Ted Roden

Meet the new boss

About five months ago I left my job at The New York Times. When I left, the plan was simple, I was going to work part time at betaworks/bit.ly to help get news.me out the door and part time on Fancy Hands. News.me is out the door and Fancy Hands is still “up and to the right” as Tony Haile described it. So it’s time for the next step and it’s time to move on again.

Today is my last day working for someone else in any capacity. I’ll no longer be splitting my time and attention between two projects. I’ll be working full time on Fancy Hands. I’ll be the Founder, Programmer, Biz-dev guy, line cook, gaffer, and whatever else I need to do, but I’m only going to be working on Fancy Hands.

Working for myself (without any outside funding) has long been a goal of mine. Now that the time has come, it’s not exactly a cathartic feeling (yet), but I’m not panicked either. I’m incredibly excited about this next chapter in my life.

I’d just like to thank everybody at betaworks and bit.ly for agreeing to this transition from day one and especially Michael Young, who I’ve worked with twice (two times?) and I’d jump at the chance to do it again.

Also, I’ve got two awesome kids (a two year old and a three & a half month old) and an amazing wife. People always say, “I couldn’t do it without them,” and I’ll say it as well, but the difference is this: I have the data to back it up. I’ve been trying to do this type of thing for years and literally couldn’t do it without them.

PS: In the near term, I’ll be squatting at offices around NYC. Do you have an extra desk sometimes? I’ll sit in it!