A Super-Tool for Entrepreneurs That’s So Simple It’s Stupid

How I used a text editor to start building products, features and even entire companies.

About 10 years ago, I founded a company off of a sketch on the back of a napkin. Well, the 21st century equivalent of a sketch on the back of a napkin: a text editor.

In truth, the concept for ExitEvent, a web-based information and support resource for startups, had been germinating in my head for a couple years. In fact, I already had the product well defined. I had most of the codebase together. I had even secured the URL and a few social properties.

What I didn’t have was the launcher — the magic, interconnected, unique “thing” between product, customer and technology — that would evolve my idea from a nice-to-have web-based directory to a full-blown entrepreneurial revolution.

In one night, all of it would come together thanks to a text editor on my phone.

When Opportunity Knocks, It Doesn’t Wait For You to Fire Up Trello

I like to say that ExitEvent started with a joke. At a pre-event dinner for a startup conference, I joked with a friend that my social life had been relegated to attending startup events and that I should…