Hey Nick,
Not too many people know how hard it is to do what you do. To be a great family man, a leader in your community, a risk taking entrepreneur and a model colleague among colleagues. I can’t possibly tell you how important your friendship has been for me over the last five years. I’m just happy I can call you a dear friend, a mentor, an inspiration and a brother.
I hope this is your best year ever bro.
One LOVE,
Marcus
The views expressed in this post are completely my own and do not reflect the views of my employer or anyone else associated with Moontoast.
So…
For the last two years, Moontoast has been expanding into Boston to build out some capabilities on the team and technology that frankly were not abundant in Nashville at the time. While Nashville is developing, the type of company that Moontoast is required us to pull expertise from either San Francisco, New York or Boston. The company chose Boston when we selected Blair Heavey to be our CEO in 2010. Best decision I’ve made as Co-Founder was bring Blair in as the company’s leader. I’ve gained a great mentor, friend and guide in this crazy world of startups.
Part of the deal was that I would have to spend half my time in Boston to help him build out the part of the company we needed to have in Boston in order for Moontoast to be succesful. That has meant over 180 days on the road each year for the last two years for me, away from my family, girlfriend and friends. Anyone who is close to me knows that this has been very difficult for me, for my family, for my girlfriend and for my close friends. It has also been hard for the Nashville Moontoast team, as they have not had consistent access to me as I’m sure we all would have liked.
But sacrifice is part of what makes success. And we are where we are as a company because of this sacrifice and many others made by the amazing team at Moontoast.
From Day 1, Blair and I agreed that it was important for us to build this up to be a win for BOTH Nashville and Boston. Almost two years after he and I started this journey, the Boston team has developed nicely, and we have a fantastic office in Boston after two years of bouncing around sub-leases, never having a place to call our own, and never being able to really settle down. We did this to keep costs low as we proved what a valuable company we could be to ourselves, our investors and the market. The new Boston office was earned, 100%.
I’m proud of what we have done, and I’m proud that we have continued to grow the Nashville team as well as the Boston team. That was ALWAYS the deal.
However, one thing I haven’t been able to shake for the last two years, is the constant rumor mill in Nashville that I and Moonbtoast are moving to Boston. No matter how many times I say that’s not true, I still hear chatter that it is true. And it’s usually from people in the tech community, which I consider myself a core member of, and sometime people I consider friends.
This hurts. And I’m tired of it.
All I’ve done for the last ten years is try to contribute in whatever way I could to make sure Nashville becomes a premier tech city. This has been anything but easy, but the community and our staggering growth makes it all worth it. Except when people start to incinuate that I have something up my sleeve.
Barcamp, Jumpstart, Moontoast, Emma. Half a year away from my loved ones.
WTF. Seriously. What do y’all want? A tattoo on my forehead that says “Nashville 4 Eva!”
I heard today from a good friend, that another person who I consider a friend, was once again spreading this mistruth that Moontoast is leaving Nashville.
Well, if that happens, then I am leaving Moontoast. And that’s not happening.
This is not something I wanted to say publicly, but I hope this serves as a public record to anyone who may have doubts about what Moontoast will do with regards to Nashville. This was a last resort.
Here is what we are going to do.
1) Build the best piece of Social Software Nashville has ever seen.
2) Build the most passionate team in the space, in the city.
3) Win or die trying.
I don’t care if you think this is a publicity stunt. I had to get this off my chest.
If you have been spreading false rumors about Moontoast leaving Nashville, you clearly don’t know what you are talking about and you should stop. You are damaging what will be a great Nashville company, and in so doing, damaging Nashville.
Stop saying I’m leaving Nashville. As long as Moontoast is its own company, we will build it in Nashville and Boston, proudly.
It’s been half a year since I last posted. A lot has happened in that time. I think it’s time to reflect a bit because things are shifting around me in a rather peculiar way, and I’m certain that I need to stop and reflect for a second to really understand what’s happening right now.
I’m going to use this post as an anchor and I will write lots of smaller posts, post dated, to give myself some room to research. I’ll also update this report as I rifle through my Social Media and find cool stuff I did that I can’t remember right now.
The first thing I remember about this year is that when the Ring of Five brought in the new year, we all talked about resolutions and I remember saying that I wasn’t going to get too specific, but I was going to focus on becoming more healthy this year, primarily through exercise.
Running
At the beginning of the year, Rachel said she wanted to run a half-marathon. I agreed. We trained and completed the Country Music Half-Marathon. Still can’t quite believe that, considering how much I thought I was only a sprinter and couldn’t run long distance. So far this year, I’ve run 247.7 miles (that I’ve tracked) for over 45 hours. I don’t know what my old record was, but I’ve certainly surpassed it, and I definitely don’t think I run enough today. This is good.
Travel
2010 marked the year that travel would be part of my professional obligation. It has pros and cons, as you can imagine. But I’ve come to terms with it and believe that while it is a sacrifice, I am incredibly fortunate to be able to do it, especially because of the opportunity that it enables me to have.
This year, I’ve been spending a lot of time outside of Nashville in cities like Boston, San Francisco, New York, LA and San Jose. I’ve also spent time in many other cities this year like Las Vegas, Memphis, Austin, Birmingham, Wichita, Burnsville and Washington, DC. No international travel though. I gotta work on that.
27 Trips in all, and over 50K miles travelled. I could have never imagined that I would be on the road this much when all this started.
Family
This has been a good year. My parents have been healthy. My kids have been (relatively) happy and healthy. Everyone has gotten some travel in so far. And we’ve also had more good times than bad times together. And we have great renters in our properties. Life has been good this year to my family so far.
Love
I don’t know why Love is always so difficult, but having a mate as fantastic as I do certainly makes it all worth it. In a couple of weeks we will have been a couple for three years. I don’t know how we did that, but I am so grateful that we did. This year we ran a half marathon, made amazing brunches, got through two VERY important weddings, saw Snoop Dogg and Childish Gamibino, toured Graceland, rocked SXSW for 12 hours, ate well, laughed a lot, cried a little, but we were not cruel to each other. At least not intentionally. Not bad, lady. Not bad.
We also lived our own lives and celebrated each other’s little wins. Thank you for that and everything else.
Moontoast
This has been an incredible year for the Toast. We have launched campaigns with superstars from Lady Antebellum to Rick Ross and with brands from Gillette to Febreze. Stephen King, Fortune 500 (literally, the list), Chamillionaire, Rascal Flatts and so many more. And we have so much opportunity lined up for the rest of the year, it’s nuts.
We were recognized as a Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer, and as of now, we are the only one in Tennessee and one of three in the Southeastern United States.
The team has gotten incredibly tight. Lots of adversity, definitely learning lessons along the way. But all in all, very resilient and determined. I’m proud to be a member of this team. I’m lucky that this is the team I play on everyday.
I had the best speaking opportunity ever at Murmuration this year. Thanks to ISM for that.
And we really are just getting started. This is an exciting time.
Jumpstart Foundry
There are some great entrepreneurs in the Foundry this year. Crafty, determined and really smart. I’m very excited for this year’s Investor Day in August. This year has been exceptionally fun because I found a team that I really believe I was meant to mentor. The Wax team is blowing my mind with what they are doing. I know they are going to do great things.
Ring Of 5
My boys. Still great friends, still watching out for each other. I’m so incredibly lucky to have been invited to barbecue four years ago with Nick Holland, Jackson Miller, Jason Moore and David Corts.
People
I met so many awesome people this year. Literally hundreds of new people in my life. Sometimes, with all the travel, I feel a little lonely. I think living out of a suitcase will do that to you. But when I think about the network of people that I have met and can reach out to, I have to be one of the most blessed people on Earth. People are power. People are awesome and inspiring and unique and striking. I’m so much richer because of all the people I’m able to meet and spend time getting to know.
Passing
All in all, this has been a good year of passing. Every year brings some passing. My aunt Bernice passed away at a beautiful old age. My friend Karsten passed away. Both of those transitions were celebrated more than mourned. Grace.
—————–
I’m looking forward to the 2nd half.
- Mood follows action.
This is a little late, but I had to take some downtime for my birthday. I know you understand.
I had the opportunity to write a guest post on VentureBeat about the shift in power to consumers and why embracing social is going to be make or brake for many consumer brands. I’m excited about the timing of the article. Moontoast is going to change things in 2012. We’ve been preparing for this for over two years. We have our team tuned up, and our platform is built and evolving VERY quickly. Now it’s time to implement the things that we have learned, and we’re ready to do that.
This post is a glimpse at our vision. We’ll reveal more soon.
Happy New Year to you all. I hope you’re as excited as I am for a magical 2012.
To clarify, when I say MusicTech, I mean as in SFMusicTech, not MusicTech magazine.
There is an opportunity for a media entity to cover the MusicTech space with in-depth analysis and consistency. The industry would benefit tremendously from a media source that was no bullshit and regularly delivered rigorous analysis of the MusicTech Industry.
It’s expensive to be in the music industry and get a grasp on who’s doing what in the MusicTech space. The buyers and beneficiaries of all this technology don’t understand the technology, and the technologists don’t understand that. When the technologists realize the dilemma, they have already severely miscalculated the efforts required to effectively communicate what they do and why it’s valuable and different to the market. Game over.
There are only two conferences that seem to really generate solid information for the US MusicTech market: Midem (which is in France btw) and SFMusicTech (which is only one day and on a Monday this February). Neither is cheap or all that accessible for most people (I’ve never been to Midem and I’m not going next month).
The lack of good analysis is a problem no different from other industries, it’s just more of a problem in Music than most. There is so much to be made and lost based on how the Music industry leverages (or fails to leverage) technology because a large portion of the assets of the industry are digital and consumed via the Internet.
Back to the point…
The media sources for the MusicTech space just aren’t doing a very good job, and no one challenges them and calls them on it. In an effort to be able to look super knowledgable about a company, they box it into a simple term they have created or adopted and then move on. There are a short-list of journalists who put the effort in but do not have the resources to cover this vast, quick moving space with the rigor it deserves.
Without good information, the market makes bad decisions and assumptions about their options for MusicTech. And then, a pirate comes along and screws everything up by making all the technologists look like blood suckers. Most of the founders I’ve met in the MusicTech space have a genuine desire to improve things for the industry and create more value for all involved. They (and I) love music and want the industry to thrive.
If I were Forrester or Gartner, I’d up my ante in this space. NPD shows up at all the events, but the message is essentially the same (not a bad message Russ, just pretty much the same), so they could use some competition.
And if I were BillBoard, I would seriously double down my investment in MusicTech analysis. The opportunity is huge and the competition is a non issue.
I love highlighting David’s writing. He doesn’t write often, but when he does, it’s right.
The best line (spoiler): “I believe a startup only has one real competitor, indifference.”
If you are a founder, I want to talk to you. I want to understand where you are in your startup. What you already know and what’s the most critical thing for you to learn, now.
I’m working on an outline for posts that I will write on Founder Life, and I need some input. Also, I might ask you to do a guest post on my blog. I want to aggregate the highest level of content for founders anywhere online. I’d like your help in doing that.
What are you currently struggling with in your startup? Are you having second thoughts? How’s your team? Is your message clicking in the market yet? Please let me know if there is something that you think would help you if you could just grasp and understand it.
Either sound off in the comments or send me your thoughts directly in this form. Thanks.
So, I’m now fed up with it. I’m totally bought into the promise of Android. I like the user experience, I love the power of the platform and the Google Integrations, but the phones are just not that good. I haven’t played with a Galaxy S or Galaxy Nexus, or any Ice Cream Sandwich device, but I sincerly hope that they don’t full on crash as much as my AT&T Samsung Inspire.
This device has so much promise. Great screen, not too many installed apps, nice weight. But the thing crashes on me when I use RunKeeper and Rdio at the same time. That sucks.
It just crashed again on me while I was setting up my Path account. It crashes everyday now. It’s a really frustrating experience.
The thing about it is, I was an iPhone owner for years. Those devices did get considerably slower when major upgrades to iOS came out, but they did not full on crash anywhere close to as much as Android. It’s pretty pathetic.
I’m still an Android fan, and I dread the idea that I may need to go back to an iPhone. I’m going to have to seriously investigate the Galaxy Nexus and see if that is the answer or if I have to go back to the iWorld.
Hi Tod.
I had a conversation with a friend tonight about the NTC and the potential of it with its next leader. While talking to him, I found myself running down the list of things that you have done in your tenure as President of the NTC, and tears came to my eyes. You really have done such amazing things in your role of leader and ambassador of Nashville’s technology community. No matter what anyone says, that is what you have been, and I for one already miss you in that role.
For anyone who doesn’t know, I want to just share a sample of the things that you did (with the help of the amazing team that you built, inspired and led) in your short time that were completely amazing:
I know I’m not doing it justice at all. I know that any other member of the NTC would have an entirely different list of amazing things that you did. Maybe The Naked Hospital. Maybe InfoSec. Maybe the CIO dinners. Maybe the Technology Fund. Who knows, you have done so much stuff that it is overwhelming, and hard to know what to point out.
You’re simply amazing Tod. We are so lucky to have you here in Nashville, and the next NTC president has HUGE shoes to fill. Thank you for all that you have done. Nashville is now #Techville because of you.
- Marcus
Moontoast
Jumpstart Foundry
SouthernAlpha
Entrepreneur Center