In honor of the 45th anniversary of the Brentwood-founded Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, we have invited Burt Lear to blog from his office which he sets up daily inside the [LOCATION REDACTED] CBTL. This will be his final such dispatch. –Ed.

September 23

Using oDesk now. Signed up with American Express card, solicited teams to flesh out idea for website to sell high quality tee shirts of quotes overheard at CBTL. 12hrs later, enjoying coffee at said Bean, open email client. No money down. Team from India sent comps for site including e-commerce back end with x-cart fully designed. Beautiful work. North of a grand. Fifteen day roll out to finish at $10 per hour. (Feel guilty about this…)

»continue reading Time To Go–Burt Lear Concludes Business at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

In honor of the 45th anniversary of the Brentwood-founded Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, we have invited Burt Lear to blog from his office which he sets up daily inside the [LOCATION REDACTED] CBTL. –Ed.

September 14

Depressed due to poor start-up showing at [LOCATION REDACTED] CBTL. Economic downturn affecting all areas of life. Accidentally pasted entire paragraph of data into email address window. What would happen if I hit send? Would the email reach some genie or a mailer daemon? Metaphor here, something about risk. Someone is waiting for this kind of accidental connection right here at the Bean. That person has to be me.

September 15

Business model still alive but sales have simply not happened yet. Writing a treatise, “Start-Up At The Bean Affected By Poor Economy”, including notes on the high price of gas and the necessity to buy gold. Drinking coffee now to save money on office rent. What am I not doing? Possibilities have to be in the store, in the Bean, in the ambiance, the people. Even in the Paul-Giamatti-as-John-Adams old man who complained about me. What is his problem!

»continue reading Start-Up At The Bean Affected By Poor Economy

In honor of the 45th anniversary of the Brentwood-founded Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, we have invited Burt Lear to blog from his office which he sets up daily inside the [LOCATION REDACTED] CBTL. –Ed.

August 29

Quit my job. (Faked my own death.) No one can know I’m self-employed until my business goes Fortune 500.

August 30

Finished reading The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. Immediately hired Indian personal assistant with PhD in Interface Design. Only $10 per hour. (NOTE: Ask assistant to type a list of things to do while I sleep.)

September 3

Bought a MacBook Pro from a man six years my junior. His wife is pregnant. (Ad on Craigslist stood out. He did not try to return messages. Met at his job in Torrance, nice, honest guy. He is Chucky Cheese Elephant.)

September 4

Drove to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in [LOCATION REDACTED] to test Airport Modem. Free WiFi is good value.

September 5

At CBTL. Beautiful women pour in like hot lattes. CBTL superior to Starbucks in this regard…? Marina Del Rey area…? Unfortunately, in-store music folky, hackneyed. Left during Buffalo Springfield song. Lyrics and chords irritating, made everything smell bad, world felt hopeless, overcrowded, etc. Forgot headphones. Make note to bring them tomorrow.

»continue reading Doing Business at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf