Olson’s Observations

I can’t believe it has been two years since my first post. Back then the blog was called “The Wannabe Venture Capitalist” and I was still working at Cambridge Associates in Boston as an Analyst focusing on the VC space. A lot has changed since then… (picture some wavy lines and a then some grainy footage coming into view)

I got my big break when Dick, Rick and the rest of the team gave me a shot to work in Business Development at FeedBurner. We put in some long hours, I learned a lot and we all made FeedBurner happen in a big way. When I joined I believe we had about 50,000 publishers and that is now getting ready to top 500,000. That number also includes just about all of the top media companies in the world. Not too shabby.

Google must have thought so as well since, a little less than two years after my first day, they snapped us up and that is where I currently spend my days.

Working at FeedBurner has been incredible. The amount of talent crammed into our old loft was truly astounding and I happy to say that those smart and talented folks are all now close friends. What a ride!

Now, for some fun. Hop into the wayback machine and check out what this blog looked like when it first started and was not only a blogger blog but was even hosted on the blogspot domain. It screams newbie.

Ready for some more fun? Let’s look at what topped the news on August 15, 2005 (via CNN and the Wayback Machine):

Sporadic violence hits historic gaza pull out

NASA launches Mars orbiter

McDonald’s diet? Some say it works

Gas prices surge to all-time high

Dow was at 10,600 and NASDAQ was at 2,156

OK, that wasn’t too exciting. All the news looks pretty similar to today. Ah well… How about that McDonald’s diet though?

Well, I would like to thank you all for a great two years and I am looking forward to many more. I hope you are all still enjoying my posts and I have to say that it still amazes me that so many people enjoy reading what I write. I am truly humbled. Now, back to your regularly scheduled blog posts.