But unfortunately somebody's got to do it...

If you live in an old old house, and don't tend to it for the best part of 8-months - then you've got some catching up to do when you finally do get round to it.  So since today has been my first "day off" in a long long time, I thought it was really time to tackle those blocked up gutters, overgrown trees and that garden pond we now seem to have following a ruptured mains supply pipe in the garden over the winter.

Now cleaning gutters after 8-months of neglect is not particularly the most pleasant of jobs - let me tell you "it stinks..!"  So while I got stuck in, it reminded me of our times across at Babson.  Searching for genuine customer needs driven by a specific pain point.  Living in old houses surrounded by mature trees, I've definitely found a need and since the smell is pretty bad -  a pain point too.  But does it represent an entrepreneurial opportunity..?

Actually it does.  You see while I was networking with the entrepreneurs and VCs out in Boston, there was a well known company called iRobot.  And guess what..?  They make robots for the home market specifically for this particular need.  You drop it in, switch on the remote control and before you know it - all that gunk and leaf litter is being blown out, leaving wonderfully clean gutters behind.  So being a bit entrepreneurial I gave them a call - asked if they sold any in Scotland/Europe and since they don't - then offered to connect to some home market distributers here in the UK.

OK so it might not achieve my big hairy goal of creating another Scottish $1billion dollar company, but it's certainly a start. And all down to the power of networking by helping each other out....

(now if I could just do the same for that burst pipe - anyone know a good plumber in the area?)