What a rollercoaster week for Grazr developer Mike Kowalchik. Following on from server nightmares and DNS blunders he announces cool new features in Alpha 9 and then.... gets a new investor and company president - Adam Green.
Adam, remember, was the technology roundtable moderator at Web2Ireland and it was during our dinner conversation, when he entertained with a fascinating recap of Andover.net story, that I came to realize how much we lack an Angel Investor culture in this country. Now he's demonstrating exactly the kind of 'can do' attitude Irish entrepreneurs and investors need to embrace -
My goals was to come up with an idea around which I could start a new company. At the time I assumed that this would take at least a year. The search ended up taking half that time. I was lucky enough to meet Mike Kowalchik in late January, and that friendship has helped produce Grazr.
I originally stated that I didn't want to take an equity position in Grazr, because that would conflict with being an independent blogger. A few weeks ago I started helping Mike raise money for Grazr development from angel investors. I soon found that the story I was telling people was so compelling that I ended up selling myself on the idea of investing. Mike and I have now come to a verbal agreement to have me invest and to join the company full time as president.
Way to go guys! And what a lesson to the Web 2.0 community in Ireland. We should all take time to read back through Adam and Mike's blogs to observe the genesis of an adventure in entrepreneurship.
Technorati Tags: grazer, entrepreneurship, angel investors
I've been a frequent commentator (www.dianemulcahy.com) about the need for more angel investing in Ireland. I'm intrigued by the idea that blogs can help create an informal, virtual network of angels and entrepreneurs - thanks for posting a real-life example of how it can happen.
Posted by: Diane Mulcahy | May 09, 2006 at 06:27 PM
There's no doubt Diane but that blogging played a central role in the genesis of Grazr.
I was interested in listening to a recording of your interview on Today FM's Business Show, about business angels, but unfortunately they only make available the most recent podcast. Do you have a link to an archive somewhere?
Posted by: James Corbett | May 10, 2006 at 10:06 AM