It would be a pity if this particular idea died out because the author couldn't create a proper paragraph. It won't gain attention from a single petition anyway - there will need to be many of them.
That said, this one is worth signing, as will the ones that follow in order to make this happen.
Please write a proper one and submit it. I'll sign it and delete the links to mine.
Mine was never really meant to "the" petition for this. It was me fooling with the system and when I realized I'd clicked one page too far, I ran with it.
In the introduction to Start-Up Nation, Dan Senor and Saul Singer's best-selling paean to Israeli innovation, Agassi was the soft-spoken software wiz who had a brilliant idea and a terrible time locating a backer. That doesn't seem to be a problem anymore. "Not when you've digitized the most expensive molecule on the planet," he says. "We've digitized oil." He pauses. "I'll put it this way: We have people from China here".
My summary concluded that the best way to find a partner is to expand your network and insert yourself into the right community. I also don't condone going out and "shopping for a partner", yet very often a first time entrepreneur may think that way. By phrasing the title the way I did I was hoping that people new to startups or those thinking of expanding their business by adding a partner would read it looking for practical tips and reach that conclusion.
You're confusing introversion with shyness. An introvert looks in at themselves and isn't looking for a way to meet others. That's what makes them an introvert. Someone that's shy however may want to meet or interact with others but cannot overcome their shyness.
If Color does indeed help true introverts catalog the humans around them then it's actually pretty creepy.
As an old guy myself (47), I've found that it's easy to get frustrated when you see youth repeating the mistakes you've made. While I've learned many things over the years that I enjoy passing on to those less experienced, the skill most valuable is the ability to convey that information in a positive and constructive way.
The irony to me is that so many incredibly talented "senior" engineers and business people have awesome lessons to impart but they never acquired the gift of communications. They don't present themselves as the sage elder that deftly imparts wisdom, they feel a sense of entitlement from their age and it shows as soon as they open their mouths.
That said, I really enjoyed reading your blog post Daniel.
The larger the company, the more complacent they get. They become tied to their legacy and have a difficult time adapting to a changing world. This is magnified dramatically in today's tech environment. I think Facebook is just a privacy breach (or stupid privacy decision) away from becoming a company that can rapidly accelerate their time on the upside of the bell curve.
Last hit for me: launched solo in 1998, self-sustaining though I didn't make any money personally (kept folding it back in, worked programming contracts to live), got angel funding in 2000 and popped staff to 14, first profitable month in March 2001. Became consistently profitable in October 2001 and never again went into the red. Sold to a venture firm in 2006.
Current biz: launched in 2009. Still working on profitability. This is a long tail business so I've learned I need to be patient.
In my case it was an acquisition and roll up - they acquired my company and one of my competitors, combined the two together and brought in a seasoned executive w/ IPO experience to lead the NewCo. I was retained to be the CTO, though it's tremendously difficult to go from being the boss to having a boss and left a little over a year later.
That's another aspect of this I find fascinating; how this impacts people in an online world. What got me was when he said this was his way of getting out into the world and meeting people. Then there are hundreds of comments from people saying where they are in the world. That was an emotional gut punch for me though I can't really explain why.
That said, this one is worth signing, as will the ones that follow in order to make this happen.