I have never found it easy to tell the people I work with that I am leaving the company. I managed to do so this morning with a mildly humorous ice breaker to start the meeting during which I made the announcement. Being late (even by a minute) for my staff meetings will earn you a $1 fine. If I am late, the cost for me is $2. Over the last five years these fines have been placed into an envelope which is guarded by my administrative assistant. At the beginning of the meeting, I collected a buck from a straggler and asked my assembled staff to guess how much money was in the envelope. Today’s photograph captures their estimates. I then announced that the person with the closest guess would win the entire pot which was being disbursed because I had decided to leave the company in pursuit of a new opportunity.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working at iRobot which is an exceptional company filled with extraordinary individuals. When I joined the company, my original plan was to stay for four years. Last December when my first boss left, I made a commitment to stay for an additional year. Having achieved the results I was hired to deliver, the time has come for me to climb a new mountain. I have another opportunity in hand and others on the horizon but I am leaning towards starting another company of my own. This has been a dream of mine ever since creating Truevision and I have a very exciting idea in mind. For the moment, however, I am focused on a smooth wind down of my responsibilities and have agreed to stay with iRobot through April. I am also toying with the idea of a 6-month adventure-travel-photography sabbatical before jumping into the next cauldron!

Bell Labs, AT&T Epicenter, Truevision, RasterOps, Pinnacle Systems, Avid Technology, Sonos, iRobot, the ninth inning.