I have always considered myself a business guy. I started my first business at the age of nine, and continued to build and run various businesses over the next 20+ years. My biggest success was selling Current Wisdom to the Indigio Group in January of 2007, both in terms of money and accomplishment. Does all that make me a startup expert? No, but it does make me experienced enough to know what I like and dislike about the startup life.

I have always hated the term entrepreneur. It feels fake and presumptious. It seems to be too easy to label anyone who is creative an entreprenuer. It literally means “one who undertakes a task,” but has evolved to include the assumption that some sort of risk was attached to that task.

I am not a risk taker, every action I have taken is measured, and all potential outcomes are intellectualized. Some paths come with increased difficulty and some outcomes are bit murky, but risk implies a lack of control, and with careful planning and thought, that rarely occurs.

I am not an entreprenuer. I am just a business guy.

But, with the explosion of the Web 2.0 concept, everyone is now an entrepreneur. Even my old drug dealer used to come to me with a hundred different business ideas every time we talked (at least 2-3x per week).  I am convinced that most startup “CEOs” are enthralled by the concept of an “entrepreneur” being a business Indiana Jones, fighting competitors and being lauded for the risks they take, and only they know where that treasure of a truly innovative idea is hidden because everyone else is a “moron” that “doesnt get it.”

I am not Indiana Jones. I am just a business guy.

So when I sold Current Wisdom, I began to sniff around for other opportunities (maybe even starting another adventure), and it seemed that all the cool stuff was happening in Boulder. I reached out to the one true entreprenuer I knew, Danny Newman, a kid that I had been good friends with, fell out of step with, and once I had emerged from my “Snow period” (Picasso had his Blue Period. I can have my Snow Period, dammit.), I knew I wanted to rekindle that friendship. So, I went over and checked out PocketFuzz, Danny’s latest endeavor.

We talked about the startup scene. We talked about the people, the players and the posers. But, mostly, we just talked. (Yes, I know you have images of us hand in hand skipping through daisies, you ass, but really we are two talkitive people.) And within the conversation, two things of interest bubbled to the surface.

The first was TechStars. A lot has been written about TechStars, but more than anything it put young startup executives in a learning mode with experienced folks. Awesome idea. If you havent yet, and its applicable, apply now.

The second was StartupWeekend. Started by a 24 year old designer named Andrew Hyde, the idea was to get a bunch of smart people in a room and see what happened. I contacted Andrew and noticing that there was no “business guy” category, asked if I could attend. Andrew agreed.

Over the next couple of weeks prior to the event I lent a hand in collecting ideas, sending surveys, etc. During the event, I told Andrew that I would be happy to run any errand he needed done, so I found myself getting ice, name tags and the like.

But while the event ran, I met dozens of other really smart people. I helped build and define VoSnap, the first StartupWeekend company, and I had the opportunity to meet everyone in Boulder that was involved in the tech scene.

After that, I soon started blogging (it took me a few months to become a regular blogger), and I came across a search widget called Lijit. Tara, from Lijit reached out soon after I installed, and quickly after that I met Todd Vernon and Stan James.

A month or so later, over lunch (I swear he wasnt drinking. I think he disputes that now), Todd offered me a job at Lijit. Given my desire to stay in the startup life, I decided to join, and havent looked back since.

On Friday, Startup Weekend returns to Boulder. Its been about 8 months or so since the last one. And there have been 15 weekends in between the two. This weekend, I plan to be “the blogger,” and help out Laura Fitton and Tara Anderson with their Live Show (sponsored by Pulver.tv). We have some really cool guests coming (and if you want to be a guest, just email me at micah [at] currentwisdom [dot] com). I would really like to see a fair and complete representation of our tech community, so I expect emails from Christina Warren, Erica O’Grady (who will be there), Chris Brogan, Loren Feldman, Erin Kotecki Vest, Ronald Lewis, and as a wide range of people as there are slots.)

What do I expect from this weekend? Not much, really. I tend to like to see what the weekend brings. But I do hope that one of the participants has an similar experience to mine, and joins our fantastic tech community here in Boulder.

But, if you ask me to point out the entrepreneurs, I wont be able to. After all, I am just a business guy.

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