Like many of you, I watched the last season of The Bear. There’s an exchange in the opening scene of Episode 1 (“Soda”), between Tina and David. It goes:
Tina: You know, with all the things you can do for a living and all the people you can do it with, I... To get to do that something that you love with people that you love...
David: Yeah, you won the lottery.
Tina: Yeah. Yeah.
David: Hell of a run.
I've had a hell of a run too.
It started with an ad-hoc BoF session about Apache Solr at DrupalCon Szeged in 2008, which eventually led me to Alex McFadyen: friend, mentor, and the best human you could want in your corner. He brought me in at Demotix. We moved to Corbis when they acquired us, and when they divested the image licensing business we stayed with the small company they kept, called BENlabs. Then, as it grew, acquired other companies and tried new things, we were there.
It feels surreal to write this, but BENlabs closed its doors earlier this year, ending a 37-year run that started in 1989 when Bill Gates wanted to license art for digital picture frames.
I was luckier than most. I got to do what I love with people I love: Alex McFadyen, Adalberto Teixeira, Ameer AlSayyed, Ana Gonçalves, Maria Caroline Bueno, Jefferson Alexandre Silveira, Leandro Lugaresi, Pavol Odlevak and Peter Milan. I would join a team with any of them again in a heartbeat, but I don't think you get so lucky twice in your life.
The last two years were the hardest of my career, but also the most fun. We built a lot in a short time, and we got an industry that still runs on spreadsheets meaningfully closer to the 21st century, with data and AI where the sheets and manual work used to be. It's a shame we did not get a chance to bring all that work into the world. It was an honour to work alongside Erin Schmidt, Charlotte Sanchez, Rachel Econ, and the rest of the Product Placement team to get there.
So many people made this ride special, far too many to name here. If we worked together at Demotix, Corbis or BENlabs, you know who you are, I'm grateful, and I love all of you.
Hell of a run.