Thursday, May 26, 2005

no compromises

As I step away for a week to spend with my extended family in Hawaii, I am reminded that Jobster is the experience that I will talk about for years and years to come. We are not here to fit into a square hole that has been pre-defined in the industry. There is true opportunity to blow the doors off of the norm and improve the economics of the recruiting industry; I am more optimistic than ever!

Bucking the norm takes absolute discipline on the part of our leadership; and our team of 50+ was assembled with this in mind.

Pinch me- the shift has begun.

Saturday, May 14, 2005

What may not have worked, may work today

A lot has changed since the go go boom that went bust. Many of the ideas and businesses that saw a flood of money in the mid to late 90s seemed great at the time. There was a model, and in most cases, at least a distant concept of how money would be made- eventually.

We have said good bye to most of these defunct businesses.

I think it makes sense to go back and re-examine a few of them. Back then, the "last mile" had not penetrated enough households. Today that is a very different story. Wireless had certainly helped broadband become a key part of anyones day at home- even remote places like my hometown of Anaconda, Montana now have broadband providers.

Maybe some of these have a prayer if rekindled?

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Great news close to home

Even though we just recently moved down the street in the same Snoqualmie, Washington neighborhood, I still stay in touch with my old neighbor, "B". He and I have now known each other for about 3 years- he is the National Sales Director for a B2B media distribution company.

We have the best time on the weekends talking about concepts or ideas that we have thought up over a beer or bottle of wine...

Great news that one of the concepts he was incubating locked in some angel money today (multi-million dollar deal). Now it is time to set up operations and get rolling.

Go B go.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

ideas, ideas, ideas

I LOVE talking about ideas. Ask anyone who has known me since high school, and they will tell you stories about ideas I was cooking up back then. Into college and the Army, I incubated ideas, built the young entrepreneurship organization at PLU, and spent countless hours preparing for business plan competitions.

Tonight my sister ran a brilliant business idea by me as we sat after dinner, visiting. Brilliantly simple, and a perfect match for her. Immediately my juices were flowing; mind racing through the possibilities. I also found myself steering conversation back to her idea even as it naturally moved on to other subjects.

I am a lucky person in that we at Jobster are now defining the next versions of the service, and I am playing a part in that. Having spent so much time focusing on other parts of the business while our development team built version 1, I nearly forgot how much fun this is.