A short postscript to my AI company adventure

Well, Pauline has moved on, I think she is vacationing in Ibiza, grateful the train stopped just short of murder and mayhem.

There is a short postscript to my AI company adventure. In addition to buying the software platform, the acquiring company hired the four genius developers who created the product.

While nobody got rich, no one is going to miss a meal, and there is enormous satisfaction in the safe landing for these four gentlemen. All under 30 years old, and all in new positions of leadership and being paid much more than we did.

Having licked my wounds a bit, I headed off to Iceland to do some fly fishing for Atlantic salmon. I happened to be there on the evening of the full solar eclipse. Yes, the sky darkened and it was cosmic, but being in Iceland also meant that it was overcast and pouring rain. Remember, “Man plans, God laughs.”

My guide was Skuli. He was 6’ 6” and weighed about 290 pounds. Born in Iceland, he has been guiding for more than 25 years. On the third day, as we cast relentlessly to a bored sea trout, he told me the following story.

A few years earlier, Skuli was fishing alone, and he spied a very large salmon, more than 30 pounds, a serious fish. He cast to it for three hours, changing flies more than 20 times. Finally, he hooked it and landed it. Then of course, he released it back into the river.

One fish, three hours, a level of determination that seemed to stand as somewhat of an entrepreneurial gold standard for dedication. I will suggest that changing flies was his way of “pivoting,” which is what all startups do. He did what he came to do, complete satisfaction.

Over the past several months, I have tried with a reasonable degree of honesty to share the process of building a company, raising money for the company, with all of its twists and spins, and then ultimately selling it to a larger entity.

I have frequently said that you don’t choose entrepreneurship; it chooses you. And it has me in its clutches again.

While still writing about the general topic at hand, from time to time, I am also going to share with you a different adventure, and like any startup, it also comes with a high degree, bordering on near certainty, that once again we will go broke.

I am producing an off-Broadway theatrical magic show. I did ask Claude about this idea; it laughed out loud and then pointed to a few facts.

“The vast majority of Broadway shows close at a loss. Investors should be prepared to lose 100% of their principal.” And “Even successful shows take years to return capital, if ever.”

But remember the rule: venture investors bet on the jockey, not the horse.

It happens I know a real Broadway producer (our mothers served together in the Red Cross during World War II), who has won multiple Tony Awards, most recently for “Maybe Happy Ending,” and he has agreed to join my circus.

But for the record, here is the tale of the tape: That show cost $17 million to produce; it has been running for 21 months, won six Tonys, including Best Musical and is playing at the Belasco Theater, seating 1,010 people, sold out every night, and has not yet returned its original investment.

So I propose to take you on this theatrical adventure over the next year or so, complete with characters like Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom (“The Producers”). Sharp elbows, agents, inflated grosses, crooked accounting, inside deals, promises, ego, failed financing and more ego. Launch party, opening night, cocktail party boasting, tickets for your friends, and then record quietly, a nice tax loss.

This sounds like a classic VC technology AI deal.

It is a one-man show starring Harry Milas, who takes you on “The Knight’s Tour” of magic and chess “for a dazzling 80 minutes,” at least that is what the pre-production promotion promises. (Promises, promises).

And the good news: I know a guy who can get you tickets.

Rule No. 838: “Under the right circumstances, a producer could make more money with a flop than a hit,” The Producers.

Senturia is a serial entrepreneur who invests in startups. Please email ideas to neil@blackbirdv.com.