No I’m not married to a 21 year old (although she looks closer to 21 than her real age) - Renee, my wonderful wife of 18 years, is graduating from the Colorado Film School this Saturday.

I can’t express how much pride I have in watching her achieve this goal. As an adult, committing yourself to a course of study with a full time job of taking care of everything a family throws at you is simply amazing. Not only did she accomplish all her courses but she got straight As and has a leg up in the film/TV industry simply by being more worldly and mature.

When she first started three years ago I was thinking, “Wow I couldn’t handle homework at this age.” But she did. She took the subject matter very seriously and made sure to cultivate great relationships with the faculty and other students.

Her hard work has been recognized at numerous student shows. Every semester over 800 student films are submitted and only 20 or so are chosen to be included in the student show. Every film she has been a part of has made it to the show and she’s won three awards including Best First Year Student Film, Best Film, and Best Producer.

On top of that, several of the working faculty members have gone out of their way to extend their networks in TV and film - introducing Renee to seasoned executives - something that they rarely if ever do for a student.

Looking back over the last 18 years I think our collective desire to keep learning new things has kept our relationship strong and interesting. And while we may pursue different passions as individuals - we always have a lot to talk about over dinner.

Awesome job Renée - just another reason why I love you so much!

Renée at 21.

Renee Today. See what I mean?

Friday I put my plane, N922CD, up for sale.

I got my pilot license in 2002. Since then I have flown over 700 hours, obtained my instrument rating, flown from Colorado to Alaska and all points in between. It has been an amazing 10 year journey and I'm so glad I made the effort to learn how to fly.

So why stop? It's not the money - but don't kid yourself, having your own plane is never cheaper than commercial travel. It's not the hassle of keeping the plane in good shape. It is not the hassles of dealing with all the paperwork and tax issues. It all comes down to relaxation.

For me, flying is not relaxing - it's work. It's pleasurable work and very rewarding when I fly from one place to another, but it's still work. It's work to stay current so I remain safe. It's work when I land in a vacation spot and have to check the weather constantly to make sure we can end our vacation in safety. It's work to keep all the databases and systems up to date with the latest information. And mostly it is work just flying. My body is tense as I'm always alert tending to the aircraft. When I fly, I'm constantly looking for other airplanes, listening to ATC for instructions, and thinking about the next three things I need to do while keeping emergency procedures always in the back of my mind. And while the scenery is beautiful and the feelings of moving in the air like a bird are uplifting to the soul - the work side of things weighs heavy on me. It weighs more the less I fly and that weight makes flying less joyful.

When I started flying I was looking for a challenge outside of work - work was becoming predictable after 10 years in the same industry. I always dreamed of being a pilot - I guess that is why I decided to go to the USAF Academy. I passed on being a pilot in the AF - but I always knew some day I'd learn to fly.

Now with so much going on at work - my mind is in overdrive - the last thing I need is a hobby that is a lot of work. The fact is, flying less made me feel guilty. Every time I heard a single engine plane overhead or decided to stay home on a beautiful weekend I felt like I should be flying - going places, staying current, getting the value for all my training and investment.

And then there is my healthy fear of death. I don't want to die flying. I don't want to be a casual pilot - flying a few hours every now an then. All of my training and experience tell me that is dangerous. If I am going to fly I need to fly enough to be safe - which for me is more than 50 hours a year. The last 2 years I barely got in 20 hours. I felt so rusty I would only go up with an instructor.

The fun went away - the challenge became work - and I need something other than work to relax.

Here are the last two images of N922CD as she makes her way to Scottsdale, AZ to be sold. This was the second time I saw my plane flying from the ground - the first was when she was delivered to me 10 years ago. Bye 2CD - I hope your new owner has as many great experiences as I did.

Before takeoff:

Away She Goes...

Today at Orbotix we finally transitioned from taking reservations to taking orders.

Orbotix is a very different company.

Normally my equation for running a tight business machine (TBM) is:

O - order = roles identified, optimal work environment, ample resources
P - process = task broken down into manageable work units, repeatable, proven and well documented methods to accomplish work
R - rhythm - predictable progress on work, resources operate at known times, work output is a function of resource availability

TBM = O x P x R

Perhaps the military made me value these things - or my mom (I think my mom was a drill sergeant in a former life). Anyhow at Orbotix we have about 80% of each item - which means the Paul TBM score says we should be operating at 51%. But we’re not. In fact in the seven businesses that I have run - this one is getting more done, faster with less resources than any other business I’ve managed. And it all has to do with the extreme focus on hitting the one big goal.

This isn’t a BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) - is a very specific point in time with a very specific accomplishment.

Our goal is to ship Sphero in 2011 (for the holidays). Everyone knows this in the company - everyone knows that when the product ships they need to take pride in what we’ve built and feel that the product - while it can be better (everything can) - is pretty damn awesome as is.

Surprisingly this adds order to everything at Orbotix. What we lack in process we make up for in focus. There is no ambiguity in what everyone is working on. No one feels like they are just drifting. The pressure is high, the tasks feel doable but just barely, and the excitement is real. It is a race and the magic date is not now, nor ever was a guarantee - but we are working hard to hit it. And as of last night - the goal is in site and it now feels like the momentum we have built over the last year will carry us over the line.

So while Orbotix is the least on the Paul TBM scale - it is first in getting things done. I recognize this magic is only possible because everyone in the company has signed up to hit the common goal. Once we launch, we will have numerous goals: V2 of the product, support for V1, expanding distribution, building hype, on-boarding developers, promoting apps, customer support - all of which will require more discipline to manage.

But for now, we just have one thing left - ship!

And this picture says it all: Ross, as well as Jim and Gerrad, spent the night (another 5 people stayed until 3:30am) just to make sure the web site launch went smooth and our fans could easily convert to paying customers. As Ross said before he went home to shower, “Orbotix is my life.” Yep - he’s single. I’m proud of our team.

As I type this Adam is asleep on the floor in the office next to mine. Earlier this week Ian slept on the couch. They remind me of such fond days of yesteryear...

When Joel and I started Link-VTC in June of 1993 we decided that we would run a global video conferencing call center that was open 24 hours a day 365 days a year - with just the two of us. This meant one of us had to stay at work every night. When it wasn’t my turn to sleep on the floor I would wake up in the middle of the night and call the office to make sure Joel answered the phone. If he didn’t have a chipper voice I would badger him, “You weren’t sleeping - what if JP Morgan Japan calls?” He hated that part of my behavior. When we finished our shift we would work a full day - sleep would come the next night. A year later we brought on two new partners, Jim and Art - they had to take their turns doing the night shift shift as well. It was right of passage, a show of commitment to the company and a badge of honor. The people who slept at work were the most important people in the company.

Ian and Adam, I understand why you sleep at work. Your commitment to this business is as true as a mother’s love for a child. So while I tell you to go home and sleep, only you know when it is time to leave your baby. And frankly I’d be disappointed if you didn’t work so hard. I’m glad you feel so connected to your work that the office is your home.

There were times at Link-VTC when one of us would look over at the other partner and say, “Dude, you are tired go home. You aren’t doing good work.”

Some say we have no work life balance. I disagree completely. I don’t need to time slice everything in perfect proportion. There are times in your life where you can and should work really hard. This is one of them. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want folks to be so tired they do a crappy job, but we all can work more than 8 hours a day.

I understand the concept of pacing yourself. Some marathon runners can run at a 10 minute a mile pace others at 5:30. The 5:30 minute guys are generally younger and train harder. They also win the races. You aren’t going to become a world class athlete by taking PE class in high school. You got to work harder than anyone else to rise to the top. Same in business. You need to work harder when you are younger because you can. As you get older, like me, you can taper off a tiny bit.

And my wonderful wife Renee - she get’s it. We make a point to connect several times a day by phone, dinner or lunch when possible and on weekends. Since she knows I’m going to be working hard to get this business going, she has gone back to school to get her degree in film. Our 16 year old daughter is so busy with school, acting and friends that we hardly see her now. That said she sees how hard her mom and dad work and that has translated into her strong work ethic. The best way to lead is by example.

Are we crazy for working so hard? Isn’t life more than work? Most of the impact we have on others comes through our work. Building a family, raising a child, being a great athlete or writer, helping the poor, starting a business - all work. The harder we work the more good we can create in the world.

A robotic ball - where is the good in that? Think of the lives of all the folks who earn a wage in a factory making the ball, and all the store clerks selling the ball, and the hours of fun people will have playing with the ball, and the one child who will be inspired by the ball to pursue a degree in engineering, and the breakthrough in user interface design that this and other devices spark. Who knows where this all leads? But I have never seen anything great that was created with average work, modest commitment, or a dispassionate team.

A founder can love a business like a mother loves a child and through that love will come great things. Ian and Adam I feel the love.

We eventually hired a dude to work the night shift and I haven’t slept on the floor since.

But I still called him in the middle of the night.

Well it is official - I’m now the CEO of Orbotix (formerly Gearbox) - my 7th company.

Gearbox is a 2010 Boulder Techstars’ “graduate” that I had the incredible opportunity to mentor over the summer. Ian and Adam, the two founders, impressed me so much with their passion and talent that I just found it impossible to stop thinking about their business. We spent a lot of hours over the summer working with each other to focus and refine their idea and during that time we developed a great chemistry. I was honored when they asked me to join their team and today we’re happy to announce that we closed our Series A investment lead by Brad Feld of the Foundry Group.

The idea is simple: we are reinventing the ball. Sounds crazy - so let me explain (mom it is OK if you don’t get it - I tend to make more money on ideas you don’t get).

We all walk around with these incredibly powerful computers in our hands - smartphones like the iPhone and Android. Right now they really only serve as a connection to the virtual world - that is they don’t really control much of the the things we interact with on a day to day basis (actually nothing for most of us). But it seems inevitable that soon - very soon - we’ll be able to control all sorts of things around us. Some things will be common like unlocking doors, changing the channel on the TV and starting cars - but other things - not yet invented, will change our world because we can now separate the compute intensive functions from the physical device. On top of that, the two way communication capabilities will allow us to create inexpensive devices that simply didn’t exist in the past. Think about it - even the most sophisticated remote controls are only one way devices - they send a command and something happens. You change the channel but the remote doesn’t know the channel has changed - it doesn’t even know if it is connected to the TV.

Great so what does all this have to do with balls? Well over the summer Ian and Adam started thinking that simply making your phone a remote control isn’t really a killer app. Most of the apps on the iPhone and Android are games and entertainment - it seems any new device that leverages this powerful computer in your hands will most likely be something that gives the user a new entertainment experience. So they came up with an idea that couldn’t exist before today - they decided to make a robotic ball that is not only controlled by the phone - but now it becomes the object in n number of new games and applications.

It is more than a ball - it is an entertainment platform. We are building an API that lets any app developer control our robotic ball based on what software is running on the phone. Drive the ball through a maze that shows up on your phone but takes place on your living room floor. Then battle your friend by playing a game of sumo on a table top. Play with your cat and have her chase the ball around the house while you control everything from your sofa.

Sounds simple and it should - but it is actually very hard to make on many levels. Basically if we can build and control a ball we can control almost anything.

So we’re just getting going. Checkout our website and blog for progress and follow us on twitter @orbotix.

Now we’re rolling (be prepared for a lot more bad ball jokes).

Well after a 5 days of rain - we had 2 days of sun. Yesterday we got a treat and visited the tower at the St. Bart's airport. It's an incredible airfield where airplanes have to make their approach between two mountains, land at a steep angle, and stop the plane in less than 650m or end up on the beach. The beach BTW is beautiful and there is no fence between the departure end of the runway and sunbathers. During peak season - 200 aircraft arrive/depart from this tiny airfield. Check out the video of a crash that happened in 2009.

Beach Meets Runway

Notice Yellow Buoys to Show Where Not to Swim in case of a Crash

I’m at my favorite vacation spot in the Caribbean and it’s raining - a lot. Which isn’t all bad - it’s allowing Renee and I to get caught up on stuff and just be with each other.

It is also a good time for me to reflect on the past several months. Since September 2009 I’ve been with Zettasun - a solar panel startup that has some very special optical technology that allows a fixed panel to track and concentrate the sun as it moves across the sky.

My job as CEO (Cash Extraction Officer) is to raise money to build our panel - we did a few rounds of angel money to develop 4 prototype panels and we now need a real Series A. So for the last 8 months I’ve been out telling our story. Here is a list of who we talked to in order of what felt most logical:

• VCs who should invest (they’ve done other supporting type deals, they have enough money to support multiple rounds, they understand our sub-sector of the solar market, and they invest in early stage companies)
• VCs that could invest but their fund size might not be a perfect fit
• VCs that have competitive companies in their portfolio, new to cleantech/solar or are non-believers in the technology
• Strategic companies that want to support the cleantech space like contract manufacturers and material suppliers
• Foreign investors in Saudi Arabia, UAE, China, Jordan, Israel, Singapore, Taiwan and Canada
• Private equity/hedge fund guys
• Family funds / Indian tribal funds - but not really hard
• Armenian mob (not really - but close, we looked to go public on the pink sheets)

Well over 30 face-to-face meetings and over 100 in total.

I’ve always believed that if you have a great team and great technology you’d be able to raise money regardless of the market conditions. I now have a different opinion. The solar market has been soured by several high profile deals that after billions invested are still not showing a profit. On top of that, the price points that everyone thought they had to hit in terms of manufacturing costs continue to drop as a flood of cheap silicon panels from China hit the market. It has become the ole “catch a falling knife story.” When we met with potential investors - they all showed genuine interest - but they were preoccupied with their previous deals - much of the new money going into solar in 2009 and 2010 are either inside rounds or for much later stage companies.

Perhaps it is the team or the technology or the stage of our development, whatever the reason the cash did not come in when we needed it. So we made a very deliberate choice - we chose to stop engineering efforts and preserve the intellectual property of the company. We spent the entire month of April documenting everything we could to allow a restart and buttoning up our patent applications. We also left enough money in the bank to see the patents through issuance and allow some business development to continue.

In the end I never got to actually run or build anything - I spent 85% of my time fundraising and redoing presentations. I actually think we were late for fundraising and a bit early with our technology. If we were raising money in 2007 - I suspect we would be funded. Our technology, however, is most likely early for the market - the entire supply chain for our type of panel is still very immature. In a few years, it will either develop and our technology will be even more compelling or it will go away and the notion of concentrating PV will become the HD DVD of the solar sector.

So now I transition from CEO to investor/board member and the founders are keeping the patents alive while looking for a new investor or partner to restart the business when the time is right.

I really wish it all came together - but sometimes the market headwinds are working against you - great team, great technology - bad market. In this case, the right decision seems to just wait for the world to change.

Last night I had the honor of presenting at the Open Angel Forum Colorado. OAF was created by Jason Calcanis in response to the ever increasing practice of making startups pay to present their business plans to potential investors. Makes total sense - the startups have no money -why should they pay to pitch. I've been asked numerous times to participate in such programs, ranging from €8,000 to pitch in Monte Carlo at the Clean Energy Summit to $15,000 to pitch at the Private Equity Forum in NYC. Now I'm not saying these are bad gigs - who wouldn't love to go to Monaco - but it doesn't feel like a good use of time or money. Think about it - between airfare and hotel - the cost to make one 20 minute pitch could be a month of burn for a lot of startups.

If the event is really worth it - the process will be competitive - the organizers will stake their reputation on the quality of event - and the presenting companies will get the needed exposure to the right type of investors. That's what happened last night.

Happy to be a part of it - just one word of advise to future presenters - don't switch computers for your pitch - use the one they have (I tried the switch and the projector vomited on my MacBook - which really is not a great way to make a first impression. Live and learn.)

Great job David and Jason - thanks for putting this together and thank you sponsors.