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I’M GONNA BE IN THE TECHSTARS BOULDER 2011 PROGRAM AS ONE OF THEIR HACKSTARS! WAAAHOOOOO! (Humility is great and everything, but I can’t keep that one contained. So unbelievably excited.)

It’s been a little over 48 hours since I found out and just about 36 since I told my work that I’d be leaving.

Wooohooo!

This is a huge new adventure and I’m going to do my best to tell others about it via some blog posts here. It was invaluable for me to read others’ accounts of the program, so in the interest of reciprocating that I’m gonna post my own take on things.

One thing I want to make clear, I have absolutely 0 history in startups. None. At all. Whatsoever. I’ve worked the last 3 1/2 years in Defense and have done so since college. I wanted to make a change in what I did and had absolute no advantages, no prior experience, no connections, nothing but some determination (and an assortment of software skillz) to make it happen.

I’m hoping someone waffling on whether or not to go to that first meetup and (oftentimes awkwardly) stick themselves in a new community reads this and does it. Cause I waffled. And ultimately gave it a shot. And it changed my life.

You can’t always point to that moment in time when the butterfly first flapped it’s wings in Bombay and a rock slide was cause on I-70 (damn butterflies causing mountain traffic) but I’ve got a pretty good idea of where an event like that took place for me. It was TechStars Founder Dating in 2010.

A Lorenz attractor, a mathematical model of the butterfly effect

I learned about techstars about 2 years ago while busily coding in the defense industry. Some tweet lead to a blog, lead to techstars.org. Thought it was an amazing program and began reading what I could and following those involved. I saw an announcement for an event called “Founder dating”. I had been working on checkoutcheckins at the time and thought about finding a cofounder to take the idea a step farther (in retrospect, this wasn’t anywhere near the caliber of idea that would have made a respectable techstars entry, but hey, it got me there).

Went up to Boulder and made my first visit to the TechStars bunker. I was 100% solo. Didn’t know a soul. Met David Cohen without knowing at the time who the hell he was. When it started I regretted visiting because I felt so awkward. Then I had a beer and regretted it less. Then had another beer. By the time I left I was loving it.

Walked outta there having met some cool people, having had some cool conversations, and having making a particular connection with Rob Delwo. We made plans to get together and see what we could come up with.

Rob and I met a couple times over the next few weeks and hashed out a idea and for a TechStars application. Ultimately, we canned it recognizing that we missed a couple huge pieces. (At this point, the problem we were trying to solve still exists and I’m constantly reminded by others’ attempts that we were on to something, which is cool) It looked like being a techstar in 2010 just wasn’t meant to be. Oh well, no big deal.

Rob and I kept in touch. I let him know about whatever side project it was I was working on at the time and he let me know about people I should meet or get in touch with. As recently as last week he’d introduced me to the folks at Orbotix which lead to an impromptu interview.

Founder Dating wasn’t a mindblowing event, nor was it intended to be. In fact, there are probably hundereds of events like it. However, for me it was that first step down a new path that ultimately changed the direction of what I wanted to do with my life.

"You've taken your first step into a larger world"

So go. Seriously, just go. Go to whatever it is your thinking about not going to because you don’t know anyone and it may be awkward. If beer is available, even better. You’ve got no idea what it might lead to, but you’re 100% certain of what not going leads to – the same. And if you were interested in things being the same as always you probably wouldn’t have made it to the end of this post.

I like groupon, quite a bit in fact. I use it a couple times a month. It has some great deals.

The problem is I also use LivingSocial. And I use Denver Daily Deals. And I’ll likely have no problem using the forthcoming Google Offers.

And that’s why Groupon is screwed. The simplicity that makes these daily deals sites so great (I bought $80 of wine for $40 on a chair lift while snowboarding, WE LIVE IN THE FUTURE) also homogenizes them.

Daily deals websites aren’t like others on the interenet. You’re not using their service because you NEED it. Or because it does something others don’t.  Nor are you signing up for them because your internet social circle exists there. You’re just trying to score some sweet deals on cool stuff.

When each deals site offers the same stuff and provides a half-decent user experience, there’s no reason for customer loyalty to one as opposed to another.

Groupon did it first. I think (right now) they’re doing it best. I think the success they’re enjoying is deserved. However, it’s fleeting. Other deals sites will grow, Groupon’s momentum will slow, and in 3 years they’ll be out of business or wishing they’d accepted Google’s $6 billion. Or both.

I’ve been using Google voice for a while now and, as with most things Google, I’m a huge fan. The transcription isn’t perfect by a long shot but a 10 second visual scan is oftentimes good enough to tell you who’s calling and what they’re calling about, saving you precious minutes when your friend tends to ramble.

That being said, transcribing your wife’s phone call from her purse could use some work. Here’s the message that showed up in my inbox today:

For example, bye our company and then bye bye. Yeah. Bye. Yeah them wrong. Wow, Hi Hey Larry, why does Hello, I’m going to bye bye say how evidence. Well fellow nothing. It’s when. Listen, this is a vote of Newton point where okay. And here Hey Danny, Hello Danny, This is I’m going to go. Give me a while or yeah, we probably won’t be out of work a little bit the vocal piece since Hey Danny, Pier this is you has been working. We’re States eve. Okay, Hello, or at work if you could please you go well and he won’t work. Lightning out without what Becker do you do. Nick but I wanted to work with us. Hey registering at all. Well, why don’t you give me a holler figured out. Anyways, yeah, i think you all right there. Okay, okay. Cos I will write paper. Plus, Yeah, we’re really this is as well. Yeah, there’s nothing Hello. This is an woman, but you know that 00. How are you. This bye bye bye yeah hey yeah hey so i want to be. Seems like to be this is when. And yeah okay, yes. Talk to you soon. It was last.

Google voice opened up to the public this week (in the US). In spite of the creepiness with which it translates muffled voices and silence, I highly recommend it: Google Voice