Marel found a box of stuff that included a few items from the wayback machine including the cover sheet to the first product requirements document I ever prepared in my first gig as a product manager.  If you follow this blog and worked at IntelligentDigital/Idapta, your signature may be on this PRD cover sheet dated 9/21/99.  The goal was to get the entire exec team to buy into what we were building and in what time frame by signing the cover document.

This was my first start-up experience and I learned some harsh but valuable lessons.  It was during the last boom/bubble so sound business principles were not at the forefront of decision making.  The company re-branded as "Idapta" after a very expensive and useless branding project – at least the number syllables in the name was reduced.

The experience was formative and I am blessed to have met my wife there as well as made many great friends.  I believe that everyone needs one of these experiences to truly "get" what it takes to start, grow, and run a new venture.  For those really interested in nostalgia, here’s the last version of the website (hosted by talented designer and alum Jamie Martin) after we repositoined to attack the enteprise market.