Moving on…

Friday last week was officially my last day as an employee at Voltage. The company has been doing great, both in terms of the organization as well as market traction. However after working there for 6 years it felt like it was the right time to move on. Since we founded it in 2002, Voltage has developed from being an early stage technology venture, to a stable, self-sufficient leader in enterprise software. And this means I can move on to do something new.

Building a company is primarily about finding the right people and building the organization. Conversely, the in my count most common cause of death for an early stage start-up is dysfunctional team. At Voltage, we started with a founding team that shared a common vision and terrific investors that were an incredible help whenever we needed them (picture of the early days on the right). On these foundations we together built the great organization that Voltage is today. I am grateful for having had the opportunity to work with everyone in the company, from the executive team, to the board to each and every employee. In retrospect there are only few hires that I would not make again. Going forward I am confident we have the team in place that has what it takes to guide Voltage into the future.

Along with Voltage, Identity-Based Encryption (and more generally Pairing Based Cryptography) has come a long way. From an algorithm hardly known outside the research community, it has become a widely used technology that is becoming a standard. This week, NIST is holding a Workshop on Pairing Based Crypto.

The thing I will miss most is probably my product group. Building a new product from scratch in a short period of time, and getting it right on the first try is an amazing accomplishment.

I am not quite ready to post what I will do next, but watch this space for an update in the next few days.