11/3/24

Howdy,

October was the first month of Olivia’s pregnancy where I could really feel like the chapter of just the two of us was coming to a close and a new one was about to begin… If you have any baby tips, throw them my way.

We’ve also just submitted Epiphany, the voice-to-action iOS app I’ve been creating, to the Apple App Store for review. I’m really excited to get it out there, keep building, and see where it goes.

Photo:

A Pottery Class

The in-laws visited a few weeks ago and we did a pottery class at a place here in Lisbon. It was my first time on the wheel and I found it surprisingly enjoyable. TBD on how my espresso cup turns out though!

For those who have read past issues, can you remember what level of souvenir this experience creates?

Idea:

Trademarking Your Name as an AI Assistant

What if an Alexa out there had trademarked her name in the voice assistant category before Amazon?

Siri? Ok that one is unique.

But with the rise of all these AI assistants and agents, the wheel spinner is bound to eventually land on your name right? And maybe that particular one becomes the most popular one in the world.

Not if you already own it.

To be fair, I’m not even sure you could do this, and I didn’t want to spend a hundred dollars asking my IP lawyer about it.

But Chad, aka Chatgpt, told me it’s not impossible. So who knows!

Thought:

On Baby and Business.

Someone asked me what I was thinking about regarding the upcoming birth, and I said “It’s like there’s been a hurricane path forecasted towards us, and we don’t know whether it’s going to be a direct hit, or we’ll just get sideswiped and have heavy rain and some light flooding.”

To be fair, I’ve never been in a hurricane, and it’s obviously not the same thing. But I think the analogy holds in that there are a range of possibilities that can happen, and almost none of it is in my control at this point.

What does this have to do with business? Maybe nothing, but I do think being an entrepreneur teaches you to deal with the things you can control and let go of what you can’t. Worrying about the things you can’t isn’t helpful. In fact, it’s harmful.

Sure, preparing for scenarios of things you can’t control is beneficial. Alerts and redundancies are put in place for the event when things happen so that you can then control them. “What would we do if” exercises are useful. At a certain point, though, attention needs to be focused back to the things you can directly control.

See ya next month!

-Troy