Ryan Hansen and I built Ledger from zero. No outside money. Today three operating companies run on the platform, bringing order to the back office so more people can go be the entrepreneurs the world needs. Ryan takes the day-to-day as CEO from here. There is nobody on this earth I'd trust with it more.
I don't say that lightly, so let me show my work. Ryan has never let me down. Not once in over a decade. He makes the hard calls I don't have the guts to make. And I need the truth; I'm full of flaws, from the bottom of my toes to the tip of my head, and he gives it to me straight. He stands by me when I'm a lunatic, and he's the one who can explain who I am to the people who don't get me yet. Quiet. Steady. Family and whole-health first. He chose me. He took the risk on me.
He chose me. He took the risk. I'll stand by him until the day I die, even when the truth he gives me hurts.
Handing him the keys isn't a loss. It's the most natural thing in the world.
And a company is only ever the people who refuse to let it wobble. So, plainly: thank you. Jill Gaile holds our finances. Shane Dowaliby drives our growth. The two of you are the spine of Collective.
And the ones who built the thing itself with me: I have to say their names, because they earned every letter of this.
Nate, my lead engineer, has been here since day one. My sidekick. My right hand. The lifeblood of everything we made. I did not do this without him, and I want that in writing, where it can't be edited out: there is no version of Ledger that exists without Nate.
Maja Cvetkovska was there on day one too, and she is my sister, in every way that counts. My best friend. My Macedonian princess. We've stood beside each other for decades now, through every moment that actually mattered. She has my whole heart.
And the friends who kept me sharp from outside the building: Matt Simoneau, who talks through security with me for no reason other than friendship; Andy Morse, a security machine running his own shop, who I'm lucky to have in my corner; and Tomas Hrabec, who'll untangle any DevOps or infrastructure question with me and make the hardest part look freakishly easy. How any of them put up with me, I'll never know. I'm just grateful they do.
And to the teams who do the work our customers actually feel, every single day: Joe Mazur and Matt Roberge at Salt Lake City Bookkeeping. Carlos Camelo, Angela Morris, and Jess Liberman at Lion Chaser. David Lyons and Anthony Struz at Hawk Operations. You are the reason "bring order to the back office" is a promise we keep, not a slogan we print.
If any of you have wondered whether this means I'm abandoning you: stop. I'm not. I'm more in your corner now than I have ever been. I'm just changing the angle I fight from.
Here's the hard part, out loud. This one hurt to decide, and I'll be honest about why I'm doing it. I'm coming off the full-time salary. Not because I care less, but because I want our money to stay in the business and compound into growth, where it belongs. I'll still be here, about eight hours a week, for a nominal wage. Then I'll go earn the rest on my own. Founders are supposed to put the company first. This is me doing it with my paycheck, not just my words.
Now the part I can't stop thinking about. What's happening to the way we work isn't a step-function change. It's a rewrite: the whole thing, down to the studs. And somebody has to run out ahead of the business to see where it lands, before the business needs the answer. That is the exact thing I'm built for.
It's not a step-function change. It's a rewrite. And I'm going to lead the way.
Follow me if you're interested. Fair warning: I don't fully know what I'm doing yet. Nobody does. This is all new. That's the whole point, and it's exactly why it has to be me, and why it has to be now.
So I'm not stepping back. I'm stepping into the lab. Not one project but a dozen small ones at once, on purpose. I'm writing again (you're reading it). I'm investing in my kids and the future they're walking into. I'm watching Gen Z meet this world for the first time, in a way none of us got to. The variety is the point. The more I build and the more I see, the more corners I can see around for Ledger. Progress is built daily. I'm going to go build a lot of different days.
Not stepping away. Stepping into the lab.
Effective July 1, right after I steal a few days to celebrate my husband's 46th trip around the sun. After that, you'll find me where the new things get made.
Come see what I'm building: ashleytomblin.info.
— Ashley