Last summer I did a blog post titled My Startup Anniversary: 3 Years In Blog Posts. The goal of the post was to provide a journey through my personal blog as written while starting and growing CloudHealth Technologies. I thought I'd update this post for my 4th year.

And So It Begins (2012)

I had originally thought of starting CloudHealth in 2010 after deciding to leave Dell. I suppose it was obvious to explore creating a business at the intersection of my two interests: cloud computing and infrastructure management. But while exploring the market, I was simultaneously talking to interesting cloud companies. After taking an 18 month detour to be a VP of engineering at an Amazon-backed cloud startup, I returned back to the idea of starting a company in spring of 2012.

August
September
October
November
December

Early Company (2013)

In 2013 we raised a series A round of capital, hired our core team, and launched the first official version of our product (although in truth we had paying customers since the previous November). This was our toughest year, since we had to build the product and figure out how to market and sell it. This year went by in a blur.

January
  • A Cloud Management Taxonomy - The start of fund raising found me spending an increasing amount of time on thinking about how to position us in the market.
February
  • My VC Thought Experiment - We signed the term sheet for our series A around this time. This post was me lamenting on the challenges of getting investors to see an entrepreneurial vision.
  • Goldilocks and the Three Startups - It always amazed me the wildly conflicting opinions we received from investors.
  • Cloud Fratricide - Thinking about the single greatest point of failure in managing large scale cloud infrastructure: people.
March
June
July
September
November
December
  • Cloud Evolution: Cloud 2.0 - More thinking on the future of the cloud.
  • 2014 Predictions for the Cloud - Every VP of marketing is obliged to make their CTO make predictions.
  • The String of Pearls - Sharing my thoughts as we converged toward product market fit.
  • Google Glass: Day 1 - This had absolutely nothing to do with my company, but was a digression on my lifelong pursuit of becoming a human cyborg. I plan to attend re:Invent 2020 with my mind clone and a body made up of 10% machine parts. ;)

Product Market Fit (2014)

This was a break out year for our company. We achieved product market fit, had substantial growth in our business, and signed a term sheet for our series B round of capital (although the closing occurred the start of 2015).

January
February
  • Agile Product Management - I spend a lot of free time thinking about one of the weakest links in previous product teams: the product management process.
March
  • Reflections: 1 Year Post Funding - My lessons learned a year into my series A funded company.
  • The Return of On-Shoring - When the company was just me, I had a small offshore team I used to supplement me writing software. As soon as I had the capital to hire local engineers, I immediately moved to an onshore model. I have had on-shore and offshore teams in my past and there is nothing like a local team.
April
June
July
August
September
November
December

Growth (2015)

Our $12M series B round of capital closed at the beginning of this year, led by the west coast Scale Venture Partners. We gradually are moving from a stealth startup to one recognized within the industry.

January
March
May
June
July
August
September
October
  • Clear Skies at re:Invent 2015 - It's time for AWS re:Invent, our biggest conference of the year. We brought a big team this year, and had a great success.
November
December
  • Founding Secrets - The chapter Secrets of Peter Thiel's Zero To One was for me like the moment in The Matrix when Neo saw the fabric of the virtual world. My secrets were pivotal to starting my company.
  • Founding Stories - I am a student of founding stories. They carry with them lessons that help steer your company.
  • Starting a Company the Lean Way - Took a moment to reflect on the 2012 moment of creation of my company: when a Lean experiment designed to fail accidentally succeeded.

More Growth (2016)

With revenue growing quickly and business processes continuing to drive efficient growth, we continue to scale.  We closed a $20M series C round of capital in May to support the expansion, led by the west coast Sapphire Ventures.

January
  • Passions, Interests & Jobs - Great accomplishments require great effort. I understand that working in a startup is just a job for some people. I just don't want them working in my startup. ;)
February
March
June
  • Picking a Company Name - Recounting the story of how we came up with the name CloudHealth Technologies. Few people realize we closed our A-round of financing with a different name.
July
  • NewCo Boston: A Startup Journey - We hosted a session at our offices for NewCo Boston. I presented my entrepreneurial journey, including all the mistakes and best practices I learned along the way.
  • On Venture Rejection - We raised the first round of venture capital for our business back in 2013 in record time. I tell the story so much that I forget to tell the real story. Here it is.

Related Posts: 9 Tips To Improving Your Lean Startup Validation