Author's Note
July 1, 2014
I just published the below letter on www.medium.com, which is probably one of the coolest publishing platforms out there. The letter explains why I published it on Medium and not on Launchora.
Actually I never state that I wouldn't write this on Launchora, which is obviously why I'm publishing it here as well. Because why wouldn't I?
Here's the interesting thing - I am pretty sure no one is actually going to read this on Medium. Not because Medium isn't popular, but because I'm not popular. I hope you find this as funny as I do.
As you will read below, I really prefer writing on Launchora. Sure, it's because Launchora is my home. But also because this is where I started writing. This is where I belong.
Spoiler Alert: This seriously is a spoiler, but not to this story. This is a spoiler for "Lakshya, Part One", my self-biography that you may have heard about. While that story is still being written and won't be out until September, I would like to inform you that what you are reading right now is in fact a chapter in "Lakshya, Part One" (Chapter 53, so far).
Yes, I wrote on Medium so I could write on Launchora so I could write about it in my book.
Enjoy.
Here's a link to the Medium post (even though it's written below, but just to prove that I actually did it):
https://medium.com/@lakshdatta/write-on-launchora-will-you-6fd0fcc82756
WRITE ON LAUNCHORA, WILL YOU?
It's no Medium, but...
Hello. Let me start off by saying that just by writing on this platform (i.e. Medium) I should feel like I am cheating on my own platform (i.e. Launchora).
But I don’t. I enjoy writing on Medium, even though I’ve never published on Medium. The enjoyment is because of how awesome Medium’s publishing tools are. The never-published-here-before thing is because —
a) I never felt like I had anything worth saying/publishing
b) I found publishing on Medium to be too intimidating
Both reasons are due to my personality, and I’ll be the first one to admit that I’m probably not Medium’s target ‘creator’.
Wait, I’ve just started talking about my personality; so before I continue to pour my heart and soul here, I should introduce myself.
Hi. My name is Lakshya Datta, and here’s my story in under 160 characters:
Founder/CEO (LAUNCHORA), ex-professor (SDSU), ex-analyst (OCP&TGG), ex-graduate (UCSD), ex-infant (MOM&DAD). I write about myself & other fictional characters.
That’s the bio I use for my Page at Launchora, so I’ll let it represent me here as well.
Speaking of Launchora (a word I’ve used 5 times now) — I should introduce it as well. Launchora is an online publishing platform where anyone can create, publish, explore, and read stories. It took me almost two years to get Launchora from idea to reality. I’m not going to get into why it took so much time, but let’s just say that there is a longer story in there that I’m saving to tell on my own platform.
I’m not kidding — I am in fact writing a long-form story about that time period (and more) titled Lakshya, Part One (of One planned installments). Here’s a shameless plug—
Lakshya, Part One is the story of how I, on my 23rd birthday, gave myself the near-impossible goal of becoming a millionaire by my 25th birthday. Oh and every chapter is written without knowing what the next chapter of the story (and my life, concurrently) will be about. To be published exclusively on Launchora on September 20th, 2014! Did I mention that my 25th birthday is September 19th, 2014?
There is a reason why I’m publishing this today, i.e., July 1, 2014 (Happy Birthday, Dad!) — Today is the day I formally unveil www.launchora.com to people who don’t already know me. Today isn’t the launch, not in the traditional startupy sense anyway. That word has a completely different meaning than the one I use on Launchora.
I came up with the word ‘Launchora’ by combining Launch with Pandora. The implied meaning here is that when you ‘Launch’ a story on Launchora, you’re opening up the unknown — what happens thereafter will be an experience unique to each one of you. So, with that made-up meaning of a made-up word, I hope everyday is a new Launch for Launchora.
I’m publishing this current piece on Medium partly because I don’t want to be perceived as a Medium clone or competitor or wannabe. Every time I have spoken with someone about Launchora — who has heard of Medium as well — the first question I get is a variation of “Is that like Medium?”
I don’t want my company to go into the black-hole that is Silicon Valley’s obsession with hollywood’s keyword-based pitches:
This movie is The Hangover…with women.
This startup is Uber for…boats.
Launchora is Medium for…nope.
The truth is I can’t compete with Medium because Medium is already the best at what it does. I didn’t come up with the idea behind Launchora by listing out what existing publishing companies were doing wrong. Launchora started with one question: if I were to come up with a new way to publish, what would it be?
My aim with Launchora is to build a good future, not a better present. And yes, I believe there is a difference — the future lasts longer than the present. Think about that for a second.
While you think about that, a side-note: My name (Lakshya) means ‘aim’, so I’ve always felt an innate need to have one. Thanks mom & dad! No pressure at all.
Another truth is that I didn’t start Launchora to compete with anyone. I just want to create something good. I wouldn’t even dream of aiming to change or revolutionize publishing. All I really hope to do with Launchora is to present another option to some, and a new way to everyone else.
To people out there in this giant world who already know they are writers — write on Launchora, will you? You can write anything you want and publish it for free or paid. Try it; it’s just another option with some new ingredients.
To the rest of the people in this giant world who don’t yet know that there is a writer in them — I’m one of you. And while I don’t have an ‘elevator pitch’ for you, I will share what is perhaps the one true lesson I’ve learned in my 24 years: everyone has a story. It could come from our mind or from our past — we just need to start writing to find out. Write on Launchora, will you?
There is a terrifying saying that the internet follows a 90-9-1 rule. 90% people are content consumers. 9% are content curators. 1% are content creators. But we can’t all be one thing, right? Sure, for the sake of marketing we all need to be put into demographical data and such, but what about when we’re not being marketed to — are we allowed to be everything we want to be then? Shouldn’t we be the ones deciding what we want to call ourselves?
If that 90-9-1 saying is true and stays to be true, then I’ve probably screwed up my future. So what if my goal with Launchora is to give everyone the ability to become content creators? Statistics don’t lie. The past tells a story. But isn’t the past also a story — a story written backwards? Perhaps what we consider facts are just patterns found through randomness?
Then, isn’t it worth trying to build a future despite what the past has shown us?
I should apologize for this letter— I’m probably projecting my quarter-life crisis onto what was supposed to be a professional letter to readers and writers like you. Maybe I was right in believing that Medium is too intimidating for me to publish on. I have this sudden urge to either end this letter asap and publish it or delete it.
I would never have apologized if I was writing on Launchora. Maybe that is because Launchora doesn’t have a past yet, so there isn’t a story I have to live up to. There is no set standard. There is no data. There is only a blank page.
I’m definitely being partial here, but on Launchora I can be anything I want to be. That’s the feeling I hope you get if you ever visit my site. Maybe you’ll Launch something you didn’t expect. Maybe you’ll be the one to write something no one expected. And then, perhaps, the future will malfunction and let us all be anything we want to be.
So— and you must have seen this one coming —