First, here's the complex chain of how I even found out about the amazingness that is Provo Labs:
1. I work for a marketing firm, who contracts with BTH2, 10x Marketing, 10Speed Media, etc.
2. I read about BTH2 in the BusinessQ magazine (which I also actually made contact with to do freelance writing once upon a time), and therein read an article about Paul Allen.
3. Not being from Utah, I have no idea who Paul is. (I'm sorry!) Well, until I spent the last three weeks reading about him, Provo Labs, Phil, vSpring's 100 Best Executives in Utah, etc. Y'all, I have done my homework. I even called Corporate Alliance (somewhere mentioned on Paul's blog)
http://carma.corporatealliance.net/default.aspx to schedule a tour; pending.
4. Then, I researched all 100 of the executives' companies. Ok, actually, I only researched 70, but come on. Of all 70, only Provo Labs makes me stay up at night thinking about how exciting it will be to work for a group of proactive, zany, connected people who obviously are running the kinds of operations I have only attempted to run in the last opportunities I've had, but which are pretty hard to accomplish when you're dragging and kicking non-proactive types with you. (Trust me).
5. Adam Eshenroder, from 10Speed Media, comes in for a meeting about our video project, and we start chatting. Turns out 10Speed is one of Provo Labs' incubator companies, which I already happened to know thanks to looking at the "Our Companies" section on
http://www.provolabs.com/. I mentioned that I wanted to go to the Brainstorm Lunch, but hey, I don't [yet] have my own company. "No prob," he says, "go to the Geek Dinner." (Shall I also mention that Adam's roommate Cody, who just barely moved, is the one who hired me at my current job? Are we seeing a fate trend yet?)
6. So Adam sends me the invite. I send the invite to five others, 4 of whom are coming along with me. P.S. These are some of the most productive and self-starting people I know, and they definitely need to be hooked into the community. Just a thought. [Their names are Jedi, Jeremy, Clancey, and Steve. I actually hired Clancey at my current job because she knocked my socks off, I've worked extensively with Steve in the trenches of a failing start-up (despite our best overextended efforts), and I can vouch also for the sharp and proactive abilities of Jedi and Jeremy from
www.ti4technologies.com.]
7. Having read Phil and Paul's blogs for the last few weeks--
http://www.phil801.com/wpblog/ and
http://www.paulallen.net/ and knowing my own skills and strengths, I write a seemingly-too-good-to-be-true, but highly accurate, resume and cover letter, and send these on to Phil, Provo Labs COO.
8. The next day, Adam comes in again for another meeting, gives me an invite to his
http://www.provobse.com/ blog to get hooked into some fun activities (longboarding, I am definitely there for that one), and hey, BTH2 calls me and they tell me they're looking for a project manager, which is something I definitely also wouldn't mind doing.
Your basic sum up is: something is definitely going on here, and Provo Labs better snap me up so I don't have to turn everyone else down and wait in dire unemployment (not a chance) until something comes up. Y'all, I dig Provo Labs. There's nothing else I can add to that.
Carolynn Duncan
Future Provo Labs Employee, Insert Title Here:_____________
olynnduncan@hotmail.com(801) 529-2885
P.S. This whole blog was Adam's idea. If it works, it was mine. If not, you should fire him and give me his job, unless you realize my tech skills are only slightly inferior to my very excellent communications/leadership/organization forte.
