Switchfly

I was fly fishing on a tiny island in the BVI’s by myself and I had to sit my camera on my backpack and set a timer. That’s why I got such a different angle and color. After this picture I had to kayak across a channel in the dark then hike out to my car. Pretty unreal trip.

Fly fishing with my mom this august just outside of Missoula, MT. That day we saw two cubs and a mother black bear and caught a ton of great fish.

Climbing Bonanza, the highest non-volcanic mountain in WA, this summer with a couple of buddies. We had to turn back 500 ft from the summit.

During Intro to Sociology the professor asked the entire class of 100 students to write down 5 words that describe them. This was a Harvard class of “unique individuals” but an overwhelming majority described themselves with a minority of words, words like “hard-working”, “fun”, “competitive”, and “intelligent”. Not many people said they were male, small, skinny, or tall, so I’ll try to stay clear of just saying the usual.

I am 6′2″ male from New Haven, Connecticut. My parents are both from New Haven where they started a computer consulting business called Nowak Data Systems. I grew up in New Haven, went to prep school for high school, and graduated from Harvard in ‘03. Now I live in Seattle. Why? Because I needed a change and I wanted an adventure. I needed to live out west and wanted a city with lots of opportunities in work and outdoor play- I am an avid fly fisherman and rock climber. Oh, and I’m fun, competitive, passionate, intelligent, and hard-working.

Professionally, after college I played professional hockey for three years until I retired and started a website with a buddy, Switchfly. It is a online social network that was my first real taste of entrepreneurial work. It was successful because I learned a great deal. I managed a co-worker, I wrote a business plan and submitted it to the YES contest (Yale Entrepreneurial Society contest), I promoted it with fly fishing videos on youtube, one of which has over 130,000 views, and I developed content to fit the popularity of certain pages.

It was also a success because I learned where it failed. It failed because it wasn’t the best at one thing- it didn’t have a niche. It had too many things that were just alright, and nothing that was great. It failed because I didn’t have a local following. It also lacked an identity. But all these failures were ultimately a success, because it didn’t cost me much money and I learned a ton about business. Oh, and it does break even, which isn’t too bad.

One another note:

One of the things I’ve noticed is that my blog does not show up as the top ranked website for “Brett Nowak”, which is probably because I never say my name, Brett Nowak, in my blog entries. Well, I’m going to change all that Mr. Brett Nowak, or as my birth certificate would say, James Brett Nowak – although no one ever calls me James Nowak.