This was of the world to begin with, it’s just crystal clear now
We are no longer a start-up, not because
- Number of people in the company
- We aren’t tackling new tech fields
- Layers of Bureaucracy
But because
- The best ideas don’t win out, we are no longer a meritocracy
- It has become a political issue of becoming “Yes, men”
- We have lowered the bar in hiring
This is characterized by
- Our inability to move quickly
- People taking tons of vacations
- Using other companies as benchmarks
The main problem is that

We are still focused on the short-term revenue over long-term value
Our core competency remains convincing users to buy (conversion), and we’re unwilling to learn what it takes to get them to stay (retention and engagement)”

————————————————————————–

Everyone in Silicon Valley says that they want to start something on their own, but then they don’t. And I don’t blame them. Trekking out by yourself is downright scary. The lack of a steady paycheck, no health or medical insurance in sight, and the uncertainty each day brings is difficult for anyone to handle. So even though I’ve told others to take a chance and chase your dreams, I was always hesitant to take the leap myself. But 2013 changes all that. It’s time to eat my own medicine.

So here’s what happened. Back in late August of 2012, I started on my journey to learn programming, since my goal for awhile has been to become a rockstar Product Manager. I formed a study group through friends I met online, and we began meeting weekly to go through learning web development.

Since we were all starting from zero, our beginnings were pretty humble. The target was to get out a web app out by the end of year, but step one was just some basic HTML and CSS. Then, we moved onto advanced CSS3 and HTML5 with forms, so even though the pages were static, the content wasn’t. Next up was JavaScript, including some AJAX and JQuery thrown in. Each of these subjects took a couple weeks each, and as such, September, October, November flew by.

As November was coming to an end, I started learning Ruby, which was supposed to be the last step to making a web app. Wrong. It turns out that to program with Ruby, one must also master version control systems (Git), command line interface (Terminal), web server maintenance (Heroku), and databases management (PostgreSQL). And let’s not forget Rails – that Convention-over-Configuration, Don’t-Repeat-Yourself, Model-View-Controller monster of a framework.

Luckily, I had some SQL experience as a business analyst writing queries, and great co-workers who were willing to answer tons of my neophyte questions. More importantly, I was highly motivated to get something out the door according to the original timeline. So during the day, I worked on developing and executing mobile strategy as a full-time Mobile Product Manager, and at night, I coded. Over time though, I realized the window of opportunity was closing quicker than expected.

In the middle of December, a sudden move by the company would force my hand. The executives decided on performing some general restructuring, and due to no fault of my own, I was let go. In fact mobile traffic, mobile revenue, and mobile margins were actually the highest they’ve been in company history! As it turns out, this was quite a propitious event, as it gave me the free time to complete my project by end of year. Right now, it is a race against the clock to get something done.

In the short period I’ve been at it so far, my thoughts and feelings have been all over the place. The crazy part is that having read many start-up articles detailing the peaks and troughs, I knew this emotional rollercoaster was coming! Armed with this knowledge, I was determined not be swayed by my fickle emotions. But to no avail. In the past few days, I’ve experienced some of the most exhilarating times ever in my life, and when fear and trepidation set in, some of the scariest moments ever as well.

My dream is to get a job within the productivity industry, and I know I will make in someday. For now though, I’m just bleeding cash with the palpable feeling of risk hanging over my head. In the end, I don’t think there’s anything that could have fully prepared me for this journey. But frankly, that’s what makes it so exciting.

Why 2012 Sucked

Posted on 12/31/2012 by DANNY

This post was inspired by Fred Wilson.

On facebook, I have seen so many status updates about how great 2012 was. Some seemed great. Others seemed useless and grasping at straws with comments like “I spent more time with my family”.

I am never one to complain. Please don’t take this as complaints or whining, just simple facts as I see them.

2012 was a year of mass murders in elementary schools, hurricanes taking out major population centers, a never ending revolution, a war that never was, and in my opinion a continued disintegration of the American soul. Can anybody name one great global event this year?

For me 2012, was a year of transition. I went from sleeping in hotels and speaking at large conferences to sleeping on couches and talking to myself. I moved halfway across the world. Realized I did not know as much as I thought I did. Realized in tech you cannot and should not lead a tech company, if you cannot build it yourself. Realized you can always work harder, but working hard and working smart are two very different concepts. Although I have struggled in the past, I am starting to realize a new type of struggle.

I left my last startup without an idea, a concept, or an exact plan. Just the knowledge that I was ready to start my own company. In startup school, Mark Zuckerbeg spoke about how you cannot “start a company to start a company” and how his plan was to work at Microsoft. For the most part he was correct. However, I think you can, it is just infinitely more difficult to find a great idea instead of stumble upon one (numbers prove this as well summer class of Ycombinator 4 teams entered with no idea and 3 still have no idea).

Tonight at 12, I will raise my glass to a better 2013. A humble, happy, and productive 2013.

Paper Cup Theory

Posted on 11/25/2012 by DANNY

The majority of top economists state that if you want to limit the use of something then you should charge for it. The reason follows that people will only pay for the exact use they require and waste will be eliminated.

An example would be if you want to stop the US dependence on oil, charge higher taxes on gas. If you want to encourage public transportation, charge higher taxes when people purchase cars.

I have always thought such thinking is Anti-American. People should be able to do whatever they want and the government should not get involved. Taxes should be only at a minimum in order to let the private sector function.

However, I work out of a building with unlimited free paper cups. Often in a day I will go through 5 paper cups without thinking. What if they charged .25 per cup? I do not know about others, but I could guarantee you that I would not take more than 1 cup per day. This would decrease my cup consumption by 400%. If a cup tax had the same effect on others than there would be a massive cost and environmental savings.

What would happen if a cup tax was used on other deleterious items that effect our economy?

Going to work on a cup tax experiment this week. If I get permission to do it, will blog the results here.

Following Through: Motivation

Posted on 11/13/2012 by DANNY

So few people follow through. Most people like to talk. Others like to talk about following through. However, from my limited experience so few people actually follow through post talking phase.

A key element of following through is setting actionable items to accomplish. Most days I create a list of items to get done. I often struggle on creating too ambitious a list and not able to follow through on key elements. Personally one strategy I need to decide on when it comes to goals is to focus on a whole list of small tasks or one or two massive tasks or a combination of them both?

A few months back I wrote how I wanted to do some SEO work for this blog on the word motivation. Through Google analytics, I was able to see that motivation related articles received high traffic. I spent 2 weeks writing motivation related articles and then dropped the ball. I moved on and forgot about my goal to become a top search result for motivation.

Now a few months later after only 2 weeks of effort I am seeing tremendous results for the keyword motivation. Over the last week about 150 people have been coming to this blog daily. Close to 80% have visited via the keyword motivation. I dropped the ball, but if I stayed steady on my goal and each day or every few days worked on motivation related articles and SEO the results could have been massive.

People often come up with great plans or ideas, but after not seeing immediate results follow through is often the first to go.

Build Shit and Talk to Users

Posted on 10/20/2012 by DANNY

If anybody who has built a successful company will tell you that meetups and conferences are a waste of time why are there so many of them. In other countries I have spent time in there would be one or two tech related events a night maximum. In Silicon Valley there are between 8-12 on a nightly basis.

Why?

Was just at startup school put on by Ycombinator where have seen top founders ranging from Mark Zuckerberg to Pinterest to other up and coming companies speak about how they started. Each of them said the same thing. Shut up and build. Then take feedback and built faster depending on both qualitative (what users say and what you think) and quantitative data (what users do).

With this in mind, I left.

Adam Smith “Wealth of Nations”

Posted on 10/18/2012 by DANNY

I see this almost every day. Have thought of this and have spoken my theory to many others. However, I could not put it in such elegant words.

“Man has almost constant occasion for the help of his brethren, and it is in vain for him to expect it from their benevolence only. He will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self-love in his favour, and show them that it is for their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them. Whoever offers to another a bargain of any kind, proposes to do this. Give me what I want, and you shall have this which you want, is the meaning of every such offer; and it is the manner that we obtain from one another the far greater part of those good offices which we stand in need of. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love.”

-Adam Smith “Wealth of Nations”

On the Ropes

Posted on 10/04/2012 by DANNY

I had a plan last night of listening to the debate in the background while working. I accomplished this for close to 30 minutes when I put down work and paid full attention (as much as I could) to the debate. Wow, Romney killed it. Detailed, factual, on point, spoke great, made President Obama uncomfortable. If Romney is able to seize the momentum from this debate, he might now have a shot at the Presidency.

Over the course of the last month, Obama has obliterated Romney (Romney has also obliterated himself). Romney knew that this debate was his last shot at salvaging the campaign. He knew he could not do well, or win, he had to trounce Obama. Romney was on the ropes and on the biggest night of his political career he was able to sting like a bee and float like a butterfly.

Romney stepping up to the plate got me thinking of other great men who have stepped up to the plate. FedEx as we know it today, almost did not exist. In the early years of the company while undergoing difficult times and not able to meet payroll, FedEx founder Fred Smith took what left of the company’s savings and went to Vegas. His company was on the ropes, Smith went to Vegas and won a large amount in blackjack and promptly wired the money back to his company.

Another notable example is when Steve Jobs returned to Apple. His company was on the ropes with only a few months left before going bankrupt. Not only did he cut workforce and streamline the product, but he turned to one of his biggest competitors for a lifesaving investment. Jobs turned to Gates and Microsoft for 150 million dollar investment in order to buy him the necessary time to turn around the company.

During the financial crisis for a time it looked like the country was going to be plunged into a period of crisis worse than the Great Depression. The largest savings and loan in the country, Washington Mutual went out of business. Bear Stearns was bought for peanuts, Lehman Brothers went out of business. New Meryl Lynch CEO John Thain, saw that his company was on the ropes. Thain saw the writing on the wall. Thain made his move and sold the storied bank to Bank of America. Although not as bold as Smith or Jobs, Thain also saved his company. Both employees and customers did well. In hindsight, Thain’s move was genius: without question Meryl Lynch would have gone out of business; Meryl’s balance sheet forced BOA to go to the government for an extra 25 billion in TARP money.

Everybody goes through difficult times. The ability to persevere is essential. However, perhaps an even more important ability is to step up to the plate during uncertain times. Great men from Drew Brees as a future free agent with no contact taking his team to win the Superbowl or woman such as Meg Whitman who chose top step up to the plate in order to save HP.

However, life is not a movie. In one of the most iconic examples of stepping up to the plate Curt Schilling single handedly shut down the Yankees offense in the World Series. Under extreme pain and with a bloody ankle, Schilling was the main reason why Boston won the first World Series in franchise history. The “bloody sock” will go to the Hall of Fame. Schilling recently got into the startup game. With his company on the ropes Schilling stepped up with a 12 million dollar personal loan guarantee. The company went bankrupt, now famed pitches Curt Schilling is going bankrupt, and is forced to sell the famed “bloody sock”.

Perhaps Teddy Roosevelt puts it best:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

2 Years Ago Tomorrow

Posted on 09/05/2012 by DANNY

2 years ago tomorrow I arrived in the Middle East. To be technical, I should have arrived 2 years ago today, but I missed my original flight (by only 5 minutes). It was a wild ride. Had some crazy ups: we won top 10 Internet Middle East and some definite downs (once got chased out of a major bank in Bahrain).

Close to 6 months ago, I have moved to Silicon Valley to start my own company. Did not know a single person. Crashed on a couch (for 1.5 months) of a dude I met while looking for an apartment via Craigslist, later we became good friends. The last 6 months have been difficult. I had no idea, not a huge amount of money, and could not code for shit.

I made a vow before my 24th birthday, I would learn how to code. So with alot of help from others, I stepped my game up and learned how to become an extremely poor coder with decent design skills.

30 days ago on Aug 5th, I turned 24. Built a few prototypes and got some paying customers. As opposed to the standard wild party or last year’s birthday trip to Barcelona, on my 24th birthday I coded. Coding enabled me to build quickly which allowed me to evaluate a valid idea from a pipe dream.

2 years after the last company to the day, I begin the next one. Going to start testing in the Midwest.

#YALLA.