This is an "Introduce Myself" Post by Jim Flynn
Hello there. My name is Jim Flynn. I live in Northampton, Massachusetts with my beautiful and smart wife, four awesome kids and a hamster named Polkadot.
Way back in the early days of the Internet (circa 1996), I launched a software company in New York City. At the same time, I did some moonlighting as a journalist. One of my first assignments involved attending back-to-back developer conferences in San Francisco. Upon returning, I proceeded to disappoint everyone (including myself) by predicting there would be no “Internet war” between Microsoft and Netscape. I said that Microsoft was going to crush them. I’m only bringing that up because: (1) I was right; and (2) I want you to think that I’m really smart. Well, the truth is that I don’t get everything right, but I try. I like to think that I often have good insights and that I’ll adjust when the evidence says that I’m wrong.
I started, built and sold a few technology businesses. I made a decent amount of money for other people and sometimes a little for myself, too. Once when I was nearly broke, I almost closed a deal that would have made me filthy rich, only to see it go “poof” at the last minute. I also had the soul-crushing task of winding down a business that didn’t work out, cost me a lot of money, and took away years of my life. Sometimes you can learn more valuable things from debacles than you can from successes. I’ve dealt with venture capitalists and angel investors involving multi-million dollar deals. I can tell you true stories that you wouldn’t believe a word of.
I’ve worked (roughly in chronological order) as a software developer, computer hardware engineer, salesperson, bizdev guy, CEO, COO (of a public company), CEO, CTO, and as a software developer/president. I also co-authored a 666-page book on the Java programming language. Writing a book was actually an incredibly stupid thing to do while struggling to build a start-up with no funding. But the book looks great on my coffee table now, or at least when I can find the darn thing. I suspect the book is under the couch at the moment, probably covered in dust bunnies. I can do a wide range of things. Not many people can both write software and sell it. Sometimes I even sold companies. That involved doing a lot of negotiating, contractual, audit and due diligence thingies for which I’ve always risen to the challenge.
Raising four kids while running a business and trying to pay enough attention to your spouse to keep things good doesn’t leave much time for hobbies. Still, this blog is my attempt to get back into what used to be my hobby and has always been my passion: Looking at technology and trying to figure out how it might impact people’s lives.
If you’re still reading at this point, then there’s something wrong with you. Gosh. I guess I shouldn’t insult people who take the time to pay any attention to me (Sorry, Mom!). So I’ll wrap up the personal-touchy-feely part of my “About Jim” page here. If you’re interested in reading the corporate-speak version of my bio, you can see it below. For a real snoozer, you can also check out my LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamespeterf/). You can also follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/jamespflynn) or read my blog (https://jamespflynn.com).