Well, not much has been happening in August as I took a couple weeks to vacation in the Seattle/Vancouver/Whistler area – what a beautiful part of North America! Between that, the summer lull in networking events, and the vacations of others it has been a fairly quiet month. It has become increasingly apparent to me that the kind of position I am seeking (early-stage, VP-level, marketing/product development, electronics) is fairly specific and that hitting upon it at the right place and time is challenging. I’ve therefore increased my focus on developing a startup concept of my own.
Towards this end I’ve got two sets of activities. First, I continue to meet with the ex-Raytheon colleagues I’d previously written about to explore a variety of ideas. Several interesting ones have emerged that I am investigating in greater depth. Second, I recently met a young, technical entrepreneur who had a successful, small-scale trial of a service business concept last summer and is looking for help to refine and scale his idea. It is a bit of a different type of business that what I had envisioned for myself but it is interesting and is something I’m spending time exploring further.
In parallel with all this I am working to arrange for a trip to the Bay Area to expand my networking range. There is a lot of activity there that I have not tapped into. My thinking is to spend a week or two out there in late September or early October connecting with investors and entrepreneurs. I’m trying to leverage my existing contacts to identify appropriate contacts in advance. It’s been slow going so far but I’ve got a couple so far.
That’s it for now…the journey continues!