THE DREAM IN ACTION

In October of 2008 I launched a company called SocialDreamium LLC. I started out doing social web consulting work and used the revenues from that to fund the development of our first product. I recruited a co-founder and development team in December 2008 and we “broke ground” on our product just before the New Year.

Now in late-May 2009 we’ve decided to shut down SocialDreamium and move on. What did we get out of the business? A much better understanding of the social web landscape and significant entrepreneurial lessons learned. As much as I don’t like writing this post, it’s extremely valuable for all of you who are, or will be, in the same boat. The startup road is a narrow and rough one to travel along, my only hope is that you will be smart enough to learn from my mistakes. We weren’t just unlucky, we screwed somethings up; below are many (but not all) of the top lessons I learned from the 8 months we devoted to SocialDreamium.

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Today, I’m announcing my plans to close SocialDreamium, LLC.

This decision, which came about over the last month or so, was a challenging and complex one. Either way, I’ll tell you that this decision revolved primarily around money, competition, vision, and team: maybe the most critical factors of a successful startup.

SocialDreamium was attempting to compete is one of the most crowded spaces on the web at the time. We were building a social media application that would aggregate Twitter, Facebook, and other popular networks. Sound familiar? There are many companies with significant funding and resources who are developing similar applications so it became very difficult for us to see a successful path through that market. Our team was strong but faced many challenges of communication and execution. In short, for us to really drive a lot of users to our product over some of the other startups in the space was like trying to put out a fire with a squirt gun.

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On December 9, 1914, disaster struck the laboratories and factories of inventor Thomas Edison. Great geysers of green flame, fueled by chemicals, shot into the air, and the fire departments of eight nearby towns rushed to the scene. Numerous fire fighters and volunteers were overcome, and one Edison worker was killed. Edison’s son, Charles, was overwhelmed by the horror of the scene; but the old man walked into the yard, his hands folded across his chest, and watched, saying only, “Where’s Mother? Get her over here, and her friends, too. They’ll never see a fire like this again.”Many people sent messages of condolence and support. To one such sympathizer, Edison replied, “I am sixty-seven; but I’m not too old to make a fresh start.” Within three weeks, the Edison factories were restored to some semblance of order; and by New Year’s Day, they were running at two shifts. The speed of the recovery, said one observer, was almost as spectacular as the disaster.

Don’t quit. Don’t panic. Don’t give up. Press on and be a finisher. Do the work God has called you to do, and see what happens when you reach for the things that are ahead.
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Thomas Edison