This decision is exquisitely bittersweet, though. It’s difficult to even begin to describe how spectacular my time at Rapleaf has been. I found it telling that when I tried to sit down and write a summary of my experience for my resume, it seemed impossible to summarize all that I had learned and done. This is still totally insufficient, but I’ll boil it down to this: I was given the opportunity to make many amazing software systems; I was allowed to grow into a member of the broader engineering and open source community; I learned the meaning of scale; I got to be a real owner of the business’s direction and purpose; and I played a role in building a world-class team.

It is this last point in particular, the team, that puts the tears in my eyes. I have never before had the opportunity to work with so many brilliant, hard-working, interesting, and just generally nice people, and I am humbled and honored to have been counted among their number. My greatest worry – one which I consider not wholly irrational – is that the team I’m leaving behind is in fact of the rarest kind, and I’ll spend the rest of my career hoping to rebuild something as great.

To everyone I have worked with over these last five years, thank you for everything you have taught me. You are what has – and will continue to – make Rapleaf great. 

Let’s do this again some time.