Brad Feld

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Book: No Vision, All Drive

May 16, 2007
Category Books

I’ve gotten to know David Cohen and David Brown through our work together at TechStars.  DavidC and I have talked a little about Pinpoint (the company that the David’s co-founded) and I’ve had one meeting at ZOLL Data Systems (the company that DavidB runs that is a subsidiary of the company that acquired Pinpoint.)  But I didn’t really know their story.

DavidB took some time off (left ZOLL but then went back.)  During this time he wrote No Vision, All Drive.  I love self-told, first person, authentic entrepreneurial stories (one of my favorites was The MouseDriver Chronicles.)  DavidB did a great job of telling the Pinpoint story – starting at the very beginning – and sticking to the story rather than veering into the prognostication zone that so many authors of business stories feel compelled to go to.

Pinpoint (and subsequently ZOLL Data Systems) is one of the great sleeper stories in the Boulder software scene.  They grew steadily from founding, survived the bubble gracefully, never raised any capital, and had a very nice exit when ZOLL acquired the company.  DavidB’s tale will be familiar to any startup entrepreneur and is inspiring to anyone that aspires to start a company.  The anecdotes about DavidC were hysterical and help me better understand one of my co-conspirator at TechStars.

I’m on a “read each Kurt Vonnegut book in order that he wrote them” (I’m on number two – The Sirens of Titan.)  I’m putting a non-fiction book in between each Vonnegut book – No Vision, All Drive was a good choice.

Finally, Amy just wrote about our morning visitor if you want more “bear in the driveway pictures.”  I still haven’t gone running and can’t figure out how to get my butt out of the house.