RIM Should Buy Beats by Dre


BoumanBlog-RIM

This thought came to me in at the gym. How can RIM become relevant again?

Sometimes, I like to root for the underdog. I have been rooting for Yahoo for years (short story is, I think a stronger Yahoo = stronger tech ecosystem).  And now I’ve reached the point where making fun and beating up on RIM and Blackberry is no longer funny. So as I was resting between sets, thinking about how RIM could make a comeback. How could they get its devices in the hands of more everyday consumers? (BTW: RIM is probably going to lose its government customers)

RIM needs to become cool again. They need a way for people to walk down the street and say, “Oh, that person has a Blackberry.” Headphones. That’s how RIM could do it. Just like Apple did in the mid-2000s with its white ear buds, RIM could do the same with headphones. I was in Chicago the other week and it seemed like everyone had huge headphones on, very similar to the Beats by Dre. I couldn’t name any of the brands on people’s heads other than the Beats by Dre.

BoumanBlog-Beats-by-DreBeats by Dre is a cool brand. Dr. Dre, the namesake of the brand, automatically makes them cool. The high quality audio just reinforces the brand. In the most recent Summer Olympics, Beats by Dre dominated the ears of athletes preparing for competition. When you walk around, you can see someone with big headphones on, you can tell if they are Beats by Dre from the distinct “b” on the ears. Beats by Dre is definitely a cool brand and offers status to those who wear them. This is exactly why RIM needs to acquire Beats by Dre.

Being cool isn’t RIM’s only problem. They are woefully behind in the app marketplace. They have a terrible operating system, no developers want to create on the Blackberry OS. Users want apps. Apps are why people use their phones. Actual phone calls are not the main reason why we have mobile phones. It’s the apps. Apps can be useful, they can be sexy, and they can be fun. It gives people something to talk about. Without a strong app ecosystem, RIM has nothing. RIM has poor consumer sales, no cool factor, and a lackluster app ecosystem. So how does Beats by Dre fix all this?

BoumanBlog-iTunesBeats by Dre obviously makes RIM cooler, but the consumer sales are the key. By packaging a set of Beats by Dre headphones with a Blackberry mobile phone, it incentivizes consumers to buy Blackberry phones. Yes, it will cost RIM a lot of money, but Amazon does the same thing with its Kindle Fire. Why? Because hardware is the key to software. By owning the hardware, and getting more users to use your software, you can make more money through transactions. Apple made $1.6 billion from app sales in Q1 2013 and $2.4 billion in iTunes sales. And the app developers will make apps where there are users.

Will this actually happen? Highly unlikely. But RIM doesn’t have many moves left before it goes Pan Am. If I was in charge of RIM today, I would try and make this hail mary of a move. It’s the only way RIM will survive.



Where Is the Passion With Tech Startups?


BoumanBlog-PassionBeing the founder of a tech startup has become cool again. We’ve fully recovered from the dot com crash and revived a healthy tech ecosystem. And this time it’s expanded beyond Silicon Valley. Now cities like New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, and Austin are getting in the action. Even globally, cities like Berlin, Tel Aviv, and Singapore are building strong tech ecosystems. All this growth is great, I fully support it. The thing I don’t like is the lack of passion.

Since starting a company is now a hip thing to do, thousands of people are starting companies. Many of these people might not have started companies in previous tech cycles, but now they are. Because ideas are considered a near worthless commodity in the tech world and we’ve embraced the “pivot” ideology so strongly, we’ve unknowingly created an unsustainable model of passionless startups. There is a saturation of talent and abundance of half-assed ideas, solving non-existent problems. This has left me wondering, “Where is the passion?”

Poor Ideas

Ideas are worthless. Execution is king. To a certain extent, it’s true. As Bill Gross stated, ideas without execution is just a hallucination. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need a good idea.

To me, ideas are valuable. That’s because ideas are what people become attracted to. Start-ups are risky and if you’re not passionate about your idea, you’re more likely to quit (or pivot, but we’ll get to this). It will be harder to recruit people to your team. If your problem isn’t a big enough or interesting enough, talented people will go work somewhere else. So to a certain extent, ideas matter.

The Pivot

BoumanBlog-PivotBecause people are starting companies because they think it’s cool and will lead to riches, I see lots of apathetic founders. That’s because they believe in the “pivot” methodology, which is to fail fast and change the direction of your company, which has led to companies completely changing what type of business they’re in. Maybe your initial hyptothesis wasn’t correct, but don’t you want to try and figure out a better way to solve that problem? Those that have good ideas and are passionate about them will. Those in it for other reason or have solutions for non-existent problems will pivot. Pivoting is considered smart. Sure it can be. But I see it more as a crutch for people who want to build anything.

Talent Saturation

BoumanBlog-SpongeSean Parker once said that ccompanies like Facebook have a hard time recruiting because so many of the talented engineers leave to start their two person companies that never get anywhere. When instead they could be a part of a greater machine, actually changing the world. To many, it just seemed like a whiny billionaire talking, who wanted to prevent engineers making their own fortunes. But I find truth to the statement.

Not everyone is meant to be an entrepreneur, just like not everyone is meant to be a doctor. And when the number of two person companies increases, it does decrease the talent pool. And so, so many of these two person companies die, or worse, they languish in a gray area of false hope. They’re generating enough money to just keep the lights on, keeping their dreams alive, but with no hope of every reaching the grandiose goals they dream of.

Hackathons

BoumanBlog-HackathonMy final thought on passionless startups is aimed at hackathons. For those that don’t know, hackathons are 24 or 48 hour competitions where people put together a product to present in that time frame. Again, the focus in on execution, not the idea. So people jump on board with any idea, build it, maybe try and build it out, but often just abandon it. Building a company is more than just creating a product. Creating the product is just the first step. Building a product and raising a Series A round of funding doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful either. That’s because building a company is far more complex and takes passion to get through the difficult parts. And there will be difficult parts.

I hate to be the buzzkill on the excitement around tech startups. I think overall it’s a good thing. But I caution people to jump into startups with an idea that they just thought of the night before. Your idea has to gnaw at you for months or even years. What do you think gives entrepreneurs like Dennis Crowley the conviction to keep pushing, even when so many people doubt, even hate, the work he’s doing? It’s because he has a passion for his startup and won’t give up on it.



Don’t Call Me a Social Media Expert


Social-Media-ExpertI consider myself to be a generalist. I’m an expert at nothing. I often say that I have coffee shop knowledge on everything, but I don’t everything about anything. I’ve been like this my entire life. I’ve never excelled at anything. My standardized test scores were even across all subjects. There were no polarizing scores that averaged out. Even. Same with my athletic skills. It’s only natural that this transitioned into my adult life.

This lack of a glaring strength often felt like a weakness rather than a strength. I often envied classmates who had distinct strengths, which made their life decisions (appear) easier. I always felt like I could do anything, which made my decisions more difficult. But it also made it difficult for people to label me, which is something that makes us feel better. So in 2008-2009 when I made a conscience choice to point my career path towards social media, it made labeling me easier.

Since then, I’ve worked on a variety of different social media campaigns. I worked my way up from an unpaid intern to someone who was able to start his own social media agency. It’s logical that people would start to paint me as a social media expert. But I absolutely hate being labeled as a social media expert. Not because there are hacks out there claiming to be experts/gurus, which dilutes the value of a social media expert, but rather I feel that I am so much more than a specialized expert.

Jesse-Bouman-EntrepreneurI am still a generalist. I bring more to the table than my social media knowledge and I feel that’s not acknowledged by pigeon holing me as social media expert. If you were to label me, I prefer entrepreneur. I believe that describes me far more accurately than a social media expert. An entrepreneur is someone who takes action, solves problems, and will figure it out. An entrepreneur wears many hats, specializing in nothing, but effective at everything.

I’ve worked really hard over the years to diversify my knowledge. I consider myself to be really knowledgeable in different marketing tactics like social and content. But I also understand SEO, branding, and paid advertising (both banner and text based). I know the concepts of mobile marketing and how ad networks operate. Heck, I have photoshop skills, basic HTML skills, and I’ve done a little PR. I definitely don’t know everything, but I get really excited when I stumble into conversations or articles that teach me more on these subjects.

Outside of marketing, I feel I have a strong grasp of other business functions. I hate accounting, but I’ve done it. I have limited experience raising capital and valuing a company, but I’ve dabbled in it first hand. I have budding experience in product development. Understanding the difference between products and features. What’s nice to have and must have? What’s the overall product roadmap? I’m even starting to understand what the hell the difference is between programing languages and what the hell shit like apache, unix, python, node.js means. All of these things I’ve had experience in because I’m an entrepreneur.

Jesse-Public-SpeakingI like my skill set and prefer being an entrepreneur. This is why I hate being boxed a social media expert. In 2009 when I planned out my 10 year career path, I started with social media. At the time it was the path of least resistance and a logical start to my future goals. I already had experience in the field, my age wasn’t a deterrent, and starting a social media agency had a low barrier to entry. I do not regret choosing this path. But it was never my intention to specialize in this field forever. It’s not a coincidence that I’m working on my first software company.

We live in a world where generalists are needed. We no longer rely on specialized talents. The age of the assembly line is dying. More companies will need jack of all trade generalists to be able to stay nimble and structured for success. Don’t limit your career options because you’ve taken the time to master one particular skill. I think the only people who should be called experts are old college professors who have devoted their lives to writing papers on one niche topic. Everyone else should do their best to learn and understand as many skills as possible.

So whatever you do, please do not call me a social media expert. There is a reason why I call myself a stubborn entrepreneur.



Overcoming Impostor Syndrome


impostorThe impostor syndrome, sometimes called impostor phenomenon or fraud syndrome, is a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments. Despite external evidence of their competence, those with the syndrome remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved. Proof of success is dismissed as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be. - Wikipedia

Impostor Syndrome is something that I learned about from Neil Gaiman’s commencement speech. It’s a notion that despite your external success, internally, you feel like an impostor. That anyone at anytime will find out your dirty secret. You don’t think you’re as successful and intelligent as others think. It eats away at you in the background of your mind. While its not officially recognized as a medical condition, it exists. I suffer from impostor syndrome and this is how I’m overcoming it.

Understand Why

Understanding why you feel like an impostor is a huge factor to overcoming it. We all have our reasons why and you probably already know why.

So why do I feel like I suffer from impostor syndrome? I think it’s because I have high ambition and that’s why I feel inadequate. I don’t have the successes of the people I look up to, and until I do, I’m afraid I will continue to have impostor syndrome.

Mentor and Advise

Becoming a mentor or advising a young professional is an extremely gratifying experience. You get to help someone less experienced navigate their career towards success. But for me, it’s not entirely altruistic.

Mentoring and advising reassures me that I’m not crazy. It reminds me that I do know what I’m talking about. Sure, you could fool someone young once with advice. But if they keep coming to the well, you must be offering some sort of value. This definitely decreases the sense of being an impostor.

More Success

Never settle. Don’t settle for your current level of success. By continuing to strive for higher achievements, you’re going to learn more. You’re going to have more experience and more success. As you accomplishments stack up, your feeling of being an imposter will decease. More data points of success will make it harder to doubt.

Everyone suffers from impostor syndrome at some point in their life. I call bullshit on anyone who claims they have never felt it. To me, it’s not something to be ashamed. If anything, it means you’ve achieved some level of success. If you think you suffer from impostor syndrome, understand you’re not an impostor and follow these three tips to overcome it.



Mobile Marketplaces and Competing with Amazon


Smartphone with shopping cart on white background.

I believe the best mobile experiences are an extension of the web experience. Mobile first, stand alone apps are hard to create demand and usually fail. I do however think that mobile commerce, done through a mobile marketplace, has HUGE potential right now.

Let’s take a look at the last 24 purchases I made (other than food) and where I made the purchase.

6 shirts – web, brand direct
1 shirt – iPad, Amazon
2 pair pants – web, brand direct
Water Pik – iPad, Amazon
Toilet paper – iPad, Amazon
Listerine – iPad, Amazon
Body wash – iPad, Amazon
Coffee mug – web, Amazon
Coffee maker – web, Amazon
9 songs – iPhone, iTunes
Jawbone Up – web, brand direct

Do you see a pattern? No brick and mortar, lots of Amazon, and about half were mobile purchases. I’m not an outlier, I’m the future.

Making purchases via mobile is a really quick and easy experience. By having your credit card on file, making a purchase is as simple as pushing one button and typing in a password. Such a seamless experience is why I love buying things on mobile devices. I’ve probably bought more than 500 songs on iTunes over the past 4 years.

With more people using tablets as they watch TV, I see more opportunities for purchases that might not have been made in the past. We are going to see an explosion in the mobile/social commerce space in the next two years.

Look closer at my purchases and you’ll see all my mobile purchases were made via a marketplace. When I bought via the web, I had direct intent. But on mobile, a marketplace enabled me to browse and buy things I wasn’t necessarily looking for. This is why I think mobile marketplaces are going to be big.

The ease of purchase and the volume of targeted options, coupled with divided attention (split between mobile and TV) will result in more mobile commerce. But if that’s the case, won’t Amazon just own mobile commerce? How can anyone compete with Amazon’s tremendous volume and razor thin margins? Branded niche marketplaces.

Remember my web purchases? Specific intent, based on brand affinity. This is how retailers are competing with Amazon now, by building a brand. Bonobos, Warby Parker, Jack Threads all have built a brand on the web that consumers go to directly. I think this same idea can be translated to mobile marketplaces.

The last purchases I made on my mobile phone was through iTunes, a niche marketplace. iTunes is primarily for music downloads. I could buy songs from Amazon, but I know the iTunes brand and trust that buying experience for my music. Companies can’t match Amazon as a whole, but creating a marketplace for one niche (see Zappos) will be very fruitful as mobile expands.

It’s worth noting than my thoughts on mobile marketplaces do not include local, service oriented marketplaces. I am not bullish on apps like Zaarly. The reason being is local is limits supply or demand and the purchase behavior for services is different than products. Buying a service like a plumber or a maid is not impulsive. I think it’s unlikely someone would go on Zaarly for a plumber and also buy and lawn mowing service. I see impulse buys as a crucial component to mobile marketplaces.

If I were an investor right now, I would invest in enterprise SaaS, SMB SaaS, and niche mobile marketplaces. I think the companies that can establish their niche marketplace during the early stages of this mobile revolution and can solidify their brand, will do very, very well.

Here are three apps that I think will do well as a mobile marketplace.

Fancy- great combination of content, commerce, and curation. Buying is easy and enjoyable. Product to product navigation is via a swipe and their are active users who comment.

Tinder - new mobile dating app. Uses a hot or not like feature that makes swiping through potential dates fast and entertaining. I know it’s not a product marketplace and falls closer to local services, but dating is a need and the app is very sticky.

Wanelo- for female shoppings. Easy to bookmark and buy. Perfectly aligns with my idea of a mobile marketplace. The only thing I’d change is the navigation between products. You need to swipe through products or navigate vertically (like Fancy). A bit cumbersome, but I like how it’s social and you can see comments clearly.

Try these apps out and let me know what you think.



Play To Your Strengths


Play to your strengths.

This is a common, practical piece of life advice given to young people. If you play to your strengths, you’re more likely to be happy and successful. There is nothing more frustrating and depressing doing something you’re not good at or love. But playing to your strengths is not as easy as it sounds.

Why is this such a difficult task? In my opinion, there are two major reasons behind this. First, some people don’t know what their strengths are. Second, their strengths are not their passions.

Determining what your strengths are is difficult because we see ourselves in a different lens than everyone else. Look no further than body image as an example. Skinny people think they’re fat and fat people don’t think they’re as fat as they are. So if we can’t accurately view ourselves, it’s harder to assess strengths and weaknesses, even if they are apparent to everyone else.

The second reason why playing to your strengths is difficult is that people’s passion don’t always lie where their talents are. An example of this might be an accountant who is in love with his band. His passion is music, but his strengths are in math and numbers.

So how does one play to their strengths if it’s so difficult to identify?

I would first start with a brutally honest self-assessment. These are NOT easy. You start to answer questions about yourself that you might not want to hear. But regardless, list out your strengths and weaknesses so you can see them on paper. Just seeing them on paper is a weird, clarifying exercise.

Second, I would ask your peers. How do they see you? What tasks do they trust you with and which tasks would they hand off to someone else? Compare these notes with your own assessment. Any patterns? Surprises?

Now factor in your dreams and goals. What do you want out of life? Where do your strengths and weaknesses play into this equation? How can you compensate your weaknesses to get to where you want to be?

My advice to young professionals would not to make decisions based on their strengths. That doesn’t necessarily mean happiness. But they should know what their strengths and weaknesses are. This will help you reach your goals, no matter where your strengths lie. Self-awareness will help you determine a plan of attack for you to reach your wildest dreams.



My Quora Blog


A few weeks ago, Quora came out with a blogging option for its users. The goal was to create a platform that people could express ideas to a built in audience…their Quora friends. The content could then be spread organically like Quora questions and answers are. Always interested in the latest blogging technology, I quickly set up a blog to test it out. Surprisingly, I love it.

I was quite dubious because I’ve never successfully been able to create content for more than one personal blog. I tried it with Tumblr and that failed quickly. But I’ve found blogging on Quora to be quite enjoyable. I only write quick posts about tech and they’re all written on my iPhone. I’m keeping my Quora posts mobile only. I call the blog “Serendipitous Thinking” because all the ideas that I generate for the blog come when I’m thinking about another problem and my brain connects a few dots.

It’s funny that I write my Quora blog only through my iPhone, because I wrote a post about mobile first on my Quora blog. Basically I said mobile is best as an extension of the web, not stand alone. A primary cause for that thinking is because I felt activities like long-form blog content are best done on a desktop. And here I am writing my posts on mobile while lying on the couch. Quora isn’t a mobile only platform, it actually follows my theory of the best apps are extensions of the web experience. But, the fact that I’m willing to make longer posts from my mobile, makes me think that there are far more mobile content creation possibilities than I previously would admit. I think it’s going to be a really exciting next 24 months.

Feel free to follow my Quora blog, “Serendipitous Thinking” for thoughts and ideas on business and tech.



Be Confident


So I got my ass handed to me the other day. I’ve been working on a presentation and I had to do an impromptu presentation. I sounded like a fucking idiot. I was given constructive criticism, which I’ve taken to heart, but the real takeaway was, be confident.

Why did I sound like an idiot? Because I wasn’t confident. Did I know the material I was discussing? Yes. So why on Earth did I sound like an intern?

Fear. I was thrown off because I wasn’t expecting to present, just converse about the deck. I was afraid of messing up. Well, in the world of “Nobody gives a fuck” that’s not a good reason. You have to be confident all the time, move past the fear. You never know when your turn is going to come up.

I was fortunate enough to have this humbling experience in a learning environment. I didn’t lose clients or money. But I did learn a great lesson. Be confident when called upon.



My All-Time 10 Favorite Movies


Someone on my Twitter was having a bad night, so I sent her a video clip from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to cheer her up. This caused me to wonder what my top 10 favorite movies are and if Willie Wonka would make the list. So I wrote a list of all the movies I really liked, with no criteria. That list was incredibly long, 46 to be exact. So I needed some criteria to narrow down the field even more. My two criterian for a movie to be in my Top 10 All-Time Favorite Movies were I had to have seen the movie at least three times and if I were to see the movie on TV, would I stop everything to watch it.

The criteria to have seen the movie at least three times was a crucial one. It eliminated a lot of good movies. I really enjoyed movies like Million Dollar Baby, City of God, Reservoir Dogs, and Godfathers I & II, but I haven’t seen any of them more than twice. Cut! That left 30 movies.

Answering the question, “Would I stop everything to watch the movie?” was a bit more tricky. It’s a very subjective question, that largely depends on my mood. But I would say the movie’s name and answer the question to myself as quickly as possible, in an effort to catch my most honest opinion. This eliminated movies like LA Confidential, Princess Bride, Titanic (don’t judge me), Adventures of Robin Hood (Errol Flynn) and Searching for Bobby Fisher. Only 15 were left. But I had to shave five movies off the list.

The final cut had to deal with nostalgia vs. a good movie. Did I really like the movie or did the movie have certain emotional hooks that blurred my judgement? I thought long and hard about this and finally crossed off nostalgic movies like Home Alone, Hoosiers, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

*EDIT I completely left of Gattaca off my list. It meets all my criteria but it’s so underrated, I don’t even think of it as one of my top movies. BUT it is because I freaking love the story. I love it because I feel like Vincent Freeman. So let’s give Gattaca an honorable mention.

Finally, I was able to narrow down my list to 10 movies. So here it is. My Top 10 All-Time Favorite Movies

10. Lion King

This was close to being cut because of the nostalgia criteria. But I thought about it and it’s my favorite childhood cartoon movie.

9. Sandlot

I wanted to be Benny the Jet Rodriguez. I even made a movie poster in high school. I will love this movie, Fooor-eeeev-eeer!

8. Gladiator

I saw this movie in high school. I saw it three times in a month (roughly). Russell Crowe was simply bad ass.

7. Catch Me If You Can

I am a big fan of Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks individually. Combined, they made a great movie. I loved the story of Frank Abagnale Jr., so audacious. And it was a true story!

6. The Departed

Such a good movie! DiCaprio was great, but Damon was better. He made the sleaziest character almost likable Mark Whalberg, Jack Nicholson, and Martin Sheen rounded out a stellar cast.

5. Garden State

I saw Garden State my junior year of college. I didn’t watch Scrubs, so I had no idea who Zack Braff was. But I love Natalie Portman. The story of a guy getting saved (emotionally) by a quirky girl and falling in love really connected with me. Not surprised are you?

4. Star Wars Trilogy (Original 3)

I lumped all three movies into one for this list. I love all three of the movies. The first Star Wars was an eye opening movie. A whole new world was opened up to me. The second movie is a favorite by many and the third one summed things up nicely. But as a whole, they’re all great.

3. The Usual Suspects

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world he didn’t exist.

2. Shawshenk Redemption

I don’t care if it’s cliche. This is a great movie. Aside from the end of the movie where Andy’s escape was revealed, my favorite scene in the movie was when they were tarring the roof. Andy was being held over the building, but he kept his cool and told the officer how he could save him money. He only asked that his buddies got two cold beers. Big turning point in the movie.

1. The Rock

I know what you’re thinking. This is a terrible movie. But it’s my favorite terrible movie. I’ve seen this movie soooo many times. When I visited Alacatrez, I was the guy in the group who asked where the light tower at the end of the movie was (it was fake). I don’t care what you think about it, but a Nicholas Cage movie is my number one movie.



Why I Sold Demeter Interactive


In 2006 I was finishing up college at the University of Wisconsin. It’s during that year, sitting in my studio apartment overlooking State St., I started my first bucket list. Number 21 on that list was “Own my own business” and number 59 was “Start and sell two companies.” I was able to cross off number 21 when I started Demeter Interactive in July of 2010. I’m proud to say, two and a half years after I started Demeter Interactive, I can cross off one half of #59.

I have agreed to sell Demeter Interactive to Xivic Inc, a digital solutions agency. It’s a bittersweet moment for me and I did not take this decision lightly. I considered many factors when making my decision whether to sell and join Xivic. I went back and forth in my head, taking long car rides weighing the pros and cons. But these are the reasons why I ultimately decided to take the next step of my career with Xivic Inc.

Respect for the CEO

I’ve known Bahman Zakeri, Xivic’s CEO for about three years. We met at a tweet up and he took my request for coffee, even though I was a nobody. Since then, our personal and professional relationship has developed. I’ve admired what Xivic has accomplished from afar. But this year I was able to see first hand the inner workings of Xivic as I was fortunate to work with them on several projects. The only reason why I entered any type of acquisition discussions was because of my respect for Bahman and the growth I witnessed Xivic take in the past year.

Bigger Team and Resources

Joining Xivic means I have access to a larger team and resources. One of the primary difficulties I had scaling Demeter to the size I envisioned was poor cash flow and having to spread my time thin between sales meetings, drafting proposals, client meetings/emails, billing, and actual client work. Now I have support with some of these functions. I’m no longer the primary salesman, or handle billing, and I can bounce strategic ideas off other colleagues. This opens up my time and my ability to see things from different perspectives. I have high expectations for my time at Xivic.

For those that have kept tabs on Demeter since I first started it in 2010, I thank you for your continued support. It hasn’t always been an easy journey, but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I’m excited to begin the next leg of my professional life as the Director of Content Strategy at Xivic Inc.

I’d like to end this post with a few shout outs to notable individuals. First and foremost, I’d like to thank Natasha and Amy of 2Chix Maternity. They were the first two people who believed in me enough to hire Demeter. You never forget your first. Mike and Valerie from House of Brands. You were also an early client who stuck with me for a year and helped keep the lights on. Your faith will always be appreciated.

I’d also like to thank Gaia Dempsey for her work at Demeter. While she has moved on to another venture, she was an integral part of Demeter and I learned a great deal from her. Finally, I’d like to thank my family. They supported me even though they thought I was crazy for quitting my job and didn’t quite understand what I was doing.

 

Hugs and kisses,

Jesse

 

*Lastly, as per my agreement, I will continue to be able to work on my side project, Miss Figg. It’s my first software product. I’ve mentioned this to some friends, but I plan on announcing more details as the product finishes development which should happen in the next few months.