Lady Leet

I have a little secret.  A little secret that most entrepreneurs have.  Don't tell anyone okay? 

i work a lot.

Yep. Ain't that the truth.  In fact, I try to plan my day so I'm working from 7-530, eating, then back to work from 8-12.  Yeah. And for the past weeks, I've been fine with this schedule.

Today, due to a mix of hormones, peer pressure, and perhaps even the will of God, I went to dinner and a movie.  I relaxed.  I was away from my computer for 7 hours (the time of my last tweet).

Snippets of work here and there pinged me from time to time.  I admit, I was strategizing over the spicy fish dish in my mind while halfway listening to the conversation at the dinner table.

I wanted to go home to work.  I kept trying to make excuses in my mind to get out of the movie, but in the end, I went to watch "Julie and Julia".

And ya know what?  It was these mindless activities of "fun" and "relaxation" that have helped me gather my thoughts and figure out how to restructure my life and better take over the world. 

My simple point being- You're an entrepreneur.  You love work because you love what you do.  It is your life.  It is your passion.  It is your dream you're building. 

But time away from that dream will remind you what your dream was about, why you are here to accomplish that dream in the first place, and perhaps remind you of the beginnning- the mission behind your plan.

It's funny- every time I "relax", I have pretty much the same revelation... but if you don't take the time to have that revelation, you never will.  And you constantly need to be reminded of what it's like not to work.  I strongly believe that without this rest and without practicing this concept of "work-life balance", you'll soon forget that life is a journey and not a destination.  You'll soon lose sight of that which is around you and end up alone at the finish line.  The finish line is not the prize- the prize is the running in itself.  And the water breaks in-between.

And if you have to schedule it in your damn Blackberry, then do it now.  At least once a month.  At least.

Cheers to your success. :)

Hello, All!

After a much needed vacation and food adventure around the world (rather, Montreal, NY, Paris, and Barcelona), I'm back in the Bay Area and many things have changed.  Being away from the startups for a bit allowed me to clear my mind and my teams are progressing quicker than ever in the past two weeks than we ever have before.

1. Reborn Luxury is almost complete.  We had a couple of speed bumps, but we're set, setting up the VPS, getting SSL certs, and other fun stuff as such.  We should be able to launch within the next month.  The benefit of this?  I'm able to spread the love and contribute to the fight against domestic violence, a cause dear to my heart.

2. The LiveUmbrella team has decided to restructure our focus from web apps to a special foodie site (we're both foodies).  We're confident that this new site is going to be in great demand and not only have great traction, but it just *fits*.  When a project fits, just do it.  My gut tells me this refocus is the best thing that's happened to our team.  I can't wait to play with the metrics/analytics of the site!

3. The TastyTwosome Vlog has begun.  Julianne (@bicoastalite) and I have begun video blogging insanity at http://www.tastytwosome.com and are interviewing fine dining chefs in their natural habitat as well as other unique foodie peeps (it's the most exciting thing ever).

4. I've begun at Brocade as a Business Analyst, and am ecstatic to be part of such an awesome growing team and excited to step back into the corporate world.  It's going to be a fun journey, for sure, and this is where I'll be spending my days (nights will be spent daydreaming in other ventures).

Well, that's a bit of a recap as to where I am, how I've restructured my life, and a quick gameplan on how I plan to take over the world (you think I'm kidding- I'm not).

So, my advice and what I've learned in the last couple of months?  When it's time to let go, it's time to let go of that project(s) you've been holding on to, take a break, and come back when your mind is clear so you can figure out what is most important to you.  When you figure it out, pursue those.

It may seem like I have a lot on my plate, but really?  I'm passionate about every project and conquest, so working until 1am every morning doesn't really bother me... all of it is enjoyable. :)

Stay tuned for the excitement about to come... there is so much to be done, and life is waiting for us to do it.

It may be difficult to believe, but you are here on this earth to succeed. 

With your hands you can build the world in a day. 

With a positive attitude, there is no other way.

When you begin to give up, know that there is nothing to hard. 

Know that if you keep pushing forward (with a smile), nothing can stop you and you will end up exactly where you want to be. 

If you know your path, no matter how hard it may be to walk, you'll find your way to the end. 

It is, however, up to you whether you want to stub your toes on the stones or stop and pick the smiling flowers along the way.

So smile with each step, remember that life is a honeymoon phase. 

Remember to have a love affair with this beautiful gift of life.

Smile.  Dance.  Fall.  Dream. :)

I was told the other day by Brocade's CEO Mike Klayko that we were in the "honeymoon phase".  Happy, young, eager, and ready to conquer everything thrown to us, smiles were plentiful around the dinner table.

I told Mike that life *is* a honeymoon phase.  He begged to differ, agreeing that life was fabulous, but...  I saw the memories pass through his eyes of the long hours, the weeks away from family, and the determination he needed to get to where he is today.  I might have seemed "naive" or "young" by making this statement, but you know what?  I stand by my statement.

Life *is* a honeymoon phase.  We all need to have a love affair with life.

I don't know.  Perhaps I have a more biased opinion, having been through days and nights of pain and struggle to merely stay alive... but... I'm hoping my positive attitude rubs off and transfers to everyone that comes in close proximity because it's the only way to live.  There's been pain, there's been struggle, but in the end and after the rain, only the rainbow remains.  Beautiful, isn't it?

I've been through enough to get hung up on the small things.  Every day, I take in stride, knowing that everything will be okay no matter what.  I know I am strong enough to handle anything, and can pick myself up out of any situation.  We need to have this determination in our lives.  Yes, entrepreneurs especially, but everyone and anyone who dreams. 

We *must* live with the idea that nothing can stop us.  We *must* live with a positive attitude 24/7, otherwise we become complacent with our surroundings.  Be thankful for the times that may get us down, the struggles, the adversity, everything.  Be thankful because God puts these events on earth for us to conquer and overcome.  Living life with a smile is the only way to live.

Smile. :)  I promise it feels good.

I sit and stare. At a blank slate.

Words unable to express what's inside me.  I pick a shape- a square.  I begin my creation.

Widen, compress, widen, compress.  What shape do I want?  What will this shape become?  What will I become?

Slowly more shapes come together. Some side by side, some next to each other, some with text.  Some need to be rearranged, some need to be reformed. Some deleted.

Words begin to form, shapes begin to dance, and ideas begin to plunge.

And thus, the wireframe of a new idea is formed.  And there is once again balance in the universe.

(http://www.gliffy.com)

As the gathering of our three minds (sometimes more when friends get involved) during the early months of our startup, the LiveUmbrella team is always pondering "what is LiveUmbrella?" What defines us?  Who are we?  What is our mission?

Though we're trying to put our best foot forward at all times, since we are in the early stages, we are still playing around with what is best for our team.  So, here's more information to inform you on what is quintessentially LiveUmbrella.

Most of you know, LiveUmbrella is about bringing people together... and so our slogan goes, "One App at a Time".  It might be a modest-sounding goal, but nothing is more important to our team than building strong relationships, whether online or offline.  We understand the importance of connections.

Some are familiar with our LiveUmbrella Monthly Entrepreneurs Lounge.  The events, in essence, are our way of being fully LiveUmbrella and help us achieve our mission of "bringing people together" in an open space of collaboration and networking with a little touch of education and relaxation in the cool, dimly-lit setting of a lounge.  Whether you're a startup or want to start a company, this is the place for you to meet like-minded entrepreneurs.

Sure, our application (soon to be applications) are created to bring people together via engaging friends and family on facebook and soon to be other platforms, but why not take it to the next level?

As I become more engrained into the social media space, I have high hopes, as such lofty dreams of "bringing people together" has been dreamt before.  Just stumbling upon today's goodies and reads, I read of the culmination of Web2Open, of course, Startup2Startup, BarCamp, and so many other exciting events, now huge, and how they began with just an idea.

Well, here at LiveUmbrella, we're all about taking action, and action did we take.  Our first LiveUmbrella event kicked off last month, and our next is coming up June 5.  Though we consider our first event a success, our team only sees room for improvement.  We want to make our events even more engaging to benefit the community better.  These ideas are to be implemented in the coming months, including:

* The Networking Mix Game (10 minute rounds of networking)

* 2 speakers instead of 1

* Interviewing startups at the event (promote yourselves!) via our media sponsor, Blimelight

* Creating a social network using CrowdVine for before and after event engagement

After the overwhelmingly positive feedback from our first event, I can't wait to see our team and the startups in our community blossom.  Already, I see collaborative minds gathering in smaller groups and becoming friends, business contacts, making contacts, and more after the event.  It's a beautiful thing to think that our team facilitated some of this.

I believe that, as we blossom, the world blossoms.  And that is exactly what we want to accomplish.  This, in itself- the journey to "success"... is success.

We hope y'all can join us for the next round... and the next... and the next.

Invite friends if they need to meet new startups.

Invite investors (limited) who are open to engaging with startups.

Collaborate.

Become a part of what LiveUmbrella is- and in doing so, grow yourself personally by reaching out to others who need you, and professionally, by becoming an enabler in the community.

And I might add, some have questions about our "revenue model" around these events.  Well, to be quite frank, there is none.  We collect just barely enough for the next event.  And we don't really care.  We're doing what we're passionate about.  The money, I'm sure will follow somewhere along the line.  And damned if you think that's naive, because that is what's going to make us successful in the end.

We love startups.  We love you.  Come join us under the Umbrella.  We'd love to hear what you're all about.

Registration has filled up pretty quickly, but here is the link to our June 5 event. (http://ad.vu/bx2q)

Last Friday, May 1, 2009, our first LiveUmbrella Entrepreneurs Lounge was a huge success!  Over 100 people showed, ranging from startup to investor, CEO to evangelist.

Mike Grishaver, CEO of Thingfo gave a brilliant speech on startups and his thoughts as an entrepreneur on VCs, running lean, and what to watch out for.  A more full blog on his speech to come.

Super Rewards (http://www.srpoints.com) graciously sponsored our first event and educated attendees on their platform that allows monetization of online currency (in online games and social networks)

Some of the attendees I met were (and I won't list them all):

Marston Alfred, Founder of SugarStats, an online tracking tool for diabetics (http://www.sugarstats.com)

Trevor Goss, Director of Business Development of DubMeNow, a mobile business card solution (http://www.dubmenow.com)

John Ramey, CEO and Founder of isocket, a commission free ad-platform (talk about great solution!), (http://www.isocket.com)

Mike Trotzke, Cofounder of SproutBox, an investor in startups (http://sproutbox.com)

Okan Arikan and Leslie Ikemoto, Founders of Animeeple, a place for 3D characters and animation (http://www.animeeple.com)

Fadi Bishara, Founder and CEO of TechVenture that helps match human capital with venture capital (http://www.techventure.com)

Devin Holloway of Merchant Circle which provides free online advertising for local businesses (http://www.merchantcircle.com)

Yukai Chou and Olina Qian of Viralogy, a site that allows social media rank of blogs (awesome!) (http://www.viralogy.com)

John Yamasaki of Seesmic, a place for you to communicate online via video conversation. (http://www.seesmic.com)

Arjun Sethi, Founder of Picktor, a photo management system that spans multiple platforms (http://www.picktor.com)

Damon Grow, Founder of SRInteractive (http://www.srinteractive.com) (Part of The TechCrunch 50 finalist)

..So many more startup, entrepreneurs, and dreamers were in attendance... our next event takes place Friday, June 5 at Melt Lounge in Palo Alto.  Come join us and network.  Registration required.  http://ad.vu/bx2q

Thank you to each and every one of you for coming...

Full selection of photos by Michael O'Donnell (@photo) here: http://tinyurl.com/chwgkm

Mashmashmashmashups! Oh, how we love them so.

My first "exposure" to mashups was MashupCamp in Mountain View last autumn.  Seeing the different technologies mashed together, the ease of development of web 2.0-type websites, and how different techies used open APIs was absolutely mindblowing.

When we first embarked on the adventures of LiveUmbrella (before LiveUmbrella even existed), we wanted to do a "mashup" of types.  When Giftomi was being born, we decided to use Tokbox as the core technology for our product.

When Giftomi was born, he went through some growing pains, one of them being the reliance on another company's technology.  After implementation of Tokbox, because their API was not steady yet, Giftomi had some difficulties with a smooth sailing and we've had to revise our product a couple times to adjust to the... well... adjustments.

Tokbox has been very supportive, and LiveUmbrella stands by the motto that, if we all hold each others' hands, we'll all succeed in the end.

The benefit of using Tokbox's API is not having to spend loads of development time and being able to get the product out quickly.  And of course, the negative sides of using someone else's technology is not having control over the stability of our core.

As a team, we probably would have chose an alternative route (such as using the Facebook video for the application) and finding another option for the website when it is implemented.  However, the extreme care of the Tokbox employees, reachout, and support has overwhelmed us with love.  We are very happy with the business relationship that is being developed as of recent, and look forward to this exciting learning experience.

I would think our experience with mashups has been the same as many others in the space, but thought I'd share our views for shits 'n giggles... and for another opportunity to say how fabulous Tokbox employees are.  Seriously. :)

Do you ever ask yourself that?  What the hell am I doing?

Haha, if you have, then you must be an entrepreneur!

Some days I wake up, look at my to-do list, and ask myself that very question.  But you know what?  If you're doing something, then you're moving in the right direction.  If you have a plan, you're doing something right.  During a product build or your early stages, the stretch ahead of you seems so... long, doesn't it? Remember that success is a journey, not a destination.

Sometimes you think you're doing the right thing, and a little butterfly sets you back two steps in the wrong direction.  But sometimes you need to go back those two steps to realize how to jump the next 10 steps in your startup's future.

Sometimes you plan your business around this one aspect, and that aspect falls through.  The beauty is, when one door closes, 10 million more open ahead!  Don't be discouraged by something you thought may have been right- pick yourself up, lead your team, and find value in your "mistake".  Remember that a mistake is not a mistake if you learn something from it.

It's okay to have those "Oh, F#$%" moments (we all do).  It's okay to freak out every once in awhile, but it's also important to pick yourself back up and focus- get back on track!  Don't let anything deter you from the success you are achieving!  Don't feel successful?  Look at the people around you that believe in you.  And remember that- they believe in you because you believe in yourself.

If you think you have no idea what you're doing, think again.  If you're doing something, you're doing something right. :)

If you need some support, reach out and be support for someone else.  You'd be surprised how that support comes back 10-fold.  I truly believe if we all hold each others' hands, we'll all ride the wave of success.

Ta-Ta for now, and keep that smile shining. :)