Last year I had the opportunity to work with Builders License Training Institute, they were taking an application from a vendor and taking it in house.
To respect NDAs and such, let me just say that they were a very brick-and-mortar with some ‘mail-order’ business elements, so the online application was helping to really change their way of thinking, I had the opportunity to do some linux server admin work for them, and I also did some business style consulting.
I recommended some books on Product Management, and tried to give them a crash course in how to manage developers and what I felt were best practices they could do in terms of task management and source code management. These were concepts that any competent business owner should be able to grasp at a high level, but without being technical, they would never be able to really follow-up on, that comes down to trust of the coding staff.
They’ve taken to Product Management and one of my contacts there has the title Product Manager, which makes me feel really good. They’ve also taken to vertical branding for other markets they are targeting with their training software.
And while my engagement with them was short and really centered around some servers I turned up for them, I feel that I helped them get to where they are, but I take no credit. It was the hard-work they put in for the last 15 months since I worked with them. We are keeping in touch by email, here and there.
I had the chance to meet other startups at the Three Day Startup event in Traverse this past summer and with my friend Kevin’s joining Aceable, it feels like startups are everywhere.
Makes me wish I was 10 years younger.
redftech 