Because if I'm scared to say it, it's probably worth saying

June 8 2010

About

Blake goes skydiving and forgets to close his mouth

Skydiving is a lot like a startup. You know you'll land, the only question is how hard!

Hi, I’m Blake. I’m currently the Founder and Chief Cowboy Officer of MyDunkTank.com.

I like to build mission-driven startups and startup communities. I believe that more than anything else, startup entrepreneurs need each other.

I started and run Philly Startup Leaders and the Missioneurs Movement.

I’m also the entrepreneur-in-residence at Good Company Ventures and a founding board member of Startup Corps, which brings mission entrepreneurship into Philadelphia’s high schools.

Previously, I started and ran the TicketLeap marketing department. Before that, I started and eventually shut down my first startup, Anthillz.

I’ve had almost as many careers as Michael Jordan and enough air balls to make him proud — air balls like Anthillz, my senior thesis, the last six months of my poker career, day trading, my attempt to design a 3D video game and my peewee football career.

I’ve been a professional poker player, web hacker, math geek, college journalist, political organizer, poverty advocate, marketer and movement-builder. And 30 still isn’t around the corner.

If you like what you read here, I hope you’ll subscribe to my blog and tell your friends about it.

You can also connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

  • Hi Blake. I'd be very interested to pick your brains on your experience with Anthillz. I once worked on something that sounds very similar and that hit the ropes too. What were the main problems you encountered in the venture?

    Cheers!

    JAime
  • Good question. I made plenty of small mistakes, but I think the key big mistake was approaching the business problem the wrong way. A simple job board focused on the underserved niche of high-end US freelancers would have addressed the need in the market. I didn't need to invest anything in technology, and all the cool things we did around references, recommendations and applicant profiles were nice-to-haves. Instead I could have used an existing job board platform out of the box and devoted my entire team to hustling up job postings and marketing like mad.
  • Interesting take on building using available platform. Often clients think their problem is a technology problem and actually it's a design/strategy problem.

    We'll work with them using an open source application to build basic functions and get up and running. Then we work with them to test assumptions on implemented features and functions. Meanwhile they are building the business and momentum.
  • Olek Shestakov
    Would it be possible to connect via the LinkedIn?
    http://www.linkedin.com/in/oshestak / oshestak@gmail.com
  • Sardonic18
    Sister, mother
    And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
    Suffer me not to be separated

    An let my cry come unto Thee.

    ~T. S. Eliot,
    "Ash Wednesday"
  • mcwm
    Ryan Howard finished 2009 in 3rd place in the homerun tally and 2nd to last in strikeouts. http://bit.ly/7hDp3l
  • Mr. Murphy, you are very right. There was a time mid-season one year when he was leading the league in both HRs and SOs, do you know when that was? Looks like he led the league in HRs and was second in strikeouts during both the 2006 and 2008 regular seasons. Then it was the reverse in 2007, with him leading the league in strikeouts and finishing #2 in HRs.
blog comments powered by Disqus