Move fast and break things… 🛴

So, I had an electric scooter accident in San Francisco on the weekend.

I hit a pothole, wiped out, and hit the concrete. Next stop, the ER at St. Francis Memorial Hospital.

My co-founder Andrew and I had just completed the Techstars Anywhere accelerator, and we were in the city for Demo Day and to start raising the next round of financing for Groundhog. (Groundhog is our consumer crypto wallet and end-to-end crypto payment platform for merchants.)

So. Not. The best time for this to happen. (Not that there’s ever a “good time!”)

Spiral fracture in the 5th metacarpal.

I broke a bone in my right hand, which is likely going to require surgery, and I may have torn my rotator cuff which could mean a separate surgery and track of rehab. And of course, I’m right-handed.

So, since I use a computer for a living, what the heck am I going to do? Well, nothing has ever stopped me before, and this certainly isn’t about to.

The gameplan

• adapt through tools
• lean on my team
• build the business through delegation
• positive mental attitude

Adapting through tools

I’m typing and using the mouse with my left hand now. It’s a bit slower going but I’m getting better at it. I’m also exploring 🎤 dictation and voice control software such as the built-in Dictation System within OS X. It’s actually pretty good. I’ve added a note in my email signature indicating that this email is being dictated, so apologies for any typos. I switched my iPhone keyboard to one-handed mode. I’m also going to explore the Dragon line of voice control products. There’s a guy who used Dragon NaturallySpeaking and some other add-ons to develop an entire video game using only his voice. The person who programmed the original mahjong solitaire game for early computer systems (Shanghai) was paralyzed from the neck down. This post itself is being dictated with some minor edits from the keyboard. And of course, phone calls, video calls, and meetings remain hands-free.

Leaning on my team

I’m lucky to have an incredible team including my co-founder, Andrew Redden, and superstar teammates Matthew Pickup and Andrew Trudel. I laid out the situation in our team meeting today and told everybody that I’m going to have to lean on them more in the next few months, and what we might have to do to adapt, and they are incredibly supportive and up to the challenge. Thanks guys. 🙌

Building the business through delegation

One of my greatest strengths as an entrepreneur is that I have expertise in a wide variety of areas. However, this means that I often fall victim to the classic entrepreneurs dilemma and take ownership of too many things. This next period of time will force operational efficiency, strict prioritization, and delegation and build-out of structures and processes which will prevent me from getting bogged down in the details in a way that I likely wouldn’t have chosen for myself, but will end up creating a stronger, more functional, and more valuable company. 📈

Positive mental attitude

Those who know me know I’m a big fan of the late, great, Napoleon Hill. One of Napoleon’s classic philosophies is that “within every adversity lies the seed of an equal or greater benefit”. My task over this next period of time is to push through the difficult moments and do my best to maintain a positive mental attitude every day. I’m grateful for my gifts and blessings, including my family, friends, colleagues, and my beautiful and wonderful partner, Rebecca. 🙏

What else should I be doing?

Are there any other tools I should be using for adapting workflows? Has anyone ever had a similar experience? How did you deal with it? Please feel free to share in the comments.

This post is part self-therapy and part mission statement. If you made it this far, thanks for reading, and read onward for more about Groundhog!

Groundhog sez… Crypto innovation can be dangerous!

Join us

Groundhog is zipping along towards a public beta and we’re hiring! If you’d like to break new ground in blockchain every day, join us as we build Groundhog for the future of the crypto economy.

We’d love to talk to you if you have one or more of the following skillsets and are passionate about building transformational products in the crypto ecosystem:

• TypeScript
• React
• Solidity
• DevOps/DevSecOps
• UI/UX/Front-end
• iOS/Android

Email us at hello@groundhog.network to get started.

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