Posts from — December 2008

Right now, in Patagonia, I am close to the end of the world. Why would I want to spend time on a computer? (Case in point, I prewrote this by hand). Within the first few days of my four week trip to Chile & Argentina, to be honest, I was having doubts about Everlater. Sitting down in front of a computer every few days, I spend only enough time to respond to any urgent emails, let my parents know that I am still alive, and attempt to Skype my wife (sounds dirty, right?). As rushed as this trip feels already, why waste a moment more in front of a computer (seems like Nate was right regarding our real competitor) ?

In many ways that’s the whole point!

If mapping your progress and sharing the information is as easy as sending an email - then you win. You’ve saved time by telling everyone in one fell swoop, documented your trip in a way that is more organized than text buried amongst the lines of an email, and you’ll never have to repeat yourself. Just tell your story once and everyone can read it - a multimedia display that tells the story with that same initial enthusiasm every single time.

I’ve tried this “tell the story once” part with my honeymoon in Peru and Bolivia by blogging about it after the fact. I have good notes, but it is hard to have the discipline to fully re-document all five weeks now that the trip is over!

So please, excuse the sales pitch that is this blog post. The product we are building here is something that I believe in - and something I wish I would already be using to help share my experiences with my friends and family. Lois Griffin once said “it’s not what you do that defines the quality of your life, it’s who you do it with” - and if they can’t be there with you - then we need to build the next best thing.

The last month and a half has been busy here at Everlater.  We have moved into “monk mode” and are holed up building out the backend of the site.  We know an idea is worth nothing, the value comes from the execution.

Ryan and Charlie have made great progress building much of our site functionality and continue to push development.  In the spirit of Thanksgiving, Nate and I are very thankful for their diligence and commitment to our idea.  That being said we still have a long road to travel but each day we move closer and closer to our alpha launch.

Nate and I have also been programming almost 24/7.  Not being programmers by background we have had a steep learning curve but are finally making a significant impact.  We have also been pushing business development and continued innovation of our business model.  We have met many subject matter experts to help build our knowledge base, understand our industry, spread the Everlater word and build local contacts.  We’ve been very busy in the community, thanks to all the people listed below for giving us their valuable time, insight and advice.  Thank you.

• The Silicon Flatiron initiative here in Boulder hosted a session on “Building a Start Up in Uncertain Times.”  The four person panel preached conserving cash and taking a hard look at monetization and the viability of your business model, but also agreed this is the best time to be an early-stage company.  Not new news to us, but still a great event.  Silicon Flatirons also hosted a deep dive on IP.
• Niel Robertson, of multiple successful tech exits and restaurant starts, spent a morning with us providing feedback on our business plan and giving us more insight into how to best monetize our site using advertising.
• Bruce Sanders, head of the senior project at the CU Department of Computer Science met with us to provide feedback on the technical aspects of our site, to help further build the relationship between the school and the entrepreneurial community, work to connect us with talent leaving CU, and to discuss travel, a passion of his.
• Peter-Christian Olivo of Sage Canyon Advisors sat down with us over coffee at one of our favorites, Spruce Confections, and provided feedback on our concept, business presentation deck and our elevator deck.
• Nate met with Macalester alum Dianne of Adventure Central to talk about her experience in the travel space and to learn about potential future partnerships.
• The monthly BoulderRuby group included a presentation about Rails and Facebook led by guru David Clements and a trip to the Lazy Dog for beers afterwards.  Fun times were had by all.
• We attended the CU New Venture Challenge pitch day to learn about other entrepreneurial ventures in the area.  It is a great program promoting entrepreneurs and students at CU.  We appreciate the work Brad Bernthal has put into this program.
• We also met with Brandon Geiger of Swarmforce and Jeremy Boles of Roov to discuss the Facebook development and learned a lot about successes and failures for Facebook developers and James Klein to chat about his start-up experience and the pro/cons of outsourcing.

The next month will be spent much like the last: full focus on development, continued improvement of our business model and more local networking.  Nate and I are splitting time between Boulder and Silverthorne and plan to continue our work, ski, and sleep lifestyle (most likely weighted in 16, 5, and 3 hour increments respectively).  Natty is off to Finland and Russia at the end of December with his family where he will celebrate the holidays and conduct market research.  Charlie plans to continue being a major workhorse and will be local for the holidays with Nate.  Ryan took off to Argentina this week to hike through Patagonia.  He is working on some on-site development, promotion, and low-bandwidth site testwork.  He will be posting to the blog and sharing his insight on the state of the traveler.

Tomorrow we are excited to meet with Seth Levine of the Foundry Group to review our business plan and get his insight into our path.  We look forward to continued involvement with the Boulder tech scene, plan to see you all around town and hope you all continue to follow our progress.  We are helping Andrew Hyde host Ignite Boulder 2 next week, it is a great event, hope to see you there.

1. Your Cover’s Blown — Belle and Sebastian
2. Middle of Nowhere — Hot Hot Heat
3. Night on Fire — VHS or Beta
4. Chase the Sun — Planet Funk
5. Poster of a Girl — Metric
6. Of Moons, Birds and Monsters — MGMT
7. The Way I Are — Timbaland
8. 93 Til Infinity — Zero 7
9. Don’t Trust Me — 3Oh!3
10. Comfortably Numb — Scissor Sisters
11. Grow Up and Blow Away — Metric
12. Gold — Klee
13. Soil, Soil — Tegan and Sara
14. Painted by Numbers — The Sounds
15. The Others — The Ark