When I started this blog in the middle of 2007 I had no idea where it would take me.

Initially, I thought it would be a great experiment in weight loss. I spent some time searching the web, and thought, “Man, I should ‘fatblog‘!”

Quickly, I found this blog, written by this guy named Jason Calacanis who had started just such a trend. I heard how blogging was an interactive exercise, and hoped to interact with other ‘fatbloggers’, as I began my online quest to lose weight.

Well, it didnt happen. Neither did the weight loss.

So I decided to focus on the things I knew well. Failure. Startups. Marketing.

I started reading a dude named Chris Brogan‘s blog. I read it every day. I was amazed at the amount–and quality–of the content he produced.

Then in December of 2007, I joined the startup Lijit Networks as their VP of Business Development. Basically, the team had spent a year building a really cool search tool, and my job was to bring it to the marketplace.

One of the early adopters of Lijit was Chris Brogan. I was pretty stoked to meet him after reading his blog. Over the course of the next year, Chris and I spoke and met at various conferences. He was never anything but nice (even when singing Metallica), and we became friends.

Now, this week at Twiistup, Chris and I are on the same panel. (There is also this dude that has a blog about cats.) Jason is also part of the speaker lineup. [Register here for Twiistup.]

I am so pleased to be speaking with both of these guys. (and that cat guy).

[The Twiistup lineup is amazing. My friend Brad Feld is also speaking, as is Brooke Burke and Chamillionaire. Yeah, its going to be that rad.]

Last August, I flew out to Seattle to attend Gnomedex. Its run by this dude Chris Pirillo.

In 2000, I worked at a startup in Emeryville (right outside Oakland). A couple of the developers used to read this email that was sent by a dude in Iowa. His name was Chris Pirillo.

I followed Chris’ career to TechTV and when he ran it online. I was introduced to him by Andy Stanberry (when Andy was at Lijit), and Chris and I quickly became friends.

Gnomedex last year was a mind-blower. Sessions by that cat blog guy (I think he is stalking me) followed by the dude who drove the Mars rover. Yeah, its that cool. [Register for Gnomedex here.]

Chris has expanded it this year to allow for more networking and interaction from the attendees, and more importantly, I am speaking on the main stage.

Yeah, mom. I’ve made it.

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