The Price of Freedom

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to do my civic duty of jury service and it got me thinking about all the costs involved in this process. Previously my experience with jury service had been quite limited. Each time I was called in I sat around for 30 – 180 minutes and then was ultimately dismissed without any need for my service. This time I still didn’t wind up sitting on a jury but I did come close, which gave me my greatest insight into the entire process to date.

I showed up at the courthouse at 8:30 AM and waited around with about 100 other potential jurors until the judge showed up to brief us at 9. We spent about an hour going through jury orientation/training and then we waited around for our names to be called for a specific courtroom. Waiting was not onerous at all; the seats were comfortable and the courthouse offered free WiFi.
Meanwhile upstairs each courtroom held 30 – 50 accused citizens. Each defendant talked to the judge and plead “guilty,” “not guilty”, or “no contest.” For those who plead “guilty” or “no contest” they settled immediately there with court administrators. Those who plead “not guilty” had the right to a fair and speedy trial–which is where the jurors come in.
Once a courtroom processed all of the non-trial defendants, they began the jury selection process for the trials. Down in the jury room the administrator periodically called out 14 random names of potential jurors; these formed a single group which was then marched upstairs to a single courtroom. There a jury of six jurors was selected for each case and the trials were held. Because this was municipal court (traffic tickets and such), all trials were guaranteed to end the same day.
I spent the morning working on my laptop and my name was never called. There was a lunch break and then my name was called in the early afternoon–how exciting! In the courtroom, each juror introduced himself out loud (name, profession, area of town inhabited) and then underwent voir dire. There wasn’t too much biting examination, just general questions about prejudices, biases, and understanding of the judicial process. Frankly I don’t think the lawyers were as concerned about selecting a jury as they were about pre-seeding all of the potential jurors with the main arguments of their cases. I was not one of the six selected for that jury so I returned to the jury room downstairs. After another hour or so I was paid $6 for my time and released. $6–jury service sure pays better than cleantech entrepreneurship!
While I was in the courtroom for the jury selection process, I was struck by how much the whole ordeal was costing. Following is a very crude back-of-the-envelope estimate of the costs involved for a single day:
Building: $10,000 to rent a building that size for a day, another $10,000 for utilities, insurance and other assorted operations costs == $20,000
Personnel: 100 county employees averaging $50,000/year (~$200/workday) == $20,000
Juror missed work: 100 jurors averaging $50,000/year == $20,000
Juror pay: 100 jurors at $6 == $600
Transportation: $10 per employee/juror/defendant (let’s say there were 1,000 defendants) == $12,000
Total: $73,600
There were maybe 10 cases that went to trial all day so that’s $7,360 per case! Wow, more than $7k to try a $100 traffic ticket! At first blush that seems incredible–but on closer inspection it actually makes sense.
This goes back to something we studied at IMD: a group’s decision-making process can be evaluated on two criteria: efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency measures how quickly the group arrives at a decision while effectiveness measures the quality of the decision the group produces. Generally the more efficient the process, the less effective it is (E.g. a quick straw poll with no discussion for an immediate decision) and vice versa. More effective decision-making processes (E.g. long debates, careful evaluation of all options, striving for consensus, etc.) come at the cost of efficiency.
Our judicial system is set up to be WAY out on the “effective” end. At the other end of the spectrum would be a single judge autonomously pronouncing judgement on each case without even hearing any arguments. $7k per trial buys us the guarantee of due process and an impartial jury of our peers. It is, literally, the price of freedom, the price of fairness. Put in context like this, I’ll pay it gladly!

Thanksgiving with Max

I’m running way behind on blogging but here is a belated entry for Thanksgiving, which was a real joy. Katie and I drove up to Hot Springs, Arkansas, as we usually do for Thanksgiving but this time there was a major difference: we had Max in the back seat!

He is very good in the car, mostly snoozing and occasionally poking his head up front for a few ear scratches. We stopped every two hours or so to give him a chance to stretch his legs, do his business, etc. However, when we did so, he was always very nervous and desperately tried to get back to the car if we weren’t both with him. We hypothesize that he was abandoned once by someone just dropping him off out of a car and then driving off–heart-breaking!
When we arrived in Hot Springs, Max went crazy. He’s used to being a city dog, cooped up in a house most of the day and only going outside on a leash. We turned him loose at my aunt’s house out in the country and at first he just ran laps around the house he was so excited to be free out in the open. My aunt and uncle have their own dog too and she got along very well with Max. The two of them were regular Tom Sawyer/Huck Finns, exploring the woods together, chasing after animals, and wrestling around.
Wednesday evening another aunt of mine threw Katie and me a little engagement party, which was a lovely affair. We wined and dined and celebrated with our family and some close friends. It must have been a great ordeal to organize and execute but it was a really wonderful way to start off the long Thanksgiving weekend!
Thursday we attended two different Thanksgivings meals, both of which were absolutely excellent. Friday we spent all day cooking, lazing around, and watching football – what a great way to spend time! Saturday there was one final Thanksgiving get-together and then we hit the road back to Houston. Max’s hips were so sore from all the running around that he actually needed some help getting into the car. Needless to say, he slept allllll the way home, tuckered out from his great country adventure.
Sunday we headed over to a Houston friend’s house for yet another Thanksgiving dinner and yet more football – I wish this could go on forever! It was a fantastic holiday weekend but it was also a time for reflection. Katie and I both are so very thankful for so many things in our lives, but most especially for the people. For loving, supportive families, for fun, interesting friends, for capable, driven colleagues, for good neighbors…for all of these we are incredibly thankful. We try our best to give back and be as positive a force in others’ lives.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

The Right Path

Last Friday I had the privilege to attend the dedication event of the new Rice Center for Engineering Leadership. What an exciting new center, dedicated to helping engineering students identify and solve the world’s most pressing problems. How I wish something like this had existed back when I was a Rice engineering student! The event was an excellent opportunity to reconnect with the engineering school, former professors, and other alumni.

Perhaps most exciting was the address by legendary venture capitalist John Doerr. After beginning his talk by asking the audience what we wanted him to address (a tactic I love), he used that feedback to focus 45 minutes on his thoughts regarding Rice, engineering, careers, the environment, and technology.
At several points during his talk, I couldn’t help but feel like Doerr’s words were meant specifically for me. To start with, the talk took place in the McMurtry Auditorium of Duncan Hall, the very room in which Nobel Laureate Richard Smalley‘s “Be a Scientist; Save the World” talk inspired me to quest for ways to use IT entrepreneurship to work toward a better energy future. Also, Doerr was an Electrical Engineering major from Lovett College, just as I was. After a brief stint as an engineer, Doerr branched into sales, finance, and other aspects of business, just as I did. These similarities combined to create a feeling of connection for me.
Doerr addressed emphatic evidence of man-made climate change and warned of the massive gap between the developed and population-booming developing world. He talked of healthcare, water, and democracy but he contended that ultimately energy is the keystone that must be addressed. I agree.
He challenged the audience–especially the students–to come up with innovative ways to produce, transmit, and use energy. Again, I agree–I have devoted my professional career to it. He espoused the Silicon Valley mantra of “shots on goal,” an admission that many such ventures will probably fail to induce massive change but we have to take those shots to ensure that eventually some of them score.
This mentality is part of what motivates me every morning: even if Smart Office Energy Solutions were to fail spectacularly, we would have helped advance the state of the art such that the next shot has an even greater chance of reaching its mark. Of course I believe that Smart OES will succeed, rather than fail, spectacularly but it is encouraging to hear words of encouragement from someone older, cleverer, and much more successful than I. More pointedly it is encouraging when such words come from a really “big deal” investor while we are in the midst of our new capital raise!
Of course Doerr’s words weren’t meant for me per se, but everything in them seemed to say to me, “Keep at it; you’re on the right track!” Being an entrepreneur can sometimes be a lonely, frustrating exercise–especially when you are as extroverted and impatient as I am! “Success,” however you define it, always seems to be just an inch further than you can reach or just a step further on the path than is illuminated. As such, Doerr’s words fell on receptive, re-encouraged ears.

Hassinspiration

This weekend I had the honor of talking to my former high school football team before their Homecoming game. Three years ago I was asked to come in and do the same and it turned out to be the only game they won all season. As the mighty Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Colonials were winless so far this season, we all hoped that my talk this year would have the same effect.

There are so many things I know now that I wish I had known back then, but I only had a few minutes with them before the game so I just focused on the two themes that I thought would be most worthwhile for them. Following is a rough transcript of how the pre-game talk went (subject to my memory, which isn’t getting any younger!):
“Gentlemen, I am truly honored to be back here in front of you today. As Coach said, I was TJ Class of 1997. I played football for four years at TJ, three years as a two-way starter on varsity, and one year as Captain. After TJ I studied computer science and electrical engineering at Rice University, where I played fullback for the Owls. Professionally I have spent my career starting up and leading clean technology companies. It has been 14 years since I sat where you’re sitting right now and it is clear to me that, even though I got a lot out of TJ football during the four years I played, I’ve gotten so much more out of it in the 14 years since. I’m hoping that, by sharing some of that with you today, you’ll be able to get even more out of your own TJ football experience.
So what do you get out of TJ football? Lifelong friendships, certainly. Matt and I (Note: my classmate and TJ quarterback, Matt Young, came too, reinforcing this point very well.) are at the age when everyone’s getting married and it’s amazing how, when a TJ football player gets married, there are invariably many other TJ football players there at the wedding–and often some standing up there beside the groom. We went to different colleges, took different jobs, and are now scattered around the globe . . . but there is a bond that is forged when you stand together on the field of battle, united against a common foe, and that bond is not easily broken. So look at the player on your left, look at the player on your right, and understand that, for better or for worse, you’ll be stuck with each other for quite some time!
But you get so much more from TJ football than just relationships. You see, what happens up there on the football field is really a manifestation of that which happens to you in real life. Think about it: every day billions of people and organizations and businesses and teams set out to achieve some goal or overcome some obstacle or conquer some foe–just as you do on the football field. And, just as happens on the football field, it’s not the team with the most resources that wins. It’s not the business with the most capital or the athletes with the most physical prowess. No, it’s the team that executes on the field of play when it counts. It’s the team that demonstrates the greatest teamwork, leadership, discipline, and heart when it matters most. This is why startups are able to go up against Microsoft and win. This is why PhDs from schools you’ve never heard of are able to win the Nobel prize. It’s not about what you have; it’s about what you do.
Teamwork, leadership, discipline, heart . . . these aren’t subjects you can learn in a classroom. These aren’t traits you can read about in a book. These are intrinsic characteristics that you develop up there on the football field. So you think you’re out there playing a game but you’re really training yourself for the rest of your adult lives. I certainly didn’t realize that when I was playing football here but it is so abundantly clear to me now.
The greatest lesson that I learned from this TJ football training ground is how to deal with failure. The world’s greatest leaders are defined not by how they deal with success, rather how they respond to failure. This is because the path to success invariably winds its way through many failures first. Some people–most people–accept these and give up. Others learn from their failures, growing stronger, better prepared and even more motivated for success. These are the people who become truly great.
Sounds easy, right? But failure is hard. When you really set your heart on something and then fail to achieve it, it hurts–it hurts bad. I know. Lord knows we experienced plenty of failure in my TJ football days. And I know you guys have had your share of failure so far this season too, so I can imagine how you guys must be hurting right now–maybe a little frustrated, maybe a little downhearted.
A natural response to repeated failure is to stop caring. If you don’t yearn so much for victory, it doesn’t hurt so much when you don’t achieve it. If that’s how you feel right now about tonight’s game against Marshall, I won’t think any less of you. As I said, it is a very natural defense mechanism that saves a lot of people a lot of pain. But, if that’s how you feel right now about tonight’s game against Marshall, then don’t you dare set foot on our football field. Decades of players before you have shed blood, sweat, and tears on that field–often against very long odds–so, if you’re out there with anything less than 100% commitment to and belief in victory, it’s a dishonor to yourself, to your team, and to everyone who’s ever worn the uniform.
There is so much I’d like to share with you through the benefit of 14 years of 20/20 hindsight, but I just have these few minutes. I hope you will at least take away from this that what happens out there tonight will be more meaningful for the rest of your lives than you can possibly realize right now. The question is: are you going to let it be just some silly pastime? Or are you going to take it, own it, and ensure that is a source of strength and pride for you that pays dividends throughout your professional and personal lives?
I can’t answer that question; only you can. I would give just about anything to be out there fighting alongside you tonight, but I can’t. My time is passed; now it is your time. I will be cheering hard for you and sending you every ounce of strength and energy I have but, at the end of the night, it’s you guys who have to get it done on the field.
Seniors, I’m especially talking to you. You have less than three hours of game time left in your TJ football careers. Three hours! That’s a blink of the eye in your lives. Every play, every minute, every moment counts; you’ll never get a second chance. So get out there tonight and get it done. Don’t let up for even a second and leave it all on the field. Do it for TJ, do it for the fans, do it for your coaches. Hell, do it for me; I flew halfway across the country because I want to see you win! But most of all, do it for yourselves. You are Thomas Jefferson Colonial football players and you deserve victory. Go out there and take what’s yours.”
Wow, written out like that it seems really long but I don’t remember it taking more than a few minutes. Regardless, the team fought a hard battle and won the game at the last moment. I don’t know if my words “reached” anyone but I hope those young men found them beneficial.
The rest of the weekend was spent enjoying fall weather and catching up with family and friends in Northern Virginia. Now I’m back in 90-degree Houston but still glowing from a wonderful weekend.

Phoenix

Last weekend Katie and I went to Phoenix to visit her sister. When we planned the trip, we had an ulterior motive too: get our canine fix with Kelly’s newly adopted dog, Kona! Now, due to the timing of our own adoption of Max, we no longer needed the fix but we new it would be a wonderful trip anyway.

After having Max just one week, we dropped him off at Pet Paradise to be reunited with his buddies for the weekend and then we headed to the airport. I pulled a really dunce move and left my driver’s license at home. I had scans of both my driver’s license and my passport on my laptop but that was obviously insufficient. Just when it was looking like I would have to return home (in rush hour) to retrieve my license and then take a later flight, we received a very welcome surprise: TSA offered to help.
They took me into an isolated area and grilled me with questions about my identity, verifying my answers against a database of everywhere I had lived, which cars I had registered, etc. Then they gave my luggage the full treatment, checking every nook and cranny of it for sketchy stuff. Finally they gave me the full treatment, patting me down–well, up, down, and every other which way too! I passed all the tests so, after 20 minutes or so, they let me through. I was incredibly impressed with the professionalism and courtesy they showed me throughout the process. I know it’s not easy to keep millions of travelers safe every day but they did it with aplomb. Seriously, well done, TSA!
Kelly and her boyfriend, Mike, picked us up and took us immediately to The Vig, a bar/restaurant. We ate, drank, watched college football, and met up with their friends there; it was great weather for outdoor merrymaking! Then we went back to their house to meet Kona. We had another pleasant surprise, though: they were sitting two other dogs for the weekend! All the dogs were sweet and fun and it was clear that it was going to be a good couple of days.
Saturday we went to the dog park, had some breakfast, and then hiked Camelback Mountain. Mike and Kelly had made the hike many times but this was Katie’s and my first time hiking anything in awhile–and we decided to make the attempt in our Vibram FiveFingers barefoot “shoes.” The terrain was very desert-rocky so it put our Vibrams to the test, but we scrambled up OK. Coming down was a little slower as we focused on ensuring we had enough grip and tried to avoid stepping hard on jagged rock surfaces. It was hot and tiring but a very rewarding experience.
Afterward we treated ourselves to Thai food at Fresh Mint. The food was excellent, the oldies playing in the background were great, and the Joe Montana memorabilia on the walls (The owners are from San Francisco.) was very welcome. The rest of the afternoon was spent lazing by the pool, cooking dinner, and watching 300.
Sunday we played some beach volleyball then had brunch at a vegan restaurant that offered many raw food options. I put together an entire meal made of raw dessert items: black cherry cheesecake, blueberry acai pie, chocolate donut, chocolate walnut brownie, chocolate macaroon–all raw! It was delicious and very filling.
We stopped by a microbrewery to watch some football before being dropped off at the airport for the ride home. A friend of mine had very kindly overnighted my driver’s license to me so I managed to avoid extra TSA attention on the way back. Max was elated to see us again when we picked him up.
Now, after nearly two weeks with him, he seems really to have adjusted to our house and life. We were sorry to leave him for a weekend but it certainly was a wonderful 48 hours!

Why I Donate To Rice

After reading Falan Mouton’s article laying out her rationale for not donating to Rice (“Rice just a business; donations are purely optional for graduates,” October 8, 2010), I was tempted to write a response pointing out flaws in her logic–e.g. contending that the Rice “product” ceases creating value for its “consumers” the moment they graduate–and her apparent misunderstanding of how businesses work–e.g. most businesses with the aim of having “no upper limit” will need to raise capital too.
Instead, though, I would rather focus my words on why I *do* donate to my alma mater: because I love Rice. I loved Rice as an undergrad. I loved Rice as a grad student. And I have *really* loved Rice as an alum. The cost of educating one undergrad is roughly twice what Rice takes in as tuition. Rice isn’t just trying to meet its costs, though; it has grand ambitions to be better each year, but such ambitions aren’t realized for free. When I donate to Rice I know my money is going to make a positive difference for the entire Rice community.
I’m not selfless either; some of those funds come back to me directly via alumni activities. The Association of Rice Alumni is an incredible network of interesting, diverse, successful alumni and, unlike at our peer institutions, there is no fee to join and there never will be.
In the nine years since I’ve graduated I’ve learned that you get out of Rice what you put into it. So donate time if you can. Donate money if you can. But don’t do it because you think you “owe” it to anyone. Do it because you love Rice.
Happy Rice Day!
Bryan Guido Hassin
Lovett College 2001
Master of Computer Science 2002

Max the Golden Retriever!

Katie and I took a big step this weekend by adopting a golden retriever from Golden Retriever Rescue of Houston. We both grew up with goldens so we were sure that we understood what we were getting into in terms of temperament, activity level, size–and volume of hair! We also felt that this was the right time in our lives to move forward with this kind of commitment. Even as recently as a couple of years ago it would have been unthinkable but now we have settled into enough of a routine and committed to a future together such that we know we can handle this new responsibility.

After spending some time on the GRRH website, we filled out an application which had a primary purpose of verifying that we understood the cost, time, and discipline commitments involved as well as screening for any signs of abuse.
After GRRH approved our initial application, we received a call from their coordinator to discuss in greater detail our lifestyles, home environment, and preferences. We were hoping for a young (1-3 years) but already trained golden that would socialize easily with other dogs and people. Katie and I are both very social so a dog that we could take to the dog park and to friends’ houses would fit best with us. We were targeting youth so that its joints would be OK with all the stairs in our three-story townhome. Katie and I both grew up with female goldens so we had a natural bias toward getting a girl but we also knew we would love a boy just as much.
Based on the profiles on the GRRH website and on our phone conversations with them, we identified 5 candidates for potential adoption. The next step was to talk with the trainers and foster parents of each dog. The first trainer we contacted was actually training two of the dogs on our list. One of the dogs was incredibly sweet but apparently had a really hard time being around other dogs and the trainer just wasn’t sure that was addressable. The more we talked with the trainer, though, the more we fell in love with her other dog, a three-year-old boy named Max.
On Thursday we made the decision to meet Max in person Saturday morning. He came in with his foster mom to Pet Paradise, where he had been boarded. We met them both there and had a chance to play with Max a bit, witness him showing off his tricks/training, and chat with the foster mom about her experience with him.
In short, it was love at first sight. He was incredibly sweet and very gentle but still with great enthusiasm and energy. He was quite smart and had been picking up his training very quickly. Unlike any golden I had seen before, Max was a very light cream color, almost white; apparently this is the British style of golden retriever.
At the end of our session, Katie and I said our polite goodbyes and let them know we’d come back to them with our reactions shortly. We made it maybe four steps out the door, though, when we looked at each other and, without words, we both knew that this was the dog. We decided to skip the formal decision process, turned right around, and said we’d take him if they would let us. By the time we reached our car in the parking lot, we had a call from the coordinator saying that the trainer and foster mom enthusiastically approved of our adopting Max so we could sign the adoption contract and pick him up as soon as we liked.
As we didn’t have any dog supplies at home we delayed pick-up until the afternoon. In the meantime I picked my brother up at the airport and we worked out together for the first time in three months (Consequently I can barely move now out of soreness.) while Katie went to PetSmart for our first stock-up.
After lunch all three of us went to Pet Paradise to pick up our new boy. He was very excited to see us again and super easy to manage on a leash, in the car, etc. We introduced him to his new home, which he took to immediately, and spent awhile showing him around, taking him for walks, and just getting to know him a bit.
His first night was a rough one. While boarded (presumably) he had contracted kennel cough, the canine equivalent of the flu. This meant he was up all night with a hacking, productive cough (worse than Smuckers, on Seinfeld!) and, hence, we were up all night as well. Around 5 AM we finally took him to the vet just to make sure it wasn’t something more serious but they put him on some antibiotics and confirmed that we would just have to wait it out for several days. No problem, as long as he’s OK!
Sunday was a lovely day for all of us, lazing around the main floor, watching football, and introducing Max to the housemates. His cough is already getting better and he loves all the people around him showering him with attention. He still needs some training around where and when to do is business and not jumping up on people/things but, again, he’s a smart boy and learning quickly. We have all the patience in the world to work with him because he is such a wonderful addition to our family and we just love him so much!

Business Schools and Buffett

The last two weeks have been full of “B”s–business schools and Jimmy Buffett!

September 16th was the 8th annual Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship Energy and Clean Technology Forum. We won an award at the elevator pitch competition last year and we were excited to be asked back to compete again this year. I love these forums as there is so much energy, so many good ideas, and so many great people throughout them. Anyone who knows me knows how competitive I am, though, so I don’t consider such events successful unless I come away with an award. Some people go into such events casually and speaking extemporaneously. I do not. I come to win and prepare obsessively for it.

I spent the plane ride back from Italy refining our message down to just the bare minimum and rehearsing it to ensure that it could be delivered in less than 90 seconds. In my IMD marketing course, we learned that branding is about sacrifice; people can only absorb a few messages. Nothing could be truer about elevator pitches; they are like branding statements for your company or idea. There were many things I would have liked to have included in the pitch but there just wasn’t enough time. In many ways, this is similar to the “How do I spend my time?” challenge with which the entrepreneur is faced every day: distilling the top 3 most important things from the top 30 really incredibly important things from the top 300 really very important things. For this reason alone, I think periodic pitch preparation is a helpful exercise in prioritization.
If you would care to see the fruits of my labor, a video of it is available at The BusinessMakers Radio Show’s review of their favorite pitches from the event. Looking back at it, I clearly rushed delivery a bit and didn’t pause to “plant” my points as much as I would have liked. I welcome additional feedback as well!
Long story short: we won an award again–2010 Rising Venture! I am once again supremely humbled, honored, and thrilled to have won. There were some great pitches and it was exciting just to have been counted among them. As was the case last year, the whole event was a very good one and we made several new very interesting contacts.
The following Sunday I had to shift out of Rice business school mode and into IMD business school mode as we hosted the very first event of IMD’s new Houston Alumni Club. It turns out that there are 500+ IMD alumni in Houston so I and a few other “enthusiasts” thought it was criminal not to have some kind of organization to bring us together.
Our first event was a simple networking and brief talk event. IMD professors Don Marchand and Michael Wade were in town for a Shell program so they came and talked with us about their research. The rest of the evening we sipped wine, networked, and discussed the future direction of our nascent organization–it was a great first step!
Then last weekend Katie, I, and my favorite wingman made a very quick (~48 hours) trip to Paris for the Jimmy Buffett concert. It was marvelous and exactly what I had hoped it would be. We spent most of our time walking around Paris, eating, dropping into museums, and drinking great wine. Friday night we tailgated with 96-point Bordeaux (Chateau Pontet-Canet 2005, way too young but still delicious) then made our way to the concert. The total attendance was maybe 1,000 people and, because everyone there was a big fan, it was basically one long, glorious sing-along. It was so much fun, as was the after-party at O’Sullivan’s!
Now we’re back in Houston with no travels abroad planned until our wedding in May. We came back just in time too; the weather is gorgeous! As Jimmy Buffett would say, the weather is here; wish you were beautiful!

Wedding in Italy

No, not my wedding! Last week Katie and I attended an IMD friend’s wedding in Italy, which was absolutely marvelous.

The day before we departed we attended the Rice-UT football game at Reliant Stadium. There was just a splotch of Rice blue in the very UT burnt orange crowd but we cheered disproportionately loudly. The Owls gave us something to cheer for too, scoring first and outscoring UT in both the first and fourth quarters. A few key mistakes led to a 34-17 loss but overall we felt pretty good about our performance against one of the top teams in the nation–this should bode well for the season to come!
Sunday we departed for Bari in Puglia (the “heel” of Italy’s “boot”) via Milan via Newark. Both our Houston-Newark and Newark-Milan flights were on older Boeing 767 planes with two significant disadvantages: 1. Their entertainment systems are fixed, offering just a few movies at regular times and 2. They have special power ports that require a special adapter to use. I had become so spoiled by the 777s flying back and forth to Geneva (offering hundreds of on-demand movies and normal power outlets) that I was already in a sour mood when I realized that I would only have a few hours of laptop time and that I wasn’t interested in any of the movies. Shame on me for not checking on this in advance, though.
On the international leg, Continental forgot my vegetarian meal request (At least they remembered Katie’s.) so that left me with an even worse impression from the flight. Then Milan Malpensa airport lost Katie’s luggage so that she arrived in Bari without any toiletries or changes of clothes. All-in-all, not one of our best flight experiences.
No matter, though, we were determined not to let it affect our trip. We swung by a clothing store outlet near Bari and picked her up some essentials then drove North to Lucera, where the Italian side of my family lives. We spent two days with my Italian cousins and it was a grand time. Touring around Lucera (which is older than Rome and has tremendous ruins of a castle and anamphitheater), eating, clothes shopping for Katie, eating some more, and just catching up with family. Oh, and eating even more! No matter how short it is, it is always a special experience to spend time with this distant family. These are my humble roots and it is important to stay connected.
Wednesday we drove further North to Tuscany to check out a venue we are considering for our own wedding. It was everything we hoped it would be and it had a few surprises for us–like a ping pong table and volleyball net on the premises! We spent the night there just to be sure but it is clearly the right choice.
Thursday we turned back around and drove South to Fermo, where we met up with dear friends from IMD. They weren’t going to be able to make it to the IMD wedding so we were very excited to be able to see them regardless. We spent the night with them and their family and, once again, ate very, very well. It was our first time in that region (Le Marche) and we were very impressed. Mountains on one side, the Adriatic Sea on the other, rolling green hills in between . . . Le Marche has it all!
Friday we returned to Bari, where we were informed that Katie’s bag had finally arrived–better late than never! We settled into a villa we were sharing with other IMD friends, including GIVEWATTS founder Jesper Hornberg. Friday night there was a dinner hosted by the bride’s family but we turned in early, knowing that we would need our rest for the late, late festa the next night.
Saturday was unfortunately rainy. The wedding was supposed to be on the beach so the bride and groom audibled to a nearby indoor venue which was quite lovely. The ceremony was nontraditional and featured two IMD friends as officiants. After the ceremony we relocated to a beach club for the reception. This place was awesome! Course after course after course of food was served and the music had all been requested in advance by the bride, groom, and guests. Nourished by great food and buoyed by great music, we danced well into the morning.
I had been asked to be the Master of Ceremonies so my job was to ensure that the program of the reception was followed ontime (at least within the bounds of Italian standards of punctuality!) and to make announcements in English and Italian throughout event. It was a real honor to be asked to serve and I hope my performance was sufficient for their special day!
Finally, after a resounding chorus of Bohemian Rhapsody (a promise I had made to the groom), Katie and I departed around 4 AM. We heard that many people stayed until 6 but we needed to be up for a flight relatively early. Our return flight wasn’t much better (again a forgotten meal request and we were passed over for upgrades for some reason that Continental still can’t explain) but at least both of our bags arrived. All-in-all it was a really, really excellent trip!

Starting a Company Is Hard

Today isn’t quite the one-year anniversary of me beginning my full-time focus on Smart Office Energy Solutions but it is about the one-year anniversary of my departure from Poken, and that gives me pause to think about what has–and hasn’t–been accomplished since then. When I look back at it, the clear conclusion is that starting a company is hard even for a well resourced team and even harder for a bootstrapping lone warrior.

To be clear, this isn’t my first rodeo. Smart Office Energy Solutions is the fourth company I’ve founded or joined very early. This experience combined with the many skills I developed in business school provides me with many tools with which to start up a company. While these tools make the startup process more effective, they don’t make it any easier. 10 years ago I might have thought that, by the time I started my fourth company, I would be able to do it with my eyes closed–but I would have been wrong!
Looking briefly at the history of my current venture, it is clear that constant change is the foundation of this–and possibly any–startup. This time last year we were building a business plan around being a joint venture “sister company” to an existing European business in the smart energy space. We analyzed the North American market and put together a very detailed plan to develop it but, after four months, we still hadn’t arrived at a deal with our would-be partner. We considered many different models: JV, subsidiary, holding company, etc. but time and again the other party failed to consider our interests.
Despite this, I became more convinced every day that our market opportunity was valid so, finally, at the end of last year, we incorporated Smart OES LLC, a completely separate company from the European “partner,” which we engaged purely as a supplier of hardware and software products. If we were going to do this, it would be on our own.
This year began with fundraising, a process which I had never led before. Because it was new to me I was somewhat apprehensive about it, but by the end of the first quarter we had raised 50% more than was our original goal. I remain humbled and honored that so many friends, family, colleagues, and classmates had the confidence in us to put their own capital at risk.
This spring was incredibly productive as we deployed pilot installations at several clients in Houston and Austin. These validated the market for us and were a source of proprietary expertise we developed in eliciting energy savings 50% greater than anything that had been demonstrated by our European suppliers.
At the same time, though, it became clear that our suppliers simply weren’t the long-term partners we needed. We still hadn’t been able to work out a mutually beneficial partnership arrangement and there was no telling when we would ever be supplied with products that were electrically certified for North America. Thus, less than a year after launching a business built around partnering with them, we formally ended our relationship and began searching for other ways to serve the sizable market that was simply waiting for us to be able to sell.
This whole process has required weekly updates to our business plan, which is part of what makes starting the company so hard. If we had a clearly defined, unchanging path, it would be easy to know what to do–and to do it–every day. But with the ground constantly shifting under our feet, we are engaged in constant realignment and adjustment–it’s like tap dancing during an earth quake!
That’s OK; it is extremely important for a company at our stage to remain agile and to be able to evolve our business plan as we experiment with what actually works in the market. At the same time, though, we have to be careful not to lose focus–I’ve seen many companies fail because they have opportunistically leaped from one idea to another to another and, at the end of the day, they never saw anything through enough to build a business around. It is a fine line between strategic agility and lack of focus. The key to success here is to stay true to a clear and well defined vision while constantly adapting our tactics to realize that vision. Returning to the “path” metaphor, we must keep the end destination in sight while constantly adapting our path as we meet different road blocks and forks in the road along the way.
The other hardest aspect of this startup is one I have mentioned before: it is really lonely. Right now there are just two of us fully engaged. We have deliberately followed a “lean” approach to starting this company, outsourcing everything we can to reduce fixed overheads. This dramatically reduced the amount of capital we needed to raise to get started, a great thing for us and our investors. Some people thrive in an isolated work environment; I do not. I’m a team player through and through and, until we reach the milestone that enables the growth of our small team, I will be challenged. In the meantime I am taking extra care to ensure that I am maintaining constant contact with investors, clients, and business partners to feel like I am part of a larger extended team.
There is nothing I would rather be doing than starting up Smart Office Energy Solutions right now. Every day we move closer to our goal of making a very, very significant difference in the global energy landscape. It is hard work to be sure, but I have never shied away from hard work for a worthy cause. I finish each day with more energy than I had when the day started and that, more than anything, tells me that we are really on the right path!