I finally decided to start a blog. Why it took me this long, I’m not sure.

I’ve been watching my friend Adam Shostack nurture his blog with much enthusiam and for some time now. I emailed Adam asking for suggestions about blog software. His suggestion: Forget about the software and focus instead on developping a “message, a voice, and a reason for people to come back.” (Thanks for the inspiration and the tip, which earn you the inaugural link on my Blogroll. ;-) )

Thinking about “a reason for people to come back,” I found myself asking myself an even bigger question: Why am I writing? It turns out the question is harder to answer than I originally though. [So hard, in fact, that I'm posting this message almost a week after having started to write it.]

The short answer is that I’m writing because I have something to say. The long answer is, well, longer.

My first contact with the Internet was in 1993, when, at a student journalism conference, I had the chance to see a preview of Gopher. I was bored out of my mind, left the room early, and just plain didn’t get it. Some months later, I saw a live demo of Mosaic, the first graphical web browser. Many in the room couldn’t grasp the significance of watching the level of a coffee pot at a university in the UK, but I was awe-struck. I knew this was the beginning of something great, something that would change society in a fundamental way, even though I wasn’t quite sure how. And I wanted to be a part of it.

That year I jumped head-first into the fray and have been making a living off the Internet ever since. I experienced first-hand both extremes of the dot com boom and bust as employee number 11 at Zero-Knowledge Systems, only to watch from the sidelines as it rebounded. And I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but also some good moves, while co-founding three companies. My hope is that if I can share even a little bit of insight that might — just might — help someone out in a small way, then I would have given something back.

I plan to blog about issues I’m thinking about. Since I spend most of my time these days helping financial services companies attract customers online, it’s only natural that many of my posts will relate to this topic. (And I’m sure I will post articles that have no relation to anything I’ve just talked about. You may think this takes away from the blog’s focus, and you’d be right. But it’s my blog, after all.)

So welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy your stay. Some items may have shifted during transit. Please fill out the comments card on your way out.