Mukilteo Beacon - Your Hometown News Source

I was thinking the other day about my work on my eighth startup. Now, most of you reading this probably have not started up a company from scratch. Let me assure you that it is not for the faint of heart.

My first start-up was before I turned 30. There I was, a graduate engineer working away at Honeywell in Boston – on one of their advanced computer systems. And to boot, I had a mortgage and two young children. The very last thing I needed was to talk with some very bright MIT types, who had an idea about some very advanced computer equipment.

As I was thinking this over, I thought about...