I just hit my airport tipping point for 2007. I’m sitting in squalor at LaGuardia Gate B6 waiting for my Frontier flight home. I guess Spirit controls these gates and no one seems to give a shit about anything here. Everyone at LaGuardia was surly (boarding on intolerable) tonight. Maybe it’s my Boston Red Sox jacket.
I’m not a crazy baseball fan, but after 12 years living in Boston it’s hard not to have a soft spot in one’s heart for the Red Sox Nation. Fenway Park is one of the last great ballparks and I smile every time I’m there, even if I’m getting drenched.
Game 1: Red Sox 13, Braves 3. First base side. 1:05pm
Game 2: Braves 14, Red Sox 0. Third base side. 7:05pm
It was a “zero-sum” day, but a fun one. Well – that’s enough baseball for a while.
I spent 12.1 years of my life living in Boston (and Cambridge) – from age 17.7 to 29.8. This morning I spent an hour having a picture perfect run around the Charles River, listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers on my iTurd (my podcasts are still not syncing correctly, but whatever), and reminiscing on my time here.
I’ll always be defined by the seven years I spent at MIT (two degrees, one ABD ejection.) I lived in Cambridge for four of them and Boston for the other eight (Devonshire Place, Fort Point Channel, and Bay State Road.) I got married, got divorced, and met my soulmate.
I started my first company (Feld Technologies), sold my first company, did my first angel investments (successful: NetGenesis, Thinkfish, Harmonix, Abuzz; unsuccessful: Virtuflex, Trellix, NetCentric), and learned an enormous amount about starting and running entrepreneurial businesses.
I met three of my best friends (Warren, Dave, Raj) who I think of as step-brothers. I met two father figures (Eric, Len) who have had almost as much influence on me as my dad and my uncle Charlie. I had some amazing highs, a very deep two year depression, and eventually realized that I only got one shot at this life thing.
I often say that I spent 11 years and 364 days too many in Boston. But – that’s not really true. On a morning like this, as the sun shines down up me and I put one foot in front of the other, Boston feels like a special place.
As I was turning the pages in the April 23, 2007 Forbes in the bathroom today, I came across The South Rises Again and a great map of the top metro areas in the US according to Forbes. One of the rankings was based on college degrees (percentage of adult population with bachelor’s degree or higher.) Boulder ranked at the top and the list of the top five was interesting.
Having lived in Cambridge and having spent a lot of time in San Francisco, it intrigues me how much I’m attracted to these three places. I guess I should go spend some time in Ann Arbor and see what I think. Since I don’t work for the CIA, I think I’ll pass on Bethesda.
By the way, the national average is 23.1%.
Boulder OpenCoffee Club (part of the network of OpenCoffee Club’s popping up around the world) now has its own website. The next meeting is at Vic’s Coffee at 1800 Broadway in One Boulder Plaza on Tuesday, April 24th from 8am – 9:30am. Come join us and hang out.
Andy Sack just had a successful OpenCoffee Club meeting in Seattle and is having another one next week at 8:30 AM at Louisa’s on Eastlake in Seattle. I’m not 100% sure of the date, but I’m guessing it was a week from yesterday (e.g. Tuesday.)
The first Boulder OpenCoffee Club happened yesterday at Amante Coffee on Walnut Street in Boulder. I was in NY so I missed it, but I heard it was a lot of fun and had an interesting collection of people show up. The next one is on April 24 – same place at 8am (although Jason is thinking about trying a different location to accommodate more people.) I’ll likely be in town so I’m planning on showing up. Hats off to Saul Klein for starting this phenomenon.
Last August I somehow convinced myself that I was going to run the North Pole Marathon. Fortunately around the end of the year I came to my senses and decided to give away my entry via a contest on YourRunning.com.
Bobby Bostic won the contest and ran the marathon (and the first 26.2 mile North Pole bike race.) Yesterday I turned to Amy and said “well – the North Pole Marathon was today and our guy finished.” She looked at me and said “even though the weather sucks here today, aren’t you glad you aren’t at the North Pole.”
Congrats Bobby.
Earlier this year Saul Klein sent me an email about an idea he had to create a meeting spot for entrepreneurs and VCs in a community to get together on a regular basis. Saul’s idea was that this would be like a “Coffee Club” – same location and time on a weekly / bi-weekly basis. I responded that I thought it was a cool idea and my partner Jason decided to help set one up in Boulder. Saul subsequently launched OpenCoffee Club which is sprouting up in a bunch of cities around the world.
Saul’s vision was simple: “the key is a regular place and a regular time – it’s not important who comes along, some days it might be no one – just that people know if they want to meet, this is the time and this is the place.”
So – the Boulder OpenCoffee Club’s regular place is Amante Coffee at 1035 Walnut St, Boulder, CO 80302 and the regular time is every other Tuesday starting April 10 from 8am to 9:30am. If you are interested, sign up on the Upcoming site. Also – join the OpenCoffee Club Boulder social network.
Looking forward to seeing you sometime.
As I stared across the table at my partner Ryan, he said to me “hey – we just got up in the middle of the night to come to California to have breakfast in at Stacks in Menlo Park.” Alarm clock start time: 3:15am Mountain. Stacks: 8:00am Pacific. There’s something fundamentally wrong with this. The Lox Scram (without capers) however is yummy. Who said “blogging about what I had for breakfast” wasn’t trendy. Maybe I should start Twittering.