I moved from Miami, FL to Manhattan Beach, CA in 1994. After freelancing for a year, a colleague and I decided to join forces, creating a website hosting & software development company we called fresh ground software. We did amazingly well, starting with some borrowed money (which we repaid in the first year) and building up to a team of 10 within four years. We specialized in websites and applications for music & entertainment companies, including Sony, BMG and the Academy of Motion Pictures & Sciences. Our portfolio was amazing because of our super-talented team. Seriously, we were all friends and all loved what we were doing, so it reflected in the product. In 2000, we sold the company, a successful exit and the end of a beautiful chapter of my life.

One of the best books around on project management and software development lifecycle is Death March by Edward Yourdon (a celebrity programmer from the 80s). Napster was my death march project — because it was due yesterday with the RIAA breathing down Napster’s neck, our small team was scrambling to build out the backend. The goal of the project was to help Napster become a LEGAL file sharing platform, and my company specialized in rights management and royalty processing. I poured blood, sweat and tears into that project, working 90 hours a week, until it died at the hands of the RIAA. Years later, Napster became a legitimate subscription service as part of Best Buy. Sigh…

In 2008, a couple of friends and I started a company called True Focus Solutions. Our initial idea was to build a customer relationship management (CRM) system for banks, who have AWFUL customer service and terrible technology. After building out a prototype and trying to get some interest, I eventually joined Founder Institute, a startup incubator in Los Angeles (and worldwide). The mentors recommending changing the name and focusing on the one thing that differentiated us from other software solutions, so we pivoted into ZenCX, a provider of business intelligence to reduce churn and improve customer experience — the CX in our name. After many heartbreaks and personally investing way too much money, we finally had to pull the plug. It’s still a good idea, but we didn’t have enough capital to make it through the banking industry gauntlet. Oh, the lessons learned in #startuplife.