Blog Entry

December 9, 2011 will mark the ninth anniversary of Blue Oxen Associates, and it will also mark our last day of operation. I’m shutting down the company, and I’d like to explain why.

Chris Dent and I founded this company on two simple premises. First, the world needed to get better at collaboration. This was not a nice-to-have; it was a must-have. Our very survival rested on our collective ability to collaborate more effectively.

Second, the answers were already out there. We just needed to find them and start practicing and improving.

Nine years ago, I was 27 years old, full of ideas and hope, anxious to set our vision into motion, and very ignorant. We were in the throes of the dot-bust, and we had no reputation in this space.

What we had was faith. We had faith in ourselves and in our ideas. We knew that we could make a difference if given an opportunity, and we knew we would learn and improve as we went along.

Nine years later, we’re thriving. Bigger, harder, and more meaningful projects keep coming our way, resulting in growing levels of impact and record revenue.

So why end things now?

Starting Blue Oxen with Chris, bouncing ideas off of each other, and doing work together was an incredibly enriching, fun experience for me, and I really missed him when he left in 2003. Although I continued to work with great people, it never matched the intense experience of building something together with an equal partner.

That changed in 2009, when I met Kristin Cobble, as I explain in my personal blog. It was the first time since Chris had left that I felt so strongly aligned with someone who brought such complementary strengths to the table.

People often wonder what could have been if they only knew then what they know now. I had a chance to see for myself, to start an organization like Blue Oxen Associates all over again with another great partner, only with greater qualifications than I had nine years ago.

So this is more of a beginning than an end. I’m starting a new company with Kristin called Groupaya. The name is a combination of “group” and “upaya” (the Sanskrit word for “skillful means”), and it embodies our purpose, which is to bring skillful means to groups.

My friend and colleague, Jeff Shults, is constantly reminding me of the importance of clean beginnings and clean endings in collaboration. I want to honor the work that we accomplished at Blue Oxen Associates, and I also want to give that chapter a clean ending, so that I can start living a new chapter.

Kristin and I are still in the process of getting Groupaya off the ground, and in the spirit of openness and transparency, we are documenting the process as it unfolds on our blog. You can also follow our journey on Twitter and Facebook.

In the meantime, I’m experiencing mixed emotions as I bring this chapter to a close. I’m excited about starting something new with Kristin, about seeing what’s possible as we continue the pursuit of our mission to maximize the world’s collaborative intelligence. At the same time, I’m grieving.

Blue Oxen has been my baby, my life. It has completely transformed who I am on the inside and what I’ve been able to accomplish on the outside. I’ve worked with groups across multiple sectors and around the world. This work has taken me to nine countries across five continents. I’ve worked with business executives and social activists, rocket scientists and spies, billionaires and hackers. Most importantly, I’ve made many lifelong friends.

I cannot believe how lucky I am to be doing something I love and to have been supported by so many people. I cannot even begin to name all of the people who have helped me along the way for reasons I cannot even fathom. I am humbled by their faith and love, and I feel driven to pay it forward. I have a lot to share with others, and I have even more to learn.

Thank you to everybody who believed in us, who supported us, who worked with us, and who learned with us. You have my everlasting gratitude.

Onward to new adventures!

Categories: Stories