Frankly the last two weeks have been a blur (hence missing a week).  So much news. First up, we announced our investment in SplashMaps. An exciting announcement in it’s own right, but also in that we’re building the momentum on our investing, which we’re now calling Lokku Seed Capital. This has been a really enjoyable and challenging part of Lokku over the last few months. I have learned a lot, which was one of the goals. 

Less exciting and far less enjoyable has been dealing with some painful HR news. Frankly it’s been very frustrating. From the beginning we’ve tried to run Lokku with a spirit of trust and openness in which we share as much information as possible with employees, and do all we can to make their lives easy. As such, it’s deeply unfortunate, and indeed hurtful, when someone abuses the situation. It’s just so frustrating. But that’s perhaps fodder for another post. On the more positive side two new engineers have joined the team, and are diving into and cranking out long-desired features.

Some other things that have occupied my time the last two weeks, in no particular order:

We announced the lineup for the March 18th #geomob, you should come if you’re into geoinnovation.

It looks like I found a German-speaking childcare option for my son for one afternoon a week, which is at least a good step in the right direction.

I’ve managed to make it to the gym a few times, but #operationpeakfitness still hasn’t really achieved lift off. I’m on it.

My four month old daughter is getting more fun by the day.

I met with the founders of Flooting, which is a project eerily similar to my experiment Zesta Punta, except that it’s focused on the UK. If you are in London and want to save the world and/or you like free stuff, you should check them out.

Had a great time at the Outdoor Show representing SplashMaps and learning first hand what people care about in the product.

Slowly but surely moving forward on a big geo related project at work with out geotechnologist in residence, Gary and others. Getting excited.

Cooked and ate some good meals, though frankly a lot goes wasted on a three year old.

Alex, our CTO, and I had an interesting talk about ideas around gittip and how Lokku might give back more to open source. This is a topic I’ve wanted to spend more time on for years, and Alex has a great idea on how we can do it in a way that is scalable and meaningful. Really hoping we’re able to take it forward.

Also of note was that I celebrated my 38th birthday. A good friend was in town and we had a nice lunch. I got some nice gifts (including one off my Inkling wishlist!) and I bought myself some as well. One of the great tragedies of London is that everyone leaves, so many of my friends, some of whom were a major reason to move to London in the first place, have drifted away over the years, so it was great to catch up again. I need to find more people to actually hang out with.

As a Valentine’s day / birthday gift my wife and I went to a great classical concert on Saturday here in the Barbican. I love living here but have been very delinquent in taking advantage of the amazing shows. I realized right after I posted my 2014 goals that making more of the cultural offering in the Barbican should be a goal. That being said, many is the night I go for a relaxing amble around the walls of the fortress/spacestation that is the Barbican, often carrying my daughter. I’m enjoying living here a lot. The concert, the highlight of which was Beethoven’s 8th, was excellent, as you’d expect from the BBC orchestra.

Made the time to catch up with an old friend and colleague on Skype.

No doubt I’ve overlooked some things. Frankly the days are flying by. Tomorrow at Lokku I’m giving a talk to the team about the recent trip to India and all the ideas it prompted, which I now need to finish. Main message of the trip and thus of my talk is that we live in times of endless opportunity, it is just up to us to reach out our hands and grab it.