Farewell and Hello

🎙️ clears throat

Is this thing on?

After over five years at Bleacher Report working on sports media technology, it’s time for another adventure. But first, please indulge me in looking back. I’ve worked with so many incredible people at B/R. They’ve helped me grow as an engineer, as a leader, and as a person.

There are far too many to name, but I’d like to shout out a few:

• Chris Pederick: you’ve been an incredible manager, mentor, and friend. I’m grateful for all the time you’ve spent with me over the years and for all the advice, Apple talk, and gifs.
• Tory Briggs: having now spent almost seven years working together, it’s more weird for me to not be working with you than the other way around. Thanks for inviting me to interview at B/R and for everything else along the way.
• Chris Nguyen: sometimes it felt like a :heart: reaction from you on a bug fix or feature enhancement was worth more than gold. Your words of encouragement and belief in me means more than I can express.
• Dave Marks: you are an amazing mentor and friend, and an example of the enthusiasm, candor, and joy I strive to bring to the table every day. Our one on ones, office chats, and baseball discussions are some of my favorite memories from our time together.
• Noah Chestnut: partnering with you on the iOS app at B/R will forever be one of the highlights of my career. Thank you for being a fellow human first, and a product manager second in every interaction we had.
• Manny Delgado: working alongside you on the architecture of the B/R mobile apps has been amazing. I’ve loved every second of discussing how to keep the platforms in sync while embracing their differences. I look forward to our continued friendship talking baseball, Destiny, and everything else.
• Jonathan Taliaferro: as one of the first people I interviewed with, my first “functional lead” counterpart, and an incredibly gracious and knowledgeable sports fan, you’ve had a huge positive impact on my time at B/R. Thank you for your genuine kindness and friendship. Can’t wait to go to a Pats/Chiefs game with you in KC.

Again, there are too many people to list, but most of folks I’ve worked with at B/R have been kind, genuine, and good at what they do. If we worked together at Bleacher Report and you’re reading this, thank you!

Helping lead the B/R app’s evolution from a sports news aggregator to a fully-fledged social sports platform has been a fun set of challenges to tackle over the last several years, and I look forward to seeing how the team continues to innovate on the foundation we built. I will forever look back on my time at B/R with fondness. Being able to combine my passion for sports and love of technology while working with spectacular people was an incredible opportunity.

So… what’s next for me?

I’ve accepted a job at Apple.

For me, working for Apple is a bucket list item. I’ve dreamt of working there ever since I bought my first iPod, and that desire only grew over the years as I bought my first Mac, iPhone, and eventually made a career out of writing iPhone apps. But even more than it being a lifelong dream, throughout the interview process I’ve been impressed by the intelligence, kindness, and care shown by my future colleagues. I’m incredibly excited to be a part of the Apple story and look forward to starting this chapter of my career.