After a lot of deliberating, debating, planning, perusing, and pontificating, my buddy DustyD and I have decided to start software development company named BrightMix.

Dusty's last day working for Aureus will be this Friday, and I've informed my employer of my intent to sometime in the mid-August.

It's with a heavy heart that I plan to leave my friends and colleagues at Securities America. But, alas, my aching to get out on my own, plus a handful of hot, time-sensitive opportunities, has convinced me (and Dusty) to move forward. I'm making every effort I can to see that my departure from Securities America is as painless as possible--easier sad than done.

Words from the Wise

Pretty much everything I've read from the multitude of startup authors out there indicates that our venture will:

• Be more work than we are anticipating
• Provide us with a freakish amount of experience
• Make us feel alive!

Business Strategy

For our first 6-12 months, we will be primarily doing consulting/contract programming work. This will be an effort to stockpile cash. After that, we want to focus on developing a web-based product and/or service that will generate recurring income for us. Our plan here is to quickly implement a number of small projects, study how they do, and then focus on developing the projects that seem to have the best future.

We want to avoid the lure of Consulting

Contract/Consulting work can be highly lucrative with high dollar-per-hour rates, but we do not want to focus on this type of work; it just doesn't scale well. Plus, if the work dries up, you got no monies--Boo that! I think it's really easy to get sucked into the contract/consulting game because it really is easy money. However, will only go so far.

On the To-Do List:

• Talk with an accountant and/or lawyer to determine some of the inner financial workings and get the company officially declared.
• Update the company Web site and blog to actually contain some relevant stuff.
• Get a stellar logo.
• Set up an "office" (most likely candidate --> my sweet living room).
• Get some initial work contracts hammered out so we can begin working.
• Have a BrightMix Begins party.
• Give everyone at party high fives!

Exciting times, indeed!