An Audacious Picture Before Christmas, 2008. - 12/24/2008 - 11:58 AM:
This is an interesting picture. It's blurry and dark, yes. Its quality is not the greatest, I agree. At first glance, it's nothing special. But what you're missing is the audacity of the people inside this photo.
This is a picture of the current Novel Projects crew frozen in time at the end of 2008 - at least the ones that could be there this close to the holidays. In years to come, this picture will be one of those items we look back on: Three days before Christmas, 2008, these people gathered at the Johnny Carinos Italian restaurant on Overland in Boise, Idaho and decided to try to change publishing forever. It was cold and snowing. It was night, but bright because of the street lights hitting the fresh snow. It was an unlikely gathering of people, agreeing to do unlikely things.
This photo is audacious because it shows such an oddball gathering of people and backgrounds, setting out to change an old fashioned industry centered thousands of miles awa...
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Christmas Parties and Board Meetings. Graphics People Needed. - 12/22/2008 - 4:18 PM:
I'll stick to the main points - as I said earlier in the week, we're looking for a graphics and interface designer. We've had a number of e-mails regarding the position (including one located in Boise, amazingly enough), but we're still interesting in talking to as many people as possible.
So once again, if you have some graphic design skills, or some interface skills, why not fire me an e-mail at aaron@cangooglehearme.com? In the past we've always found the most valuable people simply through word of mouth and enthusiasm. Paul, Brandon, Eileen, Dustin, Tony, Dan, Evan, Matt - all are people that connected with us first because of our enthusiasm, and second because of any other interesting benefits. If we can find someone like that who also happens to have the right skills, then all the better.
Traditional channels can be explored second.
Eileen will likely come in handy if that's the case. When she and Paul worked together at a softwar...
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A Post at 1:00 in the Morning. Looking for an Interface Designer. - 12/15/2008 - 1:30 AM:
I bet you thought I'd forgotten my promise to post twice a week, didn't you? :) Actually, between meetings that ran from about 10:00 a.m. on Friday until way after it was time to go home, there simply was no time to make a good post. So this is a late night, mini-post, the day after a bit of snow fall (the photo was taken about 9:00 this morning, outside my apartment - yesterday there was no snow at all). This will be followed up by a more full blown, interesting post tomorrow.
There are a number of updates that I'll cover in the follow-up post, including Eileen's full bio and backstory, and - amazingly enough - another potential full-time addition to the team (we're gaining people fast, now). Some of the most recent events have been very exciting; there's a great, great deal of energy in the air at the moment; more so than there's been in a while. But again, I'll fill you in a bit more tomorrow.
And the final little update before I go to bed is this...
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Let the Snow Fall. Let the Good Times Roll. - 12/09/2008 - 4:57 PM:
The problem with having an inconsistent posting cycle is that writing a new post tends to be pushed off when the most is going on. It's difficult to stop working on that next critical thing in order to sit down and update the blog.
It's also when the most interesting things happen. The trip to Seattle went very well. It's very satisfying to have someone you take seriously sit down with you over lunch and say, "Listen, we get the bullet points. We think the concepts are great. Let's get down to some data." When you're working on a project that you believe in, it's extremely satisfying to know that the next step is to really roll up the sleeves and wade in. I came away from the meeting with Amazon feeling very satisfied, and tasked with producing a number of documents that have occupied the entire office since my return. A lot of statistical analysis is now under the belt, as well as the beginnings of data analysis looking for correlations and the such, and we'll s...
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Where Would You Rather Work? Pixar, Apple, Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft? - 11/06/2008 - 11:24 PM:
The trip to San Francisco has been eating up my time, so I'm going to keep this post short. Aside from the fact that Chris Moore wasn't able to sign a copy of his book (that's a longer story that I'll cover when I get back), the trip has gone very well. There was a bit of trouble with my bags on the flight, and I ended up in San Francisco with no luggage, clothes, or presentation, but those problems didn't slow things down much. The talk at Stanford was enjoyable (for me at least), and the conversation during and in the hours afterward were certainly worth the experience. I can now claim that Stanford University has bought me dinner as a guest, which - let's face it - is pretty cool.
The meetings that followed the next day also went well. We connected with some angel investors/family and friends and arranged for bridge money in the event that it's needed. Bridge money is generally a small investment designed to bridge between start-up and funded and/or profitable. ...
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We Won the Idaho Innovation Award! Very Cool. And Added a Twitter Account. - 10/30/2008 - 4:46 PM:
So Paul and I spent a good part of yesterday at the Idaho Innovation Award luncheon. It was an award ceremony for the companies that had been selected as finalists to receive recognition for being some of the most innovative companies of the year. Much to our pleasure, Novel Projects, Inc. and BookLamp.org were nominated for Innovation of the Year: Early Stage Technology.
And I'm happy to report that we won, too. So I found myself standing in a room of 100 people yesterday collecting a glass trophy and then being asked to say a few words.
I prepared for that, though I should have been, so I took the stand and thanked Paul, who received his own applause, and then said a few thanks not only to the group assembled, but to all of Boise, as well....
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Seeking Money in Troubled Times. Speaking at Stanford University, Innovation Awards, and Seattle. - 10/23/2008 - 12:42 PM:
The next few weeks are set to be extremely busy for us. First, on the morning of Oct. 29th we've been asked to present to a "gathering of minds" - a group of different business owners and VC sources local to the Boise area. Given the rocky road of the recent economy, it'll be interesting to see how the investment landscape is evolving.
About an hour after that presentation, we have a luncheon to attend. BookLamp has been selected as a finalist for the Idaho Innovation Awards, and there's a luncheon and award ceremony in our honor... well, our honor and the honor of the other finalists. :)
Four days later, on Nov. 3rd, I've been invited to speak at Stanford University, which is an opportunity that I can't pass up. While in San Francisco, I'll also be connecting with two angle investors to make a formal introduction to the project.
Then, I fly from San Francisco to Seattle on Nov. 7th for another series of meetings up in Washington state. Then I get to go home and get back to work....
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