I'm back! So much has happened since I last posted, and I've missed the ActiveRain community so much while I was gone. I'm so glad to be back and am very excited to share my stories from the last three years. I'll try to keep them short, but trust me, they're very interesting.
As you may know back in October of 2009 I joined a startup in Cambridge, MA called Zaang. I was brought on as the Chief Technology Office and I was employee #1. I was so excited to be working with like minded (I thought they were at the time) people building a cool product. Basically Zaang was like Facebook groups but instead of groups there were "Worlds" that you could create and have discussions with other users who shared your interests.
Well like many startups it failed, and for a number of reasons. I'm not here to bash anyone as the founders were young and inexperienced, and even the most experienced entrepreneurs fail, but it was not what I signed up for. As the most experienced entrepreneur there, with the most social media knowledge, I was not listened to. The product went in a weird direction, and eventually turned into a mirco-deal site that charged businesses to post their deals. This also failed, but not before I was let go for some unknown reason in May of 2010. I learned a lot from my co-workers, and realized that I needed to work for myself if I was ever going to be happy.
In August of 2010 I started working at a spring break company as Interactive Marketing Manager. This was a nice change since all I had done for the past few years was write code, and I always loved marketing. I knew I was moving to Las Vegas in November, but I took the job anyway to pass the time and hopefully learn a thing or two. Well, I must have been doing well because when I told my boss I was moving to Vegas he let me work remotely. I was pumped! It was a great company, but I was also very excited to move to Vegas. It was a win win!
Before I left for Vegas I rescued my business partner (more on that later) Jay from the sinking ship that was the aforementioned startup (they closed their doors two weeks after he left). While in Vegas we came up with an idea for an on-site marketing campaign during spring break. We were going to live stream events, get travelers to connect with us on Facebook, and post hundreds of photos everyday. In 2011 what happened in Cancun did not stay in Cancun. The best part was we got to go to Cancun for 30 days to run the campaign. It was a great time, and the campaign was a huge success.
Upon returning things at the company started to change. There was new management, our parent company across the pond was implementing new processes that included tracking your time on every single thing you did, and it was nearly impossible to implement new ideas. Once again I realized that to be happy I needed to be working for myself, and this time I was going to do it.
In July 2011 I started Yelling Mule with my friend Jay (from above), and we combined our two side businesses into one, and continued to do them on the side while we worked our full time jobs. We did pretty well in 2011, and in 2012 we were doing really well, so well that we decided it was time to take the Mule full time. We put together a business plan, finalized our website, and started pitching investors. After almost six months of trying to raise money we finally did, and in October of 2012 we both gave our notice at the spring break company and took Yelling Mule full time.
It's only been three months, but I've never been happier. I once again look forward to Mondays and absolutely love what I'm doing. I was born to run my own business, and this time it's for good. I'm also able to start blogging again, and will be getting involved with real estate, which I just can't seem to escape! We're going to be putting together some great products for real estate agents, and I can't wait to share them with you. In the meantime I'm going to get back to blogging about tips and tricks, marketing, social media, and everything else I used to love writing about.
I failed to keep this short, but I had a lot to say, and now I want to hear what you've been up to. Let me know in the comments, I'd love to hear from everyone!
Comments(2)