I'll never forget when Ken and I pitched the EastBaySocial model to a bunch of Venture Capitalists back in 2006. I don't think I've quite had my butt kicked like that before. Here were some of the memorable comments:

"Sorry, the idea is too small" - Garage Ventures
"I don't get it. I just don't get it" - Some guy I don't remember his name
"This is a million dollar idea. We want $50 million." - Granite Ventures

I was amazed they thought the idea was too small. I mean, heck, small businesses drive the American economy. I think what they didn't like (and still don't like) was the concept of starting small.

After we realized we would be receiving no money from VC's, Ken and I decided to go it alone. We got a small office in Alameda, rented some servers, and began the venture. We didn't think much of it at the time, but Ken and I had started a small business.

Today as I meet with small business owners & professionals about EastBaySocial, I like to think we're able to associate with the challenges they deal with every day. Cash flow, getting the word out, and wondering if anyone will actually like this thing we are creating. When I return to the office to meet with Ken (our technical mastermind), we don't ever discuss how to grow EastBaySocial faster and bigger (to make the VC's happy). We talk about what is working, what people like and how we can tweak the site (to make our members happy).

Focusing on the small is something philosophers and scholars have taught us for centuries. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to sell any religion here. But I do believe the best companies in the world started small and never thought about $50 million in revenue as a measuring stick for anything. Much like the business members of EastBaySocial, Wal-Mart (photo), Starbucks (photo) and Virgin (photo), to name a few, all had humble beginnings.

Unless you are Michael Phelps, doing things too fast is a misstep that can be extremely difficult to recover from. While I didn't realize it then, I feel lucky Ken took his time in building EastBaySocial. Today, we don't have anything to untangle. The site works, and if something breaks, it is easy to fix. Focusing in on the small things has been a key contributor to EastBaySocial's growth.

In one of my favorite business books, Good to Great, they talk about something called the flywheel effect. The author asks you to imagine a giant and heavy flywheel. You begin pushing on the wheel and slowly it inches forward. With each small push the flywheel gains a little more speed. At some point, Breakthrough! - the flywheel is moving so fast that you couldn't stop it if you wanted to.

I like to think every small business and professional has their own flywheel. Was It is the first, fifth, or hundredth push that made your wheel hit breakthrough? Or was it the "small", "little", even "tiny" pushes you made each day? There is no arguing the flywheel feels heavier in the beginning. Yet it seems in most anything we do, it is the consistent application of small efficient acts that allows the bigger picture to unfold.

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