It is hard to believe that I have been with Voltron Data for over a year now! It was a tough decision for me when choosing what to do next last year and I was filled with hope and fear along with questioning whether I wanted to leave science behind. One year on it completely feels like it was the right move for me. It has not been without challenges, but the right kind of challenges that push me to grow.
This year we had a small fire at the beach on Independence Day while taking in the fireworks, soaking in the Long Island vibes. The image really speaks to me as a metaphor for life at a startup and why I love it so much. I work on challenging problems with a really skilled team on something that is (in my humble opinion) groundbreaking. There are little things like joining early enough to get an email address that is just my first name, but bigger things like getting equity in the company I am a part of.
In some ways being at a startup is full circle for me as I did an internship at a startup during my undergraduate degree and really enjoyed it. I have at times struggled to figure out what it is I am most passionate about, but the last few years have really shown me that a lot of that is working on hard problems with great people as a team. Being at a place where I can have real impact is gratifying, but also working on big problems that I felt before I got here when dealing with big data challenge in computational chemistry, tomography, materials science and at a synchrotron primed me for this role.
Peers and Being Selfish
I posted about joining Voltron Data last year, and one of the posts I referenced was from an old open source friend about free software and paychecks. That post helped me clarify some of my thinking when I was considering my next move, and a LinkedIn post talking only doing things that “sparked personal joy” resonated for me it was being more deliberate about doing what I am most passionate about. At times my ties to open source and science make me reticent to move away and a lot of my identity is tied up with projects I care a great deal about like Avogadro and Tomviz.
I have always been rubbish at phoning it in and need a role where I can really engage. There are times when I have questioned whether that is a realistic goal but during my year at Voltron Data I have been able to do that. More than that I am in a role that pushes me to learn more and come up with solutions to challenging problems that often don’t have a well explored path. This has really enabled me to thrive while still offering a balance where I have time to spend with my family, on hobbies and hanging out with friends.
Risk and Reward
The other side that worried me but it felt like the right time for me was balancing risk with reward where startups tend to push both! The unique mixture of real open source coupled with a proprietary product really resonated with me and still does. Working on honest to goodness, liberally licensed open source without any dual licensing, or the “fauxpen” licenses taken up by some is really how I want to see open source thrive in the commercial sector. I think it is a solid path and one I really believe in that is transparent.
In terms of my own background there was a lot of overlap there but also some risk in areas I had not worked in as deeply. These are areas that I had a lot of interest in but often not the time due to leading other efforts, and it has been great to take a deeper dive. I haven’t given a single public presentation or conference talk since joining which certainly feels weird but there is also a lot of personal growth and learning new skills.
Wrapping Up
All in all I often take work anniversaries as opportunities to reflect. I joined a startup over a year ago, got to be here as we came out of stealth to announce our product, and was promoted to lead build engineering earlier this year. I work with some great people and have really extended my personal and professional network. This couldn’t be more different to previous roles in a lot of ways, but so far I have been enjoying it. In case it is not obvious these are my personal opinions, and I recently exercised some options for the first time in my life and so have a financial stake in Voltron Data.
Enjoying the work and the team and I hope that the journey continues along this trajectory.