First Month in the Bag

So month 1 is basically in the can. I don’t have a particular date in mind as to when I started working through some of the administrative tasks associated with setting up the business but officially, I didn’t start work on anything substantial until the 5th of June when my work authorization came through.

I knew from the start that my first month would be difficult to stay productive. I still have so much residual stuff on the go from business school that it is impossible to be at 100%. I had no idea just how difficult it would be to get anything done for days at a time. I have noticed some pretty big challenges that I knew could be an issue but didn’t realize the extent until now.

Business Challenges
First, it has been very difficult to get and stay productive. I still have had a bunch of stuff on my plate – graduation, last-minute networking, personal travel, moving and more. In addition, when I do sit down to do work, I find myself avoiding some of the central tasks and spending time on time wasters like the black hole of e-mail. I also find myself still coming up with new ideas every day. This is great but I need to find a way to shift my focus away from new ideas and onto developing and refining my first product.

Writing up a detailed but lightweight spec has also been a source of procrastination. I keep meaning to really spend some time hashing it out but have continued to push it back. One of the keys to success for me is going to be developing a set of development processes that work for keeping me productive. I have already starting getting personal habits in shape (tomorrow’s post).

Another big issue that keeps cropping up is related to choosing the right platforms. I have been leaning towards Flex from Adobe but I am now considering Silverlight because it would allow me to build both server and clients in Ruby on Rails. This leads to the final big challenge, making decisions focusing on what’s best for the user. I always try to do this but it is so easy to get wrapped up in development and make decisions without really considering the end-user. Everyone talks about listening to and considering the end-user but few actually do a good job of it. I will definitely have to focus on doing a better job of this, especially as I launch products.

Personal Milestones
The last month has been filled with a variety of milestones that I want to put out here. First, I finally graduated from Harvard Business School and have 90% of those things off my plate. It was a great experience and I have gotten a lot from the 2 years (will post on this in the future). But, it is absolutely a relief to no longer be working on non-real things!

I decided that I will be moving to LA in September. No excuses, exceptions or looking back. Along with this, I also bought a car! I had sold my car before business school and have decided that I would need a car for this summer and definitely in LA. I have always wanted a Jeep Wrangler and decided it was time to go for it. It’s a manual transmission (which is all new for me) but I am figuring it out quickly.

I also took a trip to LA last week. My goal was really to just get a feel for the different neighborhoods and decide where I would live. I came back with much more accomplished, having decided on a house where I will live in the Fall. I am very excited for the setup. I basically get my own one bedroom apartment as a part of a four-bedroom house. I have the top floor and it’s common areas include a living room, a bar and a giant rooftop deck with 180 deg views of the ocean! It is also in a great location being 1 block from the beach and 5 blocks from the main strip of bars and restaurants in Manhattan Beach. Here are a few pictures:

Finally, I was contacted by a prominent business publication, the name of which I am not going to disclose yet. They are doing profiles on recent MBA’s and their perspectives on the financial industry among other topics. There is a chance I will be one of the graduates they target as the focus of the project and this will hopefully lead to a tremendous amount of exposure for myself and for the business. Stay tuned for updates on this but for now, I am not going to say any more since it could all easily fall apart!