The good Fortune of coverage on CNN.com
This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO. Follow Matt Douglas on Twitter
Once in a while, I take a moment to step back and really appreciate how far I’ve come. This blog post is one of those moments.
This afternoon, Fortune Small Business released their April issue. MyPunchbowl and yours truly play a prominent role in the cover story entitled “The Venture Game: What investors want.” Fortune is published online through a partnership with CNN.com. It’s quite humbling to see your own name lead off a major story on CNN.
The story leads off with a trip down memory lane — the early days of MyPunchbowl. “Matt Douglas had just embarked on a down-to-the-studs renovation of his home in Natick, Mass. when he and a colleague, Sean Conta, quit their jobs to launch MyPunchbowl.com, an event-planning Web site. “My wife and I were living in one 12-by-8-foot room, along with the refrigerator, stove and two cats,” Douglas recalls. “Sean would come over around 8:30 every morning. Then we’d sit at our two little desks with construction noise in the background.”
It’s all true. It’s hard to describe what those days were like — but that year was full of sacrifice and hard work. Those were the days when no one would return my phone calls, and this company was only a figment of my imagination. How far it’s all come.
In addition to the main story, my advice is featured in one of the “10 steps to catch VC cash.” Those of you who have followed this blog for a long time will remember the blog posts which covers this advice in more depth: “Don’t write a business plan.” Wow, that’s from July of 2007!
A high-profile article like this involves many people and takes many months. On January 14th, Lucy McQuilken (our investment manager from Intel Capital) emailed me with an introduction to a writer from Fortune. A few days later, I had an in-depth conversation with Sharon from Fortune. After a number of follow-up calls and an editorial review, I was asked to do a photo shoot for the article. The photo shoot took place on February 26th (that experience is another blog post in itself!) — and the article was published today, April 15th. Start to finish: 3 months. Not bad for an article with this kind of expsosure.
There is a long list of people to thank for this article. First — thanks to the PR team at Intel Capital for uncovering this opportunity and bringing it to Lucy McQuilken. Lucy: thanks for bringing the opportunity to Punchbowl, and for enduring my attempts at humor during the four hour photo shoot. Thanks to Spencer Heyfron for a fanastic and fun photo shoot. And most importantly: thank you to Sharon Kahn at Fortune for her attention to detail and accuracy. Sharon: this is a fantastic article and it’s been a pleasure to get to know you.
I sat on the couch this evening and showed my wife the article on CNN. Her smile said it all. She remembers the six months we lived in the 12×8 room, and she knows that I’m about the farthest thing from an “overnight success” that you can imagine. Today is a day I feel really proud of how far I’ve come.
Read the articles: The Venture Game: What investors want and my startup advice: 10 steps to catch VC cash.
