What Mike Michelini is up to Now – Oct 15 – 21, 2023
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A full week last week “in the office” in Chiang Mai catching up, building, creating. Of course a couple meetups and events (can’t help myself). So what’s on the plate this week:
* Bangkok for DCBKK conference Wednesday to Monday. Will be an intense event and am hosting a meetup there Thursday morning on FBA roller coaster experiences.
* Eth Global Hackathon for our startup Zeppelin Finance (within the Loadpipe ecomm protocol ecosystem) – Last week this week, submissions due Sunday night next week. But have met great people, added more to the team and looking like a solid submission to send.
* 1 Month to go til Cross Border Summit 2023 – as always, mayhem and tons of people pushing now, the event is looking to be a “beautiful” one – after not having done one in 4 years – truly a new beginning.
* Amazon ecommerce brands chipping away, fixing some logistics w/ Plumepas, cashflow balancing on Esatto, product selection on others.
* Purse close milestone – still the Purse deal hasn’t closed due to administrative but feel on track for nov 3, but there is a milestone earlier this week to pass which should go smooth.
For those who want to hear the full week plan for Shadstone Limited, Mike’s company (removing sensitive info) – here it is:
Week Plan Oct 15 – 21, 2023 Venture Seed
Pushing our limits. Diamonds are forged under pressure, right. And we are shining light like a diamond as these pressure continue to chisel us and develop us.
One thing I want to highlight – we are holding together under pressure. Martha delivered a baby less than a week ago, and Sally’s mother just passed away a few days ago. That means 2 of our core team members are not in the daily operations right now – and yes- I can feel the operations a bit slipping – but we are holding it together. I see others stepping up. I see holes being plugged.
And that is what we, at the Shadstone team of ninjas, have worked so hard to get to. To build a team that can learn from each other, support each other, back each other up.
So cheers to that.
Finance is still super complex – as we have various JV partners (gfa kids is growing and cashflow is in multiple countries and currencies) , CBS2023 ticket sales, HK, CN, thailand, USD, A/r,a/p. The juggling is real. But then again it is what makes international business so fascinating and challenging (in a semi good way). Do want to finish this HK company audit though, which is delayed a bit as the auditor asked us more information and Martha is out.
Cross Border Summit can feel it picking up in intensity – 1 month exactly to go. More from China are hearing about it and locking in tickets which is making this one a special event bringing people from China, the West, and many in Southeast Asia together. Just gotta keep pushing ahead as we have so many speakers to coordinate with, tons of venues (for add-ons) and now this CBM Expo was just confirmed.
Our ecommerce brands (aka Para Living, still?) is chipping along. Structuring / restructuring teams, allocations of resources, and holding things together. Had a good call w/ Esatto team and have some ideas for unique ways to expand it – plus getting more wholesale order requests which is fun.
The Purse close is a month delayed which has of course put a lot of strain on a lot of us. But I am told this is normal. Both buyer and seller still want to do the deal, but it is the administrative parts in the middle that is tricky (as always I’m told).
Yet of course we still forge ahead as if the deal is happening – building out the Dapps of the new Loadpipe protocol. Forming unique teams and product paths for Zeppelin (which is in the Eth Global Online hackathon as I type this), and Hamza marketplace (which is awaiting our review of the alpha on a test server). Also more and more people joining and wanting to join makes me feel we are onto something (haven’t noticed the enthusiasm from as many when I speak to them about projects normally).
So push ahead, even under massive pressure and stress. We must learn to “deal / control” with our emotions (talking to myself here, but for anyone else who wants to hear it). And the diamonds forming under pressure is the best analogy I can think of.
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