One of Richmond's new favorite writer/video interviewer/tech geeks is ReadWriteWeb's Jolie O'Dell, who swooped through town during June's Science Museum throw-down hosted by the Social Media Club of Richmond. Not only did uber-poster O'Dell post a slew of video footage of the panel discussion on the impact of social media/new technology on news media, but she ten spent the social portion of the evening pitting Richmond's second-favorite satirist, Jeff Kelley, against RVA Magazine's bearded wonder Ian Graham -- followed by NBC12's tweet-crazy Rachel DePompa paired with me.
This week, O'Dell issued a Twitter-generated request: POLL: What was your "darkest hour" as an entrepreneur? Did you ever srsly have to consider closing up shop? Pandora did.
I sent her a quick email reply. Who knew it would wend its way into her latest piece for ReadWriteWeb's startup channel?
O'Dell starts off with the teetering almost tragic stories of Pandora and Twitpic before turning her attention to me with this inspiring subhead: The Mundane Details.
Entrepreneur John Sarvay emailed us to share his own story. "I'm discovering that there are a couple of different scary startup moments - the dramatic cliffhangers (new company teetering on the brink; new company meets sexy venture capitalist; new company takes off) I think are dwarfed by the mundane (waking up every day wondering if there's enough cash in the bank).
"Nine months into my own startup, I've discovered a nice middle ground."
But that comfortable middle ground was nowhere in sight when Sarvay woke up the morning after his startup's launch party with a severe case of entrepreneur's remorse.
"I realized I'd spent more on the launch party than all of my other business marketing. In the first three months of 2009, I brought in three percent of what I earned the previous year. The economy was continuing to melt down. I was insane thinking I should launch a business on my own.
"That lasted three days."
Little by little, cash started flowing in. By this May, Sarvay wrote, "We had enough cash flow to actually pay our bills for the month - both for the business and for our household. Going into July, we have enough to pay those bills for three months."
"This whole startup process has been simultaneously terrifying, stupid, exhausting, exhilarating, and validating. It's the smartest thing I've ever done. If I'd done it three years ago, I'd have failed. I might still fail. But I don't regret one second of it."
The interesting thing for me is that I've had maybe all of five days of doubt and panic during the entire nine month experience. I fully expected to find myself curled up in my closet sometime during month three of this journey.
