My new job

On December 1st I started working at Mishor 3D. I was unemployed since May 1st and here are some of my thoughts on this period.

Leaving Intel

Intel is a big company with extraordinary technology that touches almost everybody. It was the best employer in Israel 5 years in a row, something every employee feels on a daily basis. The thing is that I did not chose to work there and I don't think it would have chosen me unless GraphTech was bought with me in it. It is hard to be jack of all trades in a company that has scores of Jacks for each trade. For the first time I did not feel like going to work in the morning, I was overpaid and under performing. This is why I left when my 2 years retention were up and have no regrets. I am sorry for leaving the GraphTech guys, my second family for over 7 years.

Short summary

Leaving, I thought I would become an entrepreneur. I had some ideas and I was influenced by +Omri and GenomeCompiler and by TWIST. I started working on PicUp with Amit before leaving Intel, the idea haunted me for several years and I thought I finally cracked it! Less then a month had passed and I had a working alpha version. When I had the perfect opportunity to try it out at the kindergarten end of year parties I suddenly felt that PicUp is not as relevant: a. I had a new phone that took good enough pictures b. most parents already uses mobile phones for cameras c. I felt weird asking parents to take a picture of my phone screen.

While reading a science fiction book by Robert A. Heinlein, I had an idea for a new service. This time I asked around to see what people think of the idea. I started coding while summer vacation came and went and I found myself losing focus, this is when I started looking at interesting job postings on LinkedIn. After some interviews and deep soul searching on the question of what to do when I grow up, I felt that Gady from Mishor is the person to work with and it is always good to come to where you are wanted. Back to working in a small company and this time confronting my nemesis - real programming.

Insights

Don't be stuck at home. You need to be mobile and ready to go out and meet people to push your Idea.

Don't work alone. You need to know that at least on more person believes in the idea enough to work on it.

Always bootstrap - you need to be sure you can manage if things take longer.

Keep informed on current development. Read books. Talk to your friends and family. You never know where your next idea / contact / opportunity will come from.

Blog(?)

Figure out what you want to do when you grow up. Try to describe what you are doing daily, on your company or working for someone else.

Thanks

THANKS to all the people who helped, advised and were there. No name dropping, you all know who you are!!!

the team

I remember a time while working at Graphtech when we had a weekly meeting brainstorming for new product ideas. Thinking of the fire power in that room, I feel a miss.

summer vacation

August is here. Nitzan is already on vacation and Tamar will join her soon. It is "camp dad" time.

PicUp

I attended two year end parties, a great opportunity to test PicUp but I did not get the nerve to ask people to use it, I suddenly felt that a. it sounds funny to ask people to take a picture of my screen. b. there were only 2 cameras and most parents used mobile phones. and besides, I had already changed my Samsung Nexus S with its horrible camera to my beloved Sony Xperia Z with its great camera.

+Joel Spolsky was right - rewriting gets you nowhere. I did move PicUp to +OpenShift since my 1 free year at +Amazon Web Services expired at the end of July.

Co-Founders Wanted of Tel-Aviv

Having dedicated entrepreneurial time, in light of the PicUp situation and with the words of +Eyal Gura ringing in my head, I thought about contributing sweat equity to bigger ideas - hence attending Co-Founders Wanted of Tel-Aviv. From this event and the conversations that followed it I learned that many people have not so innovative ideas (PicUp?). I have learned that many are looking to form a team and I see how important this is and why no one will invest in an individual effort.

In the room opposite the meetup, an +Intel sponsored launch party for +Photoparty Dex was held, an event photo sharing app for android - double irony.

New Idea

In between PicUp and co founders speed dating, it came, a BIG idea. It is not tech big as it is socially big. I have presented it to several people and the most memorable response was "it is either the most stupid or genius idea I heard", I think it is good but I need a team for this one.

Vineyard planted

This is the vineyard after planting about 1,050 vine saplings. I did some real physical work on this one.

on the agenda

angularjs

Rewriting PicUp web client using angularjs. I know +Joel Spolsky says not to, but it depends on your goal. I want to learn angularjs so the only way I know is to use it for real.

If you are interested in angularjs and client side web applications, consider these links:

• The AngularJS video tutorial course featured on Egghead.io. Excellent videos from +John Lindquist.
• yeoman is a "MODERN WORKFLOWS FOR MODERN WEBAPPS". Not just for angular but for any client side web app.
• Optional reading - polymer is the future and what comes from and after angular.

Startup Engineering

A Coursera course from Stanford. I have already completed a Coursera course once, enrolling for this course was obvious just from reading the title. The technical basis taught in the first two weeks is very current and relevant. If you have some technical background it will seem very basic but I imagine that the marketing and business side will be an eye opener for me.

MOOCs are wonderful. Consider what you had to do to attend courses form Stanford, Tel Aviv university or any other before. The course selection is diverse, from computer science to arts. It costs the time you spend listening and doing your assignments.

entrepreneurship in the family

I have already talked about about +Omri Drory and his startup genomecompiler. If you follow me (@yuval, +Yuval Drori , linkedin, facebook), you probably know about the successful kickstarter project he was involved with.

But the reason for writing this post is to introduce other entrepreneurs from the family:

Barak times three

This is my brother in law Barak, apart from working at at least two jobs and for my sister, he started a vineyard about 50 meters from our house. It is the first one in Moshav Talmei Menashe. In this project I am merely a hand.

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These prints are from Piece of History. My cousin +Asaf Harari is behind the art, concept, idea, marketing and maybe even the delivery.

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Ido Agassi

Ido is the last one for this batch. A cousin from the other side of the family. He is a doctor for printed books.

a month gone by

It is exactly one month since I left Intel to start my own thing. Valuing transparency, here is an hourly breakdown for the month of May 2013:

I am loving every minute of it and will work harder to make this my sustainable reality for days to come. I must thank +Alona Drori and the girls for taking this ride with me - Thanks!

PicUp

I am happy to introduce PicUp, a very simple way to swap pictures with people attending an event without giving out any personal details such as email address.

Using PicUp

When attending an event, browse to http://picup.drori.me on your mobile phone and generate an event code. Next, get people with cameras to take a picture of your phone's screen displaying the code.

After downloading the pictures from the camera to the computer, to upload pictures and see pictures uploaded by other participant, browse to http://picup.drori.me from your computer, click the 'Share and download' button and pick the picture with the code.

Pointers:

• When you get your screen photographed for the code, make sure the website name and 4 code groups are readable. This way you can be sure that the photographer will get to the right event folder even if the QR code cannot be automatically decoded.
• Full size pictures will be archived after a while. You can still get the pictures using credits, so get in early after the event.
• You can embed the code in an invite / poster for an event for people to photograph.
• Do not treat PicUp as a picture hosting website like Facebook or Picasa. Once you download the pictures you want, add them to your favorite site.

Feedback

Please use the feedback badge on the website or this link for complaints or praises.

Thanks

This was not a one man job, +Amit Feller is my partner in this crime, doing most of the work when he is suppose to sleep or party or whatever young kids do these days.

weekend reading

If you are an engineer, you ought to read The Door into Summer. If you are an actor or aspiring, read Double Star. A black ops type - read Friday.

Thanks +Omri Drory for getting me back reading and listening to books in a big way and for inspiring me into entrepreneurial action!

what is twitter good for?

Twitter is a great tool to connect with companies! Thanks @braintree

@yuval (80)

day two

• Exercised my post apocalyptic profession - house cleaning. Let me tell you, if you want a clean house - do it yourself. Not to say that our cleaner did a bad job, just not such a great job as I did.
• My wonderful new phone ( Sony Xperia Z C6603 Black Factory Unlocked LTE BANDS 1/3/5/7/8/20 International version - Original Sony phone ) fell from my torn pocket, luckily I found out 10 meters later and ran to get it. On the way it fell from my hand and I have a new scratch on my new phone - blamed the poor old pants and threw them away. This got me thinking about a bluetooth bracelet that vibrates when you get too far from your phone. Searched the net, found one ( Silicone Bluetooth Incoming Call Vibrate Alert Alarm Anti-lost Band Bracelet ), but it is pretty ugly - +Liran Bachar , do something about it.
• Built nodejs on my Samsung Chromebook (Wi-Fi, 11.6-Inch). v0.10.5 did not work, but v0.8.23 works fine.
• Found out about payz . Similar to my third idea (I have three) but not quite. +payz talk to me if you want my angle. 

first post

This blog is about my journey to becoming an entrepreneur. I mean for it to log my progress and new knowledge. If posts frequency is too high, it means I am using the blog as an escape from doing real work so please let me now by commenting.

I am writing in English because the first tool of the trade I bought ( Samsung Chromebook (Wi-Fi, 11.6-Inch)) did not have Hebrew letters until a few seconds ago.