Greetings Former Investors & Advisors!
After just over 2 years at Mariner, I made the decision to leave and venture out, yet again, into the unknown. My plan is to have no plan for a while. I am dedicating a healthy amount of time to decompressing. To thinking. To reading. To Writing. To Building (with AI, naturally).
I'm intentionally unemployed for the time being - and I am fortunate and grateful to be able to make the choice to step away from day to day employment. It is with obvious appreciation to each of you all for playing a part in my journey to get me to today, to tomorrow, and beyond.
Well, I'm sort of unemployed….
I worked an 8pm to 4am graveyard shift at Donut Den last night with my good friend and advisor, David Aronson, to prep 15,000+ paczki for Fat Tuesday as he's taken over running his late uncle's shop. It was an absolute blast. It was different. It was good to do something unusual.
A sea of white boxes. I walked 4 miles trotting these jelly and custard filled beasts from the bakery crew to the tables. Just one step from the hungry hoard that started lining up outside at 3:50am!
What's Next?
Ok so what's next? I have concluded that I am going to spend my time (that is the ~9am - 4pm hours of the day):
🤔 Thinking (via walks, informal writing, conversation, quiet time, gardening)
📚 Reading (via books mostly. My library has burgeoned to 1,500+ books)
✍️ Writing (via writing a memoir and a presidential biography, in my journal, and less structured thoughts via my website below).
🛠️ Building (via learning about AI and playing with tools like Cursor, D-ID, Render, etc.). There's some idea(s) out there…but I'm not forcing it. I am keeping an open mind and learning, exploring, creating, and experimenting.
That being said, I built a raw-form version of a personal website using various AI tools. It took me <1 hour to get the main structure live on the internet and another 3-4 hours iterating. It's 60% done, but check it out. This will be my "home base" going forward so check back as you wish.
Check out my new digital home:
JHWelcome to joeholberg.comWhere I'll be sharing my thoughts on thinking, reading, writing, and building
I'd welcome reconnecting with any of you at any time and I've taken the liberty of adding you to my mailing list which I aspire to keep both infrequent and interesting.
I'm an open book at this point so send me ideas, connections, investment opportunities, articles, criticism, feedback on the site, whatever your heart desires!
Here's to What's Next
Here's to what is next, whatever that may be!
Best,
Joe