Graduating Redbeacon University
Leaving one amazing startup for another
Last week I gave Redbeacon notice that I was leaving after 2 1/2 years of pure amazingness. I’m sad to be leaving, but excited to be going to the fast-growing Datanyze, a company I’ve been lucky enough to contribute to as we’ve exploded. Redbeacon was more valuable to me than college, and in a lot of ways I feel like someone who just graduated and landed one-hell-of-a-gig.
It’s funny how you seem to get almost as much out of your last two weeks at a company as you did the entire time before — the reflection that happens and the conversations that take place are both full of clarity and raw truth. It is a time of simultaneous reminiscence of the past and eagerness for the future, a thin but deep line between two major parts of your life.
Here’s the email I wrote to the company about leaving and some of the responses I received:
Team-
I started as a Wizard at Redbeacon in May 2011 with little else besides a lot of experience on the phones and a little too much confidence. I didn't have a degree, I didn't have much experience in tech, and I didn't think analytically.
Next Thursday will be my last day at Redbeacon, and although I am incredibly sad to leave a group of people I refer to as family, I am extremely proud to know that the me that is leaving is a completely different person than the me that joined 2 1/2 years ago.
I became intimately close to our users, crushed both sales and support, and discovered what it took to build a loyal community around an amazing product. I learned how to pull data, analyze it (even accurately, sometimes), and report it to the team. I excelled at Excel, dominated SQL (maybe not according to Billy), and learned enough Python and Django to build my own web app.
Leaving Redbeacon was one of the hardest decisions I've made, but knowing that I'll be using everything I've learned here to continue my growth allows me some solace. I dropped out of college (Medium post about this undoubtedly coming soon), but working alongside all of you has provided a better education that I could have ever received anywhere; working at Redbeacon was THE most important part of my career and will remain as one of the most important times in my life.
I promise not to be a stranger, to stay in touch, and to recommend Redbeacon to anyone that is interested in taking their game to the next level.
Redbeacon will always be family. A million thanks to all of you for such an amazing ride.
With love,
Jon Hearty
