Passion: The fire within to be great, to do great things. From the first day I started at FirstString, I knew I had passion for startups. I haven’t stopped loving it since then.

The Interstate 5 Startup Project was my first attempt at doing something great, take in knowledge, then share that knowledge. San Diego, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, Portland, Seattle, and even Vancouver: The I-5 freeway runs through all of them. Each region has a startup core that tells its own story. From the innovators, the Godfathers, the VCs, new and old startups, and advisors; there is a community bond within the startup region that breathes passion and my goal was to share it and bring it to life.

I did countless interviews with startups all over the West Coast. I traveled on Geeks on a Train (PDX-SEA-YVR) to head up to the GROW Conference with the Dave McClures of the VC world. I met with the ZipWhip folks who are doing great things in the text messaging and cloud world in Seattle. In Vancouver, I met with a first-time entrepreneur who quit his daily office job to become CEO of his friend’s startup. In the Silicon Valley, I met with the Teens in Tech Labs founder who’s helping teen entrepreneurs reach their goals. Back home in Los Angeles, the Silicon Beach has been in full effect and the diversity of mobile development have continued to grow. I met with entrepreneurs from the sports industry, SaaS, entertainment/fashion, etc.

In the end, the project was not completed. A partnership that never happened put my project on hold. Also, budget issues (something no entrepreneur has ever uttered). Through it all though, my passion is still there.