BIG News: We're Starting a Company

Published by Ryan Healy on September 19th, 2007 in Entrepreneurship, Noteworthy | 38 Comments

It hit me. It was time to do something big with Employee Evolution. We needed to take it full time.

At dinner, on my quarterly business trip to Indianapolis I contemplated my next move. When I returned to the hotel, I began to research similar sites. What made them BIG? What was their revenue model? How could we get funding? Then, as fate would have it, my phone rang.

It was Penelope Trunk. I assumed she was calling about my weekly post on her blog. I couldn't be more wrong.

She asked me if I ever thought about teaming up our sites.

"Kind of," I said.

The truth was, I thought about collaborating on a bunch of projects with Penelope. Maybe a book, possibly consulting work, but I never thought she would want to acquire us.

Still, I understood why she wanted to – she was scared. In a recent BusinessWeek article I became the primary source, while she was quoted in the shadows. The guy she had been promoting, mentoring and teaching was stealing the spotlight.

All jokes aside, she recognized potential. Something bigger was on the horizon and the best way to make it happen was to assemble our resources and start a network working with Penelope full time.

With that said, I'd like to proudly announce the new company, Brazen Careerist, Inc. We haven't yet acquired our URL, but things have been in the works since July, and I have to admit, it's a huge relief to finally tell the world.

Our goal is to create a network of career-related blogs geared toward Gen-Y. We'll be launching with a small, base network that, with time, will become the go-to site for all things career.

Our future goals know no bounds. We will be launching a jobs section with a distinctive spin, bringing companies that aim to evolve the workplace for the better straight to the employees seeking them out. Shortly after the initial launch, we'll be unveiling an array of other features that we know you will find extremely useful.

Heeding our own advice, Ryan Paugh and I are ditching our big-city lives and heading west to Madison, WI, where we will set up shop and be able to work face-to-face with Penelope on a daily basis.

We're a little nervous, extremely excited and undecided on the harsh winters. But our bags are packed and we're ready to go. By the time our leases run out on September 30, we'll already be in the mid-west. So here's to the journey!

Thanks to all of our supporters over the past six months – we hope you'll continue to join us for the ride.