Life

A New Chapter

MINDSHIFT

I quit my job this week.

I’ve been working at Vital Source Technologies for the majority of my working life…13 out of 20 years. This is a testament to what kind of place it is, that I spent so much time there. I was there from the beginning, from the time when there were 0 users, up to today, when there are millions.

But the time has come to move on.

Over the past decade, I’ve been actively cultivating the developer scene in Austin, particularly through Austin on Rails and Cafe Bedouins. Four years ago, my interest in entrepreneurship led me to establish Austin Open Coffee Club (we meet bi-monthly in Houndstooth Frost) and to become a mentor for Longhorn Startup, a program which encourages student entrepreneurs. When Techstars came to Austin, I was very excited to join them as a mentor, as I believe you should give before you get, and I live my life that way. I helped launch FounderDating (an online network for co-founders) in the Austin area, by serving as Managing Director from 2012-2014.

At the beginning of 2015, I posted this video on my blog. It captured perfectly what I needed to hear at a time when I was considering taking the plunge. The only way out is through.

So what’s next? I’ll be doing software development contracting, joining my friend Brian Dainton working on a special project at Spredfast, and will be spending more time on personal projects. I have a new side project called InvestorSheets which has been gaining some traction lately. Please sign up here if you need to find investors or advisors for your startup. The tool builds target lists of investors in startup hub cities. I love it when technology can save time and help people connect.  Human connection is what I’m most interested in and as I look to create more value in the world, the emphasis will be on that.

I will continue advising startups such as MakerSquare, Beek, and HapBack.

Thanks so much to the long list of people who met with me over the past several months (you know who you are). Your support and advice was very helpful.

Here’s to a creative future!

Steve Jobs’ Thoughts About Life

From the Silicon Valley Historical Association Steve Jobs (1994 interview), there’s a clip from Steve’s early years where he explains an important realization that he’s had about life:

When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your…your life is just to live your life inside the world…try not to bash into the walls too much…try to have a nice family life…have fun…save a little money…

That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact…and that is…everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you…and you can change it…you can influence it, you can…you can build your own things that other people can use.

The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something’ll…you know if you push in, something’ll pop out the other side…that you can change it, you can mold it. that’s maybe the most important thing.