Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Why I've Been Quiet

You may have noticed that I haven't blogged much lately. There are a few reasons for this, all centered around the NWEN First Look Forum.

First, I've been very busy. From the time that I found out the details of applying for the Forum to the time that I had to submit my business plan, I had just ten days (plus three when they extended the deadline). In my case, I was creating a business plan from scratch. Fifty companies applied to present at the forum and NWEN narrowed it down to twenty companies. Next, each of us had to create a deck for a 10-minute presentation to take to our  "screechers" (screener/coaches) who were going to evaluate us and coach us at the same time. Fortunately, I'd already started a deck after the excellent pitch clinic from the Alliance of Angels that I'd gone to. That helped a lot. Even so, I walked out of my screeching session with a throughly scribbled-on presentation, having no idea if I'd made it to the next round or even when I'd find out. A week and a half later, I got an email saying I'd made it in and I had a new list of things I had to produce -- a deck for a 3-minute presentation and a 1-page executive summary. Plus, I revised the 10-minute deck and went back and updated my plan based on feedback, since I'll be using it for other purposes. So, not even counting things like meetings and seminars, I've been amazingly busy.

Second, while I was writing code and mostly doing development, writing a blog post was a great break. It was something different. You know, the right brain/left brain thing. But, now, when I'm spending most of my time writing and wordsmithing, writing a blog post feels pretty much the same, so it doesn't come quite as naturally.

And, third, although I've been very open since I started this company, I decided to be quiet about some details for a while. The reason for this is that there are some significant changes to the business based on lessons learned and I really want the Forum to be a real "first look." I want the potential investors in the room to be hearing the details for the first time from me, at the Forum, with my (hopefully) finely polished messaging. After the 24th, I'll be sharing more again.

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