Scratching the Seven Year Itch

March 26, 2007 · 62 Comments

I joined Macromedia on July 17th, 2000 so I've been at the company nearly seven years now. I've seen a lot of changes in that time and a lot of product releases. Most everything was at release 4 or 5 back then and now most Macromedia / Adobe products are 4 or 5 releases further down the line. ColdFusion has grown dramatically over that time, from the final C++-based release - the first Macromedia-branded release - in CF5 to the much-anticipated Scorpio "8" release this year. Flash has grown up from a "Skip Intro" animation toy to a serious virtual machine platform for building heavy duty applications. Web Services have become "the norm". New products such as Flex and Apollo and Spry have appeared, bringing Rich Internet Application goodness to "the masses". Time flies on the Internet. On April 5th, I leave Adobe for new ventures and new challenges. I will be taking on a new role as CTO of a local startup, Scazu Inc., which will be offering interesting new ways of interacting within the sphere of the health and wellness industry (ColdFusion-powered, of course). I will also be available for consulting work, two to three days a week - something that my full-time job at Macromedia / Adobe kept me too busy to entertain. Macromedia (and Adobe) has been very good to me - I've made a lot of friends over the years and I love the technology. Now it is time to depart the mothership and scratch that seven year itch. I hope to be even more active in the community than in the past, evangelizing the technologies that keep us all in business and - now my time is more flexible - helping others be successful with those technologies.

View count: 1475

Tags: coldfusion · personal · scazu

62 responses so far ↓

1 Jared Rypka-Hauer // Mar 26, 2007 at 10:28 PM

w00t! Congrats and good luck!
2 Peter J. Farrell // Mar 26, 2007 at 10:50 PM

Let me first to say congrats and welcome to a different world (again) ;-)
3 Nathan Drury // Mar 26, 2007 at 10:56 PM

Thanks for all your efforts over the years Sean. Everyone in the community has benefited from your work at the coal face, in the trenches and behind the scenes with ColdFusion and Fusebox. I don't think there has been a better proponent of ColdFusion and Fusebox. I wish you all the best in your new endeavours.
4 Mark Mandel // Mar 26, 2007 at 11:10 PM

Wow, 7 years! a long time!
Congrats on the move :D
5 Michael Sharman // Mar 26, 2007 at 11:35 PM

Best of luck Sean, your contributions to the community have been astounding...and that with you being busy at Macromedia/Adobe!

Now with more time on your hands who knows what we'll see :)
6 Jen Larkin // Mar 27, 2007 at 12:17 AM

More Sean time = Yay! Good luck with the new job. I hope it works out for you. :D
7 Mark Drew // Mar 27, 2007 at 12:28 AM

Wow, Well done Sean, I know it will go well for you, finally you are free to share more of that goodness locked in your head!

MD
8 Cameron Childress // Mar 27, 2007 at 12:34 AM

Big news! Good luck with the new gig! I'll look forward to the new blog posts your new role will inevitably bring!
9 Tom Chiverton // Mar 27, 2007 at 12:52 AM

Good luck, friend !
I know I've enjoyed your contributions on mailing lists and the like.
10 Big Mad Kev // Mar 27, 2007 at 2:00 AM

Congrats Mate, I did this at the end of last year over 7 years at one place, and its a great job going from a company that will throw money away to a small one where you have to make to, a lot of stress but a lot of fun at the same time!.
11 Doug Hughes // Mar 27, 2007 at 2:00 AM

Congrats Sean! Best of luck at Scazu!
12 Trond Ulseth // Mar 27, 2007 at 2:10 AM

Congrats and the best of luck in your new endeavours. I'm sure you'll be sorely missed at Adobe.
13 Lola LB // Mar 27, 2007 at 2:22 AM

Congratulations, and I wish you the best of luck! Maybe now you'll have time to come out to Maryland for one of the cat shows? ;-)
14 tony of the weeg clan // Mar 27, 2007 at 3:33 AM

wow.

congrats brother.
good luck in the new jobby job.

and as someone always has to say...

GODSPEED!
15 Sam Farmer // Mar 27, 2007 at 3:48 AM

Congratulations! Working at small companies can be a lot of fun :)
16 Simon Horwith // Mar 27, 2007 at 3:49 AM

Congratulations, Sean - best of luck to you.
17 since1968 // Mar 27, 2007 at 3:54 AM

Congratulations and good luck Sean! Your time at Macromedia/Adobe has been a boon to the community. Even the little things--like writing up a tut on configuring CF on OSX before there was an installer, or answering questions offline about event gateways--have greatly helped my work.
18 Christoph Schmitz // Mar 27, 2007 at 4:07 AM

Good luck Sean! I think you will enjoy being self employed again.

I always wondered how you could have a busy job and contribute so much to the community at the same time... so maybe now you can share the secret of how to press 48 hours into a single day. ;-)
19 Brian Rinaldi // Mar 27, 2007 at 4:28 AM

Congratulations on the move...I am sure it is bittersweet, but I wish you the best of luck.
20 Chris Scott // Mar 27, 2007 at 4:54 AM

Wow! Congratulations Sean! I am sure you will be successful in whatever venture you follow. I look forward to years more of your wonderful blogging and community support. Congratulations again!
21 todd sharp // Mar 27, 2007 at 4:56 AM

All the best. Don't forget about us ;)
22 Sammy Larbi // Mar 27, 2007 at 5:22 AM

Congrats and good luck with the new ventures!
23 Simeon // Mar 27, 2007 at 6:37 AM

I am so thankful for all the time you have spent building and promoting the community around ColdFusion.

Good Luck in your new endeavors!
24 Rick Mason // Mar 27, 2007 at 6:48 AM

Sean,

Thanks for all that you have done for the community and the best of luck on your startup.
25 Scott Stroz // Mar 27, 2007 at 7:06 AM

Congrats Sean!
26 James, F.E. // Mar 27, 2007 at 7:13 AM

Great googlie mooglies! Good luck with the new venture.
27 John Farrar // Mar 27, 2007 at 7:35 AM

Go Sean. I enjoy free enterprise and hope the best for you!

(So, what's the future of you and Fusebox?)
28 Peter Bell // Mar 27, 2007 at 7:43 AM

Congrats on the new gig! Very best of luck with Scazu - and the consulting.
29 Rob Brooks-Bilson // Mar 27, 2007 at 7:54 AM

Congrats Sean! The community has really benefited from having you as a member, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you have to say from the other side of the fence ;-)
30 Andy Allan // Mar 27, 2007 at 7:59 AM

Good luck Sean!
31 Tom Cornilliac // Mar 27, 2007 at 8:00 AM

Here's to success in your new adventures Sean! Thanks so much for all you've contributed as a Macromedia/Adobe employee.
32 Gary Funk // Mar 27, 2007 at 8:22 AM

Wow! This is one of those happy/sad moments in life that few of us are fortunate to witness.

While I have yet to have the good fortune to meet you, I have had the good fortune to have learned from you. I hope soon to be able to listen to you in person.

God speed in your new venture. You will be missed in your role in at Adobe, if not by Adobe, by the hundreds of CF programmers that appreciate your efforts, simple, as you put it, because it's not your job.

Good luck my friend, and may your god be with you.
33 Ouz Demirkap1 // Mar 27, 2007 at 9:00 AM

Congratulations! I always wish best for you!
34 charlie griefer // Mar 27, 2007 at 9:16 AM

best of luck in the new endeavor, sean. i'm sure it's going to be a blast for you.

and hey, now that you won't be part of adobe anymore, hopefully you won't have to make any more of those "it's not my job" posts! people might start to realize that everything you've done (and do) for the community is because you love us :)
35 Patrick McElhaney // Mar 27, 2007 at 9:22 AM

Congratulations, Sean. Thanks for all of your help over the years.

Have you ever looked into... oh, nevermind, you're not a natural born citizen. Well, good luck anyway. :)
36 Sean Corfield // Mar 27, 2007 at 9:30 AM

Thank you everyone!

Be assured that I will be even more involved with the ColdFusion community moving forward than I have been over the last year. Scazu is using ColdFusion as core technology (Fusebox + ColdSpring + Transfer) so I'm very invested in the continued success of our beloved platform! I'll be posting some job openings shortly (at Scazu) as I start building out my team there.
37 Chris Phillips // Mar 27, 2007 at 9:38 AM

Sean, that's exiting news.
I hope that Scazu knows how lucky they are to have the Great Sean Corfield!
I'm elated to hear that you will be even more involved with the community than before. (How is that even possible?)
38 Sean Corfield // Mar 27, 2007 at 9:43 AM

@Patrick, a life in politics? I think I'm too honest for that :)

@Charlie, yes, I love the ColdFusion community - you're a good bunch and I enjoy working with y'all!

@Gary, the "hundreds of CF programmers" will still have access to me, I just won't have the inside line on Adobe any more.
39 phill.nacelli // Mar 27, 2007 at 10:34 AM

Congrats Sean,

All the best on your new endeavor. Loking forward to seeing what you'll be able to come up with now on your free time.

Cheers..
40 Mark Mazelin // Mar 27, 2007 at 5:50 PM

Sean:

I've so enjoyed reading your blog over the past several years. I've learned a ton from your insights into technology. Congrats on your upcoming life change--I look forward to hearing about the changes and challenges!
41 Doug Laakso // Mar 27, 2007 at 6:53 PM

Wishing you all the best on your new endeavors.
42 Brandon Harper // Mar 27, 2007 at 8:57 PM

Congrats Sean! I too recently made the leap from a large company back to a startup. Despite working more, losing seniority, having more uncertainty, etc, I'm glad I made the choice, and I'm sure you'll find yourself in the same boat. CF would not be where it's at without your community involvement, and it's good to see you'll somehow be getting /more/ involved!

I guess this explains why you bought the new MacBook Pro. ;)
43 Cliff Meyers // Mar 27, 2007 at 8:57 PM

Sean, best of luck in your new endeavor. I know I speak for everyone when I say that I'm very glad to hear that you won't be leaving the CF community and rather deepening your already significant involvement. Congrats!
44 Scott Barnes // Mar 27, 2007 at 10:12 PM

Woah :) Well Sean, you're quite the smart engineer and taking the CTO role sounds like it would suite you to the letter.

Good luck in your new adventure and if you need some Microsoft lovin hehe, feel free to flick me an email and I'll raid the GAL for you (assuming you don't know half a dozen other Microsoftonians).

Well done and thanks for your convos over the years :P

-
Scott Barnes
Developer Evangelist
Microsoft.
45 Alexandru Costin // Mar 27, 2007 at 11:15 PM

Good luck in your new endeavours. Even if I'm driving on the other lane (from startup to large corporation), I remember that small can be fun :)

Alexandru
46 Mike Kelp // Mar 28, 2007 at 2:54 AM

Congratulations and thanks for all your hardwork and offerings to every community you've been a part of.

Mike.
47 Andrew Muller // Mar 28, 2007 at 4:28 AM

Sean, wishing you double lucky triple headed smokey green dragon luck!! Hope that it all goes well for you mate.

Andrew
48 Raymond Camden // Mar 28, 2007 at 4:43 AM

Best of luck, man. Adobe is really losing out here. :)
49 João Fernandes // Mar 28, 2007 at 4:53 AM

Congrats Sean,

Thanks for your magnificent contribution to the CF community, I've learn a lot thanks to you.

Best Luck
50 rob // Mar 28, 2007 at 7:23 AM

Wow! Leaving Rome for the exciting outskrits, and going all C level on us too - that's awesome Sean. Congratulations!

( From the splash screen of the site it looks like we might be competitors soon :-o )
51 Bryan Ashcraft // Mar 28, 2007 at 7:48 AM

Congratulations! You have helped so many people, myself included, learn and grow in the CF realm. I'm glad to see you getting the rewards you deserve.
52 Tom Ortega // Mar 28, 2007 at 8:16 AM

Best of luck. Though good luck trying to spell Scazu with your name in the header image above. =)
53 Mike Fransblow // Mar 28, 2007 at 8:26 AM

Good luck Sean, really appreciate all you've done for the cf community in the past (and future;)
54 me // Mar 28, 2007 at 11:04 AM

We hope to see that website in Flex.
55 John Allen // Mar 28, 2007 at 2:44 PM

GO GET EM SEAN CORFIELD!
56 Daniel Punton // Mar 29, 2007 at 12:58 AM

You'll be missed.
but onward and upward.
Cheers
Dan
57 Nick Tong // Mar 29, 2007 at 2:38 AM

All the best Sean.
58 Michael Smith // Mar 29, 2007 at 7:28 AM

Thanks for all your help for the ColdFusion community, with Fusebox and with CFUNITED and other conferences! Good luck in your new position and let me know if there is anything I can do to help.
59 Maxim Porges // Mar 29, 2007 at 9:12 PM

Congratulations and best wishes, Sean!
60 Brian Meloche // Apr 1, 2007 at 9:13 PM

Wow, I am late to find out! Just heard it on cfweekly.

Adobe will miss you, Sean. You've been a terrific de-facto Adobe representative and a tremendous asset within the ColdFusion community. I know that role within the community will continue. I look forward to seeing what your new startup comes up with.
61 Luca // Apr 2, 2007 at 2:15 PM

COngratulation and best wishes from tuscany Sean !
62 Dick Applebaum // Apr 22, 2007 at 9:34 AM

Hey Sean,

Congrats!

Many thanks for your past patience and willingness to help ... personal charastics that will serve you well

Best of luck in your new enterprise! Did you just turn 40? ;^)>

Dick

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