good bye and thanks for all the tisch

techstars demo day was yesterday and it basically ended techstars 2012 with a bang. (btw tisch refers to dave tisch of techstars new york and though i don't really know him or see him around ts boston, his name rhymes with fish.) it ended as an overall amazing event. aside from every company being super cool, and doing great on their demo day pitches though i didn't get to see most of them, it was a great way to bring together everything i am involved with. and i guess in a way it allowed me to define myself in the techstars context and also let techstars know who i am. part of what annoyed me before was that i was getting lost. and having random people i don't know come up to me saying that i did great at the demo was very rewarding. kind of like, techstars wasn't for nothing. we did a taekwondo demo at demo day. of course, it's not really what i wanted recognition for at TS primarily. but in the end, when someone comes up to me because they recognized me from the tkd demo, they would then also ask, "so what do you work on at techstars? you're the Stix guy too right?" and like Stix, it's the initial recognition and conversation starter that can really lead to places. sure, people know me as the tkd guy from techstars (or, some people use the misnomer ninja). but maybe it's not so bad to mix a bit of work and play. i started collecting and giving out business cards. throughout the day I had none of my own, and only gave out dan's tbos cards and will's Neroh/Stix cards. But i'm finding meaning in receiving cards. it used to be that the cards i'd get were those of a lawyer, or recruiter in college, or some other meaningless exchange of information, but it seems that every card i get now is meant for me. and it's kind of cool. miro of testive found me in the locker room after the tkd demo. he said that "you looked good, and you made us all look better." that really hit a chord with me. more than anything i want to contribute to the success of all our techstars companies. so if they're looking for an ios guy, that's what i'm there for. but it seems that taekwondo, which i've done for 10 years plus and has contributed to my life and other people's lives in many ways, can also contribute in a way i didn't really plan on. so if it helps my colleagues by entertaining investors and getting them pumped up, i'm glad to have done the demo. after the big event we all went and celebrated first at estate for happy hour, then at royale for the official party, then jacob wirth for the ts only after party. needless to say the vibe was actually great at royale. it was an interesting mix of techstars people (ie familiar faces, people comfortable to be around because they're in some way techie and not stuck up), and a great party vibe. and lots of drunkenness. and today waking up was strange because my basement window was curtained off so it seemed like still the night even at noon. and it was gloomy outside, and my head wasn't feeling well so there was no reason to crawl back out into the day. but when i made it into the office again, everyone was there, moving along as usual, still pushing forward. but no huge burden looming over any of our heads. and though i was officially done with techstars, it still felt like we had things to do there. unlike the usual graduation, we'll still see each other for a while longer.