I’ve found restarting my networking to be a bit sluggish…don’t know if this is a summer phenomenon or an outcome of letting things lapse for a while. Having said that, I did recently reconnect with three engineers/engineering managers I worked with long ago at Raytheon. They, after working at a few startups, find themselves back at Raytheon via acquisition and are interested to leave and create their own startup. The nice thing about this group is that they form a strong basis for an experienced, engineering team. We had an initial meeting this week to reacquaint ourselves with each other and start talking about ideas. We’ll be meeting again in late August after various vacations get out of the way.
I also had two meetings this week with local startups. One is a provider of intelligent power distribution equipment for electric grids while the other is a specialty semiconductor company in early stealth mode. In both cases it is too early for them to be expanding/creating their commercial teams but there would likely be a need to do so in 2014.
I’m finding in my search, as with many things in life, timing is critical. I’ve encountered many interesting startups with whom I’d be a good match. However, I’ve either been too early or too late in finding them. I suppose I just need to continue to broaden my outreach and give it more time and eventually I’ll hit upon the right company at the right time. In parallel, I’ll be continuing to talk with my ex-Raytheon colleagues and see if something interesting emerges there.