We ARE Just HUMAN

Aslam Najeebdeen, CEO at Frontcube

This post is in acknowledgement of my very dear friend Aslam Najeebdeen. Why? -- because we must acknowledge and support people in our lives -- for no reason at all. Love and help others and good things will happen.

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I met Aslam in early 2011 via a Ruby on Rails IRC chat room while trying to find software development help. I was one of the founders of a startup called Feedgen, which we were incubating at SF-based Angelpad. We had just raised a little money, but not enough to hire engineering help in Silicon Valley so we went offshore -- Aslam was based in Sri Lanka.

At first I didn’t interact much with Aslam because he was doing mostly front-end CSS, HTML, etc -- and my co-founders were handling that stuff. I do remember our Skype interview and couldn’t help but feel that this guy was special.

We were about 8-9 weeks into going full-time into building Feedgen and participating in Angelpad. We were having a tough time finding our MVP and I found myself having to keep us focused while frustration was building. However the one bright spot was our front-end guy Aslam in Sri Lanka.

Demo day eventually came and passed and after a series of atrocious VC meetings, things were looking grim and time was running out for most of us on the team. My two co-founders decided to pursue more stable work situations which I completely understood that they needed. I on the other hand was not going to give up without giving it my absolute all.

After my co-founders left I was struggling to figure out the next move towards saving Feedgen. I had no money to pay Aslam anymore and was trying to salvage the great work that he did on the front-end -- so I scheduled a Skype call with him. That call was life changing -- it solidified a friendship that is still alive and kicking to this day.

During the call I mentioned that my co-founders were moving on and that I had no money to pay him, but that if he believed in me that I promised good things would happen. I asked him to be my cofounder, take equity, and completely redesign the UI/UX to make it his vision, while I find a back-end guy to help us build.

Aslam accepted. And we began working.

Over the next several months Aslam and I went through hell and back. I was working full-time to survive and pay contractors to help Aslam. Of course, we kept getting ripped off by offshore contractors, who when they did deliver on time it was always buggy, not to scope, or frankly didn’t work. We spent nearly every night connected to each other via Skype. We shared in each other's joys and sorrows. We learned about each other’s culture. We virtually met each others families. I learn about his Muslim traditions around payers and fasting, and he tolerated my emotional and philosophical rants on life and meaning.

Eventually, no matter how much we tried, Feedgen ended up failing and the first year or so after that was very hard on both of us. Our courageous attempt at building our business left us broke financially and at very low levels of sadness. Luckily Aslam had a loving and supportive wife who was there for him and I had my family and a great friend named Jim Payne who gave me a gig at MoPub, which saved me in more ways than one.

It’s been 5 years now since we were first met and Aslam has become a distant brother. We both kept fighting in the game of life.

I went on to have an exit with MoPub to Twitter, built an organization called Sales4StartUps, which allowed me to stay connected the the world of startups, sales, and innovation, and now launched my latest product called Dashtab -- which by the way was inspired heavily by Feedgen. We overcame some very tough years and made it through as better men.

Aslam went on to grow Frontcube, one of the most innovative web consultancies outside of the Silicon Valley while being based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Frontcube works with companies ranging from large media organizations like Al Jazeera to hot Silicon Valley startups like Mobile Action -- and of course I’m a lifelong client.

However, there are very few weeks that pass that we don’t communicate. Aside of never having met before, Aslam and I share a very real connection and understanding of each other.

My friendship with Aslam transcends business. It’s who were are as basic humans. Our friendship represents something special in the world today. It’s a space where a 33 year old Cuban-Filipino entrepreneur, who was raised Roman Catholic in Miami, FL bonds with a 30 year entrepreneur from Kandy, Sri Lanka, who is a Muslim, and lives so close to nature that I can hear the animals sing during calls at times.

We represent what’s beautiful about the human experience. That despite all the darkness that exists in the world, promoted in the media, seen in everyday life, you have two guys who on paper are so different and in some cases suppose to fear each other, who are connected and don’t see religion, race, or distance, but are bonded by being who they are, just human.

In fact, Aslam reminds me of the goodness that exists in the world. He reminds me that the spirit of entrepreneurship is a human thing not an American thing or even Silicon Valley thing. It doesn't see race, religion, location, or academic background. It’s a beautiful representation of our desire to dream and belief that we can change our lives and live the lives that we want to live.

To my good friend Aslam Najeebdeen, thanks for your support, loyalty, friendship, and love. 

You’re a brilliant entrepreneur and I am so happy to see Frontcube continue to be great.

Bigger Than Business

I arrived in Silicon Valley for the first time in 2006 when trying to raise money for a social travel startup that my partner and I bootstrapped from my graduate school apartment in Tallahassee, FL. We had decided to pack up and head to the "motherland" to try to raise money and recruit engineers. I remember trying to find engineers to work on equity cause we had no money and VCs at the time were not buying our argument.

Since those days we have both learned a heck of a lot and have both gone through success acquisitions; he was at Mint.com that sold to Intuit and myself at MoPub which sold to Twitter.

For as long as I could remember, I have been obsessed with entrepreneurship and startups. Over the last 12 years, I can't recall a day that has gone by that I have not at least thought about this topic. However, what I have also learned is that no matter how much "success" you seem to have, it's never enough.

For me I've always had some startup idea to dive head first into and kinda ignore the other aspects of life. What's crazy is that I never really understood the power of having a balanced life. And that life really is...well, has to be bigger than just business. I began to truly understand this after my startup Feedgen went under in 2011.

After so much excitement, having gone through the Angelpad incubator and making so many great contacts; we failed. And what was even worse was I woke up to a life that had been dominated by an obsession with startups, and was now questioning it all; it was a scary place to be. I had realized that there had to be more than just building startups and that business was so incredibly risky and volatile that there was no way that I could derive total happiness from it alone.

Since I had that epiphany I wake every day reminding myself to pursue a balanced life. I began doing things like riding my bike through the beautiful roads of Marin County, CA and becoming more aware of nature. I started to read books about Buddhism and doing more yoga. And I think that the most important thing that I began to focus on was that life was bigger than business and that I was not defined by business success or what I did. And although I literally have to remind myself of this on a daily basis, the awareness of it and the option to choose is very empowering.

Now don't get me wrong, I struggle with my ego, insecurities, and mistakes; I can assure you that I have a lot of the above. But what I also have is the awareness to work through these things and find resolve. Happiness and balance is a daily practice. You don't just achieve it once and you're done. It takes work, time, and dedication to the process.

We are not defined by only one part of our lives. We are the sum of our parts and experiences. As entrepreneurs we can still be passionate and inspired by what we create, it's kinda how we are wired anyways, but we must also remember that life is bigger than business. Find a balance, be more than just your venture/s, and perhaps you'll find success?

My Angelpad Experience

I was a participant in the Spring 2011 Angelpad class, which happened to be the 2nd class conducted since the program was founded summer of 2010. My view on the program was perhaps a tad different from some of the other founders. I was about to be 30 years old and had spent my entire 20’s trying to build my own companies. In fact, since my junior year of undergrad, I have done everything from door-to-door sales to running a nightclub promotions company to launching a travel-based social network called myTripz.com; which by the way, was largely funded by my mother taking a second mortgage on her house, just to give me enough to cash to bootstrap the company (I love you mom!)... Angelpad was a complete no-brainer for me. I figure it was just what the doctor ordered -- luckily was I right.

There are a few things that I think Angelpad really did well:

• Mentors: Every start up typically finds a particular mentor that they essentially bond with. This mentor really starts to get close to the team and provides very granular advice.

• Social Proof: Thomas Korte is a great marketer. Between his connections and the brand he has built in a short period of time, it was very clear to us that doors would open if we built something that was compelling and performed well as a team.

• Product Market Fit: As several other founders have suggested, Angelpad focuses heavily on building the right product, at the right time.

• Connections: Based on participating in the program my network has grown tremendously.

Mopub: A REALLY great company.

The @mopub team is awesome. I believe this is the next big thing on the horizon. Great leadership and talent coupled with a fun environment (check out their facebook page -- do I see Mopub promo models?!) is a winning story.

Now I must admit that I am pretty close to the management team. I’ve known them for a while and have always known they would do something great. The thing is that I am NOT just supporting a bunch of friends; I honestly believe that Mopub will emerge as one of the leaders in its space. The market is for the taking and everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. The cool thing about Mopub is that they are a bunch of ex-Admob and ex-Google guys who really understand the space; in fact help helped define it and are now taking it to the next level.

I’m definitely excited to see what CEO Jim Payne and crew are working on over the next few months. Knowing these guys, it should awesome.