5 things you probably don't know about me
So I’ve been watching this meme travel around the blogosphere, thanks to Jeff Pulver who started the whole thing. Incidentally, Jeff has now become the recipient of some severe tongue lashing by several folks regarding his spurious marketing tactics in promoting this meme. In any case, you’re supposed to list 5 things people don’t know about you and then tag 5 more people to see how far the meme travels.
If not for this game, I would have never otherwise known that Dave McClure used to be a donut eating champion, Robert Scoble is a closet nose picker, Stephen O’Grady has a rubber band fetish, Jim Jagielski has never lived more than 25 miles away from where he grew up (!), and Sam Ruby has only ever dated one person in his life (!). I also had a good laugh watching Loren Feldman’s response, which I found by following a thread to Jason Calacanis’ list.
I love this game – I’m really fascinated by and enjoy learning about people. I got tagged by Kevin Burton, so here’s my 5 things:
- I am addicted to Pirate’s Booty. I eat 5 bags of Pirate’s Booty a week. I love all kinds of cheese puffs, but Pirate’s Booty is definitely the best.
- I once made a living as a jewelry designer. I like manual labor a lot. It’s like meditating, in a way. Here are some photos of stuff I created:
- My first official, paycheck paying job was as a waitress when I was 14. The job paid $4 an hour. It never paid any tips either, because it was in the dining room of a retirement home in Irvine, CA. This job sucked. I had to buy pink oxford shirts and khaki pants that I would have never worn otherwise. However, I learned one important lesson: waiting on tables is hard, thankless work. I don’t have a natural talent for it because I have a crappy memory.
- When I was in my early 20s, I cofounded and wrote the business plan for a company that we took public a couple of years later at a $600 million+ valuation. The company never reached its potential and innumerable mistakes were made along the way. The most important thing I learned can be recited directly out of “The 10 Commandments of Entrepreneurship”: the first handful of hires will set the tone, culture, and values for the entire company, so make these choices carefully. Are the people you’re surrounding yourself with people you would trust your life to in the trenches? If not, it’s better to err on the side of being conservative and grow more slowly. The culture you build compounds exponentially in often unpredictable ways, so plant those seeds very carefully. I hope to never make this mistake again.
- I felt most alive when swimming off the shore of Kailua (in Oahu, Hawaii) this summer.
Aaaand…. done.
Susan, don’t believe *everything* your read in the blogosphere about someone.
The propagation of lies and misunderstandings doesn’t help anyone.
Hope you have a fun holiday season, Jeff
Hi Susan
Glad you enjoyed my list. I’m happy I found your site, I need to learn about this VC stuff.
Jeff,
Quit trying to cover your ass on all these comment threads. Just fess up to your mistakes and move on.
I takes a big man to do such a thing and I expect something less from a man of your stature. And don’t call them lies and misunderstandings… You obviously screwed up or you wouldn’t have reverted to an ‘opt in’ policy instead of your initial ‘opt out’ stance.
I’m not trying to cause arguments or stir controversy, I just disagree with your actions as you have crossed some very fundamental ethical boundaries in the online world – and you should know better.
Cheers,
Aidan
fetish? fetish??
hmm…i gues it is, at that
if we don’t chat before then, enjoy the holidays.
Oh no….
Ok I was cool with the penchant for Pirates Booty, and my first pay check job was busing tables also at 14, my first business I sold (but not for 600m! wow!) , and I can appriciate a good beach, but….Perez Hilton? gads! I’ll no who to blame when I’m scavaging for food in a post apocalyptic mad max existential nightmare! ….OTOH I read valleywag….so I’m going to just not throw stones….
PS: I’m sure Raphs 5 will be interesting, who he picks for 5 tags should be even more interesting…..
Hi Jeff,
I don’t believe *anything* I read on the interweb. Life is much easier this way.
But I apologize since I should have used the adjective ‘alleged’ – because that’s what I meant.
Happy Holidays,
s
[...] Susan Wu tagged me and I am supposed to come up with 5 things you don’t know about me. The problem is that with all the interviews and whatnot, all sorts of things have already been said. Usually, I can pull out stuff that folks don’t expect, like “I’m fluent in Spanish” or “I have a degree in poetry,” but nowadays, this stuff is stuff all you regular blog readers know. [...]
that is a cool bracelet
[...] for this so late in the game. Nearly everyone I know who blogs has already done their five things – Susan, Nabeel, and Ethan (who is also a fan of sumo) all have. So I had to dig deep to find folks to tag. [...]
[...] of this meme. I thought it was really interesting, so I’ll do the same. The history goes: Susan Wu » Raph Koster » Broken Toys » Mythical Blog » MMODig » Gaming Bitch » World IV » Jay Barnson [...]
Hi Susan,
A friend of mine designs and makes Jewelery inspired by the culture of Papua New Guinea (where we are from). Thought you might be interested in having a look.
See it at, http://www.flickr.com/photos/milotintin/sets/72157594513325251/
[...] the same query. Two examples would be ex-Yahoo developer Jonathan Grubb, and venture capitalist Susan Wu (both people whose blogs I enjoy perusing from time to time). This comes straight from the desk of [...]
Susan,
I enjoyed your blog on how to avoid common pitching mistakes. It was very informative and just the sort of thing I need to hear coming from someone who see 30+ pitches a week.
Hoping to be one of those 30 in the near future!
Regards,
Anthony Peterson
Sydney, Australia.
Hey Susan. Liked your fact # 3:
“My first official, paycheck paying job was as a waitress when I was 14. The job paid $4 an hour. It never paid any tips either, because it was in the dining room of a retirement home in Irvine, CA. This job sucked. I had to buy pink oxford shirts and khaki pants that I would have never worn otherwise. However, I learned one important lesson: waiting on tables is hard, thankless work. I don’t have a natural talent for it because I have a crappy memory.”
Believe it or not, I kind feel like I’m in the same job, being an i-banking monkey:
Pay: 4$ an hour + inflation to today’s rate gets me to what I earn an hour given the 110-130 hour week
Job: The job sucked is spot on. Everyone on my floor agrees and comiserates.
Dress code: oxford shirts and khaki pants are the norm here too. Add a tie that used to be neat last Monday (given magnitude of working week, don’t quite see difference between Monday and any other day of the week/weekend:)
Memory: I sadly lack anything that may have once, long ago resembled an intellect – that was all killed off during my internship.
So, reason i loved your entry: simple. You’re obviously not doing your sucky job any more, which means there’s light at the end of the tunnel for me
Thanks,
Mike
the i-bankign monkey
>Are the people you’re surrounding yourself with people you would trust your >life to in the trenches? If not, it’s better to err on the side of being >conservative and grow more slowly.
Any other rule could not be so true!
Can’t believe that you’ve done the jewelry design yourself. True? Send me several pics to my mail. Then I’ll be back to you!
Cheers,
Hello,
I heard your speech at LeWeb this year and it was really very exciting. I’m looking for more info about this “virtual gifts” world and other micro-payments and it’s to be very hard. Do you have any book, website or other source to recommend? I’m Cyrille, former Loic LeMeur’s partner at seesmic, working on a new project, in SF. Sorry for using this comment box but your twitter is very well protected and I don’t want to spoil the Ohai mailbox with this unproductive question. Thanks for your time and good luck for your project.
Cyrille (twitter: vinvin)
(you can burn this comment after reading)
wow!
that is really great susan