Start Me Up

In the fall of 2001, I was approached to do a logo and one-page flyer for a startup company in Marin County. The work was needed for a trade conference taking place the following week. I got busy and delivered an approved logo and flyer two days later. The next week began with 9/11, and the trade conference was cancelled. But out of that project my first professional relationship with a start-up tech company began.

I had missed the first merry-go-round of dot-commers in the late '90s, but missed getting flung off it as well. Despite the timing...the beginnings of a long period of cautious venture financing...I signed on as their creative director, although that title now seems ponderous for a company who met at the founder's kitchen table. It was a "sweat equity" deal...I was to keep track of my hours, and when the company got funded, my time would be turned into cash and stock.

A year later, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and couldn’t work for a few months. I lost my driving privileges due to seizures, and sold my beloved VW camper. The startup was very supportive, and when I could return to work (which I could largely do from my home) I did. Because their product involved multi-media, and because they didn’t have a lot of people, there was ample opportunity for me to work in a wide variety of disciplines. I did soundtracks. I did voice-overs. I assembled video-like presentations out of my wife’s travel photos. Even my kids got into the act…serving as a playground trash-talking chorus to a primitive basketball game. Then they got funded, and everything changed.

They opened up a SOMA loft-like office. They hired a CEO and a marketing director. They were going big time, and had little use for the kitchen-table team. This was both good news and bad… I was to receive a nice check for my three years of work, but I would not be along for the ride as they shot their way to the top. In the interim, I had recovered to the point where I had been driving for about a year, but without my own car. So I did what any mid-life carless male receiving a big check would do…I went out and bought a 1999 Porsche Boxster.

Last October, I got a call from the founder. It seems the CEO had burned through 90% of the funding, had been sacked and the founder was assembling a small team to try and rescue the company…was I interested? They offered a modest salary plus more stock. I jumped back in.

The pace began to accelerate. There were weekly emergencies…deliverable here, conference there…people left, people were reassigned, harsh words were said, nerve endings were irritated. Ultimately there was a restructuring of sorts, and the merry-go-round kept spinning as I found refuge on solid ground. No work, but no vertigo either. With tax time approaching, I realized I needed to sell the car to pay the taxes on the money that enabled me to buy the car. (An O. Henry tale for the millennium.)

Now, things are picking up, and I’ve plugged into a new group of creative and entrepreneurial people. Perhaps another ride is about to begin.