$5,000 Grant Status Update

This post is long overdue. I want to give a quick update on my 5K grant initiative. As you might have noticed, there were no updates and I am way past the self-imposed deadline. There are two reasons for that:

Firstly, after the launch of the grant, my revenue-generating consulting engagement has been terminated. This means I had to shift the gears and find something new to keep the money coming. Obviously, this reprioritized my time commitments (the list of grant requests is pretty long!) and expenditures. Being in a somewhat narrow opportunity window (my skillset, experience and opinions are not a great match for everybody), it’s a little tricky — so I am pursuing both consulting (perhaps, with a twist — I want to find a way to deliver more value to my clients) and the “here comes the next venture” routes (tons of opportunities, but they all take time!)

Secondly, there is no immediate winner in the list. I kind of expected that — for obvious reasons, I invited a wide range of projects to apply and therefore I need to learn more in order to make a good, informed decision. So it takes time to read into applications and do my research.

Once the first challenge is addressed, I’ll be able to put more effort into the second one and finally pick a winning applicant.

I also have some crazy ideas like letting go of my home base and going nomadic for a year or so (and focusing on longer term commitments). Time will tell.

As always, feel free to contact me by e-mail or find me on Twitter. I am planning to be a bit more proactive with my communications.