moving to des moines (officially)

it looks like the des moines move is in full effect.  we're shooting for late april/early may.  i'm taking a vacation in march to talk to the fridays gm there and look for a place with rob.

in the meantime, i'm studying my ass off in this c# book.  i am so damned close to having a pretty decent understanding of programming and software development.  the prospect of this app is really motivating to me to stay up on my skills.  this is really exciting.

as far as the app goes, i've created an EXHAUSTIVE outline that details everything from what will actually happen in the app, aesthetic, branding, legalities, etc.  i've put about 10 hours into this outline so far.  i would post it, but i don't really want to just send our idea out into the world before we've taken the necessary steps to legally own it.

after the outline, the next step is to start scheduling meetings.  this is a pretty exciting concept to me, honestly.

• matt: i need to talk to him for advice on branding and things like that.  this may involve a trip to california.  poor me.
• nick timmons:  i want to hire him to produce a video for the project.  promo video.  he's a seasoned camera operator and actually owns his own red epic.  yeah, good stuff.
• renee straber:  legal advice.  she's a patent lawyer for a large company.  she could point me in the right direction for legal... stuff.

this is a start, at least.  i'm really fortunate to have aligned myself with so many successful and driven people up to this point.  i have this vision for the app, and the people in my life will only serve to help me make this vision even better.  first thing, though, is matt.  he can help me develop a solid gameplan for branding the app.  that's the biggest thing, honestly.  branding.  brand recognition.  in my opinion, it's the software world's version of "location location location".  it's how people discover your app and love it.  they love the look.  the culture.

i guess that culture, at it's core, is the ultimate goal of the app.  we want to create a unified culture of cyclists.  give them something that they can participate in that will unify this growing niche.  create a community.  fuel the hobby and (hopefully) propel it into the mainstream.  this is the key.  when you really think about it, genesis of a culture is where passion really grows and finds cultivation for a product/activity/hobby/life.  was web search a huge part of peoples' lives before google?  people used to socially network, but not the same way they do now thanks to facebook.  online shopping became a culture thanks to amazon.  i may be getting a little ambitious here, but i think we could really be onto something.  i just need to hold up my end and really make sure i'm doing my part.  meeting with matt is utmost.  necessary.  i could actually call it my "first business trip."  oh man.