I posted on Monday that I am in fact leaving Techstars after four years of hanging around the program shouting “oh lala, gogogo, that looks great, you did what? congrats! you owe me for coffee.” on repeat. It has been a real journey. A quality adventure. An amazing experience.
I am thankful.
It comes with a very heavy heart to leave, which I will do after the Boulder Demo Day this year.
I’m going to spend the next year or so off.
My current plan is in this order:
- TechStars Boulder Demo Day (August 5th)
- TEDxBoulder (tickets still available here) (August 7th)
- Ironman Boulder 70.3 (August 8th)
- Ignite Boulder 12 (September 2nd)
- Ironman Arizona (November 21st)
- Travel to South America, Africa, Asia with an unknown end date (Starting December 10th-ish)
This whole experience of TechStars and Boulder (where I have lived for almost seven years) have been near perfect. I’ve learned. I’ve grown. I’ve helped.
To answer some questions:
- TechStars is fantastic, absolutely nothing bad to say about them. Class act, amazing people doing the world a huge amount of good.
- IgniteBoulder, boulder.me, and TEDxBoulder will live on without me, the committees are going to kick ass like they usually do. The Boulder community is amazing and will step up and fill any void with ease.
- I don’t know how long I’m going to travel. I’ve had a booked schedule since 3rd grade, so having something open like this is very, very scary.
- I wanted to work on pick.im fulltime, but an intervention by a ton of my friends pushed me to travel, and I am grateful.
- I think I will come back to Boulder, but am honestly unsure. Life is comfortable and amazing here, might need to find some adventure elsewhere.
My big ask:
If you were to go out for an adventure, what would it be?
If you wanted to travel, to create a learning and amazing journey, how would you plan it?
What are wilderness areas that should not be missed?
If you know of any resources/ trips / groups doing good that need help please let me know. [email protected] or leave it in the comments.
I’m busy planning and training. Drop a note if you want to meet up or say hi before I take off.
Edward Abbey said it pretty well:
One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast….a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive.
I took a 50 day Outward Bound course at the end of High School. A participant said “the definition of adventure is the outcome is unknown.”
This outcome is unknown, and I’m looking forward to that.
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