Reading time: 2 – 2 minutes

Those that know me well know that for the last year or so I have been working with Noam Wasserman on a case for one of his classes at Harvard Business School.  The case was based on FeedBurner but was more specifically centered around the founding team’s journey through their four businesses with the case culminating with the FeedBurner years.

The case is finally finished and Noam will be teaching it for the first time this March.  I have to say I am very grateful for the whole experience for a number of reasons:

1. I had a chance to co-author a case with Noam Wasserman, a guy I consider to be a foremost thinker on entrepreneurship and venture capital (and he’s an awesome guy to boot).
2. I had a chance to really learn about all that went into the four ventures the FeedBurner founders have built over the years and why they made the choices they made.
3. I had a chance to reflect on my time at FeedBurner, the company itself and the ultimate sale to Google and nail down all the takeaways for my future endeavors.

If you ever have a chance to spend some solid time reflecting on anything you’ve done (successful startup, failed startup, etc.) I would suggest working through a case like this to achieve some solid results for your comtemplation time.  I believe writing allows you to firm up your takeaways from the business or experience and you’ll be better off because of that. And if you can’t work through a case just try talking through the business or experience with others that were there with you (and with the founders if possible) and perhaps write a blog post based on your talks or just write something for yourself.  You’ll be glad you did.