RedPost turns 1, a Retrospective
I can’t believe it’s been a year already. I mean that. Following are some of the ups and downs:
- 2/6/07 – My first post ever: I hadn’t really blogged before and didn’t know how powerful a medium it can be. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had a rough-hewn prototype I made in my garage, some good ideas, and a logo. What more is there?!
- 2/15/07 – First blog comment from a digital signage blogger: I almost pooped myself, I was so excited. “This blog world is crazy!” I thought to myself as I appreciated my bowels close call.
- 3/5/07 – Moving into the first World Headquarters: it took me 2 hours. I didn’t yet know that when it rained, water pooled on the floor. Or that lead paint chips would continually fall from the ceiling. Or that birds would fly in. Or that a backhoe would one day smash through the wall. But I loved it anyways!
- 4/25/07 – Installing the first public RedPost ever: it took me about an hour. I realized how heavy these things were and that that wasn’t going to work out long term. But it worked right away and looked cool. I felt like I was really onto something with this RedPost thing.
- 5/3/07 – First Launch Party for RedPost/Goshen: I worked my tail off for this day…and then about 30 people showed up. It was a little disappointing, the food was incredible, and the beer helped raise my spirits. We did get great press coverage too, even making it into Broadcast Engineering, RedPost’s first national publication.
6/18/07 – RedPost/Kit’s Birth: this blog post spread around the blogosphere like crazy. I remember continually updating my web stats and watching live as my web visits went from a daily average of about 100 to 2,144 on Jun 18th to 2,623 on the 19th. SlashGear was the first to post about it, then others, then Engadget, then the blog I really wanted to make, Gizmodo. It was super, super exciting. I thought I was about to become a millionaire (but wasn’t quite sure how).- 6/19/07 – My Favorite Article Yet: Brian Proffitt at Linux Today publishes my favorite article yet about RedPost.
- 7/13/07 – First Kits ship: It took a month of nail-biting, scratching, scraping, and clawing to get them out the door. There were several details that took longer to iron out, the main one being that UPS was beating the crap out of the Kits when they shipped them. We did test ships that returned all beat up…the Kits weighed 25 pounds, which didn’t help. I had a lot of restless nights that month. The day we shipped the first load was a HUGE relief.
- 7/15/07 – I realized two of the first Kits to ship went to “1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043″…which I realized was Google headquarters. I almost pooped myself again.
- 8/23/07 – New York City: I drive to NYC to demo a Kit, end up meeting with a certain mega media company.
- 8/29/07, 2:34 am – First Signs running Corktop: It took me a bit of hacking, but I finally got 5 of our Signs to successfully run Corktop. At 2:34 am.
- 9/5/07 – RedPost ranks #1 in a Google search for “RedPost”: We started around 70 or so…it took a good 7 months, but finally we beat out Marvin Redpost and then RedPost Equestrian to be #1.
9/7/07 – Corktop Launch Party: Live music, microbrew keg beer, incredible food (again), all the hallmarks of a RedPost Launch Party, with cool software to boot. This evening took a ton of prep and attracted a crowed of over 200 people…it was a blast.- 9/8/07 – Corktop…fails: I realize that Corktop causes our current Signs to freeze because they only have 128 MB of memory. Whoops. We need to solve this problem. Was the Corktop launch a vaporware launch? Time will tell…
- 10/1/07 – New Orleans: I take a non-work-related trip to New Orleans, end up in a conversation with the director of the NO Jazz Festival. The concept of neighborhoods starts to take focus in my mind.
- 10/12/07 – Wicker Park, Chicago: On my first visit to Wicker Park, I end up meeting the local alderman, Chamber president, and Special Service Area #34 director…all in one day. The whole concept of neighborhoods starts to solidify in my mind.
- 11/1/07 – The 1 year anniversary of the idea of RedPost: At the annual MEDA convention, I do some hobknobbing and remember 11/2/06, when I decided to turn down a job offer (with a salary! and benefits!) to pursue the dream that is RedPost.
11/7/07 – Purdue University: The first RedPost installed at Purdue goes live. Purdue is going to be one of our beta test sites — their installation will be pretty cool. I met them through a high-tech job fair I attended at Purdue. It’s good to be in a region with over 380 higher ed institutions within 250 miles.- 11/13/07 – RedPost/Recycle launches: No launch party this time, but our community recycling drop-off point opens. Within a week we fill 3 gaylords full of electronics crap. To date we’ve sent 12 gaylords full for recycling…roughly 2 and a half tons of electronics. Amazing.
- 11/15/07 – A famous former-Apple-employee-now-entrepreneur/venture-capitalist kinda sorta endorses the RedPost idea in an email exchange.
- 11/27/07 – No more Comcast: RedPost World Headquarters switches to a local company, MapleNet Wireless. I HATE COMCAST. This is a very, very happy day.
- 12/12/07 – RPWHQ 2.1: The office gets a serious, needed facelift. Halogen lights, big speakers, and red paint, oh my!
12/22/07 – PA – Philly – NY – PA: I take off for the East to visit family and hand deliver 5 Kits to a Philly artist and the Kit Contest winner to a NY non-profit, Echoing Green.- 12/30/07 – Near Death: I more or less walk away from a car accident where I rolled my car 3x. I reevaluate the meaning of life, what I’m doing, RedPost, Goshen…everything. And decide that RedPost is where it’s at in my life at this moment.
- 1/2/08 – Back to Work
- 1/9/08 – New Website Home Page: After about 6 months of the same, our home page changes to a temporary splash screen that better reflects our new branding. I love it. We’re headed in directions I hadn’t imagined a year ago…or at least, hadn’t fleshed out.
- 1/16/08 – RedPost/Open Auditions: We open our auditions for potential beta testers. We’ll be announcing the beta test sites in Vegas in 3 weeks…I can’t say who they are yet, but you’ll be impressed.
1/22/08 – Extruded Aluminum Never Looked So Good: Our new Sign starts to take shape. I can’t quite say it’s hot, but it is as it gets extruded, that’s for sure. [groan]- 2/1/08 – RedPost Turns 1: Marked by an article in the Goshen College Bulletin, our first anniversary comes and goes. I almost forget about it until late Friday afternoon, when it hits me — it’s been a year. Already!
Wow (that’s not a Vista Wow either). It’s a bit overwhelming, to say the least, thinking back over the past year. There’s so much of me in RedPost. I usually forget that…but it’s true: entrepreneurship is a personal activity. It’s you. Oh yeah, and it’s so incredibly up-and-down. Ha (that’s an ironic laugh). The above is mostly the “up” parts of the story…it’s freakin’ hard work to hold it all together, especially at the “down” parts. Rewarding, difficult, up, down, smart, stupid, pays without paying a dime, takes without giving a dime, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I’m going to go have a $1 Old Style, Goshen-style, with olives.