Introductions Anew

Welcome to the beginning of the rest of my life.

A few weeks ago, I did the unthinkable... on the brink of a recession, I left a lucrative, stable job at Microsoft to return to the startup world for the fourth time.  Call me a glutton for punishment.  Call me crazy (my ex-co-workers sure did).  Call me a moron.  It's all fine with me.

I left the cozy and relatively easy world of corporate America to return to the battleground of my heroes... the people in business who I truly respect.  Entrepreneurs... the dreamers... people who create billions of dollars of shareholder value on a hope, some duct tape and bailing wire, and a lot of hard work.

Notice Technologies is my fourth startup as a Founder or Co-Founder.  The first startup, Stratfor.com, is a publisher of International news & Intelligence.  Last I checked, they are continuing to do well although I have been crammed down more times than I can count.  Perhaps I'll be able to buy a Jolly Rancher with the proceeds when it exits.  Startup #2, Infraworks, was a disaster in almost every way (I may or may not get into that in more detail later.  I created Cruising Speed, startup #3, when I discovered that Google Adwords could actually pay some bills in 2002.  I didn't ever turn Cruising Speed into a mammoth commercial success, but it was the right thing for the right time.

I took a break from the startup world to go back to business school at the University of Texas, and after graduating in 16 months I took a position with Microsoft in Redmond.  I really wanted to understand the tech industry from the "other side."  I wanted to know how the goliaths of our industry made decisions -- not just Microsoft but other companies that I'd interact with on a regular basis.

But those lessons are now learned, and I'm back.  I feel alive again.

Yesterday morning was my first day of work as CEO of Notice Technologies.  We have two lines of business -- custom social app development and a consulting business.  We create Facebook apps for ourselves because we think there are a number of untapped opportunities out there.  Fortunately, it doesn't take a huge team to validate ideas.  So we're going to work on a few apps that have a lot of potential.  When we aren't doing that, we'll provide "Bain" or "McKinsey" type consulting services for social media.  I've met a lot of companies along the way who don't understand the subtlety of internet marketing in a world of social media.  We know the options and the best things to do given business/marketing objectives.

I'll use this blog to talk about social/internet marketing developments, our apps, and the growth of our business over coming years.

Onward & upward!

Comments

[pylorns]

Congrats on leaving. I've added you/notice technology to my links on wetwired, course until my aritst gets done with what I provided him it looks kinda strange.

[Mike T]

Chris,
Best of luck in this new endeavor... Let me know if you need any help from Mr. Banderas.