Skip to main content

Lunch with Dad

Today being the first day of advent, when traditionally I set up my Christmas tree, I had a perfect occasion to drive out and visit my Dad who graciously hosts the tree and ornaments in his basement.

It is a nice change of pace to spend time with my Dad.  We'll chat a bit about how my startup is going, but most of our time is spent chatting about anything but.  He cares very much that I have a reasonable level of financial security and I appreciate that he checks up on that.  Over the past 15 years working in startups, on so many occasions I've seen people make terrible decisions based on financial pressures.  I would be very disappointed with myself if I got to that point.  And honestly, I've been close many times since Startical 1.0.

Just knowing that someone close to you truly cares about one of your greatest fears as an entrepreneur represents a huge pillar of unspoken support.  Lunch with Dad reminds me how fortunate I am to have that.

Popular posts from this blog

Reminiscing about last year's epic rail journey

Last year today I embarked on an epic rail journey from Montreal to Chicago via Vancouver and Seattle.  This time of the year is pretty much the only time I can completely escape startup life (and Internet connectivity), and a year ago I seized the opportunity to do something I'd been dreaming of since childhood: take "The Canadian" across Canada. Sat down with a beer and watched my videos from that trip (see playlists below) which brought back very fond memories not only of the trip itself, but also of Startical 1.0 which involved a similarly ridiculous Montreal to San Francisco rail journey. The playlists: "The Canadian" - Toronto to Vancouver by rail "The Empire Builder" - Seattle to Chicago by rail Also reminds me of my  Rails and Reels: History, Infrastructure and the IoT blog post from 2013, just after we had become "World's Best Startup".  Somehow rail journeys bring out the philosopher in me...

Office painting continued

There was fugly wallpaper on BOTH of those walls... ...the last to (soon) be painted white. Only just today realised that our new office, which is on the corner of Sherbrooke and Parc streets (Parc is French for Park) could cheekily be called PARC.  XEROX PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) is effectively the birthplace of much of the core technologies we continue to use today (tablet computers, graphical user interfaces, mice, object-oriented programming...).  See this reelyActive blog post .  I've been calling the office Sharc to date, but PARC is not only awesome, but also fitting since the intent is to use it as a living lab and showcase of all the emerging tech we have developed and continue to develop. It may seem silly, but this is the highlight of my day and unbelievably motivating!

Office party