Office Hours – April 30th, 4:30 pm till ???

Effective immediately, I am instituting Office Hours for entrepreneurs.  One day a month, I will clear my calendar to make myself available to anyone who thinks I might be able to help them with contacts, advice or being a sounding-board.   The first Office Hours will be at 4:30 at the Taco Mac Perimeter location at Ashford Crossing.  So, if you’re looking for advice or business conversation, I’ll be available to any and all comers.  My hope is that we will create a group such that participants can help one another as well.  The flip side of this announcement is that I will not be taking as many individual meetings with entrepreneurs.    My time constraints simply won’t allow it anymore.  Of course, this does not apply to meetings that somehow relate to my HA&W work.  I’m not sure if Thursday is the best day to do this, but we’ll play it by ear.  Maybe I can convince other friends of mine to stop by but we’ll see.

This idea is not original.  Jason Caplain has been doing this for some time.  Gatherings such as Open Coffee, Startup Dinner, Startup Drinks and Semi-Open Breakfast are intended, I think, to accomplish the same thing.  Of course, if you’re not necessarily looking for advice but just want to hang out, that’s fine too.  I’m always glad to see my friends.

I am very fortunate that many entrepreneurs seem to think that my advice and input might be helpful to them in thinking through their businesses and business plans.  I like the opportunity to help people.  Many people have helped me throughout my life in many, many ways, and I am not necessarily able to repay my debt to them, but to someone else.  Dana Dunnan rescued me from academic mediocrity in high school.  Sheila Puffer led me to the job opportunity of a lifetime that launched my venture capital career in Minsk and Kyiv.  Leigh Stein and Mark S. Deion were my early professional mentors.  Gordon Baty invited me to update his book, Entrepreneurship in the Nineties (becoming Entrepreneurship:  Back to Basics).  Valentina, Irina and Pavel Trushkevich made sure I didn’t starve in the economic chaos in Belarus.  Imagine my shock when I was issued a rationing card.  David Adams gave me the opportunity to enter the valuation business.  Robin Hensley goes well beyond our business relationship every day to become the most important business advisor in my life.  Scott Burkett gave me the opportunity that became StartupLounge.  Many others have played a critical role in building a life I consider myself very fortunate to have every day.

So, it’s with a genuine desire to give back to the community that I am changing my model by which I help entrepreneurs.  With my current professional and other commitments, I have to improve my time management skills and outcomes.   I decline very few people who ask for my help – and those whom I do decline, I do so because I don’t think I can help them.  The reality now is that my new job is, while extremely demanding, equally time-consuming, and I have had to make some tough decisions on where I can spend my time, including discontinuing some longtime hobbies that I hope to one day resume.   My hope is that this move enables me to provide better assistance, rather than less.