I am grateful and humbled by all the wonderful people and memories that were part of my 2014. Last year I sold Syntress and rediscovered sleep. My stomach got pissed off at me and put me in the hospital for four days, which helped me drop 60lbs since December 2013. Leigh Ann Janish stood by me all year. #mygirl even stayed next to my hospital bed for all those days that I was in excruciating pain and completely incapable of doing anything. 2014 was a lightning fast year, it flew by on me, faster than year I remember before it. Im grateful for friends, family, and the success in business. Im thankful for the success that both Kenneth Mott and I have seen while working toward growth with our staffing firm. Im grateful for everyone involved in the VisuHire story, without people like Tim Ressmeyer, Christopher Ziobehr and Joshua Bourquin who keep making big strides on the people, product and paperwork sides of things. We wouldnt be moving along like we are without the talented people that are helping make this a reality. Heck, not many companies have Google, Rackspace, Hubspot and MaxCDN as launch partners before they even launch! 2014 was also the year that saw Clay Neigher don a Mexican wrestling mask during a Google Hangout meeting. #thuglife (Yes, I kept that screenshot to share with Mari Buttweiler someday). Chris Shaw and Katie Shockley-Shaw didnt believe we would be at Katies birthday party but we made it anyway. David J. Stricker Jr. let us crash at his place and Ranger met Panda. Dave Wright, James Courtright and Jaime Elizabeth were a blast to enjoy the Irish Fest in Dublin with. I met new people and a became a Colorado tourist in June when Katrina Bossert made an honest man out of Josh. #summerfun Reflecting on the last year reminded me of how lucky I am. It was through the incredible people in my life that I had the opportunity to meet some other incredible people. Those familiar with Shark Tank will know a couple of the names. I was invited to an event at 1871 with Mark Cuban and invited to a UBM/CRN event with Robert Herjavec. I was able to snag tickets to an event with Steve Wozniak in Chicago. Another friend introduced me to a series of tech journalists who facebook friended me, which in turn led to Mark Zuckerberg being a second tier connection and resulted in him commenting on my facebook comments. Yes, Im a nerd. I was introduced to Vint Cerf through email by a friend and colleague who hosts monthly meetups that I didnt make frequently enough. A buddy of mine in Chicago invited me to drinks and introduced me to Kimball Musk the brother of Elon. Yes, I pitched him on VisuHire. All in all it was a fantastic year. Thanks to other folks in Chicago who have made the entrepreneur community so strong here! Including: Erik Severinghaus, Alan Matthew, Seth Kravitz, Emerson Spartz, Mike Hostetler, Mike Becker, Tom Giles, Robbie Abed, Andrea Lake, Ann Marie, Jeremy Leval, and the many others Im not naming (because Facebook stopped me from doing so) who are remaking the windy city into a very impressive next generation city. Now onward and upward as we go make 2015 an even more stellar year.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 21:07:21 +0000