Saying No

I love saying yes.  I love helping people, and being generous with my time whenever I can.  I love being a mentor.  I love the brain dump, having my brain picked and picking others, coffee, chats, happy hour, walks around SOMA, lunch, drinks, late night drives and all the other social activities that I’ve used over the years to build relationships, dispense advice, and make memories and connections.

I love my friends, our regular spots to eat out, drink, brunch, lunch, gossip, bitch, support each other, and hang out.

I love my family, our regular 4th of July drunkeness around their pool, riding the horses, fireworks on the Indian reservation across the street, driving the truck to the dump and smoking a cigar with Dad, the driving range, the “golden hour” and sitting by the burn barrel appreciating the light, walking around the yard in my PJs clipping flowers for the morning table, handmade Irish soda scones.

Focus

Guess what?  I’m not going to be doing any of this for awhile – at least for the summer while Referly is in Y Combinator and probably slowly phasing these things back into my life slowly in the next 6 to 12 months after that ends.

I’m going to be saying no to answering long emails, writing long comments on personal blog posts, taking intros to people who want help with developer marketing and developer evangelism, giving career and startup advice, and hundreds of other things.  I’m not going to do inbox zero.  If it doesn’t relate directly to the metrics I’m driving for the company, I’m not interested.

We both know its nothing personal.  I’ll try not to be terse about it.  Thanks for understanding.

We’re moving to a house in Mountain View this week, and the team will be living together and cranking for the next 6 months – I’ll miss you SF but its for the best!

(Yes, I am still advising all the companies on my AngelList profile — I have carved out dedicated time for them each month.  If you are on that list, do not fear.)