> 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
No. He got that from thin air. Unfortunately for HN, most of the time, when people leave companies after 2 years, it's for boring reasons. So just making shit up helps enliven things.
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).
Comments
> 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"? :)
No. He got that from thin air. Unfortunately for HN, most of the time, when people leave companies after 2 years, it's for boring reasons. So just making shit up helps enliven things.
consider also that in the last month, their director of security also "moved on": http://www.linkedin.com/in/s7ephen?_mSplash=1
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).