Getting to Fernie – “Keep calm and carry on!”

Here we are in Fernie! It has been a really busy week and we are still settling in. The kids are still waking up at odd hours of the night, like 0215 this morning, but that could be the time zone change or just being a 2 year old.

Getting to Fernie was surprisingly easy. The kids were really well behaved and everything worked out great. Our first flight from OR Tambo to Frankfurt was completely full. The kids were very excited and intrigued by everything in the plane. After the meal and a bit of encouragement Sarika fell asleep in Ankie’s arms. Christopher followed a little later, and they both slept about 5 hours. The worst part of the travel was the decent into Frankfurt, Sarika cried all the way down; we practised the motto: “keep calm and carry on”.

There was some perks to flying with the kids: Frankfurt had a special line for families, with no queue and about 5 people helping us get through. What a breeze! The 5 hour stopover felt much shorter and before we knew it we were on the plane to Calgary (after boarding first, another perk of flying with kids). The second flight was less than 30% full, so we had a row of 4 seats for each of us. Sarika also slept about 8 out of the 10 hours, with a little prescribed Valegran. We all got some sleep, stretched out over the seats! It helped a lot having a third pair of hands, ears and eyes on our trip, and I know having Eunice with us (our holiday au pair) is going to be the best idea ever!

Getting to Fernie: Sarika on Air Canada Flight, she slept 8 out of the 10 hours

Getting through immigration in Calgary took a little more time than we had planned and the officer wanted to see all kinds of documents. A family staying for 5 months must look a bit suspicious to them. But after all that we were through and into the rental car on our way to the hotel. Justinus forgot to book a GPS with the car we had to navigate the old fashion way, with a map, luckily that is one of his strong characteristics and I wasn’t worried at all!

Once at the hotel the first stop was to get local SIM cards so we could be connected to the world once more! We then went on to Mountain Equipment Co-op to buy some clothes for the kids, by this time they were hit really hard by the Jet lag, they fell asleep in the car. They did not think it was funny when we woke them to fit the clothes. The shoes were fitted in their sleep! So we rather left and went back to the hotel. We got some take-out (as they called it) on the way there, and everybody but Justinus fell asleep in the car.

At 10:00 Christopher woke up, wanting to go to the loo, Sarika woke shortly thereafter, wanting to know if she may have a sweetie!!? I was praying that the kids will go back to sleep, as I was very tired myself; at 11:30 the battle was won. At 3:30 I woke up with a thankful heart, with a kid on each side, upside down, their legs all over me, smelly feet in my face, holding their hands while they were still in dreamland. Thankful that the travelling has gone much easier than anticipated, that the kids, especially Christopher was so well behaved on the plane (Sarika was just busy J), that we’ve all made it safe on the other side, that we all kept calm and that everything worked out well.

We even found a Nando’s in Calgary! That is our favourite take out back home!

Well, with everybody up so early, there was enough time to sort out Justinus’ cell phone issues, exchange clothes at MEC and get something to eat! We actually saw a Nando’s (our favourite) but it wasn’t open yet. We opted for KFC that was close by our pickup to Fernie. Sarika spilled a full glass of apple juice over Eunice, but she handled it quite well! Hal from Fernie Ford picked us up, and we crammed everything in the minivan. I slept for the better part of the drive to Fernie. On our arrival we’ve collected the house keys at Fernie Rentals and were on our way to our new home for the next 5 months. What a relief when we arrived, finally here!!

Getting to Fernie was the first part of our epic journey! That box is ticked, now the fun starts!

Startup Communities – Review

Since I really enjoyed Venture Deals, I was curious to read more books by Brad Feld. So I started ‘Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City’ hoping for more insight on the startup ecosystem. I was not disappointed; the book also further inspired me to part of this world in the future.

The book uses the history of Boulder, Colorado in the United States as the premise to describe a startup community. Feld refers to it as “The Boulder Thesis”. My perception from afar has long been that the tech startup world starts and ends almost exclusively with Silicon Valley. Well, that assumption has been properly crushed! In fact, this book paints such a great picture of Boulder that I feel the need to go see what it is like for myself.

==> Click to buy: Startup Communities <==

Feld makes a very strong case that a startup community needs to function as a bottom up inspired community that is led by entrepreneurs. If any other players in the ecosystem, like governments, lawyers, universities or venture capital firms (whom Feld refers to as followers) take a leadership role, the growth of the startup community will be throttled.

When Marisa Mayer recently took over as CEO of Yahoo, I was intrigued that Google did not have some form of non-compete or restraint agreement as part of her employment contract that would prevent her from going to a competitor. This book provided me an answer to this question: Non-Compete agreements are unenforceable in California. This seems to be one factor that helps to drive the health of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Silicon Valley.

The book also addresses one of the commonly perceived problems in many startup communities: the lack of Venture Capital. Since there will always be some imbalance in the supply and demand for startup capital, it is very important not to see venture capital and startup communities as the same thing. In today’s connected world capital increasingly will find worthy ideas to invest in no matter where they are located.

==> Click to buy: Startup Communities <==

I really enjoyed ‘Startup Communities’ and I really think it can add huge value to anybody looking to help create a vibrant Startup Community in their own city. I hope the leaders in Silicon Cape reads ‘Startup Communities’.

Today is the day!

We are packed, and ready to GO! Today is the day our 5-month Fernie Adventure officially starts today. Hopefully the flight with the kids will not be too painful, and the adjustment to the new time zone easy. But no matter what happens we will aim to have as much fun as possible.

I am really looking forward to spending time as a member of a community in another country. I am sure it will take some adjustment and that simple things we take for granted now at home will be challenged and we will need to adapt on the go.

Today is the Day! Fernie here we come!

It is also going to be awesome to see the inner workings of a ski town, our longest ski trip before this was three weeks. But even then we wanted to minimise the time spent doing anything except skiing. This time we will get to see what happens in Fernie from opening day (1 Dec) till the last day of the season (somewhere between mid to end April).

This will be the longest any of us have been outside SA, our first time with a fulltime nanny, and many other first along the way. By the time we are back, the next season of Super Rugby will be past the half way mark, and hopefully the BULLS will be on top of the log! We will make sure we follow every game online, as I have no clue if we would be able to get it on TV.

I have not been this fit since my first year at university, and even then I don’t think I would have been able to do 80km on a mountain bike. I have lost about 15kg in the last three months so I think it is safe to say, this is the best shape I have ever been in for a skiing trip! This all means the skiing will be: (in the words of Barney Stinson)

Legen……..wait for it……dary!!

If all goes according to plan we will both be qualified ski instructors by the end of the season, which could mean we have even more reason to spend more time on the snow in the future. We might even get paid to do it!

The De Jager family will visit us not long after we arrive, but with Jano skiing ability I might learn more from him than the instructors course! Or maybe not, he assures me (after skiing for 5 days) that he is the king of the snow…. It is going to be great to have them there for 3 weeks!

When we land back in SA, I will hopefully also be able to code. And have a long list of ideas as to what to do next!

Next stop OR Tambo, Frankfurt, Calgary before eventually getting to Fernie in about 25 hours time. The memories will make it all worth it. Today is the day we will hopefully remember for a long time!

The Startup Dream

I have been reading about startups over the last few months. From Lean Startup, The Launch Pad, Venture Deals and a few more. The more I have read about the Startup eco system the more it has intrigued me. The Software and Tech startup is particularly interesting to me.

Previously I have always viewed software startups as a little to complicated. My preference has been for more Internet based businesses that used some tech, but not groundbreaking software businesses. My reading list has however started to change my mind about it, and with my new challenge to learn to code, I have been looking to potential software business ideas.

This week Jano forwarded me a link to an article I found absolutely fascinating. It is a long Essay by Paul Graham, the founder of Y Combinatory in Silicon Valley. The title “How to get Startup Ideas” was enough to get me to read through this 14 page essay and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Me and @yossihasson in Silicon Valley back in 2009, Palo Alto features in the Startup Dream of many people!

Right of the bat Graham makes the point that the very best startup ideas have three things in common:

1) They are something the founders themselves need

2) Something the founders themselves can build

3) Something few others realize are worth doing

He also argues that you have to make sure you tackle a “problem”, mostly because in order to get people to start using your service early and even in its most elementary form you have to elevate some pain for them. Seeing that a small startup team is limited in what it can build in version one, he suggests that they tackle “something a small number of people want a large amount”.

One of the great traps he talks about is when you artificially try to come up with ideas for startups. In this thought process he argues that bad ideas sound really plausible. Or you convince yourself that an idea is good because you are under pressure to come up with something.

He suggests an alternative route. If you want a great startup idea, become the type of person that has great startup ideas. He reference this passage from “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert Pirsig:

“You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It’s easy. Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally.”

He then builds on it from here to end with the conclusion that the best recipe for great startup ideas is: “Live in the future and build what seems interesting.”

I found vindication for some thoughts that I have been playing with, I think learning to code might well turn out to be a great investment of time, then it might be worth it to work for a great software or tech startup at the forefront of their field. Who knows what the future might bring, but ‘The Startup Dream’ sure looks exciting from here!

Make sure you read this Paul Graham’s Essay and tell me you thoughts below:

Why Learn to Code?

I will most likely never understand why I didn’t learn to code at a young age. My dad had a computer company and started bringing home computers when I was about 5 or 6. I was fascinated from day one and started playing computer games right away. Later in primary school I got hooked on Dune 2, from then on I only played strategy games. I still have fond memories of playing Age of Empires through the night, and then getting back behind the laptop after an hour or two’s sleep to run the business we just started.

Why learn to code? And is it too late at the tender age of 34?

But somehow I never got to the point of going deeper in the Computer Science world and to start programming. I had no excuse. My high school had a great computer lab and computer science classes. But high school was more about sport and chasing girls.

About four or five years ago in the heat of frustration of managing a company with teams of developers, I started to wish I knew more about programming. It turned out to be just a fleeting thought at the time, but in the last few months since I left, it has become a recurring theme.

So why learn to code now, at 34? Is it not too late? I have found myself reading more and more about software, startups and incubators. With all this reading my will to try and learn to code has steadily been increasing. And the idea of doing a software startup is really appealing! I will probably never get to the point where I can be considered to be a technical founder in a startup, but being a non-technical founder that can help code will go a long way.

So I have been doing some courses on www.codeacademy.com and it is a great deal of fun! They actually go to a lot of effort to make it fun and really easy to learn. They also break it down in nice small bite sizes so you can do something with small increments of time.

They have a great “track” called Code Year, which feels like it is meant for people just like me! They start with JavaScript and them HTML and CSS! Well so far it is a blast; my aim is to learn as much as I can in the 5 months in Fernie! An intellectual adventure to go with the skiing adventure! Follow my progress on Codeacademy.com.

Why don’t you join me? We are never too old to learn new things!