I’m thrilled to be taking on the role of Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Highway 12 Ventures. I’ve learned a lot from Phil, George, Glenn & Mark over the last couple of years, and am looking forward to learning a lot more as I embark on this new role. It’s a terrific group that I’m proud to be a part of. About four years ago, I decided to leave corporate life to try to start my own company. Part of this was because of the personal challenge it provides, and part of it was trying to do things better, and this meant moving outside of the structure of an established organization. Working with the partners at Highway 12 Ventures over the last few years has been a rewarding experience that opened my eyes to how much I don’t know, and has been instrumental in my approach to startup life. Most geeks I know haven’t been terribly successful in the transition from being a cog in a corporation to being an entrepreneur. For most corporate techies, it’s hard to decouple cool technical achievement from market opportunity, and the simple fact is that cool technology doesn’t always have a market. The key is letting the market define the product, and, in that regard, part of it is good instincts, and the other part is quick execution. In this EIR role, bringing both of these together is key to success.
Since I’ve gotten to know the partners, they’ve been my first stop when I’ve been getting ready to embark on a new concept. One benefit of having Highway 12 Ventures in Boise is the ability for an entrepreneur to validate an idea with smart folks who see hundreds of ideas each year. The partners have been great in providing honest, direct feedback. This has allowed me to learn a lot of the non-tangible aspects of starting a company, and come up to speed on the marketability and viability of different approaches.They’ve also introduced me to experts in certain areas that would affect my product, asked me if I had heard of other concepts that are out in the ecosystem, and even asked questions about validating the concept. Early on, they did this even though they barely knew me. I think that illustrates the firm’s commitment to Boise’s startup community, and given my passion for helping to create a sustainable startup ecosystem here, that is one of the reasons I’m most excited about joining the team.
As far as my personal approach, I’m a fan of Lean Startup and Minimum Viable Product because I believe the success of a product is based on the customer’s experience. Having the customer involved early on imparts a sense of co-ownership with the customer, and working to make the product suit their needs is essential in growing that relationship.My focus for the last three years has been mobile applications, and I believe that 2010 will be the year that the smart mobile device and tablet will begin to supplant the laptop for most consumers and business decision makers. In that regard, I’d like to introduce you to Intelligence In Motion. Intelligence In Motion was initially started by my long-time colleague Olivier Meyer as a location-based service application company. As location became more implicit to everyday applications and as cloud computing architectures became more mobile friendly, we decided to join the two concepts together and form a new initiative around Modern Mobile Architectures. We consult to startups on using mobile from a strategy and architecture perspective, but additionally we have a new product line coming out this quarter aimed at enabling modern mobile architectures and providing a new security model for mobile cloud computing. This product will change the way certain markets implement mobile cloud. Our goal is to make a platform agnostic secure environment for mobile cloud developers.
I’m looking forward to this next exciting chapter in my career. Between Intelligence In Motion and my new EIR position at Highway 12 Ventures, 2010 is going to be an incredibly rewarding experience. I’m looking forward to sharing it with you through our blog.