Another piece of our startup puzzle has fit into place – Brian Haven will be joining my new startup company in September.
Now – before you get the impression that we're building a new syndicated research firm, let me tell you that isn't the plan. But Brian and I did recently work at the same company, researching similar topics, so you may wonder, what's the deal?
Well for the record, I couldn't actually recruit Brian to join the startup. However, we've left some public breadcrumbs about what we are doing and Brian decided to bring his distinct and valuable skill set to put to work in our kitchen. At Forrester, he helped businesses think about engagement. Prior to that, he worked in design research and strategy, making good use of his master's degree in interaction design.
He's also a good guy – the picture is from when we attended CES earlier this year and rented bikes to breeze past taxi queues and stopped traffic. (But he looked cool in his bike gear, I looked like a dork.) We share an affinity for good burritos. Which is probably a good thing when you work for an Austin-based company…
This brings us to four principals:
- Jeff Dachis, successful corporate architect and entrepreneur, who decided to build a new company.
- Me. I bring business strategy and social computing skills.
- Doug Rushkoff, an authority on people, culture, and connections.
- Now Brian Haven joins us, bringing design thinking and an engagement focus to the table.
And that's not the end of the story – it gets even better with some of the potential hires we have in the pipeline.
Two closing thoughts:
- If you think you might be interested in joining us, let me know. But please first read my earlier posts about the five-tool employee and the known, knowable, and unknown (i.e. how does this opportunity appear along those categories to you?).
- If you are interested in putting us to work, let me know or get in touch with Jeff. If you believe that social technology can and needs to be used for more than PR and advertising, we have a lot to discuss.