Zen and the Art of Startup Maintenance: The Story of One Helluva Serial Entrepreneur

I’ve known Steve Larsen for a long time — ten years at least — and, wow, it seems a lot longer in Internet time. Steve is one of those people you feel you’ve always known. He’s one of the guys I respect most in the entire technology industry — a smart marketer, brilliant strategist, and just a top-notch people person and leader. Even though he left the Twin Cities five or six years ago for the fast-lane of the Valley, we still manage to run into each other a few times a year.
One of those times was at a conference several months ago, where we got to talking [okay, it was over several adult beverages] about how long we’d known each other, and I started recounting the amazing ride this guy has been on since I first worked with him when he was SVP of Marketing at Net Perceptions here in Minneapolis, back in the day. And we decided I should write about him [Steve has this way of making me feel like I’m a really good writer] — that is, track the story of what I thought was just an extremely interesting and unusual background for one guy to have in this crazy startup world, stretching over at least a decade. 

So, that’s what I set out to do: a full-blown feature on the life of a serial entrepreneur who just can’t stop, going from one cool gig to another — much like his other life of testing new motorcycles and touring all over the world. You see, Steve likes speed, in more manifestations than one, and is just always on the go. [I remember when he took me for a ride in some hot, new red sports car he’d just bought, taking it up to like 80 mph in about a two-block distance(!), on a lonely stretch of frontage road near the Sofitel. My life flashed before me.]  It seemed an interesting mix to me — motorcycles, speed, and the entrepreneurial CEO — that people could relate to. So, I proceeded to put together the basics of an article soon after we met, then continued to tweak it here and there in my extra time on weekends, adding updates along the way.  Soon, with some help from one of Steve’s very fine PR folks at PageOne PR, we set out to pitch it to some mags. Well, we didn’t get far till Chief Executive Magazine grabbed onto it, and, to our delight, decided to publish it last week as one of the first articles in its "Entrepreneurial CEO" section. Perfect. If Steve doesn’t fit that label, nobody does. Here it is: Zen and the Art of Startup Maintenance, by yours truly.

I’m delighted that the readers of this fine, long-standing publication are now getting to learn about this very talented guy. I think they’ll learn a lot. And, Steve, my hat’s off again to you!  It was a pleasure being about to tell just a part of your amazing story….one that’s really still being written, as the readers of this article will learn. Continued best of luck with Krugle, a company I am convinced will rock the world of code search!

You can bet I’ll be following along, and I certainly look forward to being able to relate the next chapter in this very interesting guy’s life. [Okay, Steve, you now owe me another adult beverage at our next conference! Maybe DEMOfall in September? And Defrag, too, in November  🙂 …and…and…]