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One of the best, least known entreprenuers in Seattle

I had lunch with an old friend today.

Doug Colbeck founded Trails.com about 8 years ago. I won’t tell you how much money he raised to get that company going but I will say it was less than $1 million. Heck, it was less than $500k. By a good amount. Trails.com wound up selling to domain giant Demand Media back in August 2006. His investors made 10x their money.

What made me think to write this?

We had an interesting conversation about the evolving start-up scene in Seattle. There are so many voices now. So many blogs. And we think that’s a really great thing. But, I couldn’t help but remind Doug why I respected him so much. He just quietly worked away on his project without being motivated by the limelight of it all. He didn’t try to be the center of attention. He just executed his vision. There are a lot of guys in Seattle like this and from whom we can learn a lot from. Alex Algard of Whitepages.com comes to mind. He’s been working on that project since 1996!

I love to blog, communicate and share with the Seattle start-up community. I’ve made a lot of new friends as a result of my career. But all the blogging and speeches take time. Just be sure to leave yourself enough time to make your business a tremendous success. It’s about balance I suppose. Starting a company is the best way to get attention if you want that kind of thing. I admire anyone who even tries. I admire those who try and fail. But I sure have a special admiration for those quiet souls who just work away for years building value while only occasionally dipping into that spotlight.

October 24, 2008 | Filed Under Inspiration, Venture capital 

comments

3 Responses to “One of the best, least known entreprenuers in Seattle”

  1. Walter Paul Bebirian on October 25th, 2008

    I am not sure whether you are saying that it is better to build a business and work on the marketing of that business later on or more of an auxiliary project -

  2. Angie Baker on October 25th, 2008

    I find this information interesting and can identify with this person. It is a case of “getting my ducks in a row”, I believe. Slow and steady always moving forward.

  3. limpopo casino on November 9th, 2008

    limpopo casino…

    spanned prospectus religious subintervals:misspelling!Hernandez?…

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