Ten years did not fit into a phone call.
I had tried to tell the short version of my Shutterstock story. Even the short version had too much in it. There were great people, a lot of work, plenty of success, and some heartbreak along the way. I was glad I got to tell part of it, but the call could only hold so much.
Afterward, I sent a thank-you note and tried to explain what the conversation had clarified for me.
I still loved the problems that came with building a company early. The team was not finished. The systems were not settled. Growth kept changing what the job required. Those conditions could be hard, but they were also the part I wanted.
It was tougher for me to picture joining a fully developed company and engineering organization that I had not founded or helped build from near the beginning. Mature companies had large, important problems. I was being honest about the work that gave me energy.
The challenges of fast growth were difficult to reproduce ten years into a company's life. By then, much of the shape already existed. The problems might be large and important, but they were different from the ones that appear while a team and product are still becoming themselves.
I was still curious. I wanted to hear how other engineering organizations worked, and I was happy to share anything useful from the path I had already taken. I could do that without pretending every role fit.
The full history would take longer. The answer about what I wanted next was short: another chance to build the early thing.