Staying Strong
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Part of being an engineer (especially in San Francisco) is getting recruiter emails. Most of the time, they are awful.
Recently, I received an email from the CEO of a company that I'm a big fan of. He wanted me to join his company. After interviewing and thinking about it a lot, I accepted the offer. The whole time I kept thinking that I could keep working on Cheddar on the side and if it took off, I could quit and work on it full time. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that that was more exciting than working at this really cool company.
After much deliberation, I told them I had changed my mind and was going to continue working on stuff at Nothing Magical (my stuff) full time. They were disappointed, but respected the decision. This was a super hard decision, but I think it's the right thing.
Lots of my friends and people I respect enforced that this. Working on my own products is the most fulfilling thing I've ever had the privilege to do. Hopefully Cheddar does great and I can continue to keep doing this. Thank you everyone for your encouragement along the way. I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate it.
Update 06/22/2013: I no longer own Cheddar. More info.