You're Only a First Time CEO Once

And here I am. In the middle of that "once." Fred Wilson wrote a great posting by that title on his blog, and it has stuck with me. When I decided to start a blog, it was the first thing that came to mind as a main theme for the blog, so there you go. Only Once it is.

I'm not entirely sure why I'm doing a blog. Part of it is fascination with the newest corner of the Internet and its related areas like RSS (clicking on that link will get you the RSS feed of this blog). Part of it is to try out the medium and see how it might work for the hundreds of marketers and publishers who are my company's clients. I suppose part of it is to generate some interest in my company, Return Path, which in my extremely biased opinion is one of the most interesting companies in the email services business.

My one hesitation about starting a blog is that the other part of me feels like blogs are a bit narcissistic, and I can't imagine who on earth would want to read whatever it is that pops into my head. But I'll give it a try and promise not to go overboard on the extraneous postings.

So, I will probably post periodically about experiences of an entrepreneur, of the one time I'll ever be a first-time CEO. But I may also post on other things periodically that match my interests: book reviews, travelogs, Princeton, great wines, maybe even the occasional political commentary to prove to my predominantly New York friends that (a) not all Republicans are bad, and (b) not all Jewish New Yorkers are Democrats.

So, here we go...enjoy!

Comments

[Kevin S. Flannery]

Hello,
I am a "serial entrepreneur" who is engaged in my first fund raising "adventure". I have self funded all of my previous businesses as they were smaller and did not require significant capital injections. However, my latest venture has the potential to be a billion dollar business while touching the lives and wait time of everybody. Our next generation media focuses on the most captive audience on the planet, the impatient patient sitting in doctor's office and hospital waiting areas all over the world. Our combination of FREE Internet access, FREE to utilize Wireless Web Pads, education, entertainment and productivity will revolutionize the patient wait environment while creating the next big non traditional media outlet. The problem for us is the model is hardware intensive, requires scale (which is easy to accomplish quickly) and requires public awareness as to our value proposition to get moving. All of these things require adequate funding and resources to be done properly. Raising funding is and has been incredibly frustrating. This is such a sure thing that identifies a problem and provides a solution to the health care and media worlds. How do I get investors to STOP and truly pay attention?

[Kevin S. Flannery]

Hello,
I am a "serial entrepreneur" who is engaged in my first fund raising "adventure". I have self funded all of my previous businesses as they were smaller and did not require significant capital injections. However, my latest venture has the potential to be a billion dollar business while touching the lives and wait time of everybody. Our next generation media focuses on the most captive audience on the planet, the impatient patient sitting in doctor's office and hospital waiting areas all over the world. Our combination of FREE Internet access, FREE to utilize Wireless Web Pads, education, entertainment and productivity will revolutionize the patient wait environment while creating the next big non traditional media outlet. The problem for us is the model is hardware intensive, requires scale (which is easy to accomplish quickly) and requires public awareness as to our value proposition to get moving. All of these things require adequate funding and resources to be done properly. Raising funding is and has been incredibly frustrating. This is such a sure thing that identifies a problem and provides a solution to the health care and media worlds. How do I get investors to STOP and truly pay attention?

[myhome-myoffice]

Dear Matt,

I have gone through "You're Only a First Time CEO Once" and I really like the way it has been written. I think I will come back again to your site.

I am into outsourcing and currently I am into some work which I might need your advise. If so I will contact you.

Thanks.