The Take Off

Last week has been the most important in the history of our wiho.me startup. Not that we signed another distribution deal. Several are in place and more will come. But because the missing pieces of the puzzle finally "clicked" in my head. It all happened in Ireland, where we went (courtesy of Enterprise Ireland - thank you Bartek!) for two busy days to meet potential partner companies who may help us with the industrial design, and with development and organization of the entire supply chain of our hardware product. I've mentioned it here a couple of times: I have no hardware experience and the entire process from idea to the first million boxes distributed worldwide has been a big unknown. But now there is no fog anymore. For the first time I really believe we can build a billion dollar company.

So here is how it feels.

Fifteen months ago I told my 15-strong team we were on a path to the top (Quartz has a story on this). The goal was to be the number 1 worldwide. Of course nobody believed at that time. Even myself I was not so certain. Later when time was passing many were suggesting there were others already climbing up, far ahead of us. While we were still in the garage, assembling some machinery, instead of training for high altitude.

But I did not tell the team one thing: we will not go there on foot. We will fly!

So we've spent the 15 months building the engine. The engine that gives me the confidence. The engine that will take us to the top. But of course the engine needs a plane to fly. Hence the trip to Ireland, where we are engaging with two strong partners. One will build us a perfect body. A beautifully crafted fuselage. The second will provide a runway.

We've got a clearance from the investors (who are our Air Traffic Control). We are taxiing to the runway, the engines soon will be running at a take-off thrust. When I release the breaks we are only seconds from the first officer announcing the V1 (the "V1" speed is the speed that the aircraft can no longer stop with the amount of runway it has left and must take off no matter what happens).

Now this no longer is a joke or a message that may be treated lightly. After V1 you either fly or die.

With all the responsibility, I have one more secret I'll reveal after V1. One day I may even write a book on it, but for now, if the story is engaging, you have to live with this blog ;)