It’s not goodbye, it’s see ya later
For the last 2.5 years, Topline Pro has been the thing I couldn’t wait to jump out of bed to work on. The thing I dreamed about, woke up in the middle of the night excited about, complained about, screamed about, laughed about, argued about.
I was obsessed.
I’ve always been ambitious but until I started at Topline Pro, my ambition was theoretical. Abstract. I knew I had it in me but was unsure of what it looked like to *live* ambitiously - what ambition *felt like* in practice. Spending my days and nights around the people at Topline Pro crystallized for me what it means to throw yourself unstoppably into something that matters.
As I told Lydia (our designer) during my final week:
“I think my favorite part of the job has been when I do something 85% well and you call me out for not quite meeting the spec and then I go figure out how to do the thing all the way. You’ve pushed me to get more out of myself than I knew was possible. You’ve pushed me not merely to be good but to be great.”
As I close this chapter and move onto the next, I can say with certainty: I’ve never had such a guiding purpose. I don’t know why, but I never saw Topline Pro as a “stepping stone” to something greater. My goal was never to be a “senior engineer.” I simply wanted to build something important, send it into the world, make a dent, help fix an industry in dire need.
What enormous fun it is to work on something that truly matters, and to do so around people who care. In my last week -- amid tears and long chats and reflections on the last 2.5 yrs -- many people told me: this isn't goodbye, it's see ya later. I hope that’s right, because the people at Topline Pro are among the best friends I’ve ever known.
Nick + Shannon -- thank you for believing in me, and for the opportunity to help shape this extraordinary company. I’ll be watching from afar.
During our final chat, Nick suggested I write down a few of my favorite moments. Here are 8 I won't forget:
- Initial days at the WeWork in Cambridge, just me and Shannon in that tiny 75 sq. ft. room. I was so nervous before my first day: How am I going to sit next to the co-founder of Topline Pro all day? What are we going to talk about?! Little did I know, we would sit side-by-side almost every day for 2.5 years, our desks neighbors in every office we occupied except for one.
- Coding on the highway during the ride to a friend's wedding. There I was in the passenger seat, laptop open, building our payments feature, with my girlfriend at the wheel. Every 30 minutes, I'd give her a demo of my progress. It was supposed to be my day off, but I'd promised Nick I could build the feature in under 4 weeks. There was no way I was going to let him down, even if it meant coding on the highway.
- Retreat in NYC. Singing “Save a horse, ride a cowboy” at our karaoke event, not fully understanding the meaning of the song. Later that night, staying up till 2 a.m. passionately debating the future of the business.
- Retreat in Vermont - my first time skiing. Was dragged onto the blue slopes by the more experienced skiers at the company... I fell close to 20 times, nearly tearing my ACL! But had a grand time.
- Retreat in Wisconsin, late night conversations in the hot tub, looking around and being blown away by how this thing that used to be 2 people had grown to 40.
- Building BOOM BOT and his siblings.
- Doing cold calls when visiting the sales team in New York. Making a sale in Kentucky.
- Receiving handwritten notes during my final week. Realizing that on top of everything I built, perhaps my most meaningful contribution to Topline Pro was the impact I had on our culture.