My Summer 2008 (Part 1) - orginally posted on July 27, 2008

Last week one of my learning teammate sent out an e-mail summarizing what she's been up to with her consulting summer internship. It's good to know she's doing great and also has learned a lot. More than half of the summer is gone; it's great to stay in touch with everybody. So here's the story I'm going to share with my learning teammates and all other friends.

This summer I decided to stay in Philly to work on a software start-up project. The work I'm doing now wasn't 100% what was planned before the summer began. But as expected, there's tons of work to do. So far the focus has been on product prototype development including design iteration and dialogs with potential customers for feedback.

I've done lots of work on my own, but I'm lucky enough to get help from my friends in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Philly. To speed up, I also learned to do some basic programming myself. It's really cool to see my codes do exactly what I want.

Yet for the most part on the non-technical side, I still have to figure out the answer myself. For example, recently the investigation of competitors' patent portfolio put my nerve through a roller-coaster ride.

Since intellectual properties are essential to any business, on my watch list there're a list of pending patent applications I've monitored closely. Two weeks ago I found one of them got its final rejection by the USPTO. Feeling a slight relief, I was curious enough to find out the cause for rejection. It turned out that an earlier issued patent was cited by the patent examiner to disapprove the patentability. As I read the earlier patent (unknown to me till that point), I became nervous because it claims some technical elements that could be critical to my product development. What next? Should we start thinking about licensing? How can we negotiate for a reasonable royalty rate? .... Fortunately soon I came to a great relief when I found this worrisome patent actually expired because the assignee didn't pay the maintenance fee! Aha!

Other than the above, I've adopted a new name for the business, filed filed corporation registration (LLC in Delaware) and contacted some investors and customers on the West Coast for my upcoming visit to San Francisco/Bay Area in August.

Not working in big corporation, I certainly don't have a chance for fancy retreats, city tours or other nice perks (which I don't even know what they are). I guess the only perk for Employee #0 (i.e., me) is extremly flexible hours. If I have to run some errands during the weekdays, I don't feel guilty to go. If I feel like working some more after a get-together with friends, I feel quite happy to stay up till past 2 am - I found myself full of motivation.

I split my time between home and the office provided by the Wharton Venture Initiation Program. Whenever I work at home, it takes me less than 5 seconds to "commute", i.e., from bed to desk. But in reality it usually takes me half an hour to wake up - not sure if this is a sign for lack of self-motivation....

I'd love to work non-stop, but I've tried not to lose too much work-life balance. I signed up for the student membership at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and I've joined guided tours including "Rhythms of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose" and French portraits. Last Friday evening my friends at Penn and I went to a free concert performed by Philadelphia Orchestra. It was phenomenal!

Hmmm, what else? Well, I shouldn't forget I've continued learning to dance Salsa. I took the weekly Salsa lesson last semester. But without practice, I forgot 95%, if not more! So this summer I practice every week with a friend whom I met at the class. With her very helpful feedback (like how to lead), I think I've made quite some progress, compared with last semester. Now I feel great!! :D