Going From Cubicle to Entrepreneur with a Real-life MBA

How has 2012 started for you? For me, it’s been quite the upheaval. The year started about 40,000 feet above the Atlantic in an A380 heading to Paris. That, in and of itself, wasn’t exactly much of a change. It was the second time I’d be ringing the New Year in under the Eiffel Tower, but this time was much different.

The last time I was in Paris, December 2009, I’d just started working as a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton in McLean, Virginia. I was working on their internal web social platform, “Hello” as a developer. Daymuse Studios, LLC had been formed in October of 2008, just over a year earlier. After working over a potential contract with a multi-million dollar insurance company in late-2009, it became apparent Daymuse would need to see significant employee growth to handle growing contracts. DC was just the place to learn and grow, as an entrepreneur, but also as a leader — learning how to manage a team, apply strengths to problems while devaluing weakness, and build confidence in handling ever-growing projects and responsibilities. It was just what the doctor had ordered, a sort of mini-MBA for an entrepreneur without the $40,000 tuition.

Parting Ways

Booz was a great place to land, it allowed me a corporate exposure, a light polish on my communication skills and interesting work. We weren’t meant to be though, early 2010 provided for a disagreement over conflict-of-interest as I maintained clients at Daymuse and BAH and I parted ways.

I ended up with another excellent opportunity at The George Washington University, working on the multi-million dollar Universal Web Presence initiative that would take the University from the dark-ages of closed systems and dated designs to an Open-source supported, heuristically designed site that would bring user-centered design into the equation of a successful educational site. My role was quite dynamic, beginning with production work, mentoring a team, to leading up technical implementation of design and acting as the glue for the various web-workers within the departments of the University. 2011 ended with a significant re-organization of key business units at the University and I knew it was time to return to my roots with the added knowledge, skills, and abilities afforded to me during the last couple of years of growth.

Back to RVA

I’m back in Richmond, Virginia, I’m partnering with some great people on the web and within the business, and 2012 will the see the resurgence of Daymuse. It’s time to get started.

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