Status Update: Len Kendall
May 7, 2013
Every half-year or so, I like to share where I am in life. I did this when I first made a huge transition to entreprenuer, and I’m now doing it again about 6 months later. I find this excercise to be an easy way to let multiple interested parties know what’s going on with me and I highly encourage others to use this Medium collection to do the same for themselves.
Quick recap: In September of 2012 I left my wonderful gig as Digital Director at GolinHarris to start a company called CentUp with two great friends. In April we launched our application as an invite-only network and currently are doing lots of testing and iteration.
But a lot has happened leading up to this point so let me back-up.
In October we started working with a great group of people over at Ventricle Development. They invested in us to help us build our MVP and helped us navigate the world of non-profits. Even though we’re not a non-profit, we work closely with that realm and there’s a lot to learn. Luckily we’ve got an amazing set of folks to collaborate with over at WBEZ, Love146, Pencils of Promise, and more and Chris and Marcus have helped a ton in that regard. They also volunteer (subject) themselves to appear in many of the whacky CentUp videos.
Amidst building the first version of CentUp, we realized it would be important to A) test the market for this product and B) build-up an early set of handraisers to use our app when it launched. Luckily we were able to do so through an Indiegogo crowfunding campaign and we pledged to pour every dollar of the $18,000+ recieved into credits on our system. In other words, people weren’t donating to us, they were putting down money to be the first CentUp community members. We accomplished both goals above, but it did not come without some trying moments…
At the height of our campaign, a patent complaint took down our page and we had to wait several weeks to have our crowdfund re-instated. It was a frustrating time, but it was nice to have organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation show their support, as well as business leaders like Mark Cuban and Brad Feld give us a shout. Ultimately we got through it, and we used the extra block of time wisely to keep working hard on launching our app for all the amazing people who supported us with love and donations.
We’re three weeks into our app being live and we’re excited about our progress.
Nearly a 1000 contributions have been made to various publishers and charities. Almost $2,000 has been processed through our system (not bad for a less than 30-day-old app), and we’ve got 700 users in our closed system so far providing us with valuable feedback and support. Not only that, but we recieved some awesome press from outlets like Fast Company and the Chicago Tribune. And as a former PR guy, I want to be very clear that they reached out to us, not other way around. There’s a big difference, and it’s especially gratifying to me.
The freedom of being an entreprenuer is liberating, but also a constant weight. I set my own schedule, I work on things that I believe in, and I’ve had to learn more in 6 months than I have in the last 6 years. The challenge is that I’m highly critical of how I spend my time (you might have noticed I tweet much less), I don’t have the financial freedom to support myself or my fiance at the level I did before, and nearly every day I feel like I don’t have enough time to accomplish everything I want to do.
Working on a startup means a lot of repitition, both good and bad. The good comes with seeing new customers create an account on our system or scouring the web for amazing content. The challenges come with going through the same processes every day and sometimes not seeing success. It also comes with having to explain what (and why) you’re working on to friends, family, and prospects over and over and over. Bright side, I’m getting pretty good at pitching.
A new business takes an enormous amount of resources. Time, money, and dedication. The idea of becoming an entreprenuer has become a trendy path for my generation. Probably due to economic factors and the proliferation of web technology. Lots of folks dabble in it or try to integrate it into their company culture. I used to be someone who felt like being a night & weekend entreprenuer was possible. I don’t believe that anymore. I have 700 customers to support and just THAT group takes most of the day. Thinking about supporting 7,000 or 70,000 or 7,000,000 is exciting but jarring. My skin has also gotten much thicker…even though most people have been pretty nice about our young business.
I’m really excited about the next 6 months. This is where we grow our publisher community and find the best writers, podcasters, musicians, illustrators, comedians, photographers, and other creators and help them do more with with their art.
If you’re one of them, you should talk to me. If you know of some, you should have them talk to me. If there are sites you want to see CentUp installed, you guessed it…talk to me.
In the next few months we will also start the fundraising process. CentUp needs more tech talent and I need fellow community builders to scale our network. If you’re the kind of person who knows what AngelList is, I’d love to connect with you there.
I want to thank all the family and friends that have helped, pitched-in free work, lovingly criticized, and cheered along the way. There are too many of you to personally call-out, but know that it is appreciated and helps keep driving me to work hard on this dream everyday, no matter how tough it can be.
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