Anthony Castoro's Website

Tonight we stand on the cusp.  Thursday morning Heatwave finally announces one of the (several) projects we’ve been undertaking over the last year-and-half and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it.  While I’ve been dying to talk about some of the amazing things we are doing, at the same time, there’s a certain quiet comfort in staying below radar.  Until you actually declare your intent,  it feels like everything is possible.  That all ends tonight. The course will be set tomorrow. So, I thought perhaps I should do the rare thing and actually talk about some of the things that have lead up to this moment.  Rather than rambling, I think I’ll structure it like one of those silly quizzes you always see your friends taking on social networking sites when they should be working…

Top 5 things I was wrong about starting up a company:

1) It was way harder than I thought it would be.  Now, this isn’t my first startup, but it is the first one where everything was at stake.  I left a job that I enjoyed and moved my family of six (wife, 3 kids and father-in-law) back from England to the great state of Texas.  Even so, it was much harder than I thought it would be.  Now, I don’t mean hard as in “takes lots of effort,” I mean it as in “trying of one’s character.”  I don’t have any problem putting in the late nights.  Hell, I generally spend Sunday waiting for Monday morning to come around.  But there’ve been some pretty tough times.  Partners you can’t control… an economy behaving like a punch drunk prize fighter trying to lift himself off the mat in the 12th round… downsizing.  I’ve had to part ways with some of my best friends as a result of starting this company.  Everyone involved knew that could happen, but when it does…hoo boy.  That’s probably been the hardest part. Letting go and trusting others has been perhaps the second most difficult.

2) Not all venture capitalists are “evil!”  Yes, this may come across to some as a bit of ass kissing, but it’s not.  I’ve met with dozens of VC’s over the last year, and before we were funded I certainly met some I was wary of, but I have to tell you that our VC has been extremely supportive.  Tough?  Yes.  Involved? Absolutely.  But evil?  Nope.  They want Heatwave to win almost as much as I do.  That’s a whole lot desire.  My experience with Syncom has been both uplifting and humbling.  They’re not afraid to tell it like it is, but they usually do it in a way that leaves me emboldened.  I look forward to exceeding their expectations.  I wish more entrepreneurs could find a partner as committed as ours.

3) Hiring in Austin will be a breeze!  Yeah, not as breezy as I had hoped.  First, the quality of life at the major studios in Austin has really improved, and there are more Studios (welcome back, EA) than when we made the decision to come, so there’s more competition.  Second, because we had some specific needs beyond just “online,” we had to hire quite a few folks from out of state.  Austin is still a great hiring market, but competition and specialization conspired to make it harder than I thought it would be.  Luckily, people like to COME to Austin .

4) Capacity of work.  I’ll admit it.  We tried to do too much with too few resources.  As a result, the results were mixed six months post funding.  Great team, great work product, but not enough focused progress to meet our original expectations.  As a result, we had to do a course correction that was a little painful.  Now the focus is back and if you’re reading this you should be seeing that labor beginning to bear fruit in the national press.  As they say, “No battle plan survives first shot fired.” The key is to amend that plan as the battle develops and to have the leadership and training to execute new instructions.

5) I thought I would miss the corporate environment.  I really don’t.  Yes, there was something comforting about the EA machine backing my project’s plans, but I guess after two and half years of being independent I’ve realized that I prefer the independence over security.  There’s something bracing about being somewhat exposed.  It keeps you alert and hungry.  I like it.

Top 5 things I was right about starting up a company:

1) I can do it.  Damned straight.

2) You can’t change people.  I really believe that people only really change when something dramatic happens in their life.  And by change, I mean fundamentally transition from one state to another over a short time.  This comes up a lot in the hiring process.  If you hear someone make the comment “well maybe they can grow into that” or “maybe we can help them change” you’re probably wrong.  Don’t hire that person if the perceived need for change is important.  I usually followed this advice, but not always and when I didn’t, I paid for it 100% of the time.  See my earlier post about being “in a rut vs. in the groove.”

3) Hard work does pay off.  Success really is about setting the right goals and just working towards them as intellegently and aggressively as possible.

4) “Presence” is extremely important.  My partner, Donn, is based out of Philly, but the studio is in Austin.  His consistent travel to Austin and constant use of telepresence makes all the difference for him and for us.  When he goes longer than 3 weeks outside of Austin, it’s noticeable.  Same for me.  Anyone following my facebook page knows how much I travelled in the spring.  Being away from Central Studio for several weeks at a time was very challenging.  It was nice being missed, but it wasn’t nice having to be missed.  Luckily those business trips were worth it.

5) I am doing things I never thought I would.  When I made the personal decision to start Heatwave, I realized I was going to have the opportunity to do things I had never even considered before.  When my father mentions how amazed he is by some of the things I’m doing, it really comes home.  Not that he never thought I could do these things, but that who would have thought it?  Thursday, July 30th will be one of those things.  And it’s only the beginning.

I’m sure I’ll be wrong about some things over the next two-and-a-half years, but hopefully my batting average will keep going up .

One last thing…neither right nor wrong because I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be: I’m grateful that Heatwave has strengthed my marriage rather than weakened it.  My wife has been wonderfully supportive and active and even though we work hard and see our children less than I’d like, I was working hard and not seeing my family enough when I wasn’t working for myself.  Ultimately, this is really for them as much as it is for me.

Thanks, Kim.