To Make Your Parents Happy – Do Startup

Prior to our move to the States, my sister installed a computer at my parents’ home to enable our communication with them. After several sessions my mom was able to read emails and my sister gave up on any attempt to teach her to reply as well. But that was all right as long as Mom could open pictures.

Sometimes she needed an urgent support from my sister (surely enough, usually very late in the evening) because she “didn’t do anything and it all disappeared”. With the time we learned that “it all disappeared” meant she accidently clicked on a minimize button and “all disappeared” indeed. We were able to identify most common Windows misbehaviors, such as sudden disappearances of the browser, text turned to be red with no reason, shutting down at once, inaudible sound , frozen arrow and how to deal with “You got upgraded” message. The most dangerous of all were “Yes” or “No” types of questions that tended to appear from time to time. A choice between these two is a nightmare for a Jewish mom.

Thanks god, my sister and brother-in-law have high level of commitment to the customer service. If it was on me, I would already drop this account for good. However, at this point I was not concerned at all since all this tech support had happened 10 time zones away and I only enjoyed the end result.

But soon it wasn’t enough for my parents. They wanted to see my kids live. That’s where my sister dropped a bomb: “Skype”! I was frightened to even think of going this path as immediately I realized that I would not be able to benefit anymore from my time difference and going Skype would inevitably move me to the first line of support.

As hilarious as it is, I will spare every detail of how it went, but till today my every Skype session with the parents starts with the call over a landline. “-Mom, why on the earth you closed the Skype? -What are you talking about? I never close the Skype! I only unplugged the computer.”

So I was in a frantic need to find a better solution, something that works without a computer and could be operated by my parents. That’s how my first idea of eMazeU occurred to me. Initially it was a wireless digital video camera with extremely simple channel based interface that can capture, receive and play videos.
So off we went with this idea about two years ago. We worked hard on it but it didn’t really fly. One of the mistakes I made was to completely dismiss smart phones as a viable platform for that, and it took a while to realize that. Good thing we learned a lot.

While technical specifications of the product are not important anymore, it helped to define our current product. We create a personal channel to enable our customers to receive their content directly on the TV. Soon the product will be available here: www.eMazeU.com.

My mom is happy now. She uses our beta product and does not require a customer support anymore. I am a good son after all.

Fasten your seat belts

I’m running a startup. Today, at February 21, 2010 it’s almost 2 years since I started to work on it. No salary, no funding, ups and downs on hourly basis, work from home, thinking of impossible, disappointments and nerves, ignoring the facts and reasoning, and much more. There are probably millions of reasons why you should stop doing a startup. Yet, this is most revealing experience I ever had.

I still do not know when we will be funded and of course, have no idea whether my company will be a success story or not. Of course, I believe it will be a huge success (otherwise why doing this), but you know the statistics and odds. Without this belief you better not even start.

When you start a company, especially if this is your first time, you have no idea what to expect, not the obstacles you’ll have on your way, not the end result. You even do not know what the desired end result is. You want to succeed, but hell, no idea what does this mean.

It is very nice to read the stories of Google, Apple, Intel or Microsoft founders after their success happened. But what about learning the lessons when history did not happen yet? When you do not have a desired outcome and thus need to judge events and actions without knowing and understanding their long term impact on a venture?

So I decided to start writing a blog about my startup when it actually happens. I plan to provide my perspective on what we are doing, what are ups and downs, will try to analyze my industry and competitors, and try to share my thoughts on general topics that I deem relevant. All somehow will be connected to my startup.

I read somewhere that running a startup is that much fun as riding a rollercoaster. I would add that with rollercoaster your guts might fail you from time to time, but you will be successfully delivered to the finish line, while with a startup it’s not guaranteed. So a better comparison for me would be a rollercoaster where you are a driver and there is no safety there.

You might fasten your seat belts, but not sure it will help – this is my first ever drive. Hope to get there safely.