My latest whim

My latest whim: give up my bonus to join Hashable.  No, really.

A few months ago I started thinking about how much more intuitive social networks would be if we could measure the strengths of our relationships. Privacy settings could be automatically adjusted and more importantly, professional networking would be supercharged with visibility on who are true connections and who are just acquaintances. I especially liked the idea because this was a social network that would push people to make meaningful real-life connections as opposed to the superficial ones we see online. Drawing upon my own penchant to network, I also thought you could layer in a "game" aspect to the business that would make it "sticky". For the right kind of person (e.g., me), people would get addicted to strengthening connections with people they thought worthwhile through coffee dates, lunches, etc.

While I wasn't super confident on the idea, I thought I could learn web programming from now until I get my bonus, talk to more people to refine my idea, and then, if I'm confident in the idea and in my ability, quit my job with my bonus as savings to start a web company.

Fast forward a couple months and I find out about Hashable -- a social network that endeavors to measure the strengths of our relationships through check-ins (probably not doing Hashable complete justice but yes, that is one of the things they do). It was a bit (okay, really really) disheartening to know that someone had already came up with the idea and executed it, but after speaking to a few people I've learned:

• Thinking of an idea and seeing it executed by another startup happens all the time
• Ideas are worthless
• Being an entrepreneur is very hard stuff

So this startup thing suddenly now feels infinitely more difficult -- almost unachievable. But I'm not ready to give up just yet. Measuring the strengths of our relationships is a powerful new data point in online social networks, a next BIG thing, and absolutely worthwhile of a foregone bonus (my confidence is boosted by Hashable's early success and super-star VC funding from USV). Plus, while I was stalking the co-founders of Hashable, I came across this post from EarlyStager that, in regards to joining a company after they raise a Series A, said:

This is also a good time to get into a company if you don’t have domain expertise, either in what the company is building or in any given function (finance, marketing, product development, etc.) For someone who is an “all around” athlete, this is a good time to enter.

So perhaps this is a god-send. I would describe myself as mediocre at a lot of things, which is something I've always hated but perhaps, if EarlyStager is correct, this is the type of person Hashable would be interested in hiring.

If I think Hashable is on to the next big thing; I look at their work and think "wow, what a great job"; and I think they've put together an extremely high-caliber team, shouldn't it be clear that I should be begging them for a job?

In February, Hashable is hosting a Meetup for its NYC users where the CEO will be present. I am reinstating "Operation Hire Me"!

P.S. At this moment, I am #95 on NYC's leaderboard!