Journal of a First-Time Entrepreneur

Ye olde homework:

1. Process all of my emails.
2. Follow up on fundraising pieces.
3. Deal with party logistics (sound, schedule, beer)
4. Review Survey results, compile a couple of neat facts.
5. Prepare Launch Marketing Plan (Wednesday through Wednesday).
6. Come up with a few potential sound bites for the panel.
7. Deal with Finance stuffs.

After 3 hours of sleep, I drag myself out of bed to get to the bus station. Alex meets me there. I was told that there was WiFi, so I was ready to work for 5-6 of the 7 hours of the ride. Unfortunately, there's no power outlets. Looks like BoltBus had me spoiled.

I manage to get 2 hours or so out of my computer before I need to shut it down. I spend the rest of the ride responding to email on the iPod Touch, watching TWiVC, listening to Colin Marshall's Marketplace of Ideas, and even manage to squeeze in a 30-minute nap.

We arrive in Toronto, register the conference, and I run over to the BNOTIONS office to buy the entire Dev-team dinner and spend the rest of the night helping troubleshoot/test YouPhonics, dealing with party logistics, and taking a quick look at the survey results.

I finally get back to Zac's place around 3AM, proceed to look at/segment/jot down survey results for another 2 hours, and finally go to sleep at 5AM.

Up at 8AM. Down again for 30 minutes. Up for reals at 8:30.

I look at the sheer amount of stuff to do -- party prep (dealing with the beer situation, talking with The Biz Media about venue needs, etc.), a bit more analysis, and sound bites to generate. I stay "home" for another 2 hours to work instead of rushing to the conference. Zac wakes up and we head downtown together. I get my hair cut.

A quick walk over to the conference center from the hairdresser leads me to meet Josh and Justin (two of my co-panelists) in the lobby. It's lunchtime. AKA burrito-salad-time.

After lunch, I manage to catch 1/2 of Scott Belsky (Behance)'s presentation on the agency-world. It was pretty great, all about leading and inspiring creativity. Him and Jeffrey Tambor should team up and do corporate speaking-gigs.

Nobody I knew was speaking next, so I grabbed the rest of the afternoon to do party-prep, a bit of testing, think of sound bites, and hopefully start on launch-marketing-plan. That last one didn't happen, as YouPhonics started breaking. Not good.

I head to the cocktail party, where I actually have a second to talk with Shawn Pucknell (in charge of NXNEi and runs FITC) and Tara Hunt (who I keep missing in Montreal), meet Perry Chen (from Kickstarter, who is several kinds of awesome) and Ze Frank, and chat with friends new (Michael Nus, Frida) and old (Melissa Feeney, Lee Dale, etc.)

At 8PM sharp, I run to my favourite teashop (DAVIDsTEA, on Queen), run into some old friends there, and proceed to work (mostly "Holy shit! Bug just popped up!") until after Bonita cleaned up and was ready to lock up. Which then led me to campus to meet with Zac, where I couldn't get on WiFi and thus spent the time reading. After his reading group let out, we headed over to the Golden Griddle, where I hopped back on WiFi and trouble-shooted with some of the BNOTIONS crew.

Finally, around 2AM, we left the Golden Griddle, as I was fading. Zac and I had a big chat about what I'm up to, and some of the things I wanted to communicate in my panel. I was stressed, as the biggest, most magical feature of YouPhonics had broken, and I was set to demo in front of people the next day. I finally passed out around 5AM.

The big one.

Wake up ~8AM. Psyche myself up. Send some emails. Pick up cupcakes. Confirm delivery with Steam Whistle, and how many people we'd be able to bring across the street for burritos if people wanted to continue the confersation.

Panel prep. 11AM. Send out the email to launch party attendees I had written the night before. Reviewing the notes I jotted down as to what I want to say. Show YouPhonics to panelmates.

12PM: Showtime. I'm on stage, talking. We get the audience asking questions from the beginning. My ears are on the panel, my eyes are on the audience, my hands are on my phone, waiting for it to buzz with a text message from my developers that says that they've tested the biggest bugs and are confident that the fixes worked.

12:33PM: The text message arrives. I give myself the green-light to demo the product if an appropriate question/moment in the conversation shows up. When the time comes, we get everybody singing along to my favourite track from my buddy Landon Braverman's EP.

(download)

Click here to download:

The_Heavenly_Hell-Week_A_Post-.zip (2 MB)

1PM: It's over. Time for burritos. Then meeting prep. Then a meeting at 3PM with an awesome lady from EMI Music Publishing, who is super-interested in what us kids are working on to help redefine the music industry -- a topic I love to talk about. In 30 minutes, we managed to validate some hypotheses, make some new ones, and have a splendid time.

4PM: Off to set up the party. Beer has been delivered, but we still need to buy ice and some meats to get the BBQ going. With help from the awesome Biz Media and BNOTIONS crews (and Rochelle Latinsky and Alex Daskalov), everything comes together.

6:45PM: People are arriving. The keg isn't set up yet. Shit.

7PM: The party starts. I have the schedule in my pocket, and ala

rms set for 3 minutes before all of my remaining actions for the night. Autopilot.

11PM: The Groin Twins need to switch USB sound cards, which means killing the music. Not wanting to have a silent room for 5 minutes, I buy them three-and-a-half by rapping the entirety of Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady," acapella. It was glorious.

11:40PM: Clean-up. Walking Maria to the Go Bus station, so's she can get home. Cabbing back to 7 West, where Logan, Alex, and Guy are grabbing late-night eats. Cab home. Asleep by 4:30AM.

Wake up at 12PM. Day off. Spend my time slowly taking care of the few things that needed to be taken care of (returning the mics, coordinating keg pickup, etc.). Manage to catch The Besnard Lakes and Best Coast with my buddy Glen (from AWMusic.ca). Loved the former, liked the latter. Also had some sweet chats with Lina Beaudin, and Drew and Hil from Pop Montreal.

Had a meeting with an awesome VC, and got some amazing feedback which I plan on incorporating into my meeting this Wednesday. Hung out at Patio Friday with some awesome folks. Went to pick up my external hard drive, which had been sitting at the BNOTIONS office since Monday. On my way, was invited to join a few of them on an impromptu trip to Niagara Falls. Not being one to pass up an adventure, I went.

We like pizza in the morning. 'Nuff said.