106Miles Blog

106 Miles has Moved!

2010-08-31T11:41:00.000-07:00

And we've shifted format to a meetup. Links:

We hope to see you soon!

Rands in Reboot

2008-04-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

We had to cancel last month's session, but on April 30th Michael Lopp aka Rands in Repose will be our guest. We'll be discussing the ever-fascinating topic of herding kittens aka engineering management.

Please try to make it to this session if you can, because I'd also like to propose some changes to the software and processes we've been limping along with all this time. And bring friends, we need some fresh blood, bwahahaha. See you there!

Rands in Repose at 106 Miles

2008-03-10T16:30:00.000-07:00

Hi! Remember 106 Miles? Did you miss us? :-)

On Wednesday March 19th, Michael Lopp aka Rands in Repose will be our guest. We'll be discussing the ever-fascinating topic of herding kittens.

Please try to make it to this session if you can, because I'd also like to propose some changes to the software and processes we've been limping along with all this time. And bring friends, we need some fresh blood, bwahahaha. See you there!

June 106 Miles

2007-06-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

Before we take our traditional summer hiatus, we'll be meeting on June 13th. The topic this time will be a question I'm getting asked a lot lately, namely "How hard is it to become a webdev anyway?" Everyone knows that it's super cheap to start a new company... IF you're a webdev! We'll have representatives from Ruby on Rails (Zachary Taylor of Insider Pages), PHP (Andy Baio of Upcoming), and CSS/JS (Ernie Hsiung of LittleYellowDifferent).

May 106 Miles

2007-04-29T18:25:00.000-07:00

106er Naval Ravikant (who has spoken in the past about mergers and acquisitions) recently introduced a new kind of incubator, Hitforge. On May 9th, come hear him explain his Darwinian, engineer-centric approach to growing hot new businesses.

April meeting CANCELLED

2007-04-23T17:51:00.000-07:00

Due to a series of unexpected events, we are going to have to cancel this week's meeting. Very sorry for any inconvenience to the members!

April 106 meeting

2007-04-01T16:22:00.000-07:00

The April meeting of 106 Miles will be on a special date this month, April 25th, to coincide with friends who are in town for the MySQL conference. Our speaker this month will be George Schlossnagle of MessageSystems, OmniTI, and PHP -- and his topic will be "Growing a tech business without taking money". Here in Silicon Valley we sometimes forget the option of just treating technology like any other business -- so it's good to get the perspective from outside the bubble.

Next 106: February 15th in Menlo Park

2007-02-07T10:32:00.000-08:00

This month's 106 Miles will be in Menlo Park on Thursday, February 15. The topic is

When is the right time for a startup to hire a product manager?

We will also talk about product development practices that work. Invited speakers are:

Invitations will go out in a few days...

Scott on Options

2006-12-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

106er Scott Johnston -- who was one of our panelists last month -- just produced an impressive blog post about stock options. Everyone who is thinking about joining a startup from a big company should read it before our meeting tomorrow!

Be our guest!

2006-12-11T11:10:00.000-08:00

This is the first time that we've allowed 106 members to bring a guest to a regular meeting! We figured that due to the topic -- "Everything you wanted to know about jumping from a bigco to a startup -- we might have more interest from non-core-members. If you're not a 106 member but are super interested in this topic, let me know and I'll try to squeeze you in.

ps One of the items on my New Year's resolution is to update 106miles.org...

Bouncing emails

2006-11-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

Can the following users please contact me on the 106 Batphone (aka invites@106miles.org) to update your email addresses: Dave Hodson, Mike Rubin, Benjamin Grant, Ches Wadja, Brendon Wilson. Thanks!

Pictures from the November 106 Miles.

2006-11-18T17:49:00.000-08:00

Meng Weng Wong took some beautiful pictures at Thursday's meeting. Thanks to everyone who attended, and all of our speakers!

The next 106 will be on December 13; the topic will be what big company engineers need to know before jumping to a startup. Watch here for more details...

Hiatus is over!

2006-11-01T17:54:00.000-08:00

After all those years of back-to-school, autumn is now inextricably associated with new beginnings in my mind. So now that the frost is on the pumpkin, we're very happy to announce a new session of 106 Miles on November 16th!

The topic this time will be "Shades of grey: mergers, acquisitions, living deaths, and every other exit that is neither an IPO nor bankruptcy". We're going to have three panelists from our illustrious membership, including Scott Johnston of Kintana and Jot; Adam Rifkin of KnowNow; and (hopefully) Mike Speiser of Epinions and Symantec. Between the three of them, they should be able to answer all your questions about what REALLY happens to startups after the honeymoon is over.

I'm springing for the extra good pizza this time, so I know you'll want to be there!

July 27 in Portland for OSCON

2006-06-29T17:10:00.000-07:00

After a hiatus, 106 Miles will resume in July... in Portland, Oregon at OSCON 2006.

The session Entrepreneurship For Engineers: From Open Source to New Venture will be moderated by Joyce Park, and held on Thursday, July 27, 7-8pm, in room E142. Here's some more:

Have you ever wondered what it takes to start a tech business besides coding skills and a product idea? 106 Miles is a Silicon Valley organization that helps engineers learn how to take the step towards becoming entrepreneurs. Our mission is to help geeks understand the world of business plans, co-founders, potential funders, partners, executives, employees, and exit strategies.

Our special guest for OSCON is Bob Lisbonne, a venture capitalist with the well-respected Sand Hill Road firm of Matrix Partners (and the man who Open Sourced Mozilla!). He will answer all your questions about the venture funding process, how a VC evaluates teams and ideas, and in particular how Open Source fits into the world of venture-backed businesses. He will share stories of companies that use Open Source software, extend Open Source software, Open Source software developed in-house, and reverse-engineer proprietary software.

See you there!

Followup to May meeting

2006-05-22T10:03:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to Eric Brewer for a revelatory 106 session on technology for developing nations. The thing I appreciated the most was a peek at how he applies the same principles of product design to the non-profit area as he did to the for-profit area.

A lot of attendees wanted to keep track of Eric's work, which you can do at the following URL:

http://tier.cs.berkeley.edu

If you'd like to contact him directly, I also have his email address.

May Topic: Technology for Developing Nations

2006-05-09T16:28:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow... in San Francisco (not Silicon Valley)...

On Wednesday, May 10th in San Francisco, entrepreneur Eric Brewer will be leading a discussion of "Technology for Developing Nations."

Email 106 Miles invites if you're interested in attending... and remember, since this is the San Francisco locale, if you're not on the list, they won't let you in the building. See you there!

Make that April 13.

2006-04-02T14:50:00.000-07:00

The speaker needed us to change the next 106 Miles to Thursday, April 13, instead of Wednesday, April 12 as originally planned. Invitations will go out Real Soon Now (TM).

Next two topics

2006-03-23T17:21:00.000-08:00

Who says 106 Miles does not plan ahead? We have now lined up our next TWO speakers and topics! On April 12th in Menlo Park, we will be discussing "Old School vs. New School Venture Capitalists". And on May 10th in San Francisco, Eric Brewer will be leading a discussion of "Technology for Developing Nations". Get on the list now!

106 Miles in SF w/ Dave Winer

2006-03-02T19:35:00.000-08:00

What: 106 Miles meeting in San Francisco
When: 3/8 @ 7pm
Who: Dave Winer and all of you wonderful peeps!

Need I say more? ;-)

Invites to come soon. Hope to see you there...

My dark secret

2006-02-07T14:59:00.000-08:00

Brendon Wilson, a longtime member and guest speaker last year at the "why do engineers become PMs?" session, has uncovered my secret shame [hangs head].

Lost little lambs

2006-02-06T13:40:00.000-08:00

Hans Jacobsen and Barry Holroyd, please send me email with working email addresses. Your emails are bouncing, and unless I hear from you within a month I will delete you from the list. Thanks!

February meeting

2006-02-06T13:27:00.000-08:00

Ooops, I forgot to post this!

This month we're hoping to have a good old-fashioned cage match about whether stealth mode and closed alphas are dead. In the blue trunks, taking the "release anything even if it sucks" position, is Kevin Burton of Tailrank and formerly of Rojo. In the red trunks, taking the "sometimes a premature release isn't the best thing for the company, especially if your product is bigger than one webpage" position, is Chris Messina of Flock. Come and cheer on your contender!

PM seeks engineer

2006-01-26T09:33:00.000-08:00

Here's a super cool thing: a 106 member with lots of experience in product management and marketing seeks an entrepreneurial engineer for possible venture formation! Mr. Blueshirt has an MBA and a EE degree, and I can personally attest that he's totally aligned with the goals of 106 Miles. If you're an engineer and interested in meeting our PM friend, send email to invites@106miles.org and I'll introduce you!

New year, new city

2006-01-02T09:48:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, 106ers! For our first session of the New Year, we're going to hold the session in San Francisco on the 11th. We're trying to see if there would be enough interest to justify spawning a monthly 106 meeting in the City, and Noam Lovinsky of Skobee has very kindly agreed to act as co-host to us Valley types. Our guest this time will be Evan Williams of Blogger and Odeo fame. Watch for the invite!

Brian Dear rocks the house

2005-11-10T17:53:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to thank last night's guest, Brian Dear of EVDB, who raised the bar for all 106 guests now and forever! He was frank and informative about his experiences, brought Eventful schwag (black T-shirts!) for all attendees, and did the most amazing preso of 50 lessons for entrepreneurs from the greatest geek movie of all time (The Blues Brothers, of course).

It was a rousing close to what has been a completely amazing first year for 106 Miles. In a few short months, we went from just an idea to an organization with a regular meeting, a blog, and a LinkedIn group. Most importantly, several hundred of us entrepreneurial engineers (and friends-of-ours) have found each other. I know a couple of companies have formed, lots of early-stage engineers have been hired, and 106 members have learned a lot from each other. It's so very gratifying to feel the entrepreneurial energy in the room after a strong session like Brian's.

As we announced at the meeting, we're taking December off so people can go to holiday parties. Please save January 11th for our next meeting!

Eventfully Yours

2005-11-06T13:12:00.001-08:00

The good: The next 106 Miles, on Wednesday November 9, will feature Brian Dear of EVDB, Inc., which runs Eventful. The topic is the state of the consumer web startup space. In the past year, Brian's team has built Eventful/EVDB from a concept to a hot angel- and then venture-backed service being tracked by many potential users, partners, and competitors. Get the real scoop on what it takes to get off the ground, even in these supposedly frothy times.

The bad: With hundreds of people now on our invitation list, this session filled up in under an hour. We limit participation to the first 40 people who reply, and we are in awe of the demand for participation here.

The ugly: Blogger comment spam is everywhere. And there's no quick way to remove it all. Except to remove the ability to comment. Which is also ugly. :(

Take two. Mark your calendar: October 12.

2005-09-11T12:17:00.000-07:00

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we need to cancel the 106 Miles meeting on September 14. Hope everyone enjoyed the summer break! ;)

So, the next regularly-scheduled, Silicon Valley 106 Miles event will be Wednesday, October 12, 7-9pm, at Orrick's office on Marsh Road in Atherton. Featured guest will be Jeff Barr; topic is to be determined. We'll post updates here and at 106 Miles as they come in...

Mark your calendar: September 14.

2005-08-01T14:13:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that we will have an impromptu 106 Miles at OSCON on Wednesday, August 3rd. Watch the bulletin board for location.

Also, mark your calendar that the next regularly-scheduled, Silicon Valley 106 Miles event will be Wednesday, September 14, 7-9pm, at Orrick's office on Marsh Road in Atherton. Topic and featured guests are to be determined...

Live From OSCON

2005-07-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

Follow along from troutgirl's blog:

I think we will also be doing a 106 Miles session in Portland, probably on Wednesday evening -- so if you've ever wanted to attend one, this is the time to let me know via email or the comments to this entry. I'm going to try to get someone to speak on some topic related to building a business with Open Source software, and we'll have some free-as-in-beer beer and pizza. It's a good time for entrepreneurial engineers, and space is limited. I'll try to give as much priority as I can to people who aren't from Silicon Valley and therefore haven't ever had the opportunity to attend a 106 session, but please let me know early.

By the way, there's still plenty of time to sign up to attend OSCON 2005... see you there!

"Oh -- I get it."

2005-07-06T07:57:00.000-07:00

Dylan pointed me to a nice writeup by Seth Levine on putting together a good venture presentation. My favorite two DO's are the first two:

DO have a 2 or 3 sentence description of what you do. This should be simple and straightforward. Your grandparents should hear you say this and say ‘oh – I get it’.

DO make sure you start your presentation by telling the people who you are talking to what it is you do. (I’m truly amazed by the number of times it takes 6 or 10 powerpoint slides to get to the part of the presentation where I finally understand what it is the company that is presenting actually does...)

One thing not addressed in that writeup is whether or not a company needs venture capital. This is a question for which there is no definitive answer in all cases. Just last week, Joe Kraus (of JotSpot) and David Heinemeier Hansson (of 37 Signals) chimed in with their perspectives on the subject.

How many new ventures?

2005-07-01T00:14:00.000-07:00

106 Miles is hopping lately! I know of several conversations between members that have led to job offers, people joining startups, cooperation between projects, and other cool opportunities -- even a date or two, heh. There seemed to be mad networking going on at the party last night, everyone was so genuinely interested in what everyone else is up to. It's fantabulous to think we might be useful as an information hub for our members! Remember, Rifkin is LinkedIn to practically everybody, and loves to be asked for favors... ;-)

But then someone asked me today: how many actual new ventures have been started by 106 Miles members in our first six months of existence? I'm afraid I don't have a good count. There's at least three that I know of, although I can't claim that 106 had much to do with any of them -- but it does show that members are seriously thinking about the startup life. If you know of others, we'd love to hear about them.

Summer mingle tomorrow night

2005-06-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

If you haven't RSVPed yet, or gotten your friends on the guest list, or sent us a Paypal -- do it today! Let's get it started tomorrow night!

The Art of Starting

2005-06-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

An oldie-but-a-goodie: Brendon Wilson has an excellent transcript of Guy Kawasaki's The Art of Starting spiel.

My favorite passage is the one about finding soul mates, but I also really like this passage:

I would encourage you entrepreneurs as you're contemplating your companies or forming your companies to think about what is the meaning going to be? Not the money. Money is the outcome of successful meaning-making, if you will.

Let's analyze the types of meaning - I think there are principally four types:

One is to make the world a better place by a product or a service.
The second is to increase the quality of life of people.
The third is to right something that is wrong, to fix something.
The fourth is to prevent the end of something good.
Those are the four types of meaning that any company, any organization can make. My plea to you is to focus your efforts on making meaning, not making money.

Ready, steady, go!

June 106 cancelled in favor of toga party

2005-05-31T17:35:00.000-07:00

June's speaker bailed, and I'm not in the mood to line up another one. What say we party instead? I'm thinking somewhere in Palo Alto, people throw in a few bucks, and we invite all the 106ers at one time. Who's in?

Thank you CommerceNet, hello Orrick

2005-05-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

I want to thank CommerceNet again for their very generous sponsorship and hosting in the last 4 months. Rob Rodin in particular has been a good friend to 106 Miles, and a great mentor to me and Rifkin. We knew nothing about running a networking group when we started out in January, and now we know nothing++. :-)

So we've been wandering the Valley looking for a new home that meets our somewhat unusual requirements. To our great delight and relief, the law firm of Orrick Herrington and Sutcliffe -- specifically their new Emerging Companies Group -- has offered to be our host this month! Thanks in particular to Stephen Venuto, a partner in that group and the only lawyer I know cool enough to use PHP. :-)

Zod says not to worry about failure.

2005-05-11T05:11:00.000-07:00

Paul Graham just uploaded the transcript of his 106-friendly May 2nd talk, "Hiring is Obsolete".

My favorite passage:

Even if your startup does tank, you won't harm your prospects with employers. To make sure I asked some friends who work for big companies. I asked managers at Yahoo, Google, Amazon, Cisco and Microsoft how they'd feel about two candidates, both 24, with equal ability, one who'd tried to start a startup that tanked, and another who'd spent the two years since college working as a developer at a big company. Every one responded that they'd prefer the guy who'd tried to start his own company. Zod Nazem, who's in charge of engineering at Yahoo, said:
I actually put more value on the guy with the failed startup. And you can quote me!
So there you have it. Want to get hired by Yahoo? Start your own company.

I also really like this passage:

I can tell you what tends to be missing when people lack experience. I've said that every startup needs three things: to start with good people, to make something users want, and not to spend too much money. It's the middle one you get wrong when you're inexperienced.

This is particularly true for people building Web-based applications.

LinkedIn for entrepreneurial engineers...

2005-05-08T17:40:00.000-07:00

We've seen the debate unfold over time, both for and against LinkedIn.

I do believe the SimplyHired LinkedIn service takes us one step closer to LinkedIn being useful to entrepreneurial engineers, by allowing engineers to search for job openings based on specific skills, and then use their connections to facilitate networking their way into jobs.

But there are still plenty more features that can (and will) be added to make LinkedIn more useful for entrepreneurial engineers...

LinkedIn Group launches

2005-05-03T14:18:00.000-07:00

The 106 Miles group launched on LinkedIn today! You can use it to connect with and look up the backgrounds of people you meet at our meetings. I'm always surprised what I learn about colleagues when I can see their resumes in detail -- like I just found out that last month's speaker Mike Rowehl worked at a teeny tiny startup with another friend of mine.

Send email to invites@106miles.org if you want to join, and we'll send you instructions for the somewhat complex process.

LinkedIn Group delayed

2005-04-29T18:14:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, the 106 Miles LinkedIn Group has been delayed for a week or so -- technical difficulties, don't ya know. New ETA is Tuesday 5/3. Everyone who has requested membership so far, don't worry -- I'm on it. Thanks for your patience!

May meeting details

2005-04-28T09:01:00.000-07:00

The May meeting will be pushed back a week to Wednesday May 18th, because I have to be out of town on what would be our normal second Wednesday.

The topic will be, "The Dark Side: why engineers become PMs, marketers, and salespeople". 106 members Brendon Wilson and Jeremy Zawodny have volunteered to represent the first two roles, but I'm still looking for an entertaining speaker who left engineering to go into sales. If you are that person, please contact me!

Evite will be going out as soon as we nail down the venue. Hope to see you next month!

Hiring is Obsolete

2005-04-28T06:50:00.000-07:00

Paul Graham will be giving a talk at 306 Soda Hall in Berkeley on why hiring is obsolete on May 2 at 6pm. The abstract reflects the entrepreneurial engineering way of 106 Miles attendees:

Most CS undergrads hope to get a good job when they graduate. But as the age of startup founders creeps downward, I foresee an alternative path for the most ambitious: instead of going to work for Microsoft, start a startup and make Microsoft buy it to get you.

This change will do more than make some young hackers richer. It will fuse recruitment with product development. Instead of applying for a job and then being told what to work on, you join the company as a complete development team, with a beta version. Results: (a) a shift in power from companies to hackers, and (b) an increase in the rate at which new technology gets developed.

Obviously this new model will be a better deal for the best hackers. But I think it will also be better for the Microsofts. The few tens of millions extra that they'll pay will be a bargain for what they'll get.

As a fun game, replace the word "Microsoft" in the above passage with any of your favorite Silicon Valley companies...

And then, as if he read our minds, on May 4 at PARC in Palo Alto at 7pm, Paul Graham will give a talk on how to sell a startup. I wonder how many people will be attending both talks next week as Paul circles the Bay Area...

Thanks to Mike and Russ and CommerceNet!

2005-04-18T16:34:00.000-07:00

Last week's April 106 was held at CommerceNet's new office on the corner of California and El Camino -- thanks to them for being great hosts for us. Allan Schiffman, executive director of CommerceNet, gave a short introduction to ComNetOrg's new mission, which is helping entrepreneurial engineers.

Mike Rowehl and Russell Beattie (both of whose names I'd been mispronouncing for months! Rowehl rhymes with "dowel", and Beattie apparently rhymes with "hey hottie") led a discussion that induced more participation than ever before -- it was a very "engineer to engineer" chat. I had no idea how strongly people felt about mobile development! Russ and Mike emphasized the huge global potential market of the mobile space, while a not inconsiderable number of 106 members pushed back on grounds of the extreme fragmentation of said huge global market. A lively exchange was enjoyed by all!

Ten Commandments for Entrepreneurs

2005-04-06T04:20:00.000-07:00

Allen Morgan just completed his Ten Commandments for Entrepreneurs, which touch on a lot of themes we've heard at the first several 106 Miles meetings. They're worth a read:

April meeting full up

2005-03-26T09:24:00.000-08:00

The April meeting on mobile strategy filled up in about 24 hours. If you didn't get an Evite, you aren't on the list -- please send email to invites@106miles.org to rectify the situation.

We tried a tweak this time, which was to give working engineers a few extra hours to RSVP before letting in former/non engineers. This might be a little controversial, so let me try to explain. When I first got the idea for 106, I had the notion that there are already quite a few formal and informal networking groups for businesspeople. If you want to found a company because you're a good organization builder and evaluator of technology, I figure you can join the Churchill Club or the Grapevine event or SVASE or any of a number of others. But if you're a humble engineer who dreams of someday doing your own startup based on a technical innovation, and wants to learn as much as you can about the venture-creation process beforehand, preferably in a friendly low-pressure environment -- where can you go? To me, that's the core mission of 106 Miles.

Yes, we also want diversity of experience. Yes, it's difficult to pick out the future technical innovators based solely on their current job title. Yes, there are plenty of ventures that involve technology but don't necessarily embody a technical innovation. All of that could be true, and I'm still going to try to ensure there are a majority of working engineers at every 106. Thanks for being patient as we continue to experiment with different methods of getting the right mix.

April 106 topic

2005-03-13T15:15:00.000-08:00

We're very happy to announce the April 106 Miles meeting. It will be on Wednesday April 13th at 7PM, our guests will be Russ Beattie and Mike Rowehl of Mobile Monday fame, and the topic will be "Every Business Needs a Mobile Strategy". Watch for the Evite, and be one of the first to RSVP! Oh, it will be my birthday week too, so there's extra incentive to join us this month.

Ideas for managing growth

2005-03-13T13:31:00.000-08:00

As you doubtless know if you've subscribed to this RSS feed, 106 Miles has grown faster than we ever expected. Now we have the duty or opportunity of trying to figure out how to manage things in the way that is best for the most people.

Let me explain a little bit of our contraints. I would like to be as inclusive as possible while still maintaining the intimacy that I think makes us a little bit different. A lot of groups constrain size for reasons of exclusivity or control, but we do it mostly because it turns out to be incredibly hard to find a conference-style table that can seat more than 35 people. We also originally figured we'd only accept entrepreneurial engineers as members, although that's been really hard to hold the line on.

Basically the ideas we've heard have fallen into three main categories: change the format of the event; hold multiple sessions; and/or filter. These three ideas could be combined in various ways:

1) Make 106 events lectures rather than face-to-face Q&As.
2) Make 106 events more like traditional networking events (aka cocktail parties) than Q&As.
3) Keep the original format with a smaller group, and add a networking event for a larger group.
4) Hold one event in San Francisco and one event on the Peninsula/South Bay every month.
5) Ask all non-engineers to voluntarily quit 106.
6) Ask all non-engineers to only attend the networking events.
7) Involuntarily cut non-engineers by category until we get to the right size.
8) First come, first served with some pre-filtering to maintain group balance.
9) Pure first come, first served -- anyone can sign up whether they're an entrepreneurial engineer or not.
10) Move more of our activities online to relieve pressure from offline activities.

So this would be a really great time to hear from people about their preferences. Send me email or leave me a comment telling me what you think about the various options on the table. Oh, and if there's anyone who is on the Evite list but has realized you don't want to attend regularly, please don't hesitate to ask me to remove you -- I won't mind, honest! :-)

March meeting recap

2005-03-12T13:44:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone who came to the March 106, to Rifkin for moderating, and to Jeff Winner for speaking! As always, Jeremy's writeup is the first. Former Red Herring reporter Irina blogged her impressions of the meeting too.

In another first, Jeff asked the assembled not to blog the specifics of his talk. He was extraordinarily frank in answering our questions, and I think everyone understood the reasons for his request. I hope the various speakers find us flexible in honoring their preferences, which have already spanned a wide range from Dave Sifry's webcast to Jeff's non-specific-blogging request.

I'm so excited about all the new people who are finding their way to 106 Miles! I try to make a new friend every time, in between my hostessing duties, and this month Bill Lennan of Knight-Ridder really stood out for his enthusiasm and his helpful suggestions. I hope everyone feels comfy asking to be invited even if you don't know anyone who has attended before. We are friendly and we will give you snacks!

Align yourself

2005-03-04T04:19:00.000-08:00

Thinking back on the first two 106 Miles and the words of Graham Spencer, Joe Kraus, and Dave Sifry, I remember some advice given to me when I first tried to start a company five years ago:

Keep your eye on the ball,
your shoulder to the wheel,
your nose to the grindstone,
your feet on the ground, and
your head on your shoulders.

Now... try to get something done.

Starting a company feels like that every minute of every day.

March meeting full up

2005-02-28T16:32:00.000-08:00

Sorry all, the March meeting is now full up. Anyone who has not RSVPed "yes" as of last night will no longer be able to attend. :-( Very sorry, but the regular attendees have asked me to keep things small -- and first come first served seems like the only fair way to do that.

Hopefully beginning next month, we'll be able to have the event at the CommerceNet offices again and accomodate more people -- but at this location we have serious space constraints. Thanks for being understanding! If you want to be invited for next time, do continue to send emails.

Decide

2005-02-27T04:20:00.000-08:00

In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.

-- Theodore Roosevelt, as quoted by Fred Wilson, who thinks "action and risk taking is what separates great entrepreneurs from the pack"

Get to the point -- FAST

2005-02-26T08:59:00.000-08:00

Allen Morgan: "What problem is [your] startup solving? To maximize your chance for a second meeting, do something that I know is really, really hard: concisely and clearly answer that question."

Focus

2005-02-25T04:20:00.000-08:00

What is so important in your life that it makes you want to get up every day and live life to the fullest?

-- Randy Komisar, The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living

Seek inner fulfillment

2005-02-24T09:02:00.000-08:00

Pro Services Journal has an article on writing professional and personal missions. The article defines inner fulfillment as

Being active,
Doing meaningful things,
Both with a sense of progress.

Of those three, doing meaningful things is the most challenging. The article proposes that the first critical step to finding meaningful work is to "write a work mission -- that is, your purpose for working -- that has as much value for you as possible." This can start us on the path of enlightened self interest to create as large a purpose in life as possible.

Don't ghettoize creativity

2005-02-22T06:50:00.000-08:00

Caterina Fake quotes a Fast Company article on the six myths of creativity in business. My favorite of the six is the myth that creativity only comes from creative types. Says the article:

As a leader, you don't want to ghettoize creativity; you want everyone in your organization producing novel and useful ideas, including your financial people.

See also: Hugh Macleod's thought-provoking How to be creative.

RSVP behavior

2005-02-21T22:26:00.000-08:00

One of the worst things about Evite, in my humble opinion, is that it rationalizes an unequal information exchange. The host must provide all his information up front; whereas the guests are incentivized not to respond till very late if at all. By responding early they give up an option, and as we all know an option confers value. Also, the way Evite is set up, there's some social pressure to give a reasonable excuse... and you know, a lot of the time the excuse is really that you're tired and just want to chill with a beer at home... so it's easier all around just to not respond at all.

Which is to say, I totally understand... but now I need to even up the incentives. We're now alarmingly oversubscribed for the March meeting, and people are still asking for invites. It looks like it may become necessary to limit attendance -- and if so, we're taking the first N people who said yes. Furthermore I tend to drop people who don't RSVP. If you can't come this month, that's perfectly fine -- just respond "no" and I'll keep you on the list for future meetings -- but help me help you by giving me a crisp yes-no answer as early as possible. Thanks!

Enjoy the moment

2005-02-20T14:13:00.000-08:00

The thing that sticks in my head from Dave Sifry's talk, after a couple of weeks, is his plea to enjoy the moment, especially the time when you're a 10-person company totally focused on building a product. He spoke about how there was so much pressure to grow quickly if you're a hot startup, and how when it's all over the things you'll remember as a founder are the early days with a close-knit team. Especially for engineers, I thought this was brilliant advice.

Some favorite entrepreneurship posts

2005-02-20T09:29:00.000-08:00

About six months ago I assembled some of my favorite entrepreneurship blog posts and articles in a post I called Entrepreneurship 101. I do like to go back and re-read those posts and articles from time to time; occasionally I'll find a line or a piece of advice I really like and I'll write it down (or blog it), too.

March 106 announcement

2005-02-19T16:22:00.000-08:00

The Evite for the March meeting just went out. Our guest on March 9th will be Jeff Winner, former VP of eng at Friendster and current principal in venture accelerator Alacrity Partners. He'll be speaking on the entrepreneur's favorite topic: funding! Come and take the temperature of today's Valley funding climate with us.

If you didn't get an Evite, you aren't on the mailing list. Please email me at jpark@commerce.net if you want to be. Invitees, we are close to maximum capacity now -- in other words, I can't afford to buy more margaritas! :-) -- so please encourage people who want to attend to check in with me.

Mark Jen says hi

2005-02-17T10:07:00.000-08:00

New 106-er Mark Jen wrote about how much fun it is to meet us. We are friendly and we will give you margaritas!

Rifkin's herculean post

2005-02-15T20:42:00.000-08:00

After over a month, Rifkin finally managed to squeeze out a mammoth egg: his full report on 106Miles #1 with Joe and Graham. Prepare to take the rest of the evening off to digest!

Jeremy and Mike post

2005-02-11T11:39:00.000-08:00

Fastest blogger in the West Jeremy Zawodny got his recap of the evening up before he went to bed. Mike Rowehl (of Mobile Mondays fame) followed up with more detailed notes -- although his link to my personal blog is a little odd :-). Thanks to everyone who made it out despite the last-minute change of venue, and of course thanks to CommerceNet for the margaritas and nachos.

Success or control?

2005-02-07T18:27:00.000-08:00

On his blog, Joe tells a story about the night Architext got funded with his trademark self-deprecating charm. What he and Graham had condensed out of many experiences like that was a question that every entrepreneur needs to ask him or her self: success or control? Joe and Graham counselled us to decide early which way we tilted on that axis -- and then live by that decision. Obviously it's not a totally binary decision, but every team leans one way or the other by instinct.

So... success or control?

Change of venue

2005-02-07T14:59:00.000-08:00

The place for February's meeting has changed:

Chevy's
2907 El Camino Real
Redwood City

Sorry for the short notice!

Best day and time?

2005-01-26T18:08:00.000-08:00

We've gotten scattered feedback about problems with our day (2nd Tuesday of each month) and time (6:30 or 7PM). Apparently BayCHI and Hackers both meet on the same day, which impacts some of our attendees; and 6:30 is too early for some. It would be really helpful for me to hear about other recurring meetings that might cause conflicts. Would Mondays be better? Some other Tuesday? Leave comments, thanks!

The last war

2005-01-22T13:31:00.000-08:00

Of all the many valuable things Joe Kraus shared with us, the one that stuck with me the most is this: "we're always fighting the last war". I think the salient point is that this wasn't advice, it wasn't exhortation, it wasn't a problem that he felt his greater experience had given him any greater ability to solve. Intead, "fighting the last war" is something that Joe obviously reminds himself of when making decisions today, and in that sense it's an insight direct into the mentality of a working entrepreneur.

This is why I'd like to get currently engaged entrepreneurs to form the bulk of 106 Miles' speakers list. It's always fun to hear about famous success stories of the past; but it's so much more immediate to think along with someone who is going through some of the same challenges as you.

Zawodny reports on first meeting

2005-01-21T15:50:00.000-08:00

Jeremy Zawodny blogged immediately after the inaugural meeting of 106 Miles. Thanks for attending and for the kind thoughts, Jeremy!

February guest

2005-01-19T16:42:00.000-08:00

I'm very excited to announce that Dave Sifry of Technorati will be our guest on February 8th! The topic will be: "Third Time's the Charm: the thrill of serial entrepreneurship".

Hello world

2005-01-18T16:05:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the 106 Miles blog! We'll distribute news about the group via this mechanism.