new job: metaweb

At the end of July I quit working for Tellme fulltime and starting consulting with a number of companies. The plan was the consulting to be a short term thing until I was able to get a company started with a friend. Long story short, the company didn't look like it was going to come together and a didn't enjoy consulting. There are a lot of start-ups which have recently launched. I chatted with sixteen companies. Most didn't have credible business plans and/or had weak teams. There were a few start-ups which looked interesting, though most didn't fire my imagination. In the end, I joined metaweb which is a a spin-off of applied minds (applied mind featured in newsweek). metaweb is now a free standing, venture funded company. I joined metaweb because the team has a number of people I want to work with, and they have what I think is a "big idea". I can't say a lot about what we are doing, though we are fully web 2.0 buzzword compliant. One big change is that metaweb is the SOMA district of San Francisco. This is the first time in 24 years that work is more than a 30 minute walk from home. Well, actually it is a 25 minute walk, but there is a one hour train ride in the middle of the walking. I am hoping that the time in the train will be good for reading and reflection, something that modern life tends to crowd out.