I started making money in tech by hacking game consoles and building custom websites when I was in junior high school.  When I got to college, I started a software development company with one of my good friends.  We left college a year later to focus on building the business up.  As we grew, we merged with another business and before we knew it were selling software to some of the biggest companies in the country.  By 19, I thought I knew everything about business - build good software at the right price and you’ll keeping growing.  Turns out, it doesn’t work that way (although I was right that product and price are key), and while there are often a whole set of variables outside of your control - there’s a lot you can do to increase the chances your business will take off.

After we wound down the startup, I knew I had a lot to learn about business and I didn’t have the stomach at the time to try again.  It was hard having to lay off staff at the age of 21 because I didn’t know how to properly forecast, partner, market and sell.  So, I went back to school and finished my engineering degree, joined Microsoft to learn a bit more, and got a non-traditional MBA from a great school in Europe (I’m passionate about international markets).  A few years later than planned, I’m back in the startup world running - of all things - the business side of a great startup in NYC called Aviary.

Now that I’m back, looming over my head is all the bad, unproductive, wasteful things I learned in both the startup and the corporate world.  I know it sounds a big negative, but having a sense of what NOT to do feels just as important as knowing what to do.

Thankfully, I kept some pretty good notes along the way, so this blog will be more about me digitizing my notes than writing for an audience.  In doing so, I’ll attempt to identify the stuff I think we should do more of, the stuff we should never do, and everything in between.  I’ll be honest and direct, using real examples where possible, but won’t reveal anything confidential about my current or previous employers, managers, employees, customers or partners.

I’ve come up with about 20 topics I plan to start with, and hoping to post once a week.  Let’s see how this goes.