I have been absent for some time, but life and activities continue.

Since it's been a while I wrote and updated you on anything, let me take this opportunity to share with you what's been happening.

I'll be short and sweet so as not to take too much of your time, so here are the bullet points:

1. I am now living in California and it's been nearly two years. I reside in the Bay Area in beautiful  Benicia. While it's great to be back in the US, I do miss Moldova, my home for nearly 4 years.

2. An attempt to acquire the shipping company Concorde Worlwide Movers in Haiti earlier this year failed. So, we are now in the process of registering a competing company to begin offering packing, customs clearance, and other shipping services.

3. The 11th Department was the organizer for the first Entrepreneurship World Cup Haiti pitch competition, which ended last week. Haiti was one of 175 countries that participated. Our startup winner, Saint Apollonia Dental Clinic, out of 40 startups that submitted applications, has moved on to compete for a spot at the final in Saudi Arabia. You can read the news here.

4. In partnership with Eddy Lahens, we attempted to launch LakayPiBon.com to help fight "LaViChe". Due to a number of challenges, we did not succeed as planned.

5. Again this year, I was the only "Haitian" that attended the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC), whcih is held each year in a different country. This year it was in Bahrain. I'll write about it soon. Next year in April, the GEC will be held in Saudi Arabia. That should be an interesting experience. Any takers who would like to join me? If so, please send me a message here.

5. My cofounder and I have been accepted at Y Combinator's Startup School. The program is 10 weeks long and gives us the opportunity to expand our business knowledge, network with more than 25,000 startups, and access to business intelligence that will help Haitian entrepreneurs. We'll be sharing more in the upcoming months.

6. Timl is the startup we've been working on for the past several years--it started in Moldova and we are near ready to launch it here in the Bay Area. I will look forward to you joining us on our platform for professional event goers. If you plan events, then it offers something for you too.

7. The most important thing I've been spending time working on is upgrading and optimizing our platform. In the coming weeks, we'll be upgrading the 11thdepartment.com and other sites that are currently using our technology to power their websites. This includes nonprofits, creatives, and small businesses.

Well, that's all I have for now. Check out the special offer I have in this week's newsletter for those of you wanting to build your own community, to start a blog, to use better technology to run your organization and have a powerful online presence.

Contact me to discuss your project.