Friday was my last day at CivicPlus. It was a difficult decision that I’ve wrestled with for the past few months. Ultimately, I decided it was time to close a chapter and make some space for new opportunities.
Startups can feel like a marathon - but I believe they’re actually a relay race. Growth tends to require people to become more specialized and the problems you hit with a couple hundred customers are very different from the challenges with thousands of customers. Each leg of the race means bringing in a new set of skills. You step into the race picking up where other people left off and at the end of your segment, you hand off to the next group of runners. I’m thrilled to be passing the baton to the next set of talented individuals who are going to move our mission through the next stage.
Last August I spent some time reflecting on the last 10 years of growing ArchiveSocial. I am deeply proud of what we have built. More than that, I’m so impressed with the people who have been part of each leg of that journey. Over the years we brought in so many talented people who have inspired me to learn and grow in ways I didn’t expect when I started.
Some time to reset
I took the weekend to reset a bit, it’s hard to see what’s forward when you’re still looking behind. One of my wife’s high school friends who is in a band called Edition Redux was on a short tour that brought her to Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro. If improvisational tuba doesn’t reset you I don’t know what could.
We spent the rest of the weekend in western North Carolina at Beech mountain with some close friends. We lucked out with more snow than we were expecting and got a couple of ski days. Skiing is a great escape, it’s very hard to keep work thoughts in your head as you barrel down a hill navigating moguls. Sometimes you just need to step away from a desk and into the mountains.
What’s next?
A few people have asked what I’m planning to do next. I honestly don’t know, and I’ve gotten increasingly excited about this unknown leg of discovery. The last time I switched jobs, I left IBM on Friday and started work at a startup on Monday. This time, I believe I need to get some separation before I figure out what I’m committing to next.
I plan on continuing to use this blog to work through my thoughts. As I told a friend recently, blogging is just very public therapy. I might post some pictures from trips or share some side projects I plan on working on. I also revamped my personal website (clarkdudek.com) to make it super easy to get in touch or grab coffee. Like always, I’m looking forward to feedback on this next stage of growth.
In between, I’m excited to get plugged back into the Raleigh/Durham startup and tech communities. An impressive ecosystem has built up over the past 10-20 years to support founders, and I am attracted to that energy and ambition. Events like Raleigh Durham Startup Week (April 9-12) and All Things Open along with our network of colleges pull together a bunch of bright people working on new things. This is a critical and exciting time in technology, the best we can do is work through the problems together!
