Stepping Out of the Boat

As is periodically the case, my blog has been pretty quiet the last couple of months (ok, four), but there’s a good reason for that. Since being “released” with more than half our UX team from Sun/Oracle at the beginning of the year, I’ve been considering which direction to take my career.

To cover the standard “get another job” route I sent out resumes and had several interviews but I found myself generally unexcited about the prospect of going back to work for a big company. I thought about the consultant route but after talking with several people doing that kind of work I decided that wasn’t what I wanted to do long term. (Though short-term it’s been helpful.) The area of web applications has intrigued me for a couple of years, fed at least partially by 37Signals‘ approach to business and development.   So I started mulling the idea of starting a web app company.  To be frank, the idea of starting my own business has always been scary to me as it is neither safe nor comfortable. I like comfort and predictability (aka “the known”) – especially when I’m supporting my wife and four kids (and a dog).   (Not that working for big “safe” Sun Microsystems turned out to be so safe, but I digress.)  My wife and I talked and prayed about it a lot. One night while out on a date she said she was fully behind my starting a company and hoped I’d step out of the comfort of the “boat” and take a shot at walking on water (or at least building a profitable business). So, on August 25, 2010, Thrive ID, LLC was officially formed with the goal of building and selling web and mobile apps designed to help people do life better.

Since then I’ve been writing a business plan, doing research, defining strategy, designing products, finding developers, figuring out finances, and all the other stuff you have to do to get a business like this off the ground.  Since starting out I’ve been wondering when I’d freak out and go running back to corporate America but I’ve had a great peace and excitement about it all that I can only attribute to a gift from God.  Ask my wife. Normally if there’s something to worry about I’m pretty good at finding it.

Anyway, I described all that to explain why I’ve not posted in a while and to share my plan to regularly post on different topics, stories, and learnings related to starting Thrive ID and developing the products.  So if you’re interested in reading the thoughts of a laid-off Information Architect bootstrapping introverted Jesus-following husband with 4 kids (and a dog) who is trying to start a company building and selling web apps – then stay tuned.  Hopefully we’ll all learn something – whether it’s what to do or what not to do.

If you have any wisdom or advice to share, I’d love to hear it.