Thanks so much team. Here's some shit I wrote down to leave you all with:

Do the hard work

Diversity and inclusion isn’t easy, but that’s not an excuse to be lazy. One major reason for the historical lack of diversity in our industry is because it’s just more comfortable to work with people who look, think, and act like ourselves. Diverse conversations are a little more awkward; a little more difficult. You feel uncomfortable, you feel like you might say the wrong thing, you worry that people don’t “get” you like your friends do.

That. Is. The. Fucking. Point.

Someone described diversity and inclusion as not making everyone totally comfortable, but instead spreading the discomfort a little more evenly. Worried that people won’t quite get where you’re coming from and are asking difficult questions? Welcome to the day to day life of an under-represented minority. Get used to it.

Diverse teams and inclusive conversations result in better outcomes because more perspectives are included. Lean in the awkwardness. Do the hard work to include others. You’ll all be better off because of it.

Be yourself

More than once I’ve been worried about being too open, too honest, sharing too much information about my thought process or political views or personal life. While I acknowledge that my seniority in the company and my culture give me a lot of leeway, I still think that it’s infinitely better to bring your whole self to work than try to hide away the bits that you don’t think people will approve of. 

Share pictures from our weekends sometimes, talk about what’s going on in our lives. Far from distracting, it adds colour and humanity to our work. We’re more than our work lives.

Also: Vote Green.

Thank you

I owe my success at Vend to everyone else. Not the least being my wife Ally and my fam who worked behind the scenes to support me - I literally couldn’t have done it without them.

The Engineering crew, the Product and Design teams, and all of Vend are just fucking brilliant, and I’ll dearly miss you all.

Thank you all so much for what has been, and probably always will be, the best 7 years of my career.