brandon.arbini

My grandpa's favorite movie was Napoleon Dynamite. That's right, Napoleon Dynamite. He was 83 years old. He had a Napoleon Dynamite action figure that he kept in the packaging like a collector's item. What a kook!

The next two days are two of the most important days of my professional life. We have been working feverishly for the last few months building our product and will be pitching it to hundreds of the top investors in the world. I'm still awake and thinking about the events of the last few years and how I ended up in this place.

It's no secret that I have a pretty intense entrepreneurial drive. I think that a lot of that drive was both inherited from and encouraged by my grandpa. My grandpa used to own and operate a small print shop. I still remember seeing the old letterpress in the garage of their house. I may even still have some of the letterhead he made for me when I was a kid. Eventually, Kinko's put them out of business. Years later, after retiring, he started refinishing antiques. He ended up purchasing an antique shop, selling his antiques and renting out space in the shop to other sellers.

As a kid, I wanted to have a lemonade stand like everyone else. Things started small, just a table and some Kool-Aid in front of my grandparents' house. But first, let me back up and set the stage a little better. My grandparents lived across the street from an elementary school. I went to a different school, and I was out for the summer over a month before the kids at that elementary school. And I would spend the summers at my grandparents' house, so the opportunity was golden.

As I said, things started out small, but they just kept escalating...I had ideas! First, I probably found a few extra things to sell from my grandparents' kitchen. Next, I convinced someone to take me to Costco to buy some more things to sell. The stand was getting more and more popular and I remember having my grandpa mixing up Kool-Aid in the house and brining out new batches as fast as he could make them. I was selling all kinds of things now: Blow Pops, ring pops, Jolly Ranchers, candy bars, etc. The ring pops were a big hit.

My dad worked next to an Icee Company warehouse and was able to procure some very interesting plastic souvenir cups. I, of course, ended up with three different sized drinks: small, medium, and large w/ souvenir cup. This was quite the operation now and may people would have said that it was just too much. But my grandpa was there encouraging me, helping out, teaching me how to make business decisions, and fostering my entrepreneurial spirit.

What happened to my little general store? One of the parents was not very happy that their child was being sold candy after school without their knowledge. Instead of simply telling their child not to buy the candy, they did the next most logical thing and threatened to report me to the authorities for selling food without a permit, thus ending my short career.

Now, many years later I'm still at it. My grandpa was so excited for me to be here and working on new and exciting things, and I know that he's proud of me.

Our company was accepted into a program called Y Combinator (YC) late last year. Joining YC meant moving back to California for a few months at the beginning of this year. About the time we made it to California we learned that my grandpa had heart failure. The news at first was scary, but we learned that it's quite possible to live with heart failure for a long time. We have actually known quite a few people that lived 10+ years with heart failure. How I wish that was the case!

Regardless, one of the reasons I was really excited about being back in California was the opportunity to visit with my grandparents every week. For the last 3 months we have been going out to visit them every Sunday. I'm so glad that my kids were able to spend that time with them. Tanner is 4.5 years old and will likely have memories of my grandpa. Addie is 2 years old, but will have many pictures to look back on. A few weeks ago I recall commenting to Jill that I was really happy to be visiting my grandparents because our time here could be the last time we'd see them.

I am so thankful that God orchestrated events in such a way that we were given this time with my grandparents.

Last sunday my grandpa passed away. It was the hardest day of my life. He was a great man with a big heart and I really miss him.

My parents, like most, needed two incomes as we were growing up. But, my grandparents were able to retire when I was young and we spent much of our childhood with them. We'd go to their house every day after school and spend every day during the summer with them. My grandparents were like 2nd parents to us.

Over the years we have remained close. I'd call my grandparents weekly to check in with them and to update them on our lives. My grandpa was always so interested in what I was doing at work and would cut out newspaper articles about related things. He'd always watch the weather for where I was and give me the updates too.

There's a lot that I can say about my grandpa, so I decided that I'd start writing down my memories of him on this blog. I hope that by writing them down it will help me process what has happened, but also give me a place to talk about what a great man he was and honor his memory.