Starting Up

My name is Brian. I was the general manager of a division of a publicly traded firm up until Monday. On Monday, I joined the ranks of the unemployed as I closed the division and let myself go. I'm starting a blog that focuses on what I'm going to do next. I joined my last company very early on and helped it grow. Now, I'd like to start my own startup. I haven't decided just yet what that will be but I am working on some ideas. I thought my experiences may be of interest to others as I plot my course. I hope that you may learn from my meanderings, my false starts and my successes. And let's hope there are more successes than false starts.

From time to time I also plan on writing about the important lessons I learned over my career. You see, I started out as a technology guy and went back to business school late in life because I wanted to be something more than a technology guy. Of course, you can run from your past, but you can't hide. Even after an MBA from MIT, my resume screamed technologist and my pocket protector, no matter how shiny, killed me on interviews. When it came time to find a job after MIT, I was at a loss on how to make the transition from technologist to businessman. At school I was lucky enough to meet a very successful entrepreneur. He had started 6 or 7 companies and all but one had gone public. I asked to join his latest startup for I wanted to learn his secrets for starting successful companies. I worked for almost 4 years at this company and I certainly have learned a lot. We went from $80K a month in revenue to $3.3M per month before things started to go wrong. I feel I've learned some of his secrets and being armed, I'm now dangerous, and ready to start my own.

I hope you join me in this new adventure. I'd really like to hear your feedback. For now, let's see how it goes.