Why do I blog?
I've been reading blogs for as long as I can remember, and I have never really felt compelled to write. Perhaps I believed that in world of Mark Susters, Fred Wilsons and Brad Felds, I simply didn't need to contribute, that there was nothing I could say that would enrich the conversation.
But over the course of starting a company and making a ton of mistakes, I realized that a lot of what I wished had been said cannot be found on other blogs because of the very nature of mistakes.
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. - Anna Karenina
Startup mistakes are like unhappy families - no VC or entrepreneur can prescribe advice because we each manage to make mistakes in different ways. Instead, the best we can do - for ourselves and those who come after us - is to describe what happened, what actions were taken, and how we would have approached the issue different had we simply known better. Eventually, perhaps enough of these posts will be written such that a future entrepreneur stuck in a tight spot can clean some sort of advice from this constellation of imperfect lessons.
I want to keep this blog anonymous because I don't think my identity is relevant to the lessons I have learned, or the insights I want to share. I hope these posts can stand on their own - be affirmed or refuted without fear or favor.