​ My Kind of Town

Do you drink Starbucks? Are you familiar with the story of Starbucks? In the book "Pour Your Heart Into It", Howard Schultz the CEO tells this great story. I recomemnd the book to anyone who likes the coffee or has an interest in how great businesses are started. In the book, he explains how Chicago became the test market for expansion out of Seattle. Chicagoans were seen a no-nonsense people who might not buy into new trends so easily. As they say, "the rest is history " because Chicago loved and embrace this "high end" coffee and Startbucks has since taken over the world.

I just came back from a short trip to Chicago, my beloved hometown. I had a chance to speak to a number of friends and family about our plans for Solder By Numbers and get input from some non-technical people. You'd be surprised how hard it is to find non-technical people in silicon valley. I was talking to people who were more interested in the series between the Cubs and Sox than in the latest IPO. I left yesterday with a sense similar(but smaller) to what Howard Schultz must have felt after testing his product in Chicago...Optimism!

Now I am back and ready to get back to the Silicon Valley way of thinking about our upcoming launch. But not quite yet. First I'll be in the right field bleachers of the San Francisco Giants game tomorrow night in full Cubs apparel with hundreds of other Chicago transplants. Go Cubs!