to the top ... who's in?

How fitting to take a trip to new york city before making a major decision. This place is quite amazing in so many ways ... definitely very inspiring. Although sky scrapers and bright lights come to mind first, the history of this place is equally amazing.

Since this was my wife's first trip here, we had to cover the highlights. As we were approaching the statue of liberty by boat, I was reminded of the first trip I took here as a kid. My family drove down from Quebec city right after getting our Canadian citizenship (came to canada from romania with a one year stop in france). As we approached the border, I could tell my father was getting emotional. He held it together while getting through the border but one we got to the other side, he started crying, a very rare event. After years of dreaming about this moment, going through hell in a communist country and never thinking the dream would come true, the power of the moment was too much. I will never forget that moment ... ever. It reminds me how fortunate I am that anything is possible. Immigrants helped build this great place and I'm going to do my part.

So what does this have to do with start ups you ask?

Quite a bit actually. It takes a lot of courage think that you can do something significant when you are essentially nobody. Evidence of this courage and the associated success are extremely evident here. Most of the people that build this place came here with nothing but learned the language and did amazing things from building the longest bridge at the time (Brooklyn Bridge) to starting a major broadcasting company (NBC). It has allowed me to put away the fear and given me the energy to go for gold.

So where are things at with the start up?

I've documented a fairly long list of ideas, broken them up into three groups (primary, secondary and crazy) and presented these to the partners at the VC where I'm an EIR. After some excellent feedback, I've narrowed it down to a short list of three ideas I'm taking to the next level.

There's one in particular that I just can't seem to stop thinking about or shoot down. It nearly totally consumes my mind, even my dreams. It’s not about getting rich or being famous ... it’s about this thing that feels so right it cannot be wrong. It’s a long shot but I'm going for it! I can't wait to get going! It’s good to be alive!

Although I have to stay in stealth mode, I’m going to need some help from S/W and H/W hackers in order to build a prototype. Who’s in? If you think I'm crazy, check out this guy. He probably rakes in more than most of us after tax.

Cheers,

Allan Isfan
Engineer with an Iron Ring
PS. look for a separate post on Tuesday related to NYC and wired nextfest