So Long and Thanks for all the fish

I'm sad to say that this is my last day at RedBalloon. I've had an absolutely great time at RedBalloon and have had the pleasure of working with so many passionate, intelligent and fun people.

One of the reasons that I'm sad to be leaving is that we've done most of the hard work over the last 18 months and are really at the point where we are beginning to break new ground with our websites. E.g. integration of Google Maps into GoDo, Creation of the GoDo SOAP API, Gift Certs on RedBalloon and the ability to "Bring a Friend" when you are redeeming a voucher.

Some of the things I've been particularly proud of or happy with are: (in no particular order)

• Re-architecting the redballoon website to create a solid and maintainable platform
• Creation of GoDo using similar architecture to RedBalloon
• Success of the GoDo distributors model
• Creation of the RedBalloon Labs blog
• Creation of the API sites (RedBalloon and GoDo) and the upcoming GoDo SOAP API.
• Moved servers - we've had less downtime in the 18 months since we moved servers than the month before.
• Moving offices with just minor pain
• Introduction of the Wiki and Blogs to RedBalloon
• Supporting the amazing growth rate of the company
• Decision to kill a partially complete "new" version of the RedBalloon site (a couple of weeks after I started)

I'm confident that RedBalloon will continue to achieve great things and I am very happy to have been able to contribute to the success of a great company.

If anybody needs me I'll be looking after my lovely kids and continuing to write blog entries and doing a bit of contracting.

Cheers, Mark