Temporary lull in the visa storm

It was getting to be quite touch and go for a while whether I’d manage to make it back out to the US for Pat and Emilie’s wedding (on the weekend of the 22nd August) and Burning Man after it.

Luckily, just as I was about to abandon all hope, two things happened. Firstly, Beth – our neighbour at Burning Man last year – suggested I try to get a second passport as my original was basically “stolen” by the US embassy. I was impressed that the IPS is enlightened enough to allow frequent travelers to easily get a second passport for just this purpose – a lovely change from the glacial pace of other bureaucracies.

Secondly, I got a response from the US embassy about the fate of my original passport. Because the visas we’re going for are quite unusual, I’m relatively young and don’t have a Nobel Prize, they’re checking with the USCIS that they really did mean to approve my application. My lawyer says that in every case this has happened to his clients before, it’s been a simple confirmation from the US, and the embassy grant the visa with no drama. So, it’s good news that this situation has come up before, it’s good news that it’s always ended happily before and it’s good news that they’re not doing a time-consuming full review. It’s even better news that in the meantime they’ve couriered my passport straight back to me; I didn’t even need to get a second one in the end!

So, the plan is to fly back to San Francisco on Monday, across to Connecticut for the wedding, then back to San Francisco to get ready for our desert adventure at the end of August.

Snap decision

I was planning on heading up to north-west Costa Rica to do some kitesurfing and stuff, but there were a few niggles. Finding a hostel with wifi, close to the places I wanted to be was turning out to be a bit of a mission, so I decided to come up to Nicaragua immediately instead.

So I’m in Granada at the moment – the oldest city in Central America apparently – and it seems awesome so far. Colonial architecture, dirt cheap and in a really good spot to kitesurf on the lake, see some volcanoes and so on.

I’ve found a nice hostel, and the plan for tomorrow is to go and get a Lonely Planet and a book to learn Spanish.

Costa Rica!

So my visa waiver for the US runs out on the 5th November, meaning I had until Wednesday to leave the country or face dire consequences; orange jump suits and such.

I was originally planning to head back to the UK, see friends and family. However, after some ponderment, I decided it would make more sense for me to delay that trip until Christmas and head somewhere else temporarily. This place had to be in a similar time zone to California, easy to get to, have good internet access and preferably nice countryside and things to do. I was toying with Canada for a while (as our first hire is currently based there), Baja California in Mexico, as well as Belize and a couple of other Central American countries.

In the end, I’ve settled for Costa Rica because it’s pretty stable and developed for a Central American country – the only unarmed democracy in the world – plus there’s a huge range of natural deliciousness. It’s got reef, dry and wet rainforests, volcanos, beaches, lakes, mountains, … There’s rafting, kayaking, world-class surfing, kiteboarding and windsurfing, … And internet.

I flew down from San Francisco via Houston, arriving in the capital, San Jose, at about 4pm, cramming Spanish phrases all the way. The plan is to stay here for a couple of days then head somewhere a bit quieter and more rural.

Please Sir, can I have some more (funding)

Last week was presentations week, which all went off without a hitch I’m glad to say. Pat and Amir put most of the pitch together and did the talking, while I’ve been filing a couple of patents before we start bandying our ideas all around Silicon Valley.

The scariest moment of presentation week probably happened when I was driving us to the second demo day. I was in such deep focus, solving the world’s technerdery problems, that I turned the wrong way down a freeway ramp, into the oncoming traffic, which was fortunately not particularly oncoming at the time. Justin screamed like a big girl.

We’ve moved onto raising more funding now, which is going well so far – lots of meeting lined up with the Right People. The debate of taking less money from an Angel or taking more money from a Venture Capitalist remains open – there’s definite benefits of both approaches – but we’ll see which seems right when the time comes.

On the food front, we had our best steal so far from the Y Combinator catering surplus: after the second demo day we made off with five massive trays of deliciousness – salami, cheese, sandwiches, fruit, chicken, brownies and more. Henley the dog ate most of the chicken and now has a room-clearing wind problem.

I’m looking forward to coming back home! I’ve not decided exactly when I’m going to be where, but in general terms I’ll be on the south coast for 2 or 3 days at the start of April, then will be going across to Haverfordwest (golf capital of Pembrokeshire, so I hear) and Derbyshire to see the nieces. Then London and Cambridge for more meetings with investors and potentially some disco disco disco dancing. Then California for the summer!

PS: I know some of you will love this flashy mix tape tool: http://mixwit.com/. They’re fellow Y Combinatororors, and I love their stuff. Also, if anyone wants to get in on the ground floor of a very promising startup, let me know – a company we’re friends with are hiring.

I’ve arrived!

An eventful couple of days…

I started the New Year with a house full of stuff, rooms which needed cleaning and bags that needed packing. By 1:30am on the 2nd, I had an empty, clean house and bags full of clothes and tea. At 3:30am I got up to go to Heathrow, where I met Amir and his wife, Kirsty, as planned.

Queuing to check-in, we were told that the flight had been overbooked, and would we consider being bumped in return for $1000 flight vouchers. We had nothing planned to do in SF, so we took the deal, ending up on a flight 20 minutes later, with a free upgrade to business class. Breakfast was champagne and lunch was filet mignon.

The stopover in Chicago was pretty uneventful, but the red carpet lounge was nice, with a subsidised bar…

Pat came to pick us up at San Francisco International to make the 10 minute drive to his place in the Mission district. The house is great – really nice old style to it, and full of gorgeous aged oak furniture which Pat seems to find in dumpsters.

After having some tea and a bite to eat, and saying hello to Emilie (his girlfriend) and Henley (his dog, named after the regatta), we headed out to walk round the block and have a couple of drinks in Jay’n'Bee, the local bar.