I recently left Tesla after 3.5 years. The primary motivation was personal: My wife and I are looking forward to moving closer to family as we’re expecting our first child. That said, I’ve been in California nearly nine years, and deciding to leave was not an easy decision: I’ll dearly miss California’s incredible nature and weather, not to mention many of my closest friends. Moreover, I’ll also miss Tesla (my first job out of school!). I joined at a time when its future was very much uncertain (along with the future of the EV industry). The future of EVs is no longer in doubt, and I’m honored to have worked for the company that did more to make it happen than any other. Tesla’s far from perfect, but by and large they get the most important things right: a motivating mission, a healthy impatience for getting things done, an emphasis on first-principles reasoning, and, most crucially, an insistence on hiring the very best engineers in the world. I’ll miss working with such an amazing team, and I’m super excited for Tesla’s future.

The battery industry faces many challenges during this next phase of scaling. The materials supply chain is perhaps the most daunting. I’ll be starting a company in what I believe is the second largest challenge: battery quality. More to come soon! (If you happen to be a software engineer and intrigued by this challenge, please apply here).

In the next few months, I’ll start a new venture, become a father, and move to the Boston area. If you’re reading this, please wish me luck 😃