Overall, it was a very quality experience. Of about 15 developers, there were a couple standouts that I felt were cool guys that would be fun to build something with. It definitely sparked the startup enthusiast in me, which is my real passion I’d say as a professional. During the session, I realized something interesting. Every job I’ve taken, It’s been because I have wanted to gain knowledge or learn from others on how to co-found my own company.

I’ll get back to this post in a few days.

- Taken a full time job
- Am considering sponsorship to stay in Australia
- 1st potential technical co-founder and I broke up (*emotional tears*)

Basically, a 360 from where what my goals were a few weeks ago.

Tomorrow morning I start working at Zambrero, the 3rd fastest growing franchise in Australia. Zambrero makes awesome burritos, sort of like the Chipotle of Australia.

When I told my tech partner last week about the job, he was a bit nervous, but thought we could still execute the project. Within a few days I got a message from him stating he thought this job would occupy me too much, as well as his need to make more money and put extra hours into his job. And just like that, I’m back at square one. Bummer. He was a decent guy, but I think it was the right move for both of us.

So here I am again, with everything planned out to the T for an alpha and on the search again for a driven technical co-founder. I plan on still contributing time to the project in the evenings and weekends, and since the alpha isn’t a ton of work, a hacker could probably bust something out in a weekend.

So what caused me to take the job at Zambrero? I’ve been lucky enough to work at some awesome startups with great execution, as well as abysmal early stage companies with no chance in hell of going anywhere. Zambrero, from what I’ve seen, seems to be the former.

I read an insightful book awhile ago called Tribal Leadership. It discusses natural groups and how to build a thriving organization:

The image above shows the different tiers that organizations can be put in. 1 is the worst, 5 is best. Zambrero is a 4, and maybe even a 5, which is one of the reasons why I think this is an opportunity that cannot be passed up. It just seems like a really fun place to work. When an unpaid intern says, “I don’t know if I’m ready to leave, I want to keep living in Sydney and working here a bit longer”, you know that the company has got to be doing something right.

After discussions, we’re possibly looking for a front end developer (which we would pay) for an easy project with us, but with the hopes of possibly finding a keeper in terms of joining our team.

With my self-taught design skills, I’ve mocked up one page that we’re looking to get sliced and CSSed. My technical co-founder is focused on the back end, so we’re looking for someone will killer CSS skills who can also polish off cross browser compatibility and such.

If you’re a developer, I welcome your email or phone call. I’d love to buy you a coffee or have your baby if that’s what it takes to get to know some great coders.

In a sentence, there’s a huge opportunity to create the 1st brand in high quality social experiences through an exclusive platform. Confused? I’d love to explain in person.

Cheers,
Drew

Since I currently work in study abroad for Boston University here in Sydney, I was curious which American Universities have satellite campuses in Qatar. Here is the list with links.

Carnegie Mellon
Cornell University
Georgetown
Northwestern
Texas A&M
Virgina Commonwealth

Here and there my back will be sore, which is expected since I barely move. This got me thinking, “sittings for years of my life may not be that great for my health”. One of the partners at the firm (around 35 years old) just tweaked his back doing ordinary chores and was out two weeks. He’s been sitting the 9-5 for at least 10 yeas. Hmmmm. This got me thinking, and googling. This is what I found.

If you’ve ever worked an office job, keep reading.

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

In undergrad I founded my first startup, Hangchillparty. Built for the cracked-out social ecosystems of college dorms, it was an instant way of letting groups of friends know when you were free to socialize. This experience taught me keys to design, pitching to angels/VCs, and how to file patents.

I then worked as the Director of Marketing for two successful mobile development startups, Dokogeo and Retronyms. Dokogeo is a leader in geo-location with apps such as Dokogeo. They spoke at SXSW 2011 on the Future of Location Based Games Beyond Check-ins. Retronyms focuses on music production apps and has done work for companies such as Justin.TV and Adobe. I learned the power of utilizing social media to build cult followings that market products for you.

After my mobile stint I was then persuaded to join Kar.ma, a social marketplace for buying and selling goods for the benefit of charity. I saw why most startups don’t succeed and the pains of raising money with the team and product just isn’t there.

This instance helped me realize the importance of joining a startup with strong execution and a talented team. Before I left for Sydney, I spent some time at Grubwithus, the YC startup backed by the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, Ashton Kutcher, and more. To be surrounded by a team that hustled so hard showed me what dedication it really takes to build value.

If you’ve read this far, you may be wondering why I’ve hopped around so many companies. I’ve always had the goal of co-founding a startup of my own in the back of my mind, but to do this, a hodgepodge of startup experiences is important in understanding what has made companies succeed and fail.

My current gig in venture capital has shown my how to dark side thinks, which will come in useful when fundraising. Developing modest modelling skills to test out returns on different ventures doesn’t hurt either.

There comes a point where silliness becomes outrageousness and outrageousness becomes obsurd. After obsurd, that point just becomes a feeling of despair. I love the first two, but am disappointed when music hit the third.

Anyone who knows me understands I listen to rap and hip hop constantly. I don’t think N.W.A. should be reprimanded for their explicit lyrics, Jay-Z should be regarded as one of most talented musical artists of modern music, and Gucci Mane’s Lemonade is a song I enjoy listening to on repeat because of how catchy it is.

But the excessive flaunting of wealth in such an influential culture of our youths is crippling to see, especially in a world that is on the brink of collapse because of it.

Album covers like the one above exist all over hip hop and rap, but for some reason, this one pushed me over the edge.

Look at it. It’s the most obsurd album cover ever. It’s stupid. First off, the title of their album.

Ferrari Boyz

Are you so dumb that the most clever name you can come up must include a fast, fancy car? Gucci Mane & Waka Flocka Flame, may I ask the origin of this name? I’m just gona take a stab at it, but maybe you boyz rap about speeding in your Ferraris with attractive, supple females by your side as you point at your detailed rims with bottles of assorted champagnes by your side. Real artistic.

What scares me about this is how formulaic pockets of hip hop have become. There is no art in this whatsoever. It’s rude to judge a book by its cover, but not when the cover contains no thought or creativity at all.

Fancy Car + Shiny Bling + Word spelled incorrectly with Z replacing S = Awesome album cover!!!

Now, maybe the Ferrari Boyz are smarter than I think and are receiving an excessive amount of royalties from Gucci and Ferrari. That’s cool and pretty smart if so. But they must realize that they are crippling listeners with the most blunt forms of materialistic showmanship one can imagine.

Of course, I haven’t listened to this album, so I may be wrong. The Ferrari Boyz may not rap about how fly they. Maybe the album cover is a satire of those pockets of the hip hop industry. I hope so.

One of the reasons I love hip hop is how well it expresses the ego and individualism.  Great artists and songs can make you feel like the shit, which is a definite appeal to the genre. But there comes a point where it becomes obsurd and the content is so superficial that you have to slot Ferrari into the album title because you’ve already said it too much about fast fancy cars in your songs. This album has hit that point.

I highly suggest subscribing to his paid weekly letters. They help keep me up to date on the world’s happenings and are from a very knowledgeable source.

“I’ve noticed recently when meeting people visiting Japan from abroad that I rarely find the meaningful conversations I crave — and found in times past. The overseas-travel filter used to deliver learned, inquisitive people into my life. We’d size each other up, find common ground, then traverse that ground to find what the other could contribute to our own body of knowledge. We’d both emerge better informed, in possession of a wiser perspective on this mutual journey around the sun.

What I get now is a collection of thought fragments, most of them irrelevant. I’ll begin discussing a topic and find myself instantly removed from it and embarked on a kaleidoscopic journey through an internet trivia wonderland. It goes something like this:

“The cracks and bumps in this road are remnants of the March 11 earthquake,” I say while driving toward the disaster zone. “Believe it or not, the road was much worse than this until a month ago.”

“Oh, wow,” says A. “I saw a YouTube video of road crews fixing highways after disasters. I think I have it here.” He pulls out his smartphone and starts searching.

“I took shots of the longest road on earth,” says B. “It’s in Australia.” He flips open his iPad and starts swishing through a gallery of photos, then taps one to fill the screen. “See? It was an amazing journey. Just amazing. I met a guy there who’d been around it three times on a bicycle. This is him. The guy on his left was named Bill, I think. He was amazing, too.”

“Here’s the video!” cries A. He turns up the volume and plays a video of a road crew at work somewhere. Nobody knows why we’re listening to it.

“Did you see The Simpsons’ road trip episode?” asks C. “It was brilliant, absolutely brilliant.”

“The one where Bart made a fake driver’s license?” asks B.

“Yeah! I was dying. I think I have it here somewhere.” He starts searching his device.

And so it goes. What happened to the earthquake-damaged road we were driving on? What happened to the scenes passing by? What happened to getting somewhere in a conversation? Who cares about all this digital inconsequentia? Why are we looking at and listening to evidence of other experiences, instead of absorbing the current experience?”

-Jason Kelly

Since Grubwithus is more service-based than other startups, it doesn’t require the company to be based in San Francisco like most early-stage companies. The founders Eddy and Daishin are from Los Angeles, and with some of the team members already residing there it made sense to base the company in LA.

It’’s 10pm and I just got kicked out of Red Rock Coffee in Mountain View. I’m suppose to roadtrip down to LA with Eddy, Daishin, and Nikhel this evening. They’re an hour late as I loiter on the corner with my bags and get weird stares by passersbys. I start to wonder if maybe this is all a cruel prank. They’re probably watching me from the building across and laughing at this well-groomed looking homeless person.

Luckily it’s not and an event they were speaking at ran a bit late. They roll up and we’re off for a late night drive to La La Land.

The guys are developers so they are semi-nocturnal which means no one needs to sleep on the car ride. Instead, with the same innocence of preteen girls gossiping about their latest crushes, the guys chit-chat about the hottest startups and what trends they see in tech. Y Combinator is an early-stage startup mentoring program, and the abbreviation YC was probably used 400 times during the ride. I recommend anyone who’s interested in starting their own company to get locked in a car for awhile with YC founders. It’s Startup Lessons Learned in a concentrated road trip edition.

We arrive at 4am and no one sleeps. There’s work to be done with the launching of Grubwithus Boston that day.

The next day we realize that we need to eat. This calls for a Costco run. Apparently YC reminded the founders on the importance of eating healthy, so a 40 pound bag of carrots were thrown into the lasagna-filled shopping carts.

Grubwithus is headquartered at a modern work-live space in Venice, but the team’s scrapiness still shines through. Everyone sleeps in sleeping bags, bread is toasted in the oven, and jelly beans supplement as nutritional snacks before the frozen dinner meal of the night.

It’s been fun getting to know the Grubwithus team. Everyone is constantly working hard, but the atmosphere is more light-hearted than stressful. The team genuinely enjoys what it is creating, which makes working 16 hour days seem more like a constant slumber party than a work grind.

The startup lifestyle is not for everyone, but when executed correctly around the right people, it makes for a fulfilling work environment. Or at worst, a blog post to keep fans updated on what’s going on at Grubwithus.