OOO Indefinitely
Two years ago, I attended a seminar where we were encouraged to design the next phase of our careers. I had already decided that my next thing would be very different from what I’ve been doing in big tech - perhaps joining a startup/scaleup, a non-profit, a portfolio career or my own business. I did not have a clear idea going in, but I came away from that seminar with a vision written down. After that point, it really became about timing. Two years ago, the timing was not right, but I knew it would be in the foreseeable future.
After a few years at YouTube where I started and scaled several alternative monetization businesses, I signed up five years ago to help YouTube incubate an ambitious new business idea. We wanted to make YouTube a Shopping destination and for Creators to be at the center of it. Since then, I’ve been all in on building and scaling a team and technology to support our three-sided marketplace business (Creators, Viewers, Merchants). During the journey, our team expanded across three regions and I got involved in a lot of other Google things at the regional level. Suffice it to say, things have been intense and most of the rest of life has been pushed to the margins while I and my peers have been birthing this new creation. It’s been an incredibly rewarding journey where I’ve learned a ton about getting traction and scale and have had to stretch my business acumen as well as my technical chops. At this point, I can say confidently that it is a runaway success and will continue to flourish regardless of my presence. Now, I can put my vision into action.
I’ll be stepping away from the 9:9:6, >20% travel tech executive lifestyle into something much slower. My priority over the coming year will be family first, integration into Switzerland second, work third. I’m looking forward to continuing to spend time with Jaqueline and Angelica at Privilege Ventures - both to learn from them as well as offer my expertise. I plan to spend a second year learning, experimenting, and creating future work that will be personally meaningful, values aligned and well integrated with other parts of my life. It’s possible I will jump into something intense and ambitious again (likely in health, education or climate if I do!). But, I certainly won’t be bored. The real challenge will be to avoid doing too many things for the first year. I do plan to continue writing this Substack as well as building my YouTube channel. I have a long list of content to make for both. Expect a more regular schedule of videos in the near future.
Working in tech for the past ~30 years has been an incredible adventure - something I never imagined for myself. And, the fact that YouTube hired me, promoted me, and entrusted me with two ambitious roles was a privilege. I’ve been blessed with incredible managers, mentors and peers over the decades. The list of those to thank is very, very long. For now, I will thank Scott and Geoff for the life-changing opportunity to be an engineering leader at YouTube and to move to Switzerland and Venkat and Erica for encouraging me to take the leap. My global immersion has been everything I expected and more. And YouTube has been an exceptional place to learn at scale about many things.
The tech industry has changed a lot over the past three years and I imagine it will continue changing even more rapidly. I don’t expect stories like mine to play out in the same way in the future. I will, however, continue to share what I’ve learned along the way in the hopes it will be helpful for those of you reading and finding your way in tech. Tschüss until next week!