1/ I never usually makes posts like this, but this feels like a special day and it seems worth sharing the context on what this means to me.... 
2/ Back in 2013 my friend @sam_hatoum told me about a book called The #LeanStartup. It resonated not because I'd experienced it to be right, but because we'd just completed an 18 month project of doing the complete opposite of the everything the book described, and it sucked
3/ By 2014 I was convinced I wanted to try these methods, but couldn't imagine how to get traction for these ideas at my then employer.
4/ In Sep 2015 I left that company, to both work on a startup with Sam, bootstrapped by freelance consulting for other startups, so I could experiment on these ideas in real life.
5/ In Nov 2015 I attended the Lean Startup conference or Fort Mason, SF, and relished finding a community of like-minded innovators. I promised myself that one day, I would be on that stage, sharing my own experience and perspective.
6/ In early 2016 I found The Lean Startup Circle in SF, run by @TriKro an informal meetup in "Unconference" style. I loved it and started volunteering in running and facilitating the event.
7/ In Spring 2016 I submitted a proposal to speak at the next Lean Startup Conference, and was rejected.
8/ In Aug 2016, in one night at The Lean Startup Circle in SF, I met @mcgough_heather co-founder of The @leanstartup company, while I was volunteering to facilitate a discussion. We hit it off.
9/ At the same event on the same day, I met @robvarady who told me about his brother @evarady2 's idea for Bespoke eyewear powered by mobile technology.
10/ In Sept 2016 I started consulting for what is now @topologyeyewear and with it, the truest possible experience of working for a genuinely innovative, disruptive startup.
11/ Somewhere around this time, I applied to speak at the Lean Startup Conference 2016, and got rejected.
12/ At the 2016 Lean Startup Conference, the Topology team and I conducted a "Concierge MVP" by setting up a booth to sell Topology eyewear to conferences. We sold I think 10-20 pairs over 2 days.
13/ In 2017, I applied to speak at the Lean Startup Conference, and was rejected.
14/ BUT, I did get invited to be a "Speed Mentor" alongside great folks such as @davidjbland and @barryoreilly , which I enjoyed very much indeed.
15/ Shortly afterwards, Heather invited me to volunteer as an advisor to the Lean Startup company, helping in areas such as marketing, growth, PR etc
16/ Then I applied to speak at the 2018 Lean Startup Conference, and was rejected.
17/ While on summer vacation in Tahoe, July 2019, I received an email from Heather, completely out of the blue asking if I would consider being the host (not guest) of the Lean Startup Podcast. Of course I said yes.
18/ Shortly afterwards, I received a notification that my speaker proposal was accepted, and I was now, invited to speak at the Lean Startup Conference
19/ And, the team asked me to interview the awesome @ryan_caldbeck on the main stage.
20/ In Sep 2019 I recorded my first podcasts for the Lean Startup Podcast, including @spaiji , Theron McCullough and Ryan Caldbeck, with more great guests to follow.
21/ Yesterday the enigmatic @dbinetti introduced me on the main stage as "Long-time friend of The Lean Startup Community" or something like that
22/ The interview with Ryan on stage went great
23/ This morning I was invited by Heather to meet @ericries in person and discuss ideas for growing the #leanstartup community. That was cool.
24/ And just a short time ago, I finished presenting my Topology case study. I loved it, some other folks said they did too.
So what to make of all this? In classic Startup Style, it's been an overnight success, 5+ years in the making!
It means a lot to me, so thank you #leanstartup community for having me!
It means a lot to me, so thank you #leanstartup community for having me!
