Silicon Jungle

  I spoke with a local startup "expert" the other day and I wasn't in the correct state of mind. A series of things in my personal life not going my way have taken a toll on my aura if you will, at least temporarily. This heavy burden that I am feeling may, or may not have been obvious to this person, but the conversation surrounding my exciting new app idea tanked big time. It was an all-around disaster. Not only was I called a liar, I was told by said person that an investor would have to be dumb to invest in my company because of how early we are in the process. They artificially made an offer to convene at a later date after I've solved some of the problems they had identified with our business plan and revenue strategy. An offer in which I will not be taking them up on. I have enough naysayers. I even have naysayers in my advisory board, ones which will be replaced as soon as I find advisors that actually advise, instead of act impressive. I get it, life is hard,...

 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...