
Moving On - thiele
http://al3x.net/2012/07/25/moving-on.html
======
jorgeortiz85
Alex is one of the most thoughtful students of programming languages I know. I
know he's spent time learning countless languages, he literally wrote the book
on Scala, and for three years now he's organized the Emerging Languages
conference (<http://emerginglangs.com/>). The conference features talks about
interesting programming languages, no matter how obscure, predominantly from
the creators and designers of those languages. So far as I know, it is the
only conference of its kind, and is a huge service to the programming language
ecosystem.

(As an aside, said ecosystem is going through something of a renaissance. The
quickly growing need for server-side software (where choice of tools need not
impact the end user), the increased availability of low-level infrastructure
such as the JVM and LLVM, and the ever-more-important challenges of concurrent
and distributed programming have all contributed to this renewed interest in
new programming languages.)

If Alex is going to spend his time working on things related to programming
languages and developer tools, then I, for one, can't wait.

~~~
pdog
Sorry, but Martin Odersky, Lex Spoon and Bill Venners wrote _the_ book on
Scala: _Programming in Scala: A Comprehensive Step-by-Step Guide, 2nd Edition_
[1]

[1] - [http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Scala-Comprehensive-
Step-S...](http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Scala-Comprehensive-Step-
Step/dp/0981531644/)

~~~
mattdeboard
Never let a sense of humor get in the way of a good opportunity for pedantry &
parochialism.

------
templaedhel
I'm sure Al3x will find success wherever he ends up. This is worrisome for
Simple though.

I signed up a little over 2 years ago as when Al3x announced he was joining as
a cofounder <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1355292>, it seemed like a
great product, and I couldn't wait.

Now, 2 years later they have begun to roll out invites to what amounts to a
MVP. No way to deposit cash, no simple way to deposit checks (specifically the
deposit via mobile app functionality), no goals or budgeting aspects, no joint
accounts or lines of credit, no android app, just a nice looking card tied to
an account you have to wire money into.

Don't get me wrong, simple is doing great things, and it could be huge. Two
years of dev time for a product that is completely redesigning one of the
biggest industries in the world is completely reasonable. I'm just worried the
hype will run out or turn negative before they can ship something with enough
value to convert the non early adapters. Having a cofounder leave doesn't help
their image, regardless of the reasons for the departure.

~~~
trevin
I think somebody read your post.

Just got my invite an hour or so ago...Simple has a big section on "what's in
the pipeline" for them.

• Android: click the link above and fill out your info through the "device"
step. We'll reinvite you as soon as it's ready! • Joint accounts: Sign up with
Simple now and add your partner when we're ready! • Mobile check deposit:
Coming soon–sign up now and you'll have it as soon as it's ready! • So much
more!

Interesting coincidence.

~~~
tvon
That was there a week or so ago when I accepted the beta invite.

------
pxlpshr
I worked for a similar company (affiliated banking) that was trying to put a
fresh perspective on personal banking. For hardcore technologist, I think the
finance industry is extremely frustrating industry to work in. The amount of
legislation (necessary or otherwise) seems to create an atmosphere of
bureaucracy; not to dissimilar from you local government office. It's like the
keepers of all-things-compliclated in finance, likes to keep it that way and
compounds the problem of progressing positive ideas and methodologies. On the
flip side, the amount of risk and fraud that faces these companies is
mindblowing. We've lost tens of thousands of dollars to fraud in the blink of
an eye. It's a tough world, and people don't get excited about "change"
because it brings uncertainty to an industry that needs to be pretty damn
certain. You can't make like Facebook, "ship fast and break things."

I have a ton of respect for what Simple is trying to accomplish. When I joined
a competitive service about 2 years ago, BankSimple was the benchmark for
comparing the "new guard" vs. the "old guard". Unfortunately, the old guard
progressed faster due to established relationship of 10+ years. But, what
really turned me away were falling market caps for major prepaid providers as
more and more big banks returned to their core product offering (personal
banking, not high risk investment banking) and explored alternative vehicles
like GPR cards.

In any event, Simple is something the consumer market needs and hat-tip to
Al3x.

------
turoczy
Having Alex move to Portland was something that really bolstered our startup
community. It was a validation of sorts. And I can't thank him enough for what
he did -- for Simple and so many other things -- while he was here.

------
olalonde
I hate to be that guy but why is this Hacker News-worthy? (genuinely curious)

~~~
nostrademons
Alex was an early Twitter employee, Twitter API lead at a time that many HN
readers were writing Twitter apps, and wrote Programming Scala. There're a
number of folks here that follow his writings with interest.

~~~
olalonde
Thanks for the info. I'm sure I wasn't the only one wondering despite the down
votes.

~~~
dredmorbius
It's a totally fair gripe. One thing HN's format is piss-poor at is providing
context for stories, other than the headline (and that's had its own set of
issues with rewrites).

------
rileywatkins
I've only been following Alex since he left Twitter, but [Bank]Simple always
struck me as exactly the kind of dream company I'd want to be at (never really
considered myself good enough to pursue it though).

Given his previous posts regarding how much he likes Portland compared to San
Francisco, I'm a little bit surprised to see him moving back to the Bay Area.
Regardless, I'm excited to see what he does next and I wish him the best of
luck.

~~~
wardmel
Why do you consider yourself not good enough to work there? I don't know you,
but I find that most developers that say that do just fine.

Oh yeah, we're hiring too: <https://cloudability.com/jobs/>

~~~
ShamirKarkal
I agree - quite a few of our current employees told me that they thought the
same before they were hired at Simple. You should check out our open jobs at
<https://www.simple.com/careers/>.

------
antidaily
He's pissed because he hasn't gotten an invite yet, either.

------
methodin
Are there misconceptions with what a CTO actually entails? I've not heard of a
CTO that does any physical programming with respect to their job. This might
be different in a small startup but my understanding of a CTO's role is to
guide architectural and development goals of the company as a whole - and to
hire great people to implement that vision. It sucks he would have to leave
but part of me wonders why he thought the CTO role involved a fair amount of
programming and why he wouldn't just move into a lead developer role as
opposed to leaving entirely?

~~~
esamek
This depends on the company and stage it is in.

At HelloWallet, our CTO does indeed do _some_ programming some of the time.
Since we are still somewhat a bootstrapped startup, everyone that has the
ability to help out does at some point. Is it the overwhelming amount of time?
Well, no, but still...

In regard to architectural and developmental goals, that job is the
responsibility of our Chief Architect...who also does a very substantial
amount of programming as well.

TLDR; Titles are not always one-to-one with roles.

------
jqueryin
So I've got to ask Alex.. is it coincidence that you decided to leave after 2
years when you were most likely fully vested or was it a strategic move? Did
you retain your shares :-P

~~~
pbiggar
Its unlikely he's fully vested. Its damn near standard to have 4 year vesting,
with month-by-month vesting after the first year.

------
mrbrianholland
At any point in your career, it is important to think about the future. It is
crucial to know where you want to be in the future and how to get there,
whether it is your career, family or both. Whether you leave a job by choice
or not by choice, your career is long and there are usually several paths to
get to where you want to be.

I have worked in investment banking and private equity for a number of years
and decided to make a switch to corporate development for a company (ie -
doing acquisitions for them), so that I could spend a bit more time creating
side projects such as <http://drivingtests101.com/>, a free driving test prep
website for 11 countries, with apps in 4 countries and rapidly expanding. I
was very fortunate for my driving test app in Canada to be #2 ranked
education, #19 in Australia and rapidly catching up in the US and UK.

Life is short. Do what you want to do as soon as you can so you can enjoy what
you do. It's that simple.

------
samstave
Couldn't he have taken on the lead role of R&D? Of an experimental dev arm
etc...

There are lots of opps he could have taken.

Sure, It might not have been a good role, but sounds like there were
relationship issues as well. I wouldn't imagine his cut and run solely on "I
cant program enough" -- He had to be either under performing or frustrated
with the others' lack of leadership/performance/flexibility/ability to
listen/you-name-it

There are too many reasons to leave a company, but who knows the truth....

Haven't looked at simple since we speculated over their biz model ~12 months
ago on HN... and frankly, as i still perceive them as a simple proxy to Big
Evil banks (TM) - I'll still never trust them....

Though that is not related to the story... I still have nothing to convince me
to think they are not just trying to find a way to cash in on the most
despicable industry in existence... banking.

~~~
georgespencer
> Couldn't he have taken on the lead role of R&D? Of an experimental dev arm
> etc...

A startup generally _is_ an experimental dev company. Startups execute their
roadmap. If they don't have focus, especially when they're tackling something
as big as banking, they die.

> There are lots of opps he could have taken.

Sure. But it's hard/impossible to move down the food chain once you've been at
the top.

> Sure, It might not have been a good role, but sounds like there were
> relationship issues as well.

I didn't get that from Alex's post. I got "not doing enough programming, wife
and I miss San Francisco"

> I wouldn't imagine his cut and run solely on "I cant program enough" -- He
> had to be either under performing or frustrated with the others' lack of
> leadership/performance/flexibility/ability to listen/you-name-it

You got all that from "personal reasons"? :)

~~~
munin
consider also that in the last month, their director of security also "moved
on": <http://www.linkedin.com/in/s7ephen?_mSplash=1>

~~~
tptacek
Stephen Ridley is a friend and a former teammate. He "moved on" from Matasano
as well, to BankSimple. He "moved on" from Simple to full-time security
research. Because he's a security researcher. Since he left Simple, he's been
doing research and teaching classes on ARM exploitation. Because that's what
he likes doing. How much opportunity do you think there was for developing ARM
exploitation classes at Simple?

This happens _all the time_ with very senior security roles at startups.
People take them because they fit a career arc, but then realize that the day-
to-day of those very senior roles just isn't as fun as research work. Since
security research work pays like f'ing crazy right now, people bounce out of
demanding corp roles pretty quickly: even in a very strong outcome at a
startup, you might not give up too much money opting for "funemployment".

(Alex and Stephen are also good friends, from long before Simple).

------
gmack
It's great that he decided not to jump immediately to another job. Unless you
are in a financially tight situation, you really need some time to decompress
your mind, and clear it of any company-dynamics residue.

------
vtry
I guess this means BankSimple is in trouble, or not growing as fast as
projected.

