“What’s next?” seems to be the question everyone is asking me these days. I’ve been working on VDIO with Justin, Sander and several other awesome folks since mid-2010. However, the time has come to move on. Why? Well, unfortunately, like much of the VDIO project, the story is hidden behind a cloud of confidentiality agreements. And that’s about all I can say about that.
I left Hong Kong and JadeTower, my own consultancy/startup, for the VDIO opportunity and I have to say, it was a fantastically fun run. I had the pleasure to work with close friends and create new ones. I traveled regularly, worked on interesting (and sometimes maddeningly frustrating) technology, and can honestly say I always enjoyed going into the office. That it had an ocean view didn’t hurt.
Leaving that behind is hard. This week marks my last with the company. Luckily the road ahead is open. I already have a few offers for new positions here in LA. Due to personal reasons, I will be staying in Los Angeles for the next several years. I hope to continue to travel, but relocation is not in the cards.
I’ve also decided I will not start up my own company again. There’s a lot of temptation to do so, to just try my hand at a kickstarter project or three, but no, the time isn’t right.
So I’m back to updating the résumé. I’m considering three classes of opportunties right now. First would be to seek some stability with a large tech or entertainment firm. After two startups not quite working out as planned, I could use a breather. Though on the other hand, the tech startup scene here on the westside of LA is booming. The second set of positions I’m considering would be at the executive or senior engineering level of an emerging company. I want to leverage my MBA and startup background a bit more. While I still love to code, if that’s all I’m doing 9-5 then I’m probably not contributing as much as I can. And finally, I miss Hong Kong. I miss China. I would love to find an opportunity that would allow me to stay in LA, but somehow involve work with Greater China, perhaps through travel or just by speaking my rusty Mandarin.
Of course, if you happen to know of any such opportunities, feel free to reach out. I also know of some other, fantastic former-VDIO engineers looking for work, so even if it’s not something I might pick up, I can refer some top talent. I’m hoping that with some of the upcoming free time I have before I dive into whatever is next, I’ll update the blog a bit more and perhaps finally start committing some code to some open source projects again. Wishful thinking, I know.