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Me, In 2013

It’s almost the end of the year, crazy hectic and fun, rushing to finish everything on my list and figure out what can be dealt with in 2013 before we head out to NYC for the holidays. It’s been a strange and fun year for me. Can’t say everything worked out the way I’d hoped, but I fight through and try to grow, largely drafting behind the goodwill and spirits of so many friends and colleagues who have gone far out of their way to help me in matters small and large.

As 2012 closes, i’ll be moving on from my stint at Javelin Venture Partners. In a nutshell, I had a blast. I took this opportunity not to start a company — more on why that is later — but rather to explore venture as a career from the inside. Venture can be a clubby place at times, but the folks at Javelin welcomed me with open arms, set me up with an office, an email address, all the little details, and invited me to share my opinions openly from Day 1. And, I can be opinionated, I guess 😉

After six months, I loved most every part of venture capital at the early stage, sourcing deals in consumer and enterprise, taking part in debates around possible investments, participating in deal evaluation, a touch of due diligence, and spending real quality time on product and markets with the founders of companies like boostCTR, Thumbtack, wellnessFX, Netpulse, Skytree, famo.us, and Prismatic, among others. I want to publicly thank Javelin again for the opportunity and encourage early-stage founders at the Series A to Series B level to consider Javelin on your list. The guys who started Javelin, Jed Katz and Noah Doyle, are both entrepreneurs and founders, two times over each, and are still humble enough to remember what it was like in those trying early days. And, the younger folks rising up at the firm, Alex Gurevich and Richard Mordini, bring a great mix of passion for product and business models without any ego.

For my next act, i’m going to try something slightly different. I made a decision to find a way to closely work with people I’ve known for a while and people for whom I hold in high regard. And, my interests are to be close to early-stage technology companies, and as such, I’m going to be working with a small handful of early-stage technology companies on operational matters, mobile growth, marketing, business development, and a host of other things.

Specifically, I’ll be working very closely with:

  • Linden Tibbets and the team at IFTTT;
  • G.D. Ramkumar and his team at Concept.io; and
  • Balaji Krishnan and his small team building DabKick.

This is very exciting for me because I’ll be working directly with people and products that I like, and will continue to shoot “In the Studio” and maintain a Sunday column. This is a slightly different working model than what’s normal, and who knows what it will turn into, but that doesn’t type of uncertainty concern me as much since I’ll be working on products I use and love, focusing in on topics I’m fascinated, such as mobile growth, and most importantly, working with people I want to see succeed.

Thanks to everyone again for their continued support in 2012 and see you all in 2013!