Rollercoaster
It's a rare moment of calm in my house.
The house is clean, and dinner is chopped, prepped and marinating in the fridge. My husband is asleep in the livingroom. My new baby is fed and changed and sleeping in his car seat on the table next to my laptop. My cats -- who have been in lockdown because they lunge at the baby whenever he cries-- are peacefully coiled at my feet. They are miraculously angst-free for the first time in weeks. And also for the first time in weeks, no one has called or emailed to ask me whether I'm staying at TechCrunch or to tell me whether I should stay or go. And in China, it's well into the weekend, so the endless flood of urgent emails about Disrupt Beijing has slowed too.
People really don't believe I'm taking time off with the baby. I get several emails a day that start out, "Congrats on the baby...." and continue with a story pitch. You guys aren't helping my work-a-holic tendencies.
It's probably no surprise that the last few weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster for me between work and home: The Crunchfund was announced on my baby's due date, and the day before he was born I was walking around the mall trying to induce labor, texting with Mike as decisions that would forever change TechCrunch were going down in real time.
I've made a point of not getting into the public debate of everything, and I don't plan to now either. Except to say the two biggest things I miss being on maternity leave are breaking stories with Mike and laughing in my office with Paul. It's sad-- for me-- that neither of those will resume when I go back to work in January. But I'm happy to see good news for each of them today: Paul is starting a new company and Mike has finally launched his new personal blog.
As for me, I really am taking the rest of the year off to bond with my baby. How could I ignore this face?
...There are a few caveats to that, of course. Disrupt Beijing is in a matter of weeks. It's something I spent two years convincing Mike and Heather TechCrunch should do, and I've spent the last six months begging, bartering and pleading to put together an amazing lineup of Western and Eastern entrepreneurs and VCs as speakers and judges. Even though I raced to get the agenda locked before the baby came, there's still a million details floating around. And, yes, I am going to China to emcee the conference in late October, despite one VC who bet me $100 I would throw it all away once the baby came.
I also have a single coming out on the Byliner imprint in the next month or so. I wrote it in my spare time during the last few months of my pregnancy. You know, when I wasn't working a full time job, flying between four continents to promote my last book, planning a conference in China and hiring an editorial team there, and growing a human being. The due date for the single was the same as my due date for the baby. I filed it the morning after, as early labor was already starting.
The single is an extended thought-piece about one of the more popular TechCrunch posts I've written since I've been on staff. The first person to guess which post I'm referring to will get a free copy once it comes out.
I'm excited to see how it does. I've written before about how bullish I am about what Byliner is doing for longform journalism. And since the baby has likely put off my writing a third book for another year or so, I'm hoping an imprint like Byliner will be a good way for me to scratch the constant itch to do projects longer and more in-depth than a blog allows.
(Note: Shortly after writing that paragraph, baby started crying, cats freaked, all hell broke loose...)
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An unforgettable portrait of the emerging world's entrepreneurial dynamos Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky is the story about that top 1% of people who do more to change their worlds through greed and ambition than politicians, NGOs and nonprofits ever can. This new breed of self-starter is taking local turmoil and turning it into opportunities, making millions, creating thousands of jobs and changing the face of modern entrepreneurship at the same time. To tell this story, Lacy spent forty weeks traveling through Asia, South America and Africa hunting down the most impressive up-and-comers the developed world has never heard of....yet.
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Sarah Lacy is an award-winning reporter who has covered high-growth entrepreneurship for more than fifteen years. She is the founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of PandoDaily.com, the site-of-record for the startup ecosystem. She lives in San Francisco.
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The piece is on higher education
Posted by: E Aboyeji | September 23, 2011 at 07:41 PM
Hi Sarah,
Congrats on all your achievements! TechCrunch changed my life about a year ago and your articles were, and are, always an amazing read. I can no longer live a day without reading the latest article or learning about new start ups. You, and your fellow writers at TechCrunch, have made a profound impact in my life, I have never been so excited about my years to come! I am now an aspiring entrepreneur in the web scene and live life everyday to the fullest. Hopefully one day you will be covering a story about me.
Thanks!
Posted by: Raj Vora | September 23, 2011 at 07:54 PM
@e aboyeji- not that one but really good guess!
Posted by: sarah lacy | September 23, 2011 at 08:22 PM
Is it about Nigerian startups? (if not that, then the blubble)
Posted by: Trevor G | September 23, 2011 at 08:49 PM
My unwritten stuff on Nigeria is bigger than a single I think... but nice guess. I'll definitely write something longer and more in depth about Nigeria at some point. But this is about Silicon Valley.
Blubble also a good guess, but I already feel like I've argued that one too many times in the last five years! ;)
Posted by: sarah lacy | September 23, 2011 at 09:00 PM
Lots of good guesses...but my 2 are:
Women in Tech
or
Reid Hoffman (and not Mark Zuckerberg) as a role model
I was just telling my wife how much I enjoy your writing, because controversial or not, you produce great, thoughtful content that makes me think.
Thank you.
And Congratulations on your baby - it is the best thing you will do in your life.
Posted by: Ryan | September 23, 2011 at 09:07 PM
thanks for the kind words! my baby is indeed the best thing i've ever done and he's only two weeks old!
wrong on both your guesses! ;)
Posted by: sarah lacy | September 23, 2011 at 09:14 PM
I thought for sure I had it... the one about entrepreneurs being the exception and not the rule?
(I'm really into getting free things that I would otherwise buy, for the record :)
Posted by: Trevor G | September 23, 2011 at 09:27 PM
nope ;)
surprised no one has guessed!
Posted by: sarah lacy | September 23, 2011 at 09:33 PM
The Silicon Valley douchebag!
Posted by: Ben | September 23, 2011 at 10:25 PM
The Brazil startup piece.
Posted by: John Lynn | September 23, 2011 at 11:09 PM
Is it an expansion of the post "The Chilling Story of Genius in a Land of Chronic Unemployment"?
*It has 60 comments at present.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/15/the-chilling-story-of-genius-in-a-land-of-chronic-unemployment/
Posted by: David Damore / @Admore | September 23, 2011 at 11:20 PM
Sarah,
Great that your taking time off, even though we all miss your writing content.
Is your single on the copycat companies?
Probably totally wrong, but that's my guess.
Posted by: Craig | September 24, 2011 at 02:49 AM
Your Byliner single is either about Byliner itself or patents.
Posted by: Evan Jacobs | September 24, 2011 at 07:46 AM
Las Vegas revitalization project?
Posted by: Trevor G | September 24, 2011 at 06:03 PM
Am I allowed to guess?
Posted by: Paul Carr | September 24, 2011 at 08:43 PM
if i'm allowed to guess what your new startup is, then yes ;)
Posted by: sarah lacy | September 25, 2011 at 12:38 PM
that's paul's obsession!
Posted by: sarah lacy | September 25, 2011 at 12:38 PM
nope!
Posted by: sarah lacy | September 25, 2011 at 12:39 PM
nope, but that's a good guess. that was a chapter in my last book.
Posted by: sarah lacy | September 25, 2011 at 12:39 PM
no, although I am going to do a bigger project around those themes in the future. i think the redesign wiped out a lot of retweets, comments and likes on past posts so it may not be obvious looking through archives. damn that redesign! ;)
Posted by: sarah lacy | September 25, 2011 at 12:40 PM
nope! wrote about brazil in my last book!
Posted by: sarah lacy | September 25, 2011 at 12:40 PM
ha! that's my upcoming sitcom ;)
Posted by: sarah lacy | September 25, 2011 at 12:41 PM
I've got it! It's a mixture of technology, insider SV politics, witticism, sarcasm, name-drop quotes and solid, fact based opinion. I can't be wrong! :)
Posted by: Trevor G | September 25, 2011 at 03:21 PM
Or, women in Silicon Valley.
Posted by: Trevor G | September 25, 2011 at 03:23 PM
If I guess correctly do I win anything?
Posted by: John Tayman | September 25, 2011 at 03:51 PM
you win the fun of writing me an advance check! ;)
Posted by: sarah lacy | September 26, 2011 at 03:19 PM
Congratulations for the new baby, he's wonderful!
Posted by: Dasi | September 26, 2011 at 09:08 PM
Paul's new start-up:
Wedding reporting--cashing in on the wedding obsessed nation and writing personalized tributes, like a wedding photographer (it makes me laugh to think of Paul interviewing wedding guests)
Sarah's article:
Yeah, I've got to go with patents. Did you already nix that?
Posted by: Lucas Rayala | September 27, 2011 at 07:41 PM
it's not patents! although you nailed paul's startup... :)
Posted by: sarah lacy | September 27, 2011 at 08:20 PM
Okay, then I'm stumped, as you've stated it has to be Silicon Valley related. Related question--I love your work on entrepreneurs outside the US-have you thought of hitting the middle ground--inside the US but outside the Valley?
Posted by: Lucas Rayala | September 28, 2011 at 09:28 AM
Because it written in final days of your gestation,
Its about the future scene of valley when your kid grows up.
Posted by: Global unknown | September 29, 2011 at 01:00 AM
Congrats again. The baby is beautiful, and I know you'll dazzle in Beijing.
Posted by: Sharon Sim-Krause | September 29, 2011 at 10:07 AM