It’s been a while since I took the time to write an unrelated blog post. 5 years almost. When I last did it, it was on my newly purchased Dell laptop. I am now a Mac user. I am writing this post from my iPad.
When I started this venture, Microsoft was our main competition. Google calendar was in its early days and SAAS based services were in their infancy. Facebook was relatively unknown and Google and Skype were the poster child web companies.
The landscape has changed – but in reality, things haven’t changed. Over 5 years, I’ve been lucky to meet good friends, and had to say goodbye to others. We’ve raised close to $7M and still have cash to spare. We’ve been “almost” acquired 3 times – and each time decided to keep on building a great company.
Too many times, we missed deadlines because we were overly optimistic, but many times, we had to make critical decisions that changed the landscape of our business for the better. We never put on rose coloured glasses when looking at results and evaluated our assets at different intersections. Although we could have never imagined the road that we took to get where we are, the underlying vision never changed.
I’ve been supported by great people financially but, more importantly, emotionally. I’ve had countless sleepless nights, but always believed in our ability to make things happen. I sometimes didn’t listen to my gut, but always had to rectify these mistakes along the way.
I’ve worn my company t-shirt too many times, but always wore it with pride. I am grateful for my team members, I am grateful for my users. I am lucky. I am tired and I sometimes can’t sleep, but I realize that I wouldn’t want it any other way.
I do not know what 2011 will yield, but I can promise it’s going to be back-breaking fun.
Thanks for listening, and I wish everyone a fantastic 2011.
Your words are definitely inspiring…As a fellow entrepreneur I understand wanting to build a great product and listening to your gut. Good to hear all of your hard work payed off! Congratulations..
Kristen
As a long time entrepreneur and a long standing trainer (A Top 20 Trainer for a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary) I’m now creating a new company, Applied Appreciation (Quickly being rebranded “Applause For All” because everyone insist on calling us by the particular name of one of our programs). My personal business plan includes 25 minutes a week of research devoted to increased efficiency, which is how I discovered you! Stellar Product-Kudos to you for the ingenuity and the creation! Take a deep breath-think back to the first day of “hmm.. maybe I could..” moment..and now fast forward and celebrate all you’ve done! Way to go! You are a success! Congratulatiosn!!
I wanted to share someof my expertise and see if you’d think you’d benefit from a “blog article” on the Blueprint for an Effective Meeting. I also have a training “Extreme Meeting Makeover-Extroverts and Introverts converging to create a super power! Also, “Appreciative Meetings, starting every meeting with an infusion of positivity to create stellar results.” You can contact me if you think you’re organization would benefit! I’m a meeting guru and love equipping people with tools to go from the dreaded meeting to the rockin meeting!
I’ve been a Nationwide Teleconference trainer as well as responsible for creating and holding monthly onsite meetings for 12 years. Every meeting can be and should be empowering, energizing, and productive. They should also increase social cohesion in some way since the single largest determinate of a team’s success is a high level of social cohesion.
I wrote a seminar that I also presented Called “Maximizing Meetings- The Do’s the Don’t and the Don’t you Dare!” Anyway, I apologize for being long winded! Feel free to contact me of you are interested in adding a meeting GURU! Donda Combs
What a stroke of genius. Thank you for this very generous offering that is making my life a heck of a lot simpler. Brilliant!
Hi Marc,
Thanks for offering this great service to us. Do keep on wearing that T-shirt! (and feel free to send me one
You save me tons of time and I hope and pray that all of my business partners start using Tungle by default. I’m sure you’ll have to turn down (or accept) new offers in 2011.
All the best,
Philippe
Thanks for Tungle.Me!!! Not everyone has Outlook and when on the go from my main pc and/or my laptop, it’s hard to keep scheduling. My DayRunner does the job quite well with details too, but it’s always good to use both; especially when using confirmations with people who want to schedule times and need to see the information.
I’m quite content with Tungle.Me and want to see this evolve into the best scheduling product online. Just do me a favor, don’t “crack me upside the head” with new fees and outrageous pricing (sounds familiar anyone??? NING).
Marc,
Thanks for the post. As an entrepreneur we can all relate from the sleepless nights of anxiety,anxiousness and flat out excitement of doing what we do. I want to thank you for all that you do as your entrepreneurship is a small segment of the community of “us”. Reading posts like this gives us steam to continue to roll and a emotional partnership knowing there are others out there like “us”.
Happy New Year
Tony
I am so thankful to have found your program and look forward to upgrading when we have established our website and logo. Many thanks for such a brilliant product.
J Charity-Cole
All it takes is a dream, leadership, a plan, and a team. I wish you guys much success!
Kalimah Priforce, Careersters
Marc:
I’m in total agreement and thanks for letting us move the “mobile arm” of Tungle forward with you guys.
Can’t wait to see what 2011 will bring.
All the best – Martin