I had started looking seriously at new roles.
That was different from taking an interesting call. I had done some of that already, including a surprisingly good conversation with Vimeo. This time I was starting a process.
Reonomy had become hard in a way that felt bigger than a bad week. I was trying to decide whether to go to war and salvage the situation or throw in the towel. I wrote a friend that I thought it might be time to do something more rewarding.
The blunt language was useful. It forced the decision out of my head.
I told another friend that I had a company conversation the next day and several more coming over the next few weeks. He knew about a couple of roles elsewhere and asked for my resume.
I did not have one ready.
“I will put a resume together,” I wrote.
That was about as official as the search got that morning.
The next conversation was with Aaptiv, a young fitness company looking for a technology leader. I met the founder and sent him some old documents and templates from teams I had built. They were a better picture of how I worked than a list of titles.
A few days later, he asked if I wanted to continue talking about the CTO role. I said yes. The company sounded like it had a great story in the making, and I wanted to understand the vision.
Nothing had changed at Reonomy yet. I was still doing the job, building the team, and carrying the problems that had made me tired in the first place.
The difference was that I had stopped pretending the only choice was to stay and fight harder. I put a resume on the list and opened another door.