Don’t forget you’re building a business with people, and it’s important to supply them with the tools they need to get their job done. I’m talking basics here — an office, working phones, filing cabinets, etc. The reality is, taking the time to hire the right people and creating a solid work environment are just as important as signing your first partnership.
Bob Davidorf, co-founder and CFO.

The first thing to do is hire recruiters and office staff. The natural instinct of any entrepreneur is get started on their vision; however, great companies are not built from great ideas but from faultless execution. To execute, you need a team.
Bill Nguyen, founder

When taking venture capital, do a lot of diligence on the people that are trying to give it to you. Money is a commodity. Figure out what specifically you need and look for money with that specific extra value. Talk to the CEOs of their portfolio companies and ask questions such as, “How often to you talk to your VC?” or “How many of your senior team were referred from or recruited by your VCs?”
Martin Tobias, founder of Loudeye

Don’t underestimate the value of getting the best VCs — valuation in the initial stages is not as important as credibility. Do your research, identify the names behind the companies that have succeeded, and find a mutual contact to make the introduction. The right investors will attract employees, press, and further investment.
David Riker, founder and chairman of eCoverage

Outsource, outsource, outsource. After we received funding, we immediately contracted with an HR firm to find great employees which allowed us to focus more time on the company and less time on checking backgrounds and references. We also outsourced our CFO position which to this day has worked out better than we could’ve imagined.
Bret Savage, CTO of Lipstream

Maty Berkowitz wheels his office chair behind a screen and warms to his pitch: “We’re building a portal that really empowers people in their daily lives, by combining the freedom to reach the Web with the power to control it…”

Berkowitz is the new general manager of the Go Network, the Disney-backed portal launched in mid-January by Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Infoseek. Mouse in hand, he glides the cursor over what he extols as one of the new site’s most novel features-”follow-me” tabs that will allow millions of new users worldwide to roam for news or shop for products within a site without losing their place inside the network.

“With Go, we’re taking the promise of the Internet, which is to turn information into action…”

Click, beep. Click, beep. No go: Only error messages are following the follow-me tabs on this day.

But by now-just a few weeks into a much-awaited public launch-those tabs better be working. Berkowitz isn’t just another vice president at a fourth- or fifth-ranked search engine; he’s responsible for the day-to-day operations of this new “brand powerhouse” portal, backed by Michael Eisner’s Walt Disney Company, which has designs on leapfrogging the Internet’s media elite-Yahoo!, America Online, Microsoft, and Excite.
Search engine
Among pure search portals (excluding AOL and Netscape), Infoseek ranks third in daily page views with 14 million, behind Yahoo! (74 million) and Excite (23 million), based on RevelantKnowledge data for October 1998.

That’s the impression you get, anyway, when you listen to Jake Winebaum and Harry Motro, the cool and confident executive duo running the new Go Network, talk about the future of their new multimillion-dollar toy. The network, what now might be considered Hollywood’s biggest beachhead on the Web, is the offspring of a blockbuster deal consummated last June, when Disney Online chief Winebaum negotiated Disney’s 43 percent acquisition of Infoseek and hammered out an agreement to combine resources to build a next-generation, top-tier Internet portal.

There’s no mistaking what’s on the line with the launch of Go. “The entire fate of this company is tied to the alliance with Disney and the long-term success of this network,” says Motro in his southern drawl, thumping the table in his office at Infoseek’s corporate headquarters. As president and CEO of a struggling middle-ranked portal since mid-1997, he’s hitching the company’s wagon-and much of its roughly $1.5 billion in stock-to Disney’s star and hoping for the best.

On paper at least, the new site looks to have major-portal potential. Go includes Infoseek’s search engine and navigation services; Disney-owned ABC, ABC News, and ESPN, and each of their corresponding online channels; major sports and entertainment sites NFL.com, NBA.com, and Mr. Showbiz; and all the rest of Disney Online’s properties, including leading online shopping channel and kids’ site Disney.com, and established family channel Family.com.

I first met Weiss (though I didn’t know it was her) last July to be precise, after I’d been running through the hills and mountains near Aspen for more than three hours along with my adventure racing teammates. Weiss and her companion awaited our arrival in a darkened meadow. The two of them, as volunteers at the X World Cup Adventure Race, had been flown in by helicopter hours earlier to serve as recorders at one of the race’s official checkpoints. We hailed them, thanked them for their volunteerism, and went on our tired way, little knowing that a few years earlier, the woman standing before us had weighed in at 150 pounds heavier than her current weight.

That was before her mother’s premature death prompted her to face the hard fact of her own lack of fitness. Stunned into action, Weiss decided to take control. Through proper diet and exercise, Weiss gradually lost the extra weight. As the weight came off, she found herself enjoying exercising more and more.

“I was really wanting to get into multidisciplinary sports,” she explained. “The main thing was to find activities to help me improve my fitness. I know that if I took up running and that’s all I did, I’d just get bored. Plus I love the mountains. I grew up in Colorado. I love to hike and to backpack, and I just love being up there.”

Weiss’s love of being outside and her pursuit of more than one fitness activity made her a natural fit for adventure racing, which usually incorporates at least three disciplines – trail running/hiking with navigation, mountain biking and paddling. Last March, when she heard about the 2000 sea2summit race that was taking place at Copper Mountain in August, she made it her goal to finish the race.

“I wanted to see if I could do it,” she said.

Weiss entered the two-day stage race (meaning competitors sleep at night) as an individual competitor, but planned to race with a male coworker who had also entered as an individual. As “teammates” the two trained together and supported one another throughout the race. When she reached the final section of the sea2summit on the second day – a mountain biking section – her teammate raced ahead, but Weiss was already elated. Though she hates mountain biking, it was at that point that she knew she was going to finish the race.

Not only did she finish the race, but also, she discovered a new passion and purpose in exercising that went beyond merely keeping fit. Today, at age 42, Weiss is more in shape than ever, thanks to her commitment to racing. She plans to compete in three adventure races and numerous smaller races this year. In addition she has become an enthusiastic promoter of the sport, volunteering at adventure races and working with an adventure racing club, among other activities – in fact, she said, she does something with adventure racing nearly every day.

“I used to say, ‘I don’t run unless someone’s chasing me.’ Now I’m seeing a running coach and thinking about getting involved in 50Ks,” said Weiss, quickly adding, “but the only reason I’m running is for adventure racing!”

Before you can begin to interpret your dreams, you have to be able to remember them. This guide will show you what it takes to remember your dreams.

The first hurdle you will have to jump on your way to interpreting your dreams is remembering them on a regular basis. By following the steps outlined below, you will have no problem soaring over this obstacle.

1. Develop a Sleep Schedule

The most detrimental thing you can do to your ability to remember your dreams is not following a regular sleep schedule. The ideal situation is one where you can wake up without an alarm clock (they tend to jar you out of your dreams); however, if this is not possible, you can still train yourself to be ready for the alarm by (a) getting approximately the same amount of sleep every night and (b) going to sleep and waking up at the same time every day. This may seem slightly simplistic, but it really does work, as long as you give it a chance. Remember, it takes 21 days of continuious activity to create a habit, so don’t give up too soon!

2. Repeat After Me: “Dreams are Important”

Many people have trouble remembering their dreams because, subconsciously, they do not believe their dreams have any value. This concept is easy in the way our culture uses the term “dreamer”. Instead of being viewed as visionaries or creative, the “dreamer” we tend to think of is foolish and lazy. In order to combat this, you must tell yourself that dreaming is important to you. That it will help you discover the answers to your problems (it can) and that you need dreams to maintain your mental health (you do). The best time to say your mantra is right before you fall asleep (since that is when you need to hear it the most).

3. Write Your Dreams Down

While it is possible to remember your dreams, you will be hard-pressed to do so if you do not write them down. I’ll go into dream journals in part two of this series, but, for now, the easiest way to do this is to write down everything you can remember, and also any emotions you were left with. Don’t worry too much about continuity or getting everything down, the goal here is just to write down what you can as you remember it. (As you get into the habit of writing down your dreams, you will find that not only do you remember more of each dream, you will remember large bits and pieces as the day continues.)

If you follow these three steps every night, soon you will have a collection of dreams waiting to be put in a dream journal, which is where we will pick this up next time. Until then, happy dreaming!