TL;DR: Today was my last day at Sift Science. It’s been a heck of a ride, and I’ll miss the team dearly.

I joined Sift two and a half years ago, when it was a small team of mostly engineers in a small office just above Market and New Montgomery. A really talented, really humble and really hungry bunch, looking for a data-vis oriented designer to go along for the journey.

I barely knew anything about machine learning. I knew nothing about online fraud. I had never done b2b design before. I didn’t even think I was done living in New York. Yet, it was an interesting and compelling enough risk that I had to sign on. There are lots of writing on start-up experience – the grind, the up and downs, and fiendish puzzles – but reading about it is nothing like experiencing it.

That’s not to say there wasn’t grinds and ups and downs and puzzles. There were plenty. Accidentally great designs? Check. Blotched launches? Check. Hard won product insights? Yup. Design culture drip campaigns? I like to think I won some of those. I even somehow got a whole component past code review and merged.

The much stronger impressions though will be the team. Credit to Jason, Fred, and Liz – Sift Science has built a team of kind, humble and collaborative people. Folks respected and worked on the level of ideas, not personalities. Teams respect one another across functions, and reached across for feedback and support. It was that way when I joined with 11 people in the office. It is that way when I left today with 40+ folks. It’s hard not to be friends with people here – and I know for sure that many of my friendships here will endure.

So Sifties. Thank you. I leave with distinct notes of pride and pre-nostalgia. Sift Science is a good place. We did good work here, thwarted a bunch of fraudsters, helped build a good close knit team. There’s just so many lessons and memories and friendships I am privileged to take with me. I can’t thank you enough.

I’ll come visit often. I promise. Until then, take care, and keep it up.