Seattle Startup Life

It’s been almost 2 months since I’ve left my post at crazy job Redfin and moved into my new digs at Conenza. The transition was an emotional and somewhat painful one; I felt like Zach graduating graduating from Bayside High. I was one of the early guys at Redfin and knew the company inside and out. I made it through 3 rounds of funding, 5 different offices (4 in Pioneer Square), an overhaul of multiple teams, several crazy real estate seasons and an endless amount of product/engineering challenges. The place was home.

So, many ask, why leave? Well, as with everything in life, all good things come to an end. It wasn’t an easy decision, but I felt that I contributed all I could to Redfin and needed a new challenge. I initially wanted to start another company, cashing in on the ideas I had stored in the back of my head for years. But the mortgage payments and bills put an end to that idea pretty quickly. The next best thing for me was to join a fledgling startup. During my two weeks of interviewing, I talked to so many smart people, it was scary. John Sangiovanni and his crew at Zumobi, Kevin Merritt and Matt Johnson running the uber-tight ship at Blist, Dan and Mike serving monster aces in mobile imaging business at Ontella, and so many more. In the end, I decided to take the job at Conenza. All in all, one of the hardest decisions of my life. And in the end, it wasn’t about the technology or the space or even the position, but what really felt right. It doesn’t hurt that the Conenza office is right across the street from Redfin’s as well.

Which leads me to the point behind my newly minted blog: I will probably never leave Pioneer Square. There are too many brains that bring me back here.