It's been a long time

Decided to start blogging again. Sold my interest in BetterPPC to my co-founder in October 0f 2006. It was a hard decision for me, but it was the right decision and I think Ben will be very successful with BetterPPC (and he has been doing well since the sale). I wish Ben and the BetterPPC team all the best.

Why did I sell my interest? I guess it all comes down to choices and stages of life. I didn't have the passion for running a very small startup with limited resources anymore. I guess to be honest I was "burned out". 2+ years of my life went into BetterPPC and I didn't feel like I had the passion that it would take to push it to the next level. My co-founder did and wanted to do it on his own steam, so the deal made sense and provided me with some reward for all the hard work I had put in.

Since then I have been working in real estate finance, mostly because of an opportunity to work with a great team that just happened to come up. I had met the founder and president of the company several years previously and when he found out I was free, he asked me if I would like to give his industry a try. It made sense to me because for a change I would be responsible only for myself and making deals happen, rather than making all the decisions and having all the responsibility inherenet in running a company. So far the experience has been great, I have a background in real estate (I was a commercial broker at the beginning of my career, I developed an industrial park in 1998 before moving into technology and I practiced real estate law as a lawyer), and I have been learning a lot.

We work in the areas of structured/secured financing and equity fundraising for institutional investment funds. It has been a kick to work with some of these managers and in some ways the process is very similar to raising VC money for a startup company. You have to have a great idea in a great market, a great team and convince investors that you can execute.

I wouldn't be true to my own business theory (and title of this blog) if I didnt' also say that there may be opportunities to disrupt many of the current process in this "tradition rich" industry. Hopefully more on that in more frequent postings in the next year.

I still have a passion for technology as well, keeping up with the online ad world, video, social networking, widgets, etc. and can't help myself from looking for opportunities there as well.

Finally, I have become completely engrossed by the sport of kite surfing and have gone from a complete beginner to being able to have fun in some pretty heavy conditions. Down right now with a knee injury but that is also a sign to work harder until I heal!