Connor's Blog - Latest Comments

Re: Man vs. Food (Chris Nolan vs. The Fresser) – Natick Edition

Ed Sanderson — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:26:58 -0000

Thanks for letting us know! Please call us as early as possible so we can set aside a table for you. It would be great to know before 10:30 am if possible. Looking forward to see all of you tomorrow!
Ed

Re: Man vs. Food (Chris Nolan vs. The Fresser) – Natick Edition

Connor Fee — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:53:56 -0000

Joan & Ed - Friday is going to be particularly exciting. We have quite the crew that wants to come from the office. I'm going to send out an email to check numbers and will call you tomorrow or Friday.

Re: Man vs. Food (Chris Nolan vs. The Fresser) – Natick Edition

Chris — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:13:03 -0000

I'm looking forward to it! It turns out this will be on Friday due to the curiosity factor around the office. Should be fun!

Re: Man vs. Food (Chris Nolan vs. The Fresser) – Natick Edition

Ed Sanderson — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 09:26:14 -0000

Hi Chris,
I came across your post and wanted to reach out to you. Good luck at tackling The Fresser on Thursday! When you come in, please ask for us so we can come out to meet you. Hope you are up to the challenge.
Joan & Ed Sanderson

Re: Because I promised myself I would

Deposed King of Nigeria — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:11:01 -0000

This Tristan fellow sounds like a real genius. As the deposed King of Nigeria, I would like to offer him all of the money I have. Only problem is there is a catch...

Re: Sam Thacker – incredibly talented artist

RKarl — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:24:11 -0000

After signing up for disqus it was easy to use -- thanks for adding the songs

Re: Sam Thacker – incredibly talented artist

Connor Fee — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:56:28 -0000

Any thoughts on the new blog layout/comment structure? Was it easy to use, or more of a pain?

Re: Sam Thacker – incredibly talented artist

Connor Fee — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:52:08 -0000

I'd love to, let me see what I can do... His new album really shows some
growth as an artist, so I might try to post one new and one old.

Re: Sam Thacker – incredibly talented artist

RKarl — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:50:42 -0000

Can you imbed your favorite song here? or if not possibly, give a couple recommendations?

Re: Time to stop talking and start doing

rjurney — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:59:48 -0000

Connor, I couldn't agree with your reply more.

Re: Time to stop talking and start doing

Connor Fee — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:20:05 -0000

@ Russell Jurney

Well, Russell you clearly called my bluff. I won't be punching anyone in the face. I'd like to think my threat carried some weight, but clearly not!

I'm glad you're such a big fan of education - it is the goal of what Tristan and I are trying to do. Given our idea here is only a few days old, we're actively looking for the community to help guide the needs and objectives of what we're trying to do.

We want to see many first time entrepreneurs speed past the challenges that we recently struggled with on our first attempt. In fact we are the heartbroken and bankrupt entrepreneurs you describe. Given our proximity to the experience (only the one venture under the belt) we thought it best to help share our learnings while they are still fresh.

I agree that Atlanta may not yet have the chops to really give birth to a "typical dot com startup dream." If that is the case though, I think the message isn't "Atlanta isn't the Valley," but more of a message about what we are and what works well here. Frankly I wish someone had told me that two years ago. I would have given some serious consideration to moving out west. The only problem that I see is that a lot of people start businesses where they are - regardless of where that may be.

Hopefully the new ATDC can help with the appropriate Atlanta disclaimer:

"Dear entrepreneurs,

Want to be the next facebook, google, or twitter? Great we're very excited for you! But you should probably move somewhere else. We have a phenomenal set of experience, ample resources, and strong support system - but they are geared towards the next internet security company, backend media operator, or retail store. If that describes you, settle down you're in for an exciting ride.

Thanks,

Atlanta's entrepreneurial community"

Re: Anyone want to buy a (slightly) used MacBook Pro?

Brian — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:59:28 -0000

I want to hear more about this late night programming session that resulted in physical damage to your macbook.

Thats got to be quite the story.

Re: Time to stop talking and start doing

Loren Norman — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:41:45 -0000

We created a Yammer group (think private Twitter) the other day for knowledge workers in Atlanta to easily chat and share information. We like to think of it as "virtual coworking." This could be a great venue for you to form up these ideas further, Connor, and it also addresses some of your concerns in an innovative way (without shaving any yaks!)

Anyone who is interested in joining, sign up here:
http://spreadsheets.google....

Re: Time to stop talking and start doing

rjurney — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:57:14 -0000

P.S. Sign up here: http://sites.google.com/sit... to start a preferred service provider list.

Re: Time to stop talking and start doing

rjurney — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:36:04 -0000

When I stop seeing entrepreneurs executing plans that are only viable in the Valley, I'll stop talking about it. You know what I'm sick of? People saying, "We're not the valley - duh!" without actually addressing - WHATSOEVER - the implications of that are for a viable startup's strategy here. You're sick of this line of discussion, but you know what I'm sick of? I'm sick of having to watch entrepreneurs fail for no good reason. I'm sick of watching young people blow their savings and run up their credit cards executing business plans that depend on funding which does not exist here. I'm tired of seeing good brain power and solid passion going into consumer internet sites that cannot possibly succeed as businesses here.

You're tired of talking about the Valley - well I'll tell you what - get used to it - we're JUST getting started. There is an overwhelming amount of west coast BULLSHIT in the heads of our new entrepreneurs and its not going to disappear overnight. Talking about the valley is essential to educating our entrepreneurs, because if we're to grow - we have to spare more people the multiple year failure that it typically takes to learn the TRUTH about our startup business environment.

If you think skipping that discussion is the key to moving forward, we must be looking at a different community.

Service providers - we need a list? That is definitely true, since most of our service providers are sharks. But its not going to make much of a difference. Why? Because they all charge money most startups don't have. Because you can name the startup friendly service providers in sharpie on a single sheet of paper.

I hate to be critical - but there's nothing new here. This is in fact a duplicate of most every post about the Atlanta startup community - "band together, rise together!" We've been talking this way for years. Well guess what - there are close to 0 active angels doing new deals in new companies right now. Without angels, there is no startup hub. Without angels, the typical viable startup looks more like a shoe store than Twitter. Things aren't going to get better for a year or two.

What can we do to address that? You want a web app? More events? We have web apps. We have plenty of events.

I say whats lacking is education about how to succeed in this crappy environment, and so thats what I'm doing. I'm going to keep doing it. If you don't like it, punch me in the face. ;)

Re: Anyone want to buy a (slightly) used MacBook Pro?

Derek — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:06:35 -0000

I was going to make you an even lower offer than that! But seriously...What software comes on it. I am actually in the market for one of these, so you might be able to sell me.

Re: Anyone want to buy a (slightly) used MacBook Pro?

Connor Fee — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:09:42 -0000

First bid is in - John A. for a measly $500. C'mon I'm trying to get my taxes done here!

Re: 25 Things about me (because you really don’t care) #1

Connor Fee — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:17:13 -0000

Meg, it's getting there. I've narrowed down what I want and am about to really focus on using my network to find an awesome job. I'll keep you posted!

Re: 25 Things about me (because you really don’t care) #1

Meg — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:42:38 -0000

I'm reading it too. I just wish you'd post more. And how's the job hunt going?