starting up

I'm going around the world and want to meet as many startups as possible
- 1 Sep 2011
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This fall my wife and I have the extraordinary opportunity to travel for 2 months and literally circle the globe. During our trip, I want to meet with entrepreneurs everywhere we go. The goal will be to share any knowledge I've gained from starting companies and launching projects (and projects, and projects), being acquired, raising money, living in Silicon Valley, mentoring for 500 Startups, etc... In turn, I hope to learn about the entrepreneurs' experience launching startups in other cultures.

Now, I need help connecting with the startup community in a lot of the places we are going. I'm looking to meet entrepreneurs, VCs, angels, teachers, students, etc.. Anyone who is active in the startup community. I'd love to meet for coffee, give a talk, brainstorm, and however else I can help.

Here are the rough dates when I'll be in various cities. If you have anyone you think I should meet, please let me know in the comments here, on twitter, or by email.
- Tokyo, Japan: September 14-19
- Kyoto, Japan: September 20-26
- Bangkok, Thailand: October 5-8
- Mumbai, India: October 9-11
- Kerala, India: October 12-15
- Tel Aviv, Israel: October 16-20
- Istanbul, Turkey: October 24-30
- Cape Town, South Africa: Nov 2-12
Please pass this post along to anyone who might be able to help! Thanks so much!

(Image Source: Startup Weekend Events Map)

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Introducing Onesheet, the simplest web presence for a band, ever.
- 7 Jul 2011
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Today, I'm launching a product that I've been thinking about building for years. It's called Onesheet, and it provides bands a simple, maintenance free web presence that can be set up in under a minute.

I'm really excited about this product finally existing. Where my last startup, ArtistData, focused on bands entering information into one spot and syndicating it everywhere, this product does the exact opposite. It aggregates information across the web into one, organized, and attractive website.

In the time I've spent creating it, a lot of thought has gone into the simplicity of Onesheet creation. I wanted a band to be able to set one up in less than a minute without needing to enter very much data. Early feedback makes me excited that I've been successful on that quest. Here's a screencast showing the setup process. There's more to refine, but it's testing well so far.

This is definitely the most robust engineering and design challenge I've ever taken on. It's already been an insane learning experience and the next few weeks and months will be really interesting. As a product designer and creator, there's nothing more rewarding, and more frightening, than putting your product out there and watching people use it. Onesheet has been in private alpha testing for weeks, but today the kimono opens to the judgement of everyone. Fun/scary.

Is this my next startup? No. This is a product that I think needs to exist. I can't wait to see how bands are using it and what they create with it. But I don't intend, at least at first, to raise a bunch of money and hire a big team. The goal is to keep this project as lean and light as possible.

But who knows. At this point, it's up to the musicians who use it to know where it goes next.

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Taking my next steps
- 9 Jun 2011
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- sonicbids startups
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It's been a little over a year since I sold ArtistData to Sonicbids. As part of the deal, I joined the Sonicbids leadership team and after a really great 12 months, I'll be transitioning into an advisory role, giving me more time to work on what's next.

Here's a bit more about what I'll be up to:

Projects
Over the past few months I've been enjoying working on small projects. So far, I've launched two (PhotoPile and MorningPics), and have been working on several more to roll out over the next few months. I love it, and want to spend more time getting my hands dirty, working with new people, and building stuff that could grow into or spark the idea for the next startup.

Travel
My wife and I are at a stage in our life where we think we'll have kids in the next few years, so we want to do some traveling before that time and also before I start the next company. We just traded all our airline miles for two around-the-world tickets. We're planning to spend July and August, laptops in tow, exploring new places and meeting entrepreneurs in different cultures. Current itinerary is Tokyo -> Thailand -> Mumbai -> Tel Aviv -> Istanbul -> Greece. We can't wait, and if you have tips/friends/startups in any of those places, please let me know.

Writing
I'm going to make a concerted effort to blog a bit more. I find that writing juices my creativity, but I rarely make time for it. I'm going to try to be a little better about it.

Advising
I love working with startups. I'm going to try to be a better mentor to 500Startups companies and advise more startups on an individual basis.

I am so excited for what's next. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions, comments, etc...

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Introducing MorningPics, delivering memories to your inbox daily.
- 13 May 2011
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A few weeks ago I released a small project I've been working on called PhotoPile. Essentially, it lets you browse photos from Instagram in a fun and interesting way. It was a fun project to build and the response has been amazing.

Yesterday, I released another Instagram-based project, called MorningPics. While PhotoPile was a very public project, allowing anyone to browse photos, MorningPics is more of a personal experience. It's main purpose is to wake you up to a reminder of one of your past experiences.

Each day, the user gets a randomly selected photo that they took in the past, via a short, simple email message. The email contains likes, comments and info about the photo. That's it.

The user experience should be:
- open email
- enjoy small reminder of a past moment
- delete email
Unlike other email, these messages don't require anything of the user. They exist to make a past memory more fresh, and hopefully give the user a nice way to start the day. That's the goal.

I hope you enjoy it. Please send feedback.

Tech: MorningPics is built in Django/Python using the Instagram API. It's hosted on DjangoZoom. Email sent through SendGrid. Feedback tab from GetSatisfaction.

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Introducing PhotoPile, a fun way to view Instagram Photos
- 28 Apr 2011
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For the past few months, I've been building a bunch of stuff using Django/Python. After getting back from South America last week, I decided that it was time to start launching some of it. These apps are all little, fun projects. Nothing crazy complex. Just applying some fun interaction and design to simple things. Today, I'm releasing PhotoPile.

PhotoPile is a fun little Instagram viewer. It creates virtual piles of photos from user feeds, hashtags, or locations on Instagram.

It's not supposed to change the world. It's just supposed to bring a smile. When you click on a photo, you can then click on hashtags, locations, and other usernames or user photos to see their pages.

Play around, let me know what you think.

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