Out of the Academy and Into the Enterprise
“In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.” -- _Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_
It’s been about 40 days since I formally left academia in favour of pursuing opportunities as an entrepreneur. To be fair, about 30 of those days have been committed to vacation time with my family. This is much in line with understanding my own priorities: family first! The time away from work has also allowed me to gain both focus and perspective. I made a commitment to get back into cycling, and I have been more or less successful in doing so by carving out time first thing in the morning (around 6:30am) to get out for at least a 30 minute interval ride. Shorter days and other factors have made this a bit more difficult in the past week, but the foundation is now there to continue riding. Cycling time, in addition to being good for one’s health, also allows one to contemplate whatever may be of interest. For me, time on the bike allows me to think of the 30,000 foot perspective for my business plans. This might not work for everyone (many people I know exercise to force themselves to take a break from “thinking”, but I find 30 minutes of uninterrupted think time to be invaluable. I typically take a few minutes to jot down notes after my ride (both about the ride and the thoughts that occurred to me during the ride), and then I get on with the rest of my day.
We have done some pretty amazing things as a family over the past month, and the memories we have made are fantastic. For the first time in many years, I have found it difficult to really get back into the swing of things with work. This is, in part, a problem related to the fact that I am still on Daddy Duty two days a week and trying to cram both the consultancy and the product development work of the corporation into the remaining three days. Nevertheless, it’s an exciting time and I feel lucky to work with people who respect my commitments and accommodate my schedule.
I had originally planned out a product launch and started to formulate a spin-off business plan around it. As I started working on it, though, it became clear that the passion for the venture just wasn’t there for me. So, scarcely a month in I’m changing direction. Radically in some ways, predictable in others. Rather than venturing into largely unknown territory, I am instead returning to my roots and shifting the company focus to “Analytics-Driven Design and Development”. With that as a general framework, I am working with several partners to assess the feasibility of various products. I’ve been busy submitting several grant proposals, some of which have already been funded.
For now, things seem promising. One of the challenges for me will be to keep the consultancy hours contained to allow myself to commit more time for R&D.
I am also amazed at the wealth of resources available to new entrepreneurs, and I feel fortunate to have found some pretty spectacular local ones, including the WEtech Alliance and their Entrepreneur-in-Residence programme.