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How I’m Spending My Time, Summer 2012 Edition

I realize that by my online activity, it may seem that I’m up to a lot of different things. All true. I thought I’d record what I’m doing now, partly to keep a log file for myself, and also to share with others, as some feedback and/or tips would also be appreciated. As of July 1, this is how I’ve been spending my time:

  • EIR @ Javelin Venture Partners (80%): I was lucky enough to been offer an EIR gig at Javelin. Typically, EIRs go into a venture firm and start a company, or maybe join a portfolio company. I’m not sure I’ll do either, for a lot of reasons, as I’ve been curious about exploring venture capital for some time now, though I realize how difficult it is to crack into the industry, and truth be told, there’s a lot more I need to learn. In my capacity now, it’s very unstructured, largely defined by me. I spend my time on the following activities: evaluation of investments, spending time with 5-6 Javelin CEOs who are seed-funded and ramping up to the next stage, bringing new founders and companies into Javelin, mapping a few areas that of interest to the investment professionals at the firm (data being one such area), and also studying the firm’s background, portfolio, and interests to help position them in a rapidly-changing investment market. And, a metric ton of meetings, largely by my own doing, but it’s been really fun and productive to reconnect with old friends and meet new folks every day. I am very grateful for this chance to meet so many sharp, driven people. I’m at Javelin for three months, and one month into that term, am having a blast.
  • TechCrunch (10%): I’m streamlining my content creation for TechCrunch — 5% of my time is devoted to the TCTV show I started called “In the Studio” which has now run nearly 30x, maybe more. One day a month, I have the studio and call in guests all day, cut each video, and then publish them once a week, every Thursday at noon PST. The other 5% will now be devoted to a new weekly opinion column called “Iterations” that will be published every Sunday, so look out for that, and am always interested in recommendations for TCTV guests and column topics to cover.
  • Exploring the next thing (10%): And, well, I spend the last 10% of my time exploring what I’ll do next. Everyone asks, “what would you like to do?” The answer to that is tricky, but I do have a sense inside of what I’d like that to be, though I realize it will be a little difficult to get there in a short period of time. So, as a result, I just try to put myself in the right places, work hard, get up early, take extra meetings, try to help founders and companies, and just focus on #1 and #2 above, as hard as I can. I’m also being much more direct in my meetings, explaining to others what I’d like to do, leaning into those conversations and not pushing things too much.

For the first 33 years of my life, I used to worry somewhat about “what’s next?” Last year, I just never worried about it. I am just very grateful for right now. There is no long-term, in many ways. I’m focusing on what’s immediately ahead, and I constantly remind myself to show gratitude and to be helpful to everyone I run across. If there’s a way I can help you, please send me an email (not on Twitter, please), and I’ll always promise to respond. Thanks for reading, and for your ideas. Cheers!