Goodbye WebLogic


Goodbye WebLogic

After nearly 8 years, I am leaving the work place that I called home.

Here is the letter that I just sent out to my fellow BEA employees. I am very proud of the work that I have done at BEA and I believe that WebLogic Server is by far the best application server ever made, however, it is time for me to take my career to the next level.

Goodbye WebLogic

My 6th anniversary at BEA will be on September 28th and my 8th anniversary at WebLogic would have been on December 9th, but alas, my last day will be at the end of this month, the 30th. As a software engineer, it would be almost impossible for me to have a better experience than I have had here. I have worked with excellent people, built a very successful product, and helped drive the industry to a new standard for enterprise software. In the early days, our marketing person came up with a slogan, “Elevating Java to the Enterprise”. That prophetic statement is a wonderful testament to the vision that WebLogic has had since its humble beginnings in Paul Ambrose’s living room.

I still look back with amazement that I even got a job at such a small startup since I had no connections in Silicon Valley and was just a consultant in Chicago. At the time, and even to this day, personal relationships weigh heavily when choosing employees for early stage companies like WebLogic. I owe a great debt to the founders that had faith in me.

My new job will be an EIR (entrepreneur-in-residence) position at Accel Partners (http://www.accel.com), a venture capital firm in Palo Alto. There I will work on developing a new company, investigate possible investments, and consult their portfolio companies. This is a tremendous opportunity for me and though I love working with all the people at WebLogic, I cannot ignore it.

I wish everyone the best and I hope to work with you all again someday,

Sam Pullara
sam@sampullara.com

P.S. If you are interested in a little history, Here is my website from November of ’96 that was instrumental in getting a job at WebLogic:
http://www.sampullara.com/suba/html/index.htm