As those who know me or read Vagobond almost certainly know – I’m a serial business creator – also known as an entrepreneur. When I was around eight-years-old- my grandmother was having a day with me, my siblings, and my cousins – she asked everyone what they wanted to do when they grew up. She chewed on the answers, asked questions, and generally approved. I told her that I wanted to be a scientist and she said “No, that’s wrong. You’re an entrepreneur.” I didn’t know what that was and she told me that it was a person who made things. She was right. I am.
My projects have been many – from a failed beer delivery service in 1995 to Conchsense and Cascadia Magazines in the late 1990s to Sun Sea Adventures in the early 2000s, then to Vagobond itself along with Morocco Blogs, Reedsport Antiques, my little newspaper in Reedsport. I’ve started and run quite a few businesses. Most recently, in the past year, I’ve put together ZguideZ – which aims to automate the tour industry and Iwahai– which lets you record audio on a map. While there has been some aspect of tech in almost every business I’ve started – these two have the distinction of being the most ‘Silicon Valley’ and by extension the most scalable – which is what brings me to San Francisco.
For the past year, I’ve been neck deep in learning what it takes to conceive, build, and scale a start up tech business. I’ve taken part in Hawaii’s East Meets West Conference for two years running, I was one of twelve companies selected for the Hawaii Wefunder Workaway, and I recently graduated from Y-Combinator’s Start Up School. In addition to all of that – I’ve built two pretty amazing tech products and created two corporations from the ground up without anything that could be considered capital. I’ve filled the roles of product manager, CEO, and nearly everything else in my organizations while I have built products that work – even if only in a minimum viable product sense. And this is what brings me to San Francisco.
San Francisco is the global capital of tech finance. There is no event which represents that as well as Tech Crunch Disrupt – a conference where the ‘global elite of tech’ converge to see what the future holds, look for amazing new ventures, and meet the founders of amazing new startups that may become the next big thing – like me.
There is nothing cheap about San Francisco and there is nothing rich about my bank account or finances. The name of this website is Vagobond and that comes because I am one of the modern masters of making something out of nothing. As a quick reminder – in 2000, I became a homeless person by intent to show the world that it was possible to live a life without being beholden to corporate masters – from that point forward I traveled to more than fifty countries, moved to Hawaii, started a family, and have started multiple businesses. I’ve got to tell you though – it’s fucking exhausting making ends meet on the fly and always having to hustle to meet expenses.
So, ironically, here I am asking the masters of global capital to invest in my startups so I can scale them. I had to do it on a budget though. I paid for my flight using my Hawaiian Miles points which I’ve accumulated through paying for nearly everything with my Bank of Hawaii Mastercard. I was able to get a ticket to the 3-day conference for around $300 because I’m a startup founder (regular price is $1500+) and as for hotel – I tried to find a Couchsurfing host without luck and had to get a room but after searching for deals managed to get a room for right around $110 a night near Union Square which usually has hotel rooms for somewhere in the $300-$500 per night range. Four nights of that gave me enough to get a room using Hilton points for another night and finally, I found a room for my last night near the airport for $120.
In terms of meals, I’ve worked the system as best I could. Coffee in the hotel is free. The conference had several invite luncheon sessions where I was able to get the proverbial free lunch while listening to pitches for Taiwan or from big financial services companies. A nearby restaurant offered $10 credit to conference attendees (so lunch was $4). I skipped breakfast and enjoyed modestly priced dinners – a slice of pizza, some Indonesian fried rice, a burrito, some Japanese ramen. Grand total on food has been right around $80. I’ve got a few days left and I expect that I’ll probably spend another $100 on food. I’ve had to use Uber a few times and that has added up to about $70 total.
So, for those not keeping track – here are my totals for a week long trip from Hawaii to San Francisco to one of the most expensive tech conferences in the world.
Conference Ticket: $295
Flights: $0
Hotel: $580
Food: $180
Uber: $70
Grand Total: $1125
I will probably spend a couple hundred dollars on entertainment and tourist stuff while I’m here, but maybe not. In any event, I feel like the price was well worth it. If I’d wanted to go further into savings I could have aggressively hunted for a couch to surf, skimped further on food, and volunteered at the conference for a free ticket – but I’m almost 48 years old and just don’t have the energy to be that cheap any more.
Opportunities – well hopefully they will translate into being worth millions, but we’ll have to see.
