[This is Part 3 of a series on my bicycle ride down the East Coast with my wife Sarah] “It’s called dispersed camping.” Sarah and I just bumped into a long-distance bicycle rider—our first of the trip. Her name is Adela Wagner. Like us, she’s traveling south. Unlike us, she is camping every night. For … Continue reading Biking the Atlantic Coast – Part Three
Author: Mark McGuire
Biking the Atlantic Coast – Part Two
[This is Part 2 of a series on my bicycle ride down the East Coast with my wife Sarah] "It feels like there are alligators here," I think as I try to sneak out of the tent in the early morning darkness. Despite my best efforts, I’m super loud. Sarah rolls over and tries to … Continue reading Biking the Atlantic Coast – Part Two
Biking the Atlantic Coast – Part One
[This is Part 1 of a series on my bicycle ride down the East Coast with my wife Sarah] "What did you get me into?," Sarah says as my head hits the pillow. It's a cold Sunday night in Minneapolis. We are leaving at 5AM tomorrow morning for Virginia in our rented minivan and the … Continue reading Biking the Atlantic Coast – Part One
We’re Biking the Atlantic Coast
[This is the introduction to a four-part series on my bicycle trip down the Atlantic Coast with my wife Sarah] "What should we do this fall?," I asked Sarah recently. Our youngest had just left for college. I'm at a break in my career. I was itching to do something big and not squander this … Continue reading We’re Biking the Atlantic Coast
Empty Nest Adventures – Part One
In August, our youngest child Jimmy left for UW-Madison. After a quarter of a century of being full time parents with kids at home, my wife Sarah and I are now empty nesters. We have no fall sporting events to attend. The house is eerily quiet, the dishwasher takes three days for us to fill … Continue reading Empty Nest Adventures – Part One
Biking Home
It takes me around 5 hours to drive the 295 miles between our home in Minneapolis and our cottage outside of Watersmeet, Michigan. I’ve driven the route countless times. It’s a chore. The Drive For years I’ve thought about making the trip in a different way. In a way that would turn that chore into … Continue reading Biking Home
The Startup Maze
I recently gave a talk at UW-Madison. The presentation--part of WARF's Entrepreneurons Series--was about entrepreneurship generally, and more specifically, about what it's like to think up, launch and scale a start up. It's something I've done four times, and I really enjoy drawing lessons from the success and failure I've had along the way. Start-ups are … Continue reading The Startup Maze
Find the Experts-How to use Podcasts & Curated Lists to get Smarter/Faster/Better
In my last post announcing my EIR role at American Family Ventures, I mentioned how much I value working shoulder to shoulder with smart people. Today, I want to highlight another method to surround yourself with brilliant people that can teach you, inspire you and drive you, even if you don’t have the opportunity to … Continue reading Find the Experts-How to use Podcasts & Curated Lists to get Smarter/Faster/Better
Why I’m Working at an Insurance Company
I just finished a year off. As I mentioned here (Why I’m Taking a Sabbatical), I set out to have an adventure with my family and to better answer the question "what am I on this earth to do?" It was an incredible opportunity to step out of regular life and take a long, hard look … Continue reading Why I’m Working at an Insurance Company
What We Can Learn from Silicon Valley
I’ll admit it. As an entrepreneur working in Wisconsin, I’m jealous of Silicon Valley. Case in Point: A few weeks ago, a social planning app called Free (Ffrree.com) launched. It wasn’t much different than the dozens of other mobile apps that have tried (and failed) to solve the tricky problem of social planning. There is … Continue reading What We Can Learn from Silicon Valley