Liveblogging A Startup

Charlie O’Donnell and his partner Alex are doing something that is quite brave. They are liveblogging their startup, Path 101. I am sure there is some stuff that they aren’t blogging, but when you are posting your monday meeting agendas, you are putting it out there.

Many of you probably know that Charlie was an analyst at Union Square Ventures from early 2005 to the summer of 2006. He was blogging before we hired him, in fact his blog was one of the many reasons we hired him. And in the spirit of full disclosure, I will be participating in the seed financing of Path 101. Charlie’s a special person and anyone who knows him will agree.

There are a lot of advantages to liveblogging a startup. It lets the world know what you are up to and prepares them for what you will deliver. In the case of Path 101, its described on their blog as:

Think of us as "pre-Monster.com." When you arrive at a big job board,
it asks you what you want to do and a lot of people simply don’t
know–from college kids to experienced professionals in career
transition. We’re all about career discovery and we’re going to provide
a community powered set of services around figuring out your
opportunity set and where you belong–from peer advice to personality
testing and collaborative filtering around career path data.

Yesterday, they posted what they need from LinkedIn’s new platform and API. That’s smart. Surely someone at LinkedIn is going to read that post. And maybe they’ll get some other people reading it and linking to it saying "yeah, we want that too". And it will help LinkedIn make their platform and API better and also build community support for the features they want.

I am adding Path 101’s blog to my blogroll and regular reading list. This is going to be interesting.

#VC & Technology

Comments (Archived):

  1. vincentvw

    I agree, it’s a great PR-tool, a good way to reflect on what you’re up too (to a degree), and can be very educational for other entrepreneurs. I remember Moxie, a cinema start-up, did something similar on an Inc.com blog. And, I was happy to read, they’re still blogging.

  2. Alfred

    Good to know that more people are taking up the challenge to revamp the career space – particularly career 2.0

  3. Voices.com CEO

    Despite my firm belief in having a sound business plan and projected financials, I’ve heard respected investors suggest to start with a blog.I would agree that blogging during the start-up phase is an excellent idea. It let’s a new company establish credibility before the product is ready, bounce ideas of potential customers and let’s other stakeholders participate in the growth of the organization. Nicely done!

  4. Aruni

    Interesting. I do post about things happening in my business on my blog but it’s often hard to really put it out there because if something doesn’t happen like you would hope it would, it might happen later and you don’t want to discourage potential business partners from doing business with you because of your blog posts when things change in their neck of the woods.Other than that, it sounds pretty cool what they are doing. If they have a career section for entrepreneurs that would probably be a good niche. I would be interested in knowing how many entrepreneurs own companies that don’t make it big (which is the vast majority of them/us) but who really can’t escape the entrepreneurial career but because of circumstances can’t start another company but would look for a great opportunity in another start-up. Yes, that was way too wordy…

  5. Vishal Sharma

    I think this is a brave idea and reminds me of Agile Development (Software), relasse early and get feedback asap.Kudos to guys for doing this, and i dont think their is any fear to worry about as most people will read it appreciateit. Times in a flat world means more open, transparent and being honest. Good on you guys.

  6. AnnBernard

    I have been live blogging Why Go Solo since May 07 and it’s been a great and rewarding experience. We are due for a private beta launch in about three weeks and we’re definitely still blogging about what being a start-up is all about. People really like to know they are not alone when going through struggles and they also love sharing in your victories. http://www.whygosolo.com/blog/aboutus

  7. bsiscovick

    Very exciting approach to engaging a community around a startup.I think this highlights a few interesting points:1) Creating a successful company is 10% idea, 90% execution. The Path101 team is tossing the gist of their idea out to the public – but they don’t seem to be too fearful that someone will swoop in, steal it, and run with it. Clearly the Path team is confident that they have a unique drive and ability to execute better than others. I’m not suggesting this is the right approach for every startup, but undeniably it’s all about execution baby!2) This is a fascinating experiment in openness. We have long been touting the benefits of open approaches to new business, but Path101 is clearly putting their money where their mouth is. By inviting the online community inside the doors of their startup, Path hopes to benefit from the creative and innovative intellect that exists outside of their small company walls (their call for action from LinkedIn is just the begining!). I think this is a great approach and look forward to seeing how this experiment turns out. My money says this team is on to something good…

  8. Scott Handsaker

    Congrats on live blogging your progress – I wish more people would do it! We are doing a similar thing for a VC mag in Australia (trickytix.wordpress.com).I just think you learn so much from reading about what other people are going through, and there is very little to be gained as a company by hiding in the dark. Truly I don’t know why it isn’t more common.

  9. Nigel Burke

    Four posts in four months and nothing for the last two isn’t really “putting it out there”. Or have they stopped having Monday meeting already?