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09/12/11 | Uncategorized

Time is Slower and Faster At The Same Time: Reflections of My First Week as a Real Founder

By Kimberly Dillon (Founder, House of Mikko)
So for those of you who didn’t know it, this week was my first week solo dolo. This was the first week in 12 years, in which I have not worked for someone else. Amazing because my email address which means “No More Cubicles” was penned in 2003, which means I have been working on working for myself for a long long time!

Surprisingly most people, especially former coworkers, have asked me what its like be able to sleep in. I usually responded with my trademark edlook of confusion. Are these people psycho? Sleeping in? I am not in college nor am I independently wealthy. Sleeping in is NOT an option.

I have worked harder this week than I did my entire last month on the JOB. Mainly because when I looked under the hood of my start up, I realized how much needed to be done. How many things I overlooked and how many issues I had not closed out. I also came to realize that there were a lot of things I did not know. and I mean A LOT. This week could be called -– The week of finding out what Kimberly does not know.

I spent about a day reading Quora trying to understand the definition of traction. I also spent some time researching all of the names people tend to drop in the valley. I now know who Ron Conway is, What Angelgate refers to, how cap tables work, and where the hot coffee shops are (um -– University Avenue in Palo Alto).

I also spent the week feeling amazing, refreshed, tired, exhausted, stunned, confused, self aware, happy, excited, and determined. Let’s just say there are major ups and downs of being a founder. What I will say is that the emotions of running a startup might be the closest a guy will ever feel to being hormonal.

So Week 1 was good. So as a recap in the last 7 days:

  1. I found a lawyer I understood
  2. Recruited my classmate to join my team
  3. Left my job
  4. Got a lawyer
  5. Sent 173 emails
  6. Lost 2 lbs
  7. Worked on redesigning my homepage
  8. Built a product survey
  9. Hosted a startup event for 400 women
  10. Built my financial model
  11. Got an invite to attend Fashion Week’s beauty event
  12. Had 9 conference calls
  13. Went to two launch parties
  14. Realized my signup button does not work in IE, also realized that most of my traffic comes from IE
  15. Slept about 28 hours

Ahhh!

Keep Grinding!

This post was originally published at Kimberly Dillon’s blog.

Photo credit: Ross Berteig.


Kimberly-DillonAbout the guest blogger: Kimberly Dillon is Founder of House of Mikko, where she manages Marketing and Product Strategy. She founded the company to address the challenges that women, specifically women of color face at the beauty counter. She started her career as an IT Consultant with Accenture and has over 8 years of marketing experience in the digital and consumer space, including a stint at Procter & Gamble. She has 2 undergraduate degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA from the University of Michigan.

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