Our Desire For Sawyer Fredericks

I didn't see every episode of this season's The Voice. I hadn't seen this young man Sawyer or the unique Josh, until after the knockout rounds. In fact the first time I saw Josh was when he was instantly saved. 

Truly it was an exciting season and there were so many great voices, I was sad when some of the ones I liked got the cut. The last four were all exceptional and I think Koryyn has a very special gift that we will hear for years to come and I am certain Meghan is going to be blessing us many times over.

Of course I wanted Sawyer to win, as so did many of you. He has something we all desire, and it's not his voice, even though we love it. As Adam had said to him after his last performance that "He hopes he never loses his purity" It is not only his purity we all desired, but all the other qualities that shine through his soul. 

Sawyer has this everlasting smile. As he stands there on stage listening to the comments from the judges, it's not just his purity we see. It's kindness,gentleness,honesty,innocence,happiness, sweetness all wrapped up in humbleness. You just want to hug him, because he embodies so many awesome qualities. 

All these qualities that Sawyer Frederick's seemingly lets shine through to us with ease, is what we want. Then you add the cherry on top his voice,singing ability,and musicianship, and that's what makes a superstar, or at least a human being that mankind could use more of. Even ourselves, we'd like to embody a few more of Sawyers qualities as surly ours are worn down and do not have that kind of shine anymore.

Congratulations to Sawyer and his coach Pharrell!

Startups Can't Live Without Vocal Entrepreneurs:The Voice

I'm watching The Voice tonight and wow, I'm always inspired by these vocal entrepreneurs. I can't decide on who to vote for. Love them all, so amazing. I always play music while I work on Passdown. Can't wait to add these young men to my playlist. I always feel sad as the show goes on week by week and great singers do not make it to the next round. I feel for them, as I know how not getting into that accelerator is so much like not making it to the next round. 

I've had many sad blog post lately. It's been a very hard December in my personal life. In my startup life, my team did not make the cut into Dreamit Philly. Dreamit sent an email that said they had received an unusually large amount of submissions this go around. 

After a couple of days of feeling bummed about not making it. I'm back working on Passdown. Of course all those thoughts of doubt had encased me all weekend and I was wondering if I wanted to continue this build. We are going to face constant rejection's. Building a startup is a brutal endeavor that often ends in failure. Not only are you solving a problem for people, you have to solve about a eleven thousand other problems just to get to the created product. This is what us treps do. We solve problems.

We also discover as we build. One of our team members Tesmond has seen another insight that Passdown can be, or added in addition to it. I love it. It's something I had not thought of but it's absolutely perfect for Passdown. 

As I had people come and go in my last startup, I never really had a team. However this build I have three beautiful extremly smart young men who want to be apart of this startup. I'm incredibly grateful and honored by them. I hope none of them go. As we spend time building while working our day jobs, we have a journey to conquer together not without extreme challenges, and a few hundred rejections.

Can't wait to see who win's The Voice, and purchase the music from all those who did not. They inspire me.

Keep Your Head Up Success Is Coming

Startup Accelerators VS: The Voice

I love watching The Voice. It's incredible beautiful to watch singers take the risk to display their talents; to not only be judged by four judges but the television audience. People everywhere watching them succeed or fail.

As I watch The Voice I can't help but picture each contestant as a single startup applying for a shot at acceptance into an incubator. I witness great singers pick the wrong song, that just doesn't sound so good when they sing it. My ears can hear how great their voice is, and then when the competition sings next, I wither into what I know is coming for the other singer. I suffer the anguish of the impending AXE off the show.

I know this walk. It's my team applying to an accelerator. Oh we are good. It's just that we played the game, and picked the wrong song to sing, as this happens on The Voice.

Shark Tank is sort of The Voice for startups. It's that chance to sing your song, and be pushed into greatness or be slung into the pile of “Nah, not so great”

This is the road us entrepreneurs walk. Often times this rejection, scorn, and judgment can put me into a deep sorrow. I may stay in it for days, but surely this doom teaches me something.

While in the pit, my mind wanders all over the place. I take in all the

discomforts and search for my ladder. What is it that I must learn to get to the place I want to take Passdown? How can I help the team? How can I reach the people? How can we sing our song? Can we make it flawless? Can we take the judgment and shape it into something better than we presented? 


Of course we can.