In 1990, a group of Apple's most legendary engineers spun off to create a company called General Magic. They had one goal: build a pocket-sized computer that could connect anyone, anywhere.

Co-founded by Marc Porat, Andy Hertzfeld, and Bill Atkinson - veterans of the original Macintosh team - the company developed precursors to USB, software modems, touchscreens, multimedia email, networked games, and e-commerce.

The tech industry had a standard playbook: wait for the infrastructure to mature, ship products the market is ready for, and don't bet the company on vision alone.

General Magic ignored it.

The Vision

In 1993, General Magic announced its intentions to build an anytime, anywhere communications device. They envisioned touchscreen interfaces, mobile applications, and networked services when mobile phones were still bulky devices with small screens and large buttons.

But while General Magic was making incredible technology, it wasn't making a product that would solve real people's problems. 

By the time their devices hit the market, the internet had rendered obsolete the need for a $900 handheld device with limited speed and a closed communication network.

The "Failure"

From 1990 to mid-1996, General Magic lost more than $74 million. The company eventually shut down operations in 2002.

By every traditional metric, General Magic failed. The products didn't sell, the company folded, and investors lost money.

But here's what happened to the team:

Pierre Omidyar went on to found eBay. Kevin Lynch became CTO of Adobe, then joined Apple where he developed the Apple Watch. Steve Perlman founded WebTV, sold to Microsoft for $425 million. Megan Smith became the first female Chief Technology Officer of the United States.

Tony Fadell and Andy Rubin sat 20 feet apart at General Magic. They are directly responsible for creating 99.9 percent of the world's smartphones: the iPod, iPhone, and Android.

The Real Legacy

After General Magic's failure, Tony Fadell knew the key to success was getting a product to market fast and iterating. Apple sold 400 million iPods. 

Fadell himself said: "Failure is not the end, it's the beginning.”

The timing was wrong; General Magic was 15 years too early. But persistence made the difference between those who didn't succeed and those who did. 

As founders, we ask ourselves: what if we're building something the market isn't ready for?

The General Magic story suggests a different question: are you building something so important that even if you fail, the lessons will change the world?

General Magic is considered by many to be one of the most influential innovation startups in the history of technology - the story of the original creators of the smartphone, who, after a great failure, changed the lives of billions.

They didn't get to see their vision realized. But every person who learned at General Magic carried those lessons forward. 

Knowing what doesn’t work is the foundation on which every breakthrough is built.

Since the acquisition of OFFOR Health last month, I’ve gotten questions on what went right and what went wrong.

Where do I start? Plenty went wrong. Running out of money. HR. Recruiting. Revenue. Sales.

One thing we never let go of: medical oversight. Ensuring the kids were taken care of.

Sometimes it felt like two different companies. One was doing cases, taking care of children. The other was back at headquarters, figuring out how to keep the lights on.

There is something beautiful about keeping the clinical mission alive. Even amidst chaos.

Keeping the patient at the center is at the heart of what we do at LOUD Ventures. 

Our team celebrated OFFOR and 2 other exits this past quarter.

We celebrated being stronger, more resilient, and more determined than ever.

The venture capital industry labels us as emerging managers, but I say we are the next generation managers who have done more together than most do in their careers.

Cheers to the ones who are doubted, the overlooked, the underdogs, the ones who can’t stop… because the purpose is bigger than the doubt.

A group of my friends and their families got in a tragic accident while traveling in a foreign country.

They had to rely on their healthcare network, the US embassy, local resources, and their community back home.

Some lessons our community is learning and discussing:

1. When traveling, know your access to local hospitals and resources. (The CDC website is a great place to start.)

2. Healthcare teams save lives - physicians, nurses, medics, pharmacists, physical therapists, psychologists, and many more - GROSSLY UNDERVALUED IN TODAY’S MEDIA

3. The investment in friends and family can’t be overstated.

4. Love comes in so many forms that show up in gifts of hugs, holding, coordinating, transporting, crying with, and providing peace of mind.

5. Children are stronger than we think - we want to care for them but maybe they are caring and showing us how to BE.

6. Love and health and gratitude are what money can’t buy, AI can’t replace, and are a definition of happiness and success that we don’t often give enough weight to.

Peace and love to you all.

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls.” - Kahlil Gibran