Archive for the ‘ My Startup ’ Category

Startup Founder: Prepping, Prototyping, and Pitching

In 2 days I’ll be celebrating my 6 month anniversary of leaving my last startup and working on my current one (cue Jay-Z).  Having been a startup engineer I knew I had to prepare myself for the transition to founder. The long hours of a startup engineer are drastically different from the long hours of a founder. [ READ MORE ]

Perspective on Pitching

Having been at the ground floor of a startup before I’ve experienced writing the first lines of code, shipping a product, and then getting acquired, but I never had the experience of pitching or seeing someone else do.  Last Wednesday I did my first pitch for my startup, BizeeBee, in front of about 75 people, [ READ MORE ]

Team Dynamics

For the past three months, as a startup founder, I have been focused on customer development, creating a product roadmap, understanding the complexities of the industry of my product, and establishing a company culture.  This month in particular I’ve added another component to the mix: team dynamics. To me team dynamics goes beyond culture fit.  Culture [ READ MORE ]

The Hive is Live!

The BizeeBee team has been hard at work putting together our product.  Our first addition is our blog The Hive.  Please check it out! [ READ MORE ]

My Product Development Process

Design books are some of my most favorite and enlightening reads of all time like: Donald Norman’s DOET, John Maeda’s Laws of Simplicity, and Indi Young’s book Mental Models. They bridge together reason, emotion, and the physical faculties of humans in order to create tools to help people live everyday. As an engineer I [ READ MORE ]

Momentum

Being at the ground floor of a startup is the best, not that I’ve ever come in at a later stage, but having gone through the full lifecycle of one startup I can vouch for the beginning being the most exciting and romantic period.  You define the product, engage with users, research technologies to use [ READ MORE ]

Living Life on Your Own Terms Requires Work.

When I tell people I’m starting a company they somehow think I’m taking a huge risk. To me it’s the next logical move for my career. I could have gone back and finished the masters I quit three years ago, applied to B-school, or gone and worked [ READ MORE ]

Focus

Focus is one of the keys to success.  All-star athletes and entrepreneurs practice it day in and day out until the big win.  It’s not just about keeping your eye on the prize, it’s setting goals and thinking about the execution of them and not letting anything distract you while you’re executing. My senior year of [ READ MORE ]

Getting Traction on Trendy Technology

As a startup founder I’ve been fixated on understanding technology adoption, and trying to not spread myself too thin: writing a web app, native apps for smart phones, and potentially an iPad app, or whatever else might come out in the next couple of years. Here’s how I’m figuring out who will adopt my product and [ READ MORE ]

Epilogue: Mint.com Femgineer to Femtrepreneur

Almost one month ago I left Mint.com to strike it out on my own.  I remember leaving the building after saying goodbye to people that I had helped hire, and built a product with for over 3 years of my life.  The days leading up to my last day were filled with a bit of [ READ MORE ]