It’s official. We launched our beta at 7pm tonight. After eight months of relentless problem solving, networking, working to build a top-notch team of missionaries, and countless debates of misplaced pixels, lost text messages and other sundry product-related issues, Fanminder is live.

The last 2 weeks were weeks I prefer not to repeat but will likely remain par for the course in a start-ups’ life. We would release to QA, test, find some bugs, and go through the whole cycle again. Once in a while we even released to production and said ‘ooops!’ After 2 weeks I almost threw my iPhone through my glass doors in my home office.

Alas, this too shall pass.

For tonight, everything smells sweeter. The air is crisp, and gently breezing into my office. I have a shit-eating grin on and I think I’m going to go outside and smoke a big ol fat stogy. It really does feel like it’s supposed to – a fantastic, seminal event. Our baby came home.

Looking back on the past eight months, for me, the overwhelming emotion is one of relentlessness against numerous obstacles. Mostly, it’s a story of working at the hip with two relentless co-founders, assembling the right team “on the bus” and getting to know a whole new group of people in my life, from co-founders, to team members, investors and a slew of other CEOs.

Speaking about what it personally feels like, leaving the corporate world and co-founding a business is only what you make of it. At AccountNow and Intuit before that, one’s network and daily rythym is built-in. Your whole world revolves around your company, employees, and processes. However, venturing on your own, your world is only what YOU make of it. If you personally want a fulfilling career, It’s up to you to populate it with meaningful work, a product that you can proud of, customers who want what you have to offer, partners who are interested in working with you, and a team who cares about what you do.

I think the easiest way to make it meaningful is to not do it alone. So a big part of the new life is being wedded at the hip to Fanminder’s co-founder, Tracy. Working with a co-founder is so different than working with ‘colleagues’ at a bigger company. Mostly, it’s about a huge amount of passion and energy, attempting to split up a crush of work, and alot of more involvement in every aspect of well, everything. We never say “goodnight” and go home, we say “speak with you later online.” So it’s alot deeper.

And it’s rapid-learning for me. Tracy has been through this before – multiple times. She easily counter-acts any lingering ‘big-company-itis’ I may have. Each day she role models how to rapidly prioritize and get things done with few resources. And since she’s a woman she brings this other side of relating to issues and discussing things that, well, let’s just say, the male gene isn’t so great at

I’m often reminded of that TV show “The Starter Wife” (I might have watched a couple of episodes, Debra Messing is super!) After her divorce she needs to go out and make a new life for herself, not as the wife of Mr Rich Bigshot, but as a no-namer. And she does. And she’s happy.

Well me too. A big leap into the unknown and eight months later there’s no revenue yet, few customers, and humungous unknowns in front of us. But there’s a new and very fulfilling life filled with so many great new people, friends, and a co-founder. I’m making this new life for myself all on my own, from scratch. No other CEO, boss or corporate environment made it for me. I did.

Time to smoke that stogy.