The last two weeks have been a bit overwhelming.  As some of you know, I recently made the decision to leave IDC, after 11 very good years.  I gave my notice about six weeks ago, but kept it quiet for two weeks, so that the really-senior management team could work on transition and communication plans.  The announcement went out on Valentine’s Day, and since then, things have been rather frenetic. 

Since I haven’t had a chance to speak with everyone individually, I thought I should take the time in this first blog entry to answer the frequently asked questions.  This will be like the time I tripped over my cat and broke my toe, and the doctor decided that in order to preserve my avocation in hiking, he should cast my foot up to my knee.  Who knew? After repeating the broken-toe story 10 times, I thought it would be easier and I would get more work done, if I just typed up and passed out the answers to the frequently asked questions.  So that’s what I did.

Q: What happened?

A: I tripped over the cat.

Q: Did you kill the cat?

A: No

But before I answer the questions, I want to say “thank you” to Chris Christiansen and Crawford Del Prete, two of the best bosses I’ve ever had.  Both are great people, and I count them as personal friends.  I also want to say “thank you” to my great teams of analysts and to my wonderful clients.  Your effort and your support made me better.  I’d like to stay connected, so feel free to send me an invitation through LinkedIn, my favorite business networking tool.  Here’s my profile.

So now to the questions.

Q: Why did you leave IDC?

A: IDC has been a wonderful employer, and there are many reasons why the company is consistently rated among the top companies in which to work.  I did well there and was well rewarded for my efforts.  The reasons that I left fall into two categories: personal and professional.

Q: Personal?

A: On the personal side, I have a family member who will likely outlive me, maybe by 40 years, and he may need life care.  I say “may need,” because I just don’t know yet.   Another five or six years and I should know, but I decided I couldn’t wait.  Life care is really expensive and not likely to get cheaper.  The alternative to life care is care in a state or federally funded program or institution.  State and federal funding are woefully inadequate and not likely to improve. So I don’t consider that an option. I’ve pretty much determined that I can’t save my way to creating enough wealth to ensure both that I can retire someday and that he never has to live in a government-funded program.   So the first reason that I’m leaving is to create enough wealth to ensure that my family member is well cared for after I’m gone, should the need arise.  

Q: And professional?

A: On the  professional side, I’ve worked as a user and buyer of technology, and I’ve worked as a market analyst, but never as an owner of a technology firm. The tech stocks I owned prior to joining IDC don’t count.  In that time I’ve watched a lot of small companies with great technology make really foolish sales, marketing, partnership, and operational mistakes – sorry guys, but it’s true.   Typically the mistakes were made by talented engineers who fell in love with their technology, but hadn’t taken the time to learn about the mechanics of running a business or taken the time to do the proper due diligence regarding their potential partners. As a result, their technology never reached its potential.  I want to help change that, have an equity stake, and profit from the success. Which takes you back to the personal side.

Q: Anything else?

A: Well, yes.  Two things.  I like it when what I earn is directly, linearly related to the value that I produce and profits I generate.  I’m not so much motivated by “beating plan,” but rather by providing good service and generating good profits. You like what I did?  Pay me.  You don’t? Don’t pay me.  I’ll try to do better next time.  It’s a meritocracy where cash is the ultimate determinant of quality.

Q: OK, but you said two things?

A: Yes.  The other is charitable giving.  Over the last few years, my team and I generated a lot of profit for the company.  And some of that profit, at least indirectly, was given back in the form of charitable contributions. 

Pat McGovern, chairman of IDG, the parent company of IDC, and his wife are very generous.  They gave an enormous amount of money to fund the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT.  While I don’t ever expect to be in Pat McGovern’s league, I’ve got a few charities of my own about which I care deeply.  I’d like to be able to make a larger financial contribution and to have more direct control over which organizations receive contributions from profits that I generate. More on that in a later posting.

Q: So where are you going?

A: I’ve formed a new company, Walden Technology Partners, Inc. with long-time friend, David Burmon.  David has most recently been COO of Walden Asset Group, LLC,  (notice a naming trend here?) a company that he formed more than 10 years ago with two partners.  He built the company, sold it, and then bought it back. 

Q: What will you be doing?

A: David and I will focus on helping innovators bring products to market.  Our focus will not be on the how-to of the invention (we will leave that to the smart guys), but on the market opportunity, the product positioning, the route to market,  the backoffice operations, contracts (David’s a lawyer), OEM, reseller, and partner relationship management, funding, financing, and all of those aspects of running a business that take innovators away from product innovation.  And when we see a great market opportunity and need to have someone develop technology to address the market opportunity, we have some innovative ways to incent smart people to do great things.  I’ll leave that to a later post, as well.

OK, that’s probably enough Q&A for now.  I hope that gives you a flavor of what I’m doing.  Now back to what I said at the beginning.  The last two weeks have been a bit overwhelming.  I say “overwhelming,” because everyone has been so supportive and the most frequent comment has been, “I’ll do whatever I can to help you succeed.  What can I do to help?” 

I’m going to take you up on the offer of support, so here’s my top 3 list:

  1. Provide comment and feedback on this blog
  2. Refer interesting early-stage companies
  3. Suggest market areas where you see solution holes

I am writing this blog for two purposes:

  1. To share with you my personal experience as I begin the process of starting, developing and growing a new business.
  2. To create a new-business-development resource where everyone can learn and benefit from you and the collective wisdom of others.

For most of my work week, I’ll be focusing on my personal business goals, but here in this blog, I will be focusing on helping you achieve your business goals. Think of this as tithing of time.  Along the way I hope that everyone who participates by reading, sharing, linking-to, or commenting on this blog will directly benefit, including me.  To that end, I have decided to allow posting of comments, suggestions, and questions.  I will attempt to respond to postings when appropriate and answer questions, when possible.  I will accept helpful criticism, but reserve the right to edit out, delete, and otherwise electronically shred offensive and hurtful rantings…not that any of you would do that.

 OK, that’s it for today.  I’m off to review some interesting companies suggested by a good and trusted friend.