startups are .......

It is exciting to work for a startup. There is always a lot to do, and there is always that anxiety about getting your first BIG deal. Then there is the nervous wreck about the details of the deal: the engineer turned sales dude (aka me) sold the world to the customer; the application you are delivering on the platform the client wants has never been installed anywhere, your engineers are not familiar with the app since they are not familiar with the platform; your partner is struggling to deliver their end of the deal; your reseller has never sold a product in your industry; the customer is physically on another continent; you still don't have a contract with your reseller.

What a mess! But that is the life in a startup. It's exciting but yet you feel like every deal is dangling by a thread.

P.S. So, ethically, do you still push the deal?

Leaving again

Well, it's been a nice week and half back in Lausanne. I realized that I need to stop traveling. It's difficult to build a company when you are on the road all the time.

Off to NYC to a few days, then down to Orlando for a trade show (actually participating this time). Then comes the part that I am really looking forward to: 3 days on the beach!!!

en route from Singapore to Geneva

Wrote this on the plane, I am a couple days late posting it.

While I travel around the world this month, I have noticed how much my fellow classmates, or ex-classmates from IMD, travel as well.

In San Francisco, I met Ihab, who was traveling from Boston. During my stopover in Singapore, I tried to meet three of my classmates but apparently no one was around: Aaron was in Bangkok (I am transiting thru Bangkok to get to Switzerland), KK was in London or Amsterdam, and Nanang was in Jakarta.

Is this the typical life of an IMD MBA grad? Anyone?

finally back in Lausanne

At last. I am back in Lausanne. Going home to Taiwan was nice; as much as it was home, I still couldn't feel like it was my own space. I was surprised how good it felt to be back in my apartment in Lausanne.

Didn't really suffer from much jetleg. I pushed myself to stay up the first day (yesterday) until 10pm. Still waking up at 6:30, but that isn't so bad.

Feel much more energetic now, and have put a bit of effort cleaning up my apartment. It really wasn't that much work. It's hard to imagine how I really didn't feel like cleaning up the place in January. I must have been exhausted psychologically. Vacation does wonders.