On Heading West

Posted on March 23, 2012. Filed under: Hyperpublic, startups |

Today was my last day ever at Hyperpublic Headquarters. You wake up every day, walk to work, pick up a coffee, swipe your key card, and focus every shred of energy you have on advancing one mission, and then…in the blink of an eye…it ends. Today I woke up, ate my breakfast, picked up a coffee, and got to the office…but not to push things forward…rather…to say goodbye. I said goodbye to what had become my home for the last two years…I literally spent more time in that office than I did in my apartment…but our space was home in more dimensions than simply time spent. A home is where your family lives…Doug and I started a family at 416 West 13^th st…As two young Russian guys carted our furniture away, I poured through stacks of paper, scribbles and notes, and master plans…pitch decks, newspaper clippings, trinkets acquired along the way. A bottle of whiskey with a lego cowboy strapped to the mouth, a spinning mobile with the name Nina scrawled in white chalk…a set of objects that encased the stories of how our family was formed, and the way that we lived.

In the sheen of what I am humbled to call “success” I can’t help but admit an overarching feeling of melancholy…a bitter sweet…that on some days skews more bitter than sweet. Not every company operates like a family…it is a very particular style of interaction and culture that I think I saw glimpses of at General Catalyst, but really learned from Kenny…There are so many benefits to what I can only call familial execution, organic and filled to the brim with respect, where management is trumped by collective pride and shared values…it is the only way I will build going forward…but when your team becomes your family, it makes transition pretty emotional… this change represents the end of something…as long as we were Hyperpublic, our family would remain comfortable and in tact.

I am not sad about turning over our company to Groupon. I’d imagine it’s a similar feeling to sending your child to college. Rather, I am fearful of coming change to the chemistry of my family…but perhaps…I should not be…perhaps we are so strong…that we will remain family through the years…from company to company…life event to life event…and that this is the end of our family’s formation, but the beginning of it’s growth and maturation…If we did it right…this will be the way things go down…but still it hurts to move…to a new house…to a new neighborhood…and to a new phase of life that despite 2 months of negotiation and planning, seems to have snuck up on us so fast.

This is a wave that comes across me, one in a set of beautiful swells, and amazing feelings of happiness and excitement and perfect rides, but a wave nonetheless that crashes down as we continue to surf through the adventures of startupland.