A lot of people say that reflection requires distance, but as far as there is value to a first reaction, here is my initial take on the TEC program.  I wrote a post a few weeks ago about the sense I got that the True Ventures team really cares about our development, and that feeling has continued to infuse the TEC experience.

On the surface, TEC is already unique; it is an entrepreneur development program, one of very few in existence.  The combination of speakers, texts, and experiences it brings together encourages accelerated exposure and learning.  The companies that we work at build on this foundation, by providing a focused, in-depth experience that complements the general knowledge layer offered by the program.

That is the first layer, the dry technicals of the program.  The second layer is all about the extraordinary and extraordinarily committed people who build and iterate the program.  Particularly, Shea and Christiaan.  These two people, with the other awesome people at True, turn a program and a process into an experience.  Creating an experience involves having undefined limits to the opportunities available, and that is definitely the case with the TEC program thanks to them.  They are relentless in working to make sure that our entrepreneurial goals are met, whether it’s meeting a particular person, reading a particular book, or having a particular experience.  That flexibility, and more importantly genuine care, is what makes True’s program so special and unique.

These first two layers form the foundation for the last layer, which is arguably the most important.  This consists of the interactions, conversations, and ultimately friendships that have developed between the interns.  Learning from texts and people with experience in the Valley contributes a great deal, but talking to friends on the same level has been a primary source of deep development for me.  To me, the TEC program was about my interactions with my fellow interns more than anything.  We shared new adventures, fun hangouts, and tough periods of intense work, all together.  Whether it’s the occasional KIIIIPPP or a frantic search for Jenny, there are some shared memories that will forever be a part of each of us individually and all of us collectively.  We will remember fun times at the True office when we meet up at Vishal’s huge yacht party 2 years from now.

Yes, TEC 2011 is over, but at the same time, it can never end – we, the 11 interns that gathered each week to learn and share experiences, are TEC 2011.  We’re now a part of the True family and connected to one another, and our summer experiences continue to exist through those relationships.  At a very basic level, we know that something special happened this summer by how hard it was to see it end.  The challenge now is to build on those experiences and relationships to create something with significant impact and significance.

At the end of the program, almost everyone in the program had an idea that they were excited about.  The program itself has given us the resources we need to execute; now it’s a matter of making that happen.  We cannot control the endings we experience, but we can make those endings meaningful by converting them into beginnings.  We, TEC 2011, are a small community of diverse people linked by our common passion for entrepreneurship, and I hope we use that to motivate one another to implement, execute, and act.  Each of us will have different obstacles, and having support is essential to overcome them.

There are myriad problems out there today, each of which is an opportunity for us; by turning TEC 2011′s ending into a beginning, we’re going to be in a position to maximize on these opportunities and create something of real value that we can celebrate together.

This is the interesting part, as all evidence shows that success is execution-driven, requiring a whole lot more than an idea.  There are numerous ways of going about the implementation and execution process, such as the customer development model, but for me, it is something more basic, and Shervin Pishevar, speaking at our recent TEC gathering, really invigorated that emotion.

Being young, being in college, is a remarkable opportunity, and there are countless doors open.  This is a critical phase of development.  Incredibly smart, experienced people are willing to talk to you, advise you, give you a chance to try things.  It’s just a matter of asking.

Asking is tough, though.  Any number of obstacles present themselves.  Sometimes I am too unmotivated (read: lazy).  Sometimes I am busy doing smaller things.  Sometimes I don’t know what I want to know/do.  Sometimes I don’t know who I want to talk to.  Sometimes I don’t have a reliable access point.  And ultimately, there is that small internal fear of the interaction itself, which ultimately revolves around my relative insignificance.

Still, I believe that motivating myself to overcome these obstacles is invaluable; you never know who will listen to your ideas and offer you feedback, advice, and resources.  In my mind, everyone wants me to win, the entrepreneurs and creators who came before want to help the next generation.

All you have to do is ask…

Before we joined the program, each of the interns went through a pitch period, where we submitted an application and interviewed to get placed. True came back to us with a “term sheet” of sorts: a placement for the summer and an invitation to the program.

Just as a good VC investor continues to be active and help as the startup develops, True is putting time into selecting texts, bringing in speakers, making startup placements, and otherwise placing an infrastructure around the entrepreneur development experience.

By investing in budding entrepreneurs, True is really carrying out its mission of investing early and helping foster growth. As the True team often says, the terms are quite founder friendly. There is no assurance that the TEC interns will become entrepreneurs, let alone successful ones worthy of a True term sheet at some point in the future. However, the beauty of seed stage (or pre-seed stage, in this case) investment is that every investment doesn’t need to succeed; True just needs a few to succeed spectacularly.

As TEC interns, we are all now a part of the True family, which has already provided significant benefit to our personal development as entrepreneurs in the Bay Area. Relationships are key in entrepreneurship, and thus this accelerated introduction to the startup ecosystem will be invaluable as we progress.

Hopefully, some day down the line, some of us TEC interns will be doing interesting and exciting things and have the opportunity to provide some return to True’s investment, even if it’s as simple as connecting with future TEC interns and building up the strong sense of community that exists at True. Until then, it’s important for us to get as much out of this opportunity as possible in these last two weeks.

A wide range of news from consumer-oriented startups is readily accessible and receives a great deal of evaluation and commentary online through reliable blogs and tech websites.  I definitely feel like I am much more looped in now to new ideas than I was even a few months ago.

However, there is a whole part of the start up world, arguably a more valuable and successful part, that still remains nebulous.  The part I am referring to is the world of enterprise start-ups: B-to-B and B-to-B-to-C solutions.  There are many opportunities in enterprise, but the scope of those problems and solutions is not clear because there is much less dialogue in that area.

Of course, the fact that enterprise solutions get less press makes a lot of sense; they are not as flashy and exciting to the average tech reader, and thus it is not in the interest of the TechCrunches and Mashables of the world to give it top billing.  Even most bloggers and thought leaders do not seem to spend as much time on enterprise solutions v. “poptech”.

Making enterprise technology accessible to the layperson would be challenging, but that is an area that many entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs-to-be would be very interested in; pushing tech media in that direction would be a good step forward for both technological innovation and entrepreneurship as a whole.

Comment if you have any recommendations for good enterprise tech media sources!

Design, however, is an area where I have no experience at all.  Working in product management this summer, one important part of my work is interacting with the design team at Fitbit to turn wireframes and functional concepts into a beautiful, usable UX.  Thus, as I work with Kerem, our Senior UI Designer, to prepare some of our new sharing initiatives, I have also been talking with Christine, Senior PM, and Mark, our Art Director  about how they approach design, and reading a simple yet useful book, Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think”.  Here are some of the highlights of this learning process, all focused on usability:

1. Have clear business priorities – without a sense of the end goal/metrics, it’s tough to create an interface aimed to support those priorities
2. Do not try to use fancy language and visuals if simple ones suffice
3. Have a clear hierarchy and flow of information – users should always know where they are
4. Conduct usability tests regularly – this can be simple as asking those around you what they think a page you are designing is intended to do

Those are the key points that I’ve gotten so far, but a lot of the world of design, especially where it leaves the high-end usability thinking and begins to merge with art, still goes over my head.  Still, if I have learned one thing this summer, it’s that small steps forward are better than no steps at all!

Of course, an entrepreneur must be organized, hard working, intelligent, technically competent, and any number of other things, and most of the people that get past those hurdles and enter the “viable” part of entrepreneurship are quite extraordinary.  But it’s not a matter of just having the drive to do something and the skills to do it.  That “something” must appear, an idea or vision that produces powerful emotions and true passion.

In the TEC program, I have gotten the opportunity to interact with many founders, and I have also gotten the chance to talk to those around the founders; the VCs and team members that are integral to the start up’s success.  These people live and breathe entrepreneurship as much as any founder, and they have the skills, networks, and minds to pursue a start up.  When I discuss this with any of these key people that surround the founders, asking them why they decided against the founder’s route, the answer almost never has to do with an inherent aversion to founding a company.  Indeed, each person has expressed interest in building a company around one of their ideas.

The reason they don’t is because they have not found that idea, the one that ignites true passion of the sort needed to work 18 hours a day when the product is not gaining traction, the money is running out, and the VC’s are unhappy.  Start ups appear as magical success stories to outsiders, as only those companies that build transformational products and gain real traction get any mention or recognition.  The best and brightest moments are highlighted, creating a false impression that entrepreneurship is some sort of wonderful game.  Thus, those who are on the inside and have seen the difficulties and failures along the start up path wait for something that merits their passion.

However, I do not think that the road to a start up is as passive as the word waiting implies; curiosity is a key piece of this early process.  Every founder I have met so far has expressed an interest in my background, interests, and ideas, and this to me highlights the idea that a successful founder is tied to a deep curiosity about the people and constructs that surround him.  Many start ups develop out of ideas that identified a unique solution to a problem, and that solution comes from a sort of intense observation of the world.

Earlier this week I met someone who clearly focuses on finding true passions.  Michael Callaghan, of the One team, has experience with a number of start ups and ventures, but as he described his efforts not in terms of the work, but in terms of the ideas and visions behind them.  The way he described the problem that One attempts to address was captivating; his whole body moves with his words, and there is a palpable sense of urgency and energy.  That enthusiasm, impossible to describe completely, is perhaps what makes this area so special, and what makes entrepreneurship so unique.  It is a necessity, not an option.

Michael was trying to get me pumped up about starting a company and being an entrepreneur, but seeing his passion made me want something like that before I make the leap.  That’s not to say that I cannot do a lot to get ready, as there are still innumerable skills, concepts, and opportunities that can prepare me for that true idea.  And honing my curiosity should also be a part of that work.  Having seen true passion, though, I cannot settle for less; I am confident that my idea is out there, and when I feel that energy and hunger to create something, I’ll be ready to go.

The “internship” is often an ill-defined concept.  It can involve pushing paper or doing uninteresting work in the worst case.  However, a good internship can produce huge amounts of accelerated growth and learning.

Here at Fitbit, I am feeling all of the right ingredients for a great internship, and the learning has already begun.  Tim and Christine have involved me in work that is at the core of Fitbit’s strategy for the remainder of 2011, and they have taken time to explain the different tools, concepts, and procedures that come up on a daily basis.

I am committed to learning about every part of the product process as the summer continues.  As a potential entrepreneur, I feel this is essential, as the product is the focus of any start up company.  Fitbit’s rapid growth and key product initiatives will provide a great platform for learning all about the product development/management process.

The beauty of working at a start up is that everyone is accessible.  This is particularly valuable at Fitbit, where the hiring process is extremely selective, producing a team where everyone is very good at what they do.  James and Eric, the founders, are great about always being available as resources, and the whole team is friendly and engaging.  Everyone here works hard, but it doesn’t quite feel like work – there’s a passion and sense of purpose that drives the environment.

As I continue working to help build up Fitbit’s new offerings, I also want to take time to sit down with different team members and talk to them about their work.  Very few people can easily have these sorts of interactions, and I’m grateful for this opportunity.

I am surrounded by interesting experiences and quality people who are willing to teach me; with a quarter of the program already done, there is a sense of urgency, a desire to get as much as possible out of the summer before it’s over.  This is definitely a chance to learn.

This is only my third time on the West Coast and my first time spending an extended amount of time and working here.  I came in with a somewhat romanticized notion of this side of the country – a mixture of pictures of glorious sunshine, relaxing beaches, and an entrepreneurial spirit inspired by the days of the Wild West and the Gold Rush.

Well, while the drizzle, clouds, and fog dominated the landscape for my first few days, the images of energy and vibrant innovation have largely held up so far.  Perhaps this is because of the remarkable environment in which I find myself.  While there is something fundamentally energetic about the Bay Area, where the sun incubates growing companies from Palo Alto to Silicon Valley to San Francisco itself, there is more to it.  The TEC program has already begun to offer new avenues of innovation, both through the excellent support of True Ventures, Christiaan, and Shea and through the interesting conversations that are already developing among us interns.

Most of my hours, though, have been spent becoming acquainted with and ready to contribute to the start up that I’m working at, Fitbit.  Fitbit is a rapidly growing tech company in the personal health space, and its products revolve around the Fitbit tracker, a small device that clips to a belt or slips into a pocket easily.  The tracker uses an accelerometer and, combined with some accessories, can provide a good baseline for user activity and sleep behavior.  That, combined with a nutrition component on the website, allows Fitbit to offer its users an overall health baseline.

My first week at Fitbit has been a whirlwind of activity, as I have been able to participate in a number of key strategy meetings and already work on some of Fitbit’s new projects.  As a project management intern, I’ve had the opportunity to see how the design, engineering, and business ends come together to produce a spectacular product for the consumer and puts the company in a strong position financially.  This is the first time that I have worked such long hours, but it’s been a fantastic experience so far and I have barely noticed the time going by.  I look forward to keeping you folks updated as the summer progresses!