saying goodbye to betaworks
Just over three years ago I started working at betaworks in a role that began as ‘hacker at large’ and morphed into something much broader. When I started, betaworks plus all the studio companies fit comfortably into a small conference room. Today we number almost 200 people.
I’m really proud of what we’ve built and that I played a significant role. Some of the highlights for me have ranged from doing cross-country zero downtime data center migrations at bitly while continuing to serve millions of requests, building a makerbot and a tardis, teaching coffee classes and watching chartbeat grow from 2 people to over 30 while building out an infrastructure that can support over 8 million concurrents.
The most recent highlight was the crazy crazy sprint that was rebuilding digg.com from scratch in six weeks. It was incredibly intense, exhausting, and rewarding - one of the most fun yet brutal experiences I’ve had (I was bloodied but not beaten). It was everything I look for from my work and I’m super proud of our efforts.
I’ve helped design and build infrastructures that have served, separately,
200,000 requests per second, 250 million+ visits per day, and supported millions of simultaneous users for products that are trusted by millions of people.
Best for me, however, is that I got to do what I love - scaling infrastructure and teams, working with talented people on hard problems, finding and creating new companies, and being a conduit for sharing learning and experience across our companies.
I was not alone in these efforts and worked with the best colleagues I’ve ever had at chartbeat, digg, bitly, swirl, and findings, among others. Working together was a pleasure and I benefitted enormously from their expertise and experience. What I learned from my co-workers was by far the most valuable part of my time there.
Betaworks has a bright future and exciting things are in the works, but the time is right for me to take a new path. Thank you to John and Andy for the opportunity to work on some of the best and most challenging projects of my career. I’m thankful to have been part of betaworks and I’m excited for what’s next.
Say hi or get back in touch, I’d love to hear from you.
alex.lines@gmail.com
