A Rocky Road
Time in a Dream
- ‘At Least It Was Here’[1] is a song from The 88, used as the theme song for the show Community, and there is one line from that song that has always fascinated me. “Give me some more time in a dream” they sing at one point during the chorus. I’ve never really understood that line, but last week it suddenly became very clear to me. The line is about that moment right before you need to wake up. You’re half awake and half asleep and you’re still having a pleasant light dream. At that exact moment, when you know that your alarm clock could go off at any minute, you wish you could have some more time in your dream. Just some more time to retain that comfortable feeling before reality sets in.
This dream-metaphor is a good way to describe our feelings here at Floown at this moment. The website is live now and we are trying to tell our story everyway we can. We share updates on social media, we share stories on Medium.com and we pitch our ideas at universities. These are exciting times, but all that we can do now really is try to hold on. Hoping that the dream continues and the alarm clock stays quiet. But we already can hear that bastard ticking in the distance, counting down to the moment where reality comes crashing in.
Aboutdamntime
Speaking about dreams, we’ve tweeted a nice picture last week. On it you see a big white square with the Floown logo and name displayed in the middle. In the right bottom of the square are the words ‘#Aboutdamntime’ and below the white square you’ll see Olaf preparing for the presentation at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Like a dream in a graphic novel, the Floown logo hovers above Olaf’s right shoulder. He was sharp during his presentation, moving around calmly on stage, immediately interacting with the public and cracking jokes like a pro.
He was there to sell our dream and test it against other young and bright people. Together with Harm-Jan and Alessandro they spend the last couple of days pitching their idea in front of students. The first try wasn’t the most successful one, but they’re fast learners. That same night they rebuild their presentation from scratch and now their pitch grows stronger every day. With the feedback and criticism they receive, weak spots in the presentation come to light and their pitch becomes more focused and their idea more clearer.
No Money, Mo’ Problems
We hope that we’ve made it clear by now that we believe that time is our most valuable asset. But when you’re starting a company, money is also a good contester for the number one spot on your list of most valuable assets. People always say that time is money, but only when you invest your own money in something you feel the pain of losing time. Whether you lose half an hour because your computer won’t cooperate, or lose half a day because of a breakdown in the train service. At the end of the day, every delay means more money down the drain and that can be stressful for the people directly involved. However, at Floown we believe in communicating directly and openly with everyone so we can deal with potential problems together.
So reality seems to be setting in, but at this moment we’re still clinging on to the snooze button, trying to stay in the dreamlike state we’ve been in the last couple of weeks. To help with that, the Dutch media posted some articles last week that once more underlines the necessity of Floown. In the last quarter, the Dutch labour market grew with 42.000 new jobs and the flex workers are the biggest reason for this growth. In the last seven years an estimated 300.000 new flexible work contracts were added to our labour market. All those people need a place where they can keep in contact with their employers and keep control of their time. And that is why we continue to sell our dream every way we can, hoping that we can have some more time to stay there.
Originally published at floown.com.
