The End of Our Life After Cubes?
by Jason -- December 23, 2011
We quit our jobs, sold all of our stuff and left the states in October of 2009. We traveled through Asia and visited 10 different countries. Next, we headed back to the states for a couple months and got married. Most recently we’ve lived in South Korea for a year teaching English (Sharon) and launching an online business (me). The next phase of our life has finally been decided — Sharon and I are officially moving back to San Francisco. We’ve booked our 1-way tickets back home – February 17th ICN-YVR-SFO.
Sharon’s 1-year teaching contract is up February 15th. We always knew she wasn’t going to sign on for another year. We had considered staying another year with her at a different teaching job. I also applied for incubator programs with Unanchor in San Francisco, Chile and New York — all of which have not worked out. Ultimately it’s time for us to return home.
Our plan when we return is to look for jobs. Having found a passion for startups and entrepreneurship, I’d like to continue working with startups or join one.
Sharon is considering going back to school and getting her teaching credential as well as applying for the “Teach for America” program.
What does this mean for Unanchor?
Unanchor has not taken off like we had hoped. However, there are a lot of positive signs, so we’re not going to give up. Like many entrepreneurs, Unanchor will become my “nights and weekend” project. We’re going to continue improving it and hopefully one day it can become my full-time job again.
Finding a Job
I was thinking about it the other day and I realized I hadn’t looked for a job since I graduated college in 2005. A lot of things have changed since then. Any advice? 
Twist Seoul 2
As an aside, I co-organized and hosted the “This Week in Startups” Seoul meetup episode last Saturday. It was another successful event. We had over 125 people in attendance and 5 amazing companies pitched live on the show. Check out who won and what Jason Calacanis had to say about the Korean startup companies –
Be awesome and help us share:
aaarrrghhhh
i feel sorry for your leaving Seoul
but it seems good for you to start new life in the states
I’ll be missing you guys
you know the problem of Unanchor.com? Unanchor.com. the name. it is just a bad name to begin with.
also, website design looks very amateur. like college freshman homework.
I’m just telling it like it is. good luck. enjoyed your blog.
Sorry you have to put UnAnchor aside. If you want to, drop me an email with what you will be looking for, maybe someone in my network can help.
Hey Jason, great post. Getting a job at a startup sounds like a good idea to learn some more, make more money for a bit, etc (this is what I am doing). And then launch your next startup when you’re ready!
On the job hunting front, feel free to ping me if you want to try Airbnb, we are hiring lots of engineers. Mostly I see people getting jobs through referrals. And it’s more about your portfolio of work than your resume (doing a startup is not considered a bad thing).
Best of luck!
Brian
Daebaek — Thanks very much, we’re definitely going to miss Seoul!
Mitch - Thanks for the comment and the honest feedback, I appreciate that.
Vivian - I’m still going to continue to work on Unanchor, I really think we’re on to something there. And thank you, I need to start figuring out exactly what I want to do — I’ll drop you an email.
Brian - Thanks for the comment, I really appreciate the support. I had actually thought about you as a great example of someone who works at a startup but is also able to continue to work on their own projects. And I’ll certainly ping you, thanks again!
Hi Jason,
I really enjoy your updates. I feel so plugged into your life. I’m excited about you being back in SF!
Is your co-founder going to move to SF with you? Would be great if he did. If both of you were in the same office - you both could make amazing progress on your company.
Rishi
I am so excited to have you both back home! If you can do great things abroad, you can certainly do FANTASTIC things back home! See you soon!
Rishi — Thanks for the comment, I’m pretty excited to be moving back too. And my cofounder isn’t moving to SF yet. He’s thinking of moving towards the end of the year. So for now I’m going to look for a job and keep Unanchor going as my nights and weekend project.
Caitlin — Thanks! Looking forward to hanging out with you and Jer again!
Hi, I just came across your blog - it’s good, i like it.
I’d like to say good luck and be ready. I did something like you, i quitted my job late 2009 and went travelling with my girflriend now wife. We travelled round the world for 1 year, we didn’t want work experience since we both had lived and worked abroad before. It was a pleasure and soul searching trip.
We had to “come back to reality” and find some jobs again. Unfortunately I have to say since we moved back home our life has been a mess. “the trip” - as we call it - changed our lives. Now a job doesn’t seem the right thing for us. We had few entrepreneurial ideas that we didn’t follow through for different reasons. Now I wish I had.
I have a very good job now - i’ve always found it really easy to get good jobs. Im sure you will find something soon too. But i feel unfulfilled.
I guess i share this with a stranger like you as a way to get it out of my chest as well as an act of good faith, hoping it helps someone not to do the same mistakes.
I do not know what the right thing to do is, but i would say “follow your guts and your dreams”. Be ready, it will take some time to adjust, it is taking us 1 year, and we are still strugling… we loved living a life of travels.
Good luck!
PS: i havent had time to read all your blog, you may have thought of this, but have you tried to convert Unanchord in an iPod/Android app?
Hi Antonio — Thanks for the comment and for sharing your thoughts on life after travels, I really appreciate it. Our stories definitely sound similar. I hope the transition will be easy, and I’m trying to mentally prepare for it. We’ll just have to see when I’m settled back down.
Also, thanks for the advice on Unanchor. We are in fact putting the finishing touches on our first app right now and I hope it will be out in the next couple of weeks.