It’s been 3,379 days since I last posted on this blog. A lot has happened in life since.
Here are a few personal updates about what happened after I last tried to compare building a startup to raising a baby in 2013:
- I became a serial father. Our second son, Asher, was born in 2015. He’s now almost eight and is an amazing kid full of happiness, creativity, cleverness, and love. And Dilan has since grown into an equally wonderful 10 year old.
- My startup idea worked! Our software has now helped thousands of cities, counties, law enforcement agencies, and other government entities more transparently engage with citizens. We even took on the President of the United States as a client…and yes, that other President too.
- I quit my job, again.
OK, this time was a little more glamorous than the job quitting that launched this blog. Here’s what I wrote about it in late 2019 to my friends and family on Facebook:
Eight years, ten months, and eight days ago… I wrote a post on my personal blog called “Call me crazy. I quit my job.”
Well, call me crazy again. But this time is different.
In December 2010, I stepped away from IBM to chase a dream. Somehow, and unbelievably, I have had the great fortune over the last eight years to fully realize and surpass that dream.
It wasn’t easy. To be honest, it was absolutely grueling. But it was led with purpose and more rewarding and fulfilling than anything I could have ever taken on.
The company I founded continues to grow rapidly and amplify its impact on the world. And I am honored to continue to be a part of its story.
Like in 2010, this was my decision and exactly the right one for myself and the people I care about most — which now includes nearly 70 people in downtown Durham!!
I am deeply, deeply grateful to all of you who have supported me throughout this journey. Thank you. The greatest fortune I’ve had in life is the opportunity to spend my time with extraordinary people — and none more extraordinary, inspiring, and supportive than my partner in life, Varsha.
I don’t know exactly what’s next, other than pursuing what feels like yet another incredible dream: spending as much time as possible with Varsha and our two super sweet, rapidly growing boys. After all, I’d be crazy not to
So why bring this decade-old blog back to life again? I know that Google bot is likely to be my most avid (and perhaps only) subscriber.
That’s why… I’m doing this for me.
Yes, there is hope that others will occasionally find value on this blog, and perhaps I can even use it to build out my personal brand. But more than anything, I’m at a point in my life where I kind of want to restart the cycle; to go back to where I was (in a professional sense) in 2010. Exploring, building, and journaling the journey. I am the “archiving guy” after all.
Because when I look back, I see now that this sparsely populated blog was an important outlet for me; it served as a personal (yet public) ledger of the growth, progress, and learnings I experienced over a time period during which I often felt like I was failing and flailing.
I don’t know yet if I will start another company like ArchiveSocial. But I am itching to find my next purpose in life and to get back to creating value in the world.
In the meantime, some topics I might share perspective on using this blog:
- Hard founder decisions, like choosing to sell a company and stepping back as CEO
- Life after exit — including all the stuff (good, great, bad, & ugly) you encounter but nobody with wealth and professional freedom talks about because your life is supposed to be perfect
- The marathon-sprint of raising little kids while pursuing demanding careers (and how to be a better husband)
- The entire basket of learnings from scaling a company from $0 to over $10M in annual recurring revenue — including some fun and crazy stories
- Figuring out what’s next when (conceptually) you can spend your time on almost anything you want to
To my friends, colleagues, and family who might run across this post: let me know if any of these topics grabs your attention. I might write about it here. Or at the very least, I can credit the relaunch of this blog for motivating us to grab a beer.