About Various Statups

About the Blog

This is my business blog where I share my commentary, advice, and experiences in and around the startup scene. I grew up in LA, but Boston is now my home base.

I’ve been around the web since the beginning. I’ve seen a lot of startups because I’m a life-long entrepreneur. (“Serial-entrepreneur” is ridiculously overused and often misapplied.) I’ve had some of my own startups, including Blue Note Technology, PrincetonIM, ClubWizard, and ProBlogware. I’ve also been at some funded (and failed) ones, such as n2N Commerce (General Catalyst) and GameLogic (Bain, General Catalyst, Maveron). And through consulting and advising, I’ve seen many more.

Want to know more? You can find me in the usual places such as Francis Lichtenberger on LinkedIn and @fjl1 on twitter. Or contact me directly.

- Francis Lichtenberger

About the Blog Name

The name Various Startups is a bit of an inside joke. At a Web Innovators event, I wanted to do some “stealth-mode” job search networking. So without thinking too much about it, instead of using the name of my current company I listed my company as “Various Startups.” Naturally, this printed on my nametag. When I bumped into a few friends from work, they quite rightly gave me a lot of grief about my “secret” job search.

I was at another event the following week, along with some of the same buddies from work. While talking to another attendee that we just met, we asked him what he does for work. His reply: “I work at various startups.” Much laughter followed, and that night I registered the name.