The other day, I got a call from Brad (our business partner from Invizage and long-term friend). He wanted to discuss the possibility of working on some projects together. (By the way, I should explain that after our trip to Europe and the US, Paul decided that he will return to Everest in April-May 2007. In 2006 he unfortunately had to turn around just 100 metres short of the summit due to a failure of his oxygen equipment. For the full story, click here.)

Anyway, since selling Invizage, Brad has been working on some speech technology products under the name of EasySpeak. One product, EasyMessages enables businesses to produce a very low-cost on-hold message for small businesses. The other product, EasyConfirm, provides automated appointment confirmations for health professionals or any business where "no shows" are costly.

Brad and I met and discussed the pros and cons of joining forces and working on both EasySpeak and the recommendations website together. I was concerned about the potential for diluting focus and I had not really considered partnering with anyone before this discussion. But then as the business plan has been developing, it's becoming evident that there's a lot more to do than I had originally envisioned. Also, while I know that a high proportion of partnerships end in tears, I've already worked with Brad for many years (him being Paul's business partner at Invizage), and so know that we can trust each other and work well together. Hmmm... what to do?

We've had several more conversations since that first one, discussing what our respective roles would be, how an agreement could be structured given that Brad had already spent a year developing EasySpeak (but still has very few clients), and various other concerns. I didn't take this decision lightly as the last business arrangement lasted almost 10 years. I spoke with Paul extensively about it, as well as few other business-savvy friends, as I tried to decide whether this was the right thing for me and the website recommendations idea.

In the end, I decided that it would be a good idea to partner with Brad. Mainly the reasons were; complimentary skill-sets, the history of a successful partnership at Invizage, the fact that two heads are always smarter than one, and Brad's shared passion for the potential of the recommendations website.

So as of this week, it's no longer just me working on this thing, but Brad as well - welcome Brad!