Posted by: Will – Priority Juggler on May 27th, 2007

…I was pretending to go to my friend Ash’s wedding in Jaipur, India, whilst actually flying to sit at the feet of web gurus in San Francisco, USA.

I had a job at the time (at eBay UK), but, having agreed in principle with Steve that we should set up Arena, I then had to work out if it was a feasible project or just optimistic pub chat. Unfortunately, I couldn’t simply say to my boss “I’m off to America to spend a week learning about setting up an online business, see you next week!”. So I needed a smokescreen.

My trip to Jaipur was already booked. Yet I needed to go to America. The answer was obvious. Regretfully, I cancelled my ticket to Jaipur and booked one to San Francisco instead, feeling 1) like a rubbish friend and 2) guilty about the white lie to my eBay colleagues.

I went with Steve to meet up with Pete Flint, one of the first employees of lastminute.com, who subsequently set up the brilliant US real-estate website, Trulia.com. We also went to see Alex Schultz who, at age twenty-nothing, had already proven himself to be an absolute genius in online marketing and site structure - if you want a cocktail recipe, or instructions on making paper airplanes, you’ll find him impressively high on Google’s search rankings. SEO magic.

It was the right decision - we came back with our heads full of ideas and brimming with new-found web marketing know-how, determined to forgo our 9-5 jobs and forge ahead with Arena. Unfortunately, what we gleaned from these gurus meant that I missed out on a great friend’s wedding, including the highlight of Ash riding a white stallion to the ceremony - I’m assured that that sight alone was worth the trip.

The strangest thing was going straight from Heathrow to eBay HQ and rushing to my desk to Google timezones before anyone spoke to me (should I be jet-lagged and if so, in which direction (tired or wide awake?)?). And then going to lonely planet to dig up a couple of stories about Jaipur so, if asked, I’d have some good chat about where I was supposed to have been for the preceding week. All very silly really.

Still wracked with guilt, I recently I sent Ash and Julia my favourite bouquet, saying “Sorry I didn’t make the wedding!”. My luck was in - I happened to send them on the exact day of Ash and Julia’s wedding anniversary. Score! They were delighted, feeling that I’d done a great job in making up for my absence by remembering their anniversary a year on. Here’s hoping they don’t read this post. :)

I certainly wish I’d been there. Congrats, Ash and Julia - Arena owes you one.

Filed under: Marketing, Matters Webby, Start up on May 27th, 2007

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