Friday will be my last day at TokBox.<\/p>\n
It ends an eight year journey through multiple products, lots of different target audiences, four CEOs, and three different careers.<\/p>\n
I asked Scott if I could say a few words at my last team meeting. I didn’t make it to the first word without starting to cry.<\/p>\n
Across the tables in front of me were the SF TokBox team of today. And in between them were the faces of those who had come before. Moments replayed of team meetings past. Decisions second guessed. Triumphs celebrated. And of course tears. Lots of tears. Mostly my own.<\/p>\n
It’s amazing what 8 years of memories looks like as it passes you by in a single moment.<\/p>\n
I met the love of my life at TokBox. I can remember the first time she laughed. The whole office stopped to see who that was in the glass meeting room. I thought she was crazy. She thought I was too young.<\/p>\n
I lived my wildest dreams at TokBox. A Turkish hick from North Carolina who makes it in big, bad Silicon Valley. An entrepreneur who convinces much smarter people to follow in his footsteps. A team lead who builds great products and people.<\/p>\n
And oh the people.<\/p>\n
Some amazing people were part of my TokBox journey. The ones who made me laugh. The ones who made me cry. The Chairman. My original BD partner. The gamer turned evangelist. The partner in crime with whom I grew up. The Dutchman with his orange hair. The kid from South Carolina with a huge heart. The CTO on top of his mountain. The office manager turned company leader. VPs past. And VPs of the future.<\/p>\n
I wanted to say a few words to thank the people who had been so instrumental in making me a success while I was at TokBox.<\/p>\n
There were hugs and tears and laughs. I finally squeaked it all out.\u00c2\u00a0 The appreciation was unexpected, warm, and overwhelming. And the goodbye tour was officially on.<\/p>\n
Friday is my last day at TokBox. Words I never imagined would come from me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday will be my last day at TokBox. It ends an eight year journey through multiple products, lots of different target audiences, four CEOs, and three different careers. I asked Scott if I could say a few words at my last team meeting. I didn’t make it to the first word without starting to cry. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[66,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQyAq-rv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1348,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/11\/17\/3-days-til-30\/","url_meta":{"origin":1705,"position":0},"title":"3 days til 30","date":"November 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, I've run out of ideas, and steam. So today's post will be a photo gallery of the last 10 years. Thanks for keeping up with me :-) (Post-looking up all of the photos... holy shit what a great decade)","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":882,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/02\/06\/a-months-worth-of-small-steps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1705,"position":1},"title":"A month's worth of small steps","date":"February 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"We had a really great demo day today. It's the beginning of celebrating lots of small steps. At the end of the road, I think we'll all find it was a journey worth taking. And through it, we'll have lots of stories to tell :-) The tradition of celebrating small\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Becoming a PM"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":483,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2011\/11\/17\/its-not-okay-to-say-nothing\/","url_meta":{"origin":1705,"position":2},"title":"It's not okay to say nothing","date":"November 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I found out today how important it is to be vocal when you really believe in something. First some background: I believe that the reason that TokBox is successful right now is because we've built the right culture. Hiring in the Valley is a bitch, and if you aren't careful,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Becoming a PM"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1450,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/11\/19\/1-day-til-30\/","url_meta":{"origin":1705,"position":3},"title":"1 day til 30","date":"November 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The good\u00c2\u00a0moments\/learnings\/thoughts\/regrets of the decade in no particular order: Meeting Micky\u00c2\u00a0&\u00c2\u00a0marrying Micky Moving to California Learning how to build a product Luka Amelia Getting OpenTok built, and convincing Ian it was a good idea Birthday break up Growing up, and building a team at TokBox Building a product that got\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":297,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2010\/02\/26\/building-a-community\/","url_meta":{"origin":1705,"position":4},"title":"Building a community","date":"February 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I was talking to someone today about the TokBox Platform that we're building. It's been something that I've been working on since I joined the Box, and something about which I'm very passionate. I was discussing with them my three goals for the Platform from a developer point of view\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1069,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2014\/03\/31\/its-official\/","url_meta":{"origin":1705,"position":5},"title":"It's official...","date":"March 31, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"My promotion to Director of Product Management has been announced to the team. I set as a goal for 30 to be promoted. I've wanted this for two reasons: 1) External validation that I've contributed to the story of TokBox. I've been here for almost 6 years now. I've had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Becoming a PM"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}