This is a thanks to Kim and a sorry to my followers.

Part 1

Friday night, with a beer or two from celebrating the farewell of Bruno and Oliver from Pollenizer and 3 years of Silicon Beach Drinks, I stood on a wobbly chair to give an impromptu speech for 1 minute.

In my haste et al I forgot to thank Kim Chen. She’s been remarkable in the community through leading by example. She’s a model of integrity and adds to that a very smart brain which is a formidable combination.

Her work with Startup Camp, Bootcamp, and Silicon Beach drinks has really kept the flame alive when others, including me, went back into our shells/hives/nurseries.

Kim is also a leading light as a woman in a male dominated space. Thankfully the consideration, care, empathy, multi-tasking, clear perspective bringing, hard working, high passion and typically smarter characteristics that Kim is representing so well is growing in the community as more and more women dive in. Testament to this is Catherine Eibner, Michelle Williams, Natalie Yan-Chatonsky, Annalie Killian, Kate Carruthers, Pratibha Rai and others. I’m also proud to say we’ve got an amazing team of women in the Pollenizer family also nailing it – Jo Sabin, Michelle Rowan, Fleur Fletcher, Clare Hallam, Bronwen Clune, Bree Clare, and Claudia Barriga-Larriviere.

Kim is someone I admire and would love the chance to work with on a gutsy, challenging problem one day.

Kim – thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. (I typed those too!)

Part 2

Kim has clearly given a lot to the community over the years and I’d like to think I have to. Though, over the past year, with the birth of my son and typical tornado of work at Pollenizer, I’ve been a big net withdrawer. This came to a point last week when two of my BSB (bullshit barometer) friends called me on it here and here.

When I’m doing this, I’m not trying to be deceptive, nor trying to spam. We try lots of stuff at Pollenizer and Twitter has been a great way to share and get quick feedback. Clearly there is a balance and I haven’t been balanced for a long time.

So I’m trying to get back to zero. I’m going to spend the next 30 days with an extra effort to give. Blog posts, my time, and retweeting good posts of my friends. I don’t believe 30 days can ‘fix this’. This is more natural and you ‘can’t cram on the farm’. Like trying to brush your team really hard just before you go to the dentist you do more harm than good.

It’s a long term thing. One the things I love about Twitter is that you reap what you sow. If you give, you’ll get respect. If you take, you’ll lose it. I’ve no doubt I lost a lot of followers with my poor form. Here’s hoping over time I can get it back.

Anyway, I hope I can get that respect back. Time will tell.