Founder's Message 20 January 2011
This marks the official shutting down of "Stage One" of the ProximityCast Journey.
Featured POI
Hemingway's Blue Water Cafe is a fine dining experience found in the Springfield Missouri Bass Pro Shop.
Customers can sit at the bar and enjoy Alligator Tail or another exquisite menu item as they watch exotic fish swim in the super large salt water aquarium. Hemingway's is definitely a Point of Interest worth enjoying if you are in the Springfield, MO area.
That means the ProximityCast commercial establishment search engine will no longer be open to the public until and unless "Stage Two" becomes a reality. Please accept my regrets.
It doesn't mean that I have quit as mentioned in the quote on the left. It simply means that Stage One has failed to produce any significant traction to move ProximityCast to where I know it can go.
Stage One involved the wikipedia model of counting on users to provide the necessary data to make the site a success. To those that showed a genuine interest and actually contributed I will be forever grateful for your contribution.
"Three components make an entrepreneur: the person, the idea, and the resources to make it happen." Anita Roddick
the person: I have learned that solo founders have a diminished chance of success. I wasn't a solo founder by personal choice. The door was open to several others, but they weren't able to grasp the vision I have or they were occupied with other priorities. I can't fault them for this. Attempting to be a successful entrepreneur requires a huge amount of work with no guarantee of success. A little bit of luck doesn't hurt either. To those to whom I offered an open door to join me in my endeavor, I wish them the best in their life endeavors. I hope they enjoy their journey. I know I have enjoyed mine.
the idea: I still strongly believe in the ProximityCast idea. Competition is tough though. Insert "fine dining near YourZipCode" into Google Maps. Substitute anything you desire to find in the place of "fine dining" e.g. pizza, etc. Make sure you use a real zip code for "YourZipCode" or enter a Latitude/Longitude coordinate pair, or a town/city or street address. Google Rocks! nuff said. . .
the resources: This is where the ProximityCast idea fell the shortest from the lack of more than one founder to tight purse strings and marginal labor. I believe in ProximityCast enough that I would have mortgaged my house if my wife would have been in agreement. In hindsight it appears she was the smarter of the two of us. If I acquire a significant windfall, I would put most of it toward making ProximityCast successful. I followed the bootstrapping model to launch ProximityCast which I think was a good choice. ProximityCast still requires a lot of work and could use resources that equate to more than money. Stage Two which I am bullish for requires me to be able to make payroll and to have a more streamlined product. The necessary investment for stage two is minimal, but more than I have access to at the moment. Should I acquire what it takes to make a go at stage two, ProximityCast will be back. Better watch out Google! But they don't have to watch out too much because, I believe the ProximityCast Vision compliments Google and Google certainly complements ProximityCast. Together we both would be a better product.
Until ProximityCast gets a chance to rise again . . .
Kind regards,
David Robert
Founder of ProximityCast.com
p.s. I do have another exciting project in the works with a co-founder. This will give me a little time to sit back, reflect, and come back stronger should we be successful.
"If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that." James 4:15