So here's what I'm up to...

First off, I've decided to be uber anti-stealth with this project.  Since I'm only at the idea stage, could someone completely rip this off and go off and do it? 

Sure. 

Could they do it better than I could?  I wouldn't bet against me, because I highly doubt anyone interested in innovating around this space is as passionate about this as I am.

Even when I was in college, I was running a non-credit seminar introducing freshmen to business concepts--mostly because I was trying to train new writers for the business newspaper I had started.  When I graduated, I worked for two years to help get Fordham's Young Alumni mentoring program off the ground, and it is now their most successful career education program.  Each year, the program matches students in their first two years with recent alumni who can give them some much needed insight into various career paths, but also sensible advice about how finding your passion is a journey that takes time, patience, and much preparation.

I ran NYSSA's SEMI Mentoring program for NYC-area Finance undergraduates for two years and mentored students in the program for five years.   I also ran the internship program at the GM pension fund for two summers, even though I was younger than half of our interns.

Anyone who knows me knows that I've been really passionate about helping people find the same kind of career fulfillment that I've had the good fortune to find and now, I believe I've figured out how to tie together all the necessary ingredients--self assessment, professional insight, consistent networking skills, and early preparation--at scale.

Path 101 will be the place where you can send a student who hasn't the slightest clue about where they want to be when they finish school, but knows that wherever it is, they want it to be challenging and exciting as well.  It will help them make a habit out of keeping up with industries, building and learning from their network, and perhaps even publishing what they're learning on a regular basis.  It will be the digital extension of the career office that is available at 3AM when a student gets a sudden urge to be ambitious.

Right before I left for my trip, two people asked me in consecutive meetings what I really wanted to do.  The answer that kept bubbling up was working with students on helping them find a career, but it was something that only recently I thought about being able to do at scale.

Path 101 is the shot I need to take at this--the culmination of a lot of experience with students over the last six or seven years.  I'm incredibly excited about it and want to get started on finding the right technical partner who can help me see this through to fruition.  That's my next step--connecting with someone who can do significant development and who sees enough value in this to want to be a significant equity partner.

I have two versions of a 5 minute presentation I put together using Jing.   The first is just the presentation itself.  The second is narrated using Jing's microphone integration.  Frankly, I'd go with the mute one, because I have so much to say about this concept, I found it incredibly difficult to run through the same presentation with comments in the same amount of time.  Either way, thanks for the five minutes of your time.

UPDATED:  Please see our current presentation here.

As a general rule, I never signed an NDA while I was at USV.

I was also recently talking to a startup about potential employment who wanted me to sign one, too.  I balked.

I've been banging the transparency drum for quite a while--the idea that you should tell as many people as possible about what you're up to and not worry about keeping your idea a secret.  The basis of that is as follows:

1. Chances are that if your idea is a good one, in a big enough space, someone's already had it, so you won't really be tipping anyone off.
2. It doesn't take long to build anything, so even if you kept it secret, at most you're going to have a three or four month headstart, which is pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things.
3. The idea isn't nearly as valuable as the execution.  You could say you're going to build a LolCat maker, but if you can only use one kind of cat, its not going to get any traction whatsoever.  The devil is in the details.
4. Speaking of the details, you're likely to get them wrong the first time anyway...or learn more as you go along, so your first idea is never really a good one.   

But the question is, will I eat my own dogfood?  I had a conversation about this with an entrepreneur a little while ago and we both agreed that when its your own startup idea--the one you're really passionate about--there's a slight bit of hesitation.  I certainly understand the fear... that you tell someone you're working on something and the one competitor that could ever possibly do what you're doing turns around and releases your idea and puts all of its weight behind it--all before you could even hire your first developer.

But that's paranoia.  Reality tells us that startups, for the most part, move faster and can focus better on particular problems.  That's why big companies buy startups--they know they can't really build things internally and get it right, let alone on time and under budget. 

On top of that, by not being public about what you're up to, you lose the opportunity for feedback and collaboration.  Perhaps someone out there has already tried what you are thinking of and has some tips.  Or, they bring with them a completely complimentary skills set and could be a potential partner.  You never know until you start talking it up.

Plus, I'm convinced that, to be successful, you really need to immerse yourself in the community you're trying to serve.  If you want to do a healthcare services startup, you need to be in the healthcare community talking with doctors, patients, etc.  Tell then what your ideas are.  Get feedback.  Get new ideas.  Entrepreneurs who work in well protected  bubbles (echo chambers) do not succeed... do not generate momentum...  their ideas die on the vine.

Still, its scary just putting it out there.

With all that being said, I'm going to start a conversation here--a conversation about an area that I'm exploring.  Yes, to do a startup.  Its funny because I always said I'd never do one.  I also used to say I'd never work at a VC, too, and also had no interest in working for a portfolio company.  Thankfully, I've also said many times that I also have no interest in being really rich, too, so I should be set there. 

So what is it?  What's the space?  Partners?  Funding?  Etc.  Patience, grasshopper.  There's a lot to do and a lot to talk about and there will be no shortage of coverage on this blog.