Bac’n and a Business Model
Update: Bac’n has been acquired. Look for the book “Makin’ Bac’n: From Idea to Startup in 21 Days” coming to bookstores in April 2010.
I’ve been in the technology space for awhile now. I started as a system administrator/engineer almost ten years ago and that morphed into a novice developer then open source participant/helper then open web evangelist then leading an engineering team building great products and finally, to selling bacon on the Internet.
“Wait, WTF?!” you say? “You sell bacon on the Internet?!”
Yes. Yes I do.
Its really hard to explain but selling bacon is honestly one of the most interesting/fun things I’ve ever done. Its not just technology-for-the-sake-of-technology. Jason, Michael and I created something out of nothing using off-the-shelf tools to make a solution that delivers real things to real people. And we did it all in less than a month.
While meeting with one of our Bac’n advisors (and hopefully future partner) this past week she summed it up best. After years selling and building technology, she was kind of over with it. “I’m tired of technology. I like solutions and business models that can be affected by technology.” You can see why we’re talking to her.
In any case, for about the last two weeks I’ve been flying solo. Doing Bac’n and putting a few feelers out to close friends and colleagues to see what there is to see that better fits my new found love of technology and a business model. I’ve been astounded by the response and there are quite a few interesting opportunities out there.
I’m still going to participate in open web work and helping to develop technologies that keep data free and put the consumer at the center. That’s something that I think is just too much a part of me not to do. However, my journey henceforth will be rooted in figuring out how building a community can be a good thing for your business.
(Note: I resisted the urge to title this post “Ship it” because I knew there would be some serious twitter hate happening – and rightfully so … hahaha)