“You are not alone.” Over the years I have received and given so much advice about how to build and run a company. Things about hiring, fundraising, leading, and growing. But of all the advice those four words always rang as the most important.

For most of my life, I would sit down in front of a white screen with a blinking cursor and just start writing. The words would flow and in the back of my brain, a small, but persistent, voice would cheer me on.

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion around what types of company is venture capital helpful.

Everyone I know has some activity that when everything else is lost, they can find solace within. That when the world is burning around them, they can find respite within that activity and say, “I am fine.”

When people ask me what's special about Silicon Valley, I answer: “success begets success, and entrepreneurship perpetuates entrepreneurs.”

As you can see from the screenshot, this post is from a little while ago. I am updating it because things haven’t gotten better and in many ways, Dark UX has gotten worse. As product people, we can do better.

An on-going series taking a look at the Amazon Leadership Principles from a startup point of view.

Back in September, I wrote a post titled, Want to Start a Company? Work at a Big One First with the intent of exploring the Amazon Leadership Principles from a startup’s perspective.

When someone asks me how they should go about deciding what to build, I always answer the same way: “Build something you wish always existed.”

About three and a half years ago I was on the phone with Eric Nakagawa, who has long been a mentor of mine. I had recently come back from cervical surgery and was pondering life.

A little background on Villi. I have known him for years, back when he was doing corporate development at Salesforce, and have had the pleasure watching him go from the operator side of the table to the investor.

The other night I had dinner with T.A. McCann in downtown Seattle. It was the first time I experienced Bay Area traffic in Seattle, and I will say, that is something I certainly don’t miss.

Max patiently waiting for breakfast. My golfing friends have always described the game as one perfect shot followed by a life time trying to repeat that moment.

Our Launch at CES 2010. “Want to be on the stage at CES with Ballmer?” It was late 2009. Graphicly and Kevin Mann had just finished the Boulder Techstars program and I had moved from being a mentor to CEO and co-founder. I was excited.

About 5 or 6 years ago, I settled into the corner of the type of couch that usually was shoved into a too-small college room and was so fluffy that all you wanted to do to was sleep.

My mom used to tell me similar stories about me as a kid. In fact, she often tells people that I started my first company when I was nine. I don’t really remember what it was, but there was a time when I aggregated all the kids mowing lawns in the neighborhood, and cornered the market, driving prices up, and more importantly, my workload down.

This morning, I made some coffee, cooked myself breakfast and sat down to catch up with my social media streams while listening to Biz Markie sing about his friends.

I wrote this about a year ago and put it into drafts as I wasn’t happy with it. But, since I recently left Amazon after 3.5 years, I thought it would be interesting to apply those learnings to startups.

I am bipolar. But you knew this. Yesterday I had coffee with an old friend. And on my drive home had a wonderful conversation with another. Why does this matter? Most folks know me as having a decent network.

Billie, my dog who changed my life, was a loving pup when she was young. As she got older, she started to get more and more timid, getting scared of noises, flashing lights, even some people.