Silicon Jungle

 I have been doing this startup gig fulltime for about 6 months now, and there have been a lot of ups, downs, and things that just don't make sense to me. The transition from an employee, to building a tech startup, is comparable to the process of going from a worm to a butterfly. If you stick it out, you end up becoming something greater than you were before, but it is a painful process. Your idea, your "baby", will get bullied before it even leaves the "womb".  One of the many transitional processes that is extremely odd to me at this point, is the funding process. If you are new, you are viewed by the veterans cynically, as being "unproven", and more of a risk than they are willing to take. For example, one of my advisory board members has a few associates who invest in tech companies on a regular basis. The caveat is they only invest in founders who have had a previous success, or with whom they have already invested. I get it, they have worked har...

Photo credit: stocksnap.io      When you are a new entrepreneur, the fact that you have no track record, no "guarantee", (as if there was one of those, because in reality, nothing in business in guaranteed any way) that your big idea will pan out creates this cloud of doubt around your ability to make it happen. It may be a fantastic idea that needs only a "tiny" push to make it successful. When I say tiny, I do not want to make it seem like creating a startup is an easy task by any means, because it isn't, no matter how sound the idea is, it will require a lot of sleepless nights and hundreds, if not thousands of questions answered with cold, hard facts, before you can even have an iota of hope that your wild dreams will come true.      Some ideas on the other hand, require less justification, because the market is maturing fast and the demand is so well established, that even the most cautious of investors is comfortable with taking a dive into the deep e...

     I saw this story on Instagram and it made me think about my paradigm as a Co-founder of a Tech company. I did not get into business to buy lots of expensive cars and strut my stuff on the red carpets of the world. I started a company to improve the lives of people, not only financially but to create a company that holds true to values that I find most important, such as treating people like grownups, and being an example of hard work and equity.    As far back as I can remember, I have always wanted to do something especially noteworthy, something that future generations would be proud of. When I was much younger, since I was athletically gifted to a certain extent, I thought my outlet would be sports. Unfortunately for me, like many kids, I did not realize how much really goes into molding a professional athlete. Sadly, being a professional athlete never worked out.       So I moved on, and continued my search for purpose in many differ...

                                                     Photo Credit  – Posted on March 7, 2019 by Shortfundly                                                             There is a saying that "motivation gets you started but habits keep you going". I have both benefited and been burned by this cliche. There are great ideas that die before they have a chance to come to fruition all the time. One of the reasons this happens is because there are so many good ideas out there, especially in the tech world, and but no one can predict the perfect timing to launch your earth shattering idea. The difference between the "overnight success" and white nois...

Photo source by  https://unsplash.com/@toddquackenbush?photo=E9PJO_vL3E8 To pick up where we left off last time, accomplishing your wildest dreams is possible, but it takes more effort than the "overnight success" stories care to tell. A society of participation trophies and not keeping score, as to not hurt people's feelings is failing to prepare the next generation for the battle that life will hand them. This may come as a surprise to some but, life isn't easy, nor will it ever be, because it wasn't meant to be that way in the first place. I have experienced life's battles first hand. From a young age, I was made fun of for being short. To this day, people find it their duty to remind me of how short I am, that it's not OK to be so, and that I am less valuable a person because of this single trait. So much that when I was younger, it felt like a burden I was incapable of baring. This created a feeling deep inside like I had something to prove, yet lacke...

  Photo source by Nicole Martins Ferreira from Oberlo -  14 Jan, 2020 About two years ago, I started on my tech entrepreneur journey, because I truly believed I could make a difference, and wasn't satisfied with the limitations set upon me, as an employee. I ran into a few brick walls along the way, and almost gave up numerous times, before I had anything to show for the late nights and hundreds of hours of research and writing. No one believed I could do it, even my wife had her reservations, and rightly so, I had nothing to show for my effort, except for three failed business ventures, and being sold down the river twice, by two different scammers. A lot of adversity came my way in a short period of time, a lot more than documentaries on successful people like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates, portray. This may be because I came into the tech world relatively late in life, and am less of a genius and more of a dreamer with grit, who refuses to give up on the the idea th...