a little bit of news

About two months ago, I had an idea. And then I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I stayed up late the night it popped into my head, excitedly gabbing it to Kevin, who was supportive and helpful as always. When I woke up the next morning, I completely doubted the whole thing – my master plan suddenly seemed ridiculous. Since then, I’ve been visiting every place between those two extremes, but my solution is to simply move forward. And I’m excited.

So, my friend Faryn and I are starting a sweets company.

It makes me smile to see that written out.

We don’t exactly know what we’re doing. Neither of us have ever owned or operated a small business before, nor have we done a long list of other things that might relate to the task. But we’re doing it, even so.

Faryn and I have worked together two or three times a week for almost five years as members of our sketch comedy group, Harvard Sailing Team. She’s smart, funny, and pretends to be naive. She’s also organized to a fault, detail-oriented, and has a great creative style.

Despite our unbelievably different personalities and my tendency to tease her relentlessly, we make good partners.  We solve problems similarly and our strengths seem complimentary. Still, I don’t know how she puts up with me. On second thought, I don’t know how I put up with her. You can meet her at her new blog called Fear Of Missing Out.

So far, creating this biz is terrifically fun. We’ve been testing recipes and brainstorming taglines. It has consumed a good deal of our free time – full Sundays, some weeknights – but I haven’t minded it at all. The mental space at the desk job, since I now sit in the reception area and answer the phones all day, is a blessing. I’ve been able to spend some time each workday researching other small businesses like ours, learning things about baking that I didn’t know before, and communicating non-stop with Faryn about every single detail.

I am looking very much forward to documenting this process as we go. We’re obviously still in the very early stages and it seems like a good story to let unfold in real time.