Moving On

After more than 21 years of working on desktop video, I have decided to leave Avistar to focus on new opportunities elsewhere. I feel the time is right to once again peek over the horizon, and dream of new ideas for accelerating the future.

While change inevitably is unsettling, I take comfort in the knowledge that I'm leaving Avistar in a great place, well positioned to grab a huge bite out of the market that's right in front of us. I have often joked that it takes about 15 years to become an overnight success. Well, desktop video has struggled through its 15 years; interactive video has finally become a mainstream technology that users have come to expect and love in their everyday lives, albeit in a slightly different fashion than we originally envisioned. Users expect video not just as a standalone tool, but rather as a feature that is pervasive in all of their application software--from Unified Communications to Productivity Tools to Enterprise Software. I believe Avistar has successfully evolved its go-to-market strategy to take full advantage of this new market reality, using a component strategy focused on OEM opportunities. I'll be cheering from the sidelines hoping Avistar hits this one out of the park.

At the same time, my true passion is in rapid innovation, in exploring new technology uses, in iterating with early adopters to learn which products they never knew they couldn't live without. This type of investigation is difficult in a mainstream market. It requires an environment that fosters creativity, that puts a premium on experimentation over execution, and tolerates frequent change. I'm looking to return to such an environment.

As you can imagine, this hasn't been an easy decision for me. I will continue to feel a strong personal connection to Avistar and emotional affection for the products we have created over the years. I feel proud to have been part of an organization that has been at the forefront of many technology breakthroughs, from early scaled deployments of desktop video, to the first video extranet for business-to-business video communications, to video architectures designed specifically for virtual desktop infrastructure. Most importantly, I am grateful for having had the chance to work with all the wonderful people at Avistar over the years. It's been a pleasure working with you, you have pushed me and kept me on my toes, and I have learned from all of you. I will miss working with you.

Last but not least, I want to express gratitude to the many customers and partners I have met over the years. I am impressed with how many bright and genuinely nice people are out there who care deeply about the organizations they work for. You are the ones that have given me the opportunity to pursue and realize our early visions. I hope our paths will cross again.

So long....