Goodbye Microsoft
After 6+ years, 4 jobs, and 1 cross-country move, today was my final day at Microsoft. Honestly, I never thought it’d be this long. Joining a large, established company wasn’t something I’d ever considered prior to April, 2005. But after being a part of a number of really small, early stage companies for 11 years, I landed in Redmond following the Groove Networks acquisition, eager to try something new.
When I joined Groove in early 2000, the largest company I’d previously been a part of was ~15 people. It felt a bit weird to go to work for a company that would ultimately grow to 200+ people! At the time (early 2000), I was certain that “within a few years” I would get back to starting from scratch; to working on an ambitious idea with a very small team; to trying to build a business from nothing.
I was even more certain of that claim upon entering Microsoft in 2005. But Microsoft proved to be a more interesting place, with more opportunity to learn and contribute, than I’d assumed it could be, … and so a few years became over 6. It’s far from perfect (like any other place), but I was fortunate to work with some amazing people, and there is much that is great and promising in the work going on around the company. While I probably should have made this move a while ago, the fact that I didn’t is only evidence that there is awesome stuff to work on in Redmond (hey, I got to work on the Xbox for the past 2 years!), and that the company was fair to me throughout. I’m thankful for that.
Now finally, “within a few years” has come.
Call me crazy, but I’ve been so looking forward to the insanity of doing a startup again; the energy, the opportunity and optimism, the chaos and uncertainty and sometimes fright, the responsibility.
I’m still working through many details of what “it” is that I’m going to do. But there’s no shortage of opportunity out there for product ideas (and execution) that help people have more fun and be more productive in how they live, work and play. Exciting times! As my plans become concrete, I will definitely share more here.
In the meantime, I’m going to start firing this blog up. I hope to share the experiences I start having in this next phase, particularly the experiences of a team trying to employ lean startup principles and tools. I hope to connect with lots of folks out there who have done, or are doing, interesting early stage stuff. It’s been a while since I’ve blogged (2001-2002) and the only thing that remains from those early days is an occasional reference to what I wrote, and ultimately dead links (bummer I didn’t quite get the value of ensuring of persistence back then), so please bear with me as I start to experiment and try to find a cadence and approach that will work well, for me and for whatever small audience I can engage.
Onward!
