Do you live in or around San Francisco, or are you going to the Future of Web Apps conference on 9/13?

I just won a free pass to the two-day conference, so let me know if you’re going.  Let’s meet up.  We can be nerds together.

This is a pretty significant personal announcement…

Lots of people have asked me “what are you doing with your life?” and I haven’t had an “official” answer.

Until now.

Starting September 7, I will be an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Kodiak Venture Partners in Boston.  My contract is for three months, and during that time I will be working with the partners (in particular John Abraham, Chip Meakem and Elliot Katzman) to learn how to build a business, namely Groupvine.

In particular, I’ll be writing a business plan, performing market research, lining up a wide variety of new trial customers and making incremental changes based upon feedback and market dynamics — all with the help of experienced entrepreneurs and former CEOs.

At the end of the three months, the end goal is to get Groupvine funding.

I was connected to John Abraham, one of the primary enablers of this deal, through Betsy Gatewood at the WFU Entrepreneurship Center.  Bren Varner and her together supplied me with some incredibly valuable advice about what to do and what not to do, and encouraged me to pursue this oppportunity.

John and I have been speaking since April, and has also done a great deal for me during this time.  Through him, I flew up to Boston to present to the partnership my vision for Groupvine and what I believe the market opportunity to be. (That was an experience in and of itself…one word: incredible!)

If you’re in the Boston area, let me know and let’s get together.  If you want to know more about what I’m doing, drop me an email or leave a comment.

My decision has been pretty controversial with my parents and some members of my family in particular because it’s a significantly higher risk than getting a job with benefits, etc.  But I think the time is NOW to take that risk and I will forever wonder about missed opportunities if I didn’t do it.

Thanks for reading.  I’m very optimistic about the future and this amazing opportunity.

The top 50 movie endings of all time.

I disagree with Dr. Strangelove as number one.  I vote for Wedding Crashers.

Life, as most people believe, is full of certain defining inflection points where a significant change is made whether we like it or not.  Here are a few:

• Our very first day of school
• Going to high school
• Getting our driver’s license
• Getting to see R-rated movies legally
• Legally being able to drink
• Graduating from college and joining the “real world”
• Having kids
• Retiring

This is too predefined for me. 

Every day is a potential inflection point.  Every day has the potential to be a day where we change our lives as drastically as when we get our driver’s license, we go to high school, and we get our first “real” jobs (if you’re the type that gets a job).

So –

Does your work suck?  Change it today.

Do you want to get up earlier?  Do it, starting tomorrow.

Do you want to be a millionaire in 5 years?  Decide today that you will.  Then do it.  Now.

Are you in crappy relationship?  Change the rules of the game or get out. 

Feel flabby?  Decide that starting today, you will not eat the 3rd, 4th and 5th Chipotle burrito and you will instead eat raw sugar snap peas, blend tasty fruit smoothies and drink Vitamin Water.

As I read somewhere, time is not spent.  We do not spend our time like money.  Time spends itself, whether we like it or not.  What we do with that continuously draining bank account is up to us.  It is our choice to be happy.  It is our choice to structure our lives as we see fit.

Make today an inflection point.  Don’t let life happen to you on society’s or someone else’s schedule.

Thanks for listening. 

Every time I read about a new cool company or product I get excited (and slightly jealous because I wish I executed on it) because people continue to do cool things.  We live in the greatest country in the world and we have the most resources and the best environment to create really cool stuff.

So that’s the uplifting, happy, idealistic portion of this post. 

But let me switch gears.

Why is such effort expended to deliver a product or service (primarily on the Web) that will only be used by a tiny number of people?

Or why are products, even when publicly intended for the mainstream, launched only to a “geek” audience?

Josh Kopelman, managing director at First Round Capital and founder of Half.com (among other companies), worried too about more companies being built with ideas that will not appeal to a mainstream (read: non-techie) audience — or the girl next door.

His point:

It got me thinking – how many people outside of the valley have ever heard of these companies?  I asked a bunch of local (Philly-area) acquaintances and the answer came back loud and clear: none – nada - zip.  People here have barely heard of MySpace and Craigslist – let alone any of the “hot” Web 2.0 companies.

For Web companies to make it big today, they must solve real problems for typical people.  And that can be tough for blog-reading, RSS-munching, del.icio.us-loving, tag-tagging individuals like you and I (I assume you’re one of them ).  Why?

Because we are not typical consumers.  We create and consume media abnormally.  We love gadgets.  We read TechCrunch.  We use bookmarklets.  We know what Diggscaperedilicious is (and how to pronounce it). 

My theory is that if a company can create something that is even understood and usable by your neighbor, your minister or your friends who only know how to check their email and use a cell phone, then you have a huge winner on your hands. 

This isn’t a rant against niche marketing, niche targeting or whatever. Knowing your audience is essential to every business.  But the really huge big winners have products so universal that they can be choosy as to what markets they pursue.  If one isn’t receptive…they can switch gears and move onto other prospective markets. 

Instead, build something that the girl next door could use.  Make it as easy as email.  Build something that truly affects those who use it, and make that effect reachable by as many people as possible.

Then take it outside of this echo chamber us geeks know and love.  Talk to real people who don’t think about technology or startups or scour digg every day.  That’s how to make it big.

Thanks for listening.

(And yes, Elisha Cuthbert is my dream girl.)