Early October Venture Update

Image by Michael Lewkowitz via FlickrIt's been a few weeks since I wrote about my side project. I'm willing to share a bit more information at this point but I'm still going to be vague.

I've continued to explore the technical side through coding and the business side through thinking and my enthusiasm remains. This is  a record for me at this point. Generally I run into some sort of issue that causes me to lose interest much more quickly. More often than not the walls I've hit have been related to pursuing ideas outside of my own area of expertise. I'm pushing the boundaries a bit with this one but I'm capable of doing a lot of the initial prototyping myself and thats a big bonus.

One thing I am willing to share at this point is that the basic idea is centered in social networking but is not a social network in and of itself. With Google entering the market this year we have all the social networks we need. There are probably opportunities for niche players similar to LinkedIn but going that route would take deep pockets and a lot of luck.

This doesn't mean that there isn't still some potential to build interesting and useful products in this area though. The tricky bit is figuring out the where and the how. I think I may have done that. Time will tell.

To date the big challenge has been finding time to work on my idea and developing or dusting off the skills I need to create the prototype. I feel a bit like I'm back in school working on my MBA. It's tough to do something like this while working full time. It's mostly fun, but there are times when I'm frustrated and tired. The same was true of completing the MBA though and I made it through that.

Yesterday I finished the initial implementation of the first part of my project. It still has some warts but it more or less appears to do what I want it to.

I'm at a bit of a crossroads right now in terms of what is next. Right now I'm leaning towards spending a few days formalizing the business side of the equation. Figuring out if I should incorporate, if I should look for people to partner with at this point and the all important question of how I will monetize (make money) if this were to become a company. I've been giving those questions "back of mind" cycles for awhile now but I think its time I sit down and "do the math".

It's been a great experience to date and at the very least I've learned a lot. I'm excited to see where this thing leads. Wish me luck.