I give thanks to everyone at True, but also to everyone at Tello—I fit very well into the culture of the company, and feel very fortunate to have been paired up with such a fun, smart, and hardworking group of people.

The program was, as I say in the title of this post, a formative experience. It has solidified my interests and given me a great wealth of knowledge and experience that I will draw upon months and years down the road. So if you’re a future applicant reading this and are deciding whether or not to apply, let me say this: if you are even remotely interested in technology and entrepreneurship, then you need to be in this program.

—

Peace out, San Francisco. Don’t worry, this won’t be the last time you hear from me.

Isaac joined the Twitter team early last year, when the company was only at about 150 employees—a number that has exploded to 600 in the time since. Yet the environment appears remains very open and relaxed (CEO Dick Costolo and Twitter creator / Square CEO Jack Dorsey casually walked by at one point during our conversation). Isaac previously worked at Google and mentioned that one of the reasons he left the company is because it had gotten too big, too political, and too restrictive, but he didn’t appear worried about anything similar happening at Twitter. As part of his work on the Search product, Isaac also got to travel to the White House last month for President Obama’s Townhall webcast, something I thought was really cool.

I also got to ask Isaac about Twitter’s internal attitudes towards developers, remembering the hubbub around that a few months ago. He made it clear that Twitter has expanded vertically across platforms, but has no plans to encroach on apps that integrate vertically and build on top of content. Isaac also talked a little about Twitter’s relationship with Facebook and also about the awareness that Google+ includes many of Twitter’s features, but ultimately is a platform with different uses.

Overall, I had a great time and am really glad I got to visit the offices of a service I use so ridiculously often.

-@ronradu

In order to succeed and seriously be able to contribute in a startup you need to be really good at a certain thing, and not just be okay at a bunch of things. While I’ve picked up a lot of basic knowledge in my time on the web—design, front-end & back-end development, server administration, and content curation to name a few—there is not one thing I can point to and identify myself a master of that field. So over the next few months, as I head back to school for my senior year, I will work on honing some of my skills. I will build on top of existing knowledge and practice my craft until I reach a level of proficiency I’m happy with. I’ve also begun to create a network of really cool people that can help me reach my goals, and it turns out meeting these people has been a lot easier and more fun than I had imagined. I’ve bumped into tons of interesting folks at parties that I truly enjoyed talking to, and will continue to keep in touch with.

The last few weeks of this TEC program have been jam-packed with awesome activities, and this coming final week will really be intense, but the feeling of having made it through something so big will make it worthwhile.

I often look to these interviews as inspiration for my own work. It’s a tremendously motivating to see that those people now worthy enough to be in that interviewee’s chair were once just as lost and clueless as I am today. When they tell the stories of their own hard work and randomly fortuitous events that got them to where they are, it makes my future path to triumph suddenly seem much more surmountable.

Working on a startup can bring some serious lows in motivation (also many highs), but it’s very important to stay enthusiastic and optimistic about your company in order to succeed. So I would recommend watching some startup-related interviews. Mixergy has a terrific collection of talks and tips from the people that know what they’re talking about. Jessica Livingston’s “Founders at Work” (which is part of the TEC reading curriculum) is also a really fascinating collection of interviews in text form. But my favorite series thus far has been Kevin Rose’s Foundation. Kevin’s informal interview style exposes some really interesting stories, including some from within the True Ventures family: Tony Conrad and Brian Wong. Also be sure to check out the Foundation interview with one of my favorite people in the industry: Chris Sacca.

It turns out all of life is just a series of unexpected events, and trying to predict what’s going to happen is quite futile. In fact, it’s better if you accept this reality and stop trying to live strictly based off a pre-determined plan. David Cohen puts it well in Do More Fast when he says “be open to randomness”. That’s why I think it’s best not to take a straight-line, closed-minded approach to things; life’s meandering path can lead you to places and people you never thought possible. This axiom could not be more true within the startup community. The large and concentrated groups of people along with their varied knowledgebases and connections, make every meeting or interaction feel truly random. Every casual encounter can lead to some sort of career- or life-changing event, and that’s why this industry is so exciting to work in.

Last week, over dinner I discussed with Shea and Cecilia what I had planned for after my college graduation. We threw thoughts back and forth and I got some interesting ideas from them, but I realized that things could turn out any number of ways a year from now. While I have some plans for my future, I realize that the most interesting opportunities will come about just by being open to randomness. So get back to me in a year and I’ll let you know how things turn out.

I’ve discovered that playing dumb is actually a great way to learn, and I’m at an ideal age to be able to do this. A couple of weeks ago, 20-year-old Brian Wong of Kiip said something along the lines of, “at our age, people don’t expect us to know much, so take advantage of that; any missteps or blunders will be forgiven.” This is probably the best piece of advice I’ve gotten this summer, and has helped me be a little more fearless when dealing with people. I’d rather make mistakes now and learn from them, than do or say something wrong when I’m expected to know better.

I’m glad my participation in this TEC program forces me to meet and interact with so many people. I’m not what most would call a “people person”, and am generally pretty introverted, many times to my detriment. But we meet a lot of people here. Just during the one day a week at True’s office we meet not only the speakers, but all sorts of folks wandering around the office or eating lunch with us. Each one of those people has an interesting story to tell, and I can’t even tell you how much I’ve picked up just from talking to them (hint: it’s a lot). But it’s not only at True that I get these experiences. Last week, Joe from Tello set me up with one of the company’s investors—Mark Goines. I got to go to the VC firm Mark just joined on Sand Hill Road, Morgenthaler Ventures, and spend an afternoon one-on-one with him. We talked all about the VC world, his personal experience with investing, and the market at large. Mark’s an awesome guy, and it was a ridiculously fun time.

Anyway, my plans for the remaining time in the Bay Area are to take more initiative at work, develop my own ideas, and of course meet even more people. Looks like sleep is going to have to take a backseat these next few weeks, but the results are sure to be worth it.

Seacrest out.

This week I started work at the startup company I was paired with, Tello, the fastest way to rate customer service wherever you go. CEO Joe Beninato took time on Monday to present me with a “First Day” document—a sort of briefing on all I need to know, what I would be doing, and what else to expect. Joe appears to be very open and made it clear that he wants this to be a meaningful experience for me. I also met the rest of the team (4 of them in total) and got started on my first day of work. I look forward to contributing all I can over the next two months, and I can already tell it’s going to be a great time. It’s only my fourth day here and I’ve already been part of numerous meetings, lunches, and even a photo shoot.

-Ron
Boston College ’12
Tweet at me, bro: @ronradu