I had no intention of starting a company. I was just having a great time. And yet, here’s how it began.
Some early seeds: In April 2006, I attended Podcast Academy 2 in Boston. I’d been listening to podcasts for some time, so in ways, I felt like a kid meeting rock stars. I’d also struck up conversations with people like Daniel H. Steinberg, and was understanding that this new media was very accessible. I could talk to my heroes.
While at Podcast Academy, I met and befriended lots of neat people. I met Eric Olson of Feedburner and host of the Venture Week podcast. I met Bernie Milton, a 73 year old author who was looking to use podcasting to promote his book. And I met Steve Garfield.
Steve taught me that all I needed to videoblog or video podcast was the movie setting on my digital camera. Here I had an inexpensive-but-nice camcorder, but Steve showed me how folks use digital cameras in the vlogging community. Whoa, I said.
I might’ve just thrown away the entire learning experience had I not been reinforced by listening to C|Net’s Tom Merritt on his new podcast, The Real Deal. It was his insistence that this was simple, could be done for free or cheap, that pushed me over into creating Fat Guy Gets Fit, a podcast about me trying to get back into shape (still trying).
On another track, back in May, I wrote a post called content networks are the new blogs. The premise was this: there’s lots of great stuff out there, but people can’t find it. Further, lots of people are talking about the same things slightly differently, and those conversations would do better if they were collected into a group blog.
They say that lots of new companies are formed by scratching an itch. In my case, that’s true. My itch? I’m frustrated that it takes so much work to find all this great material that’s out on the web. Further, when I find it, I’m always saddened that my friends and others aren’t aware of it. I feel sad when I see sites with great post after great post, with zero comments. I wrote a post about that, too.
On June 3rd (my Dad’s birthday), I attended BarCamp Boston, an unconference gathering for geeks and those who smell the future in such things. Unconferences are free to attend, and they encourage participation from all members. I thought, “Hey, I’ll give my Content Networks talk.” Secondarily, I also thought, “I’ll bring my recording gear and do a “Sounds of BarCamp” audio thing.
Both experiences were larger influences on me than I’d imagined. I loved seeing people nod their heads when I did the talk, and when I echoed it around the halls, folks thought it was an interesting (though not fleshed out) premise. And the podcasting? I met Eric Skiff from The Alternative Music Show, Christopher S. Penn from The Financial Aid Podcast, Bryan Person, from New Comm Road, and Brian Del Vecchio of Hybernaut. These guys were all exciting, dynamic, and full of energy. It really lit me up and gave me the sense that this podcasting thing was truly a community experience, not to mention viable.
One thing happened at BarCamp that I thought was funny: whenever I talked to the venture capital people, they seemed perplexed that I didn’t want to pitch them anything. In fact, it was weird, but that got me more emails after the conference than about anything else. And I meant it. I wasn’t being coy. But, I did have the pleasure and good fortune to meet with someone who knew lots about starting up a company, and aquiring capital to get it going.
My advisor has been extremely helpful in shaping the early conversations around this premise. We differ in opinion around scope, and I imagine that my advisor is probably correct that my version of what should happen next is the wrong scale. I’m going large. My advisor wants me to go standalone and then grow. We’ll see where that goes.
In Part 2, I will talk about how I started laying things out, and the mindset that’s getting me here.
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