The first step

Today is my last day at GoInstant. I’m leaving for Strings.fm, the startup that I’ve been working on for the last year with two very talented friends.

About a year ago, I started sending Ben Yoskovitz unsolicited advice about what GoInstant could do to improve their SEO. I was hoping very much to get hired. After they sold to Salesforce in July, they brought me on board. As a marketer in a startup, I did a lot of different things, but most importantly, I learned. 

And that’s what this post is about. It’s about a series of small but important lessons that I needed to learn in order to take this first step. It’s about all the things that I could only have learned alongside the incredibly talented people who are building GoInstant. It’s about the things that I’m grateful for – knowledge that I hope to show my gratitude for by putting it to work.

I learned what it’s like to build technology.

I learned that most people are bored by the challenge of building technology, and instead fixate on trying to get rich quick. Those people will probably never sell a company for lots of money, and they certainly won’t do it quickly.
I learned that GoInstant’s quick, easy exit wasn’t quick or easy at all. It was built on years of experience and the dogged pursuit of a revolutionary vision. They’re just getting started, and by the time they’re through, the web will never look the same again.

I learned about marketing.

I learned that I’m a good marketer when I can’t stop thinking about something.
I learned that pretty much the only things I really can’t stop thinking about are my own projects.
I learned that marketing is the mouth and the ears of the product. It is responsible for the conversation your product has with the world, and if the product changes, it is because marketing had its ears open.

I learned that the really powerful ideas are the ones that come back when you thought they were dead. An idea will come back in the middle of the night and sink its claws deep, and it will have you forever.

I learned that culture changes when you grow, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
I learned that to get to know people, you can do worse than to play ping pong with them.
I learned how to serve a ping pong ball with ludicrous backspin. All challengers welcome (especially Gordie, who I hope to be able to beat one day).

I learned to shut up and listen. Sorta.
I learned that some problems are tractable, and some aren’t. Move on quickly from the intractable ones, but don’t forget the lessons they teach.
I learned how to manage, a bit.
I learned how to be gracious, especially to Selwa Luke, my amazing writer. To Ben, Jevon, and Gavin, for trusting me with the GoInstant name. To everyone at GoInstant, and at Salesforce too.

But most of all…

I learned that the time when you’ll have to act on your idea is sooner than you’ll imagine, but even if it were later, you will never be prepared for it. 

In the most Kierkegaardian way possible, you must take a leap of faith. What’s on this side can never prepare you for what you’ll encounter on the other.

Action is the only pre-requisite for starting up. So act. Never stop moving towards the cliff, and never stop moving once you’ve jumped past it.

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