Farewell, Factorial

After more than three and a half years, today I'm saying goodbye to Factorial. I don't intend to make a drama out of this. I won't be the first or the last to leave a company. But given that this is my blog and I'm the one writing, allow me to add all the epic flair my heart desires so this entry serves as a keepsake for my future self.

The reasons are quite simple. Factorial's remote policy prevented me from continuing as Engineering Director. I was offered a very interesting alternative (for which I'm tremendously grateful) that moved away from what I love most. I love creating, I love being in the details, I love inventing. I love the blank page. I love knowing I'm capable of solving a problem I have no clue about. All of that, in one way or another, would be lost in this new scenario. Therefore, I decided it was time to leave and face the vast ocean.

I'm taking a lot from Factorial. But like any relationship, I believe there's a certain reciprocity. I'm also leaving something of myself there. Let this entry serve, then, to take stock of it all.

What I'm taking with me

I joined Factorial in May 2022. I came from being co-founder of a startup (TeamEQ). Things weren't going badly, but they weren't exactly booming either, and after almost 7 years of grinding, my body was asking for a change.

It was by chance that when I started having internal debates about what to do with my life, a good friend I met in Barcelona's startup ecosystem (quite a feat considering I'm from Murcia) reached out. Oriol Blanc sent me a Twitter DM that I still keep.

You can imagine the conclusion. A first call with him, a pretty intense technical challenge, and an offer letter.

The beginnings

My beginnings were humble. Extremely humble. The density of talent around me made me feel tiny.

Engineering at Factorial (at that time under Pau's leadership, who happens to be the creator of this very tool I'm using to write this entry) had achieved something I had never seen in my life. It wasn't about one or two extremely good people. There were many. And best of all: an atmosphere of humility and camaraderie prevailed that, despite feeling small, made me feel a warmth I had never experienced before.

Imagine. I was clear that I wanted to measure up. So I took on the challenge with ambition and a lot of hunger, and I grew.

The growth

I started my journey on the Documents team. A product widely used by Factorial's customers. There, together with my team, we did some really cool things that took the product to the next level. I won't stop to detail the features we developed, I'll just say that thanks to the work we did, I had the opportunity to grow.

In May 2023, the company told me they wanted to promote me and make me Engineering Director. Imagine everything that went through my head. Going from one team to managing several? Do I even know what being a director is? Will I be capable? Will they finally discover the fraud I am? Impostor syndrome knocked on the door, walked into the living room, served itself coffee, and put its feet up on the coffee table.

The challenge

Factorial is not an easy place. Growing at the pace it does is within reach of very few. And it's not by chance. It's intentional.

Factorial is intense. Very intense. The pace is high, the volume of work is high, the level of demand is high. And I don't think any of that is bad. Quite the opposite.

So I took those constraints and embraced them. Made them mine. I understood the challenge ahead and transformed it without losing my essence.

There are many ways to translate intensity and pace to an organization's teams. I chose an approach where humanity, trust, humor, and Radical Candor were the cornerstones. To achieve the challenge placed on my shoulders, I understood that the first thing I needed to accomplish was for everyone to believe in it. Fostering a sense of belonging as a catalyst for everything else. If everyone feels their products are "theirs," the rest would be easier.

So I rolled up my sleeves and got to work.

Friends and affection

8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for over 3 and a half years goes a long way. Enough to do things, but also to get to know people. To meet incredible, skilled, intelligent, funny people... I'm not taking away "work colleagues." I'm taking away real friends. Friends with whom I've shared much more than work projects. Friends you regret not having met sooner. Those with whom you connect deeply. In ways of thinking, in hobbies, in coherence and integrity.

There are many, but they know perfectly well who they are. And I’m taking them all with me.

What I left there

During this journey, I experienced Factorial from many angles. Engineering Manager, then Director. Core's technical depths, then Talent's creative scope. Different challenges, different hats, same commitment.

If I had to summarize my legacy, it would be in three areas:

Talent density

At Factorial, I helped build strong, cohesive, committed teams where there was always room for humor and laughter. To achieve this, I hired a lot of people. I can say without fear of being wrong that in my two and a half years as director, I conducted over 200 interviews. I can also say with pride that I was part of the hiring process for the current 10-15% of engineering at Factorial. I don't intend for arrogance to invade this post. It's simply a fact I'm tremendously proud of and therefore has a place here.

But I also fired people. Firing people sucks. I don't think there's anyone (maybe some psychopath) who enjoys firing people. It cost me sleepless nights, extreme worries, and constant doubts. I can also say that the decisions I made were the right ones and that the people who left, despite having caused difficult personal situations, needed to leave to maintain the initial challenge the company asked of me.

I also helped people grow. I drew scenarios where I took people beyond their boundaries and encouraged them to cross them without fear. From these challenges, projects were born that are key to some strategies today and that allowed those who took them on to grow, get better positions, better salaries, and more strength for what was to come.

I want to believe that my drive helped increase talent density.

Processes

In a hyper-growth environment like Factorial's, it's sometimes difficult to keep culture and processes fixed, without them becoming perverted. I don't know how it is in other companies, but in Factorial's case, speed took its toll. From my newly minted position as director, back in 2023, I contributed my small grain of sand to reestablish them.

• I worked hand in hand with Ilya (CTO) to define a coherent and well-reasoned promotion system, defining a process that required clarity and synthesis to demonstrate the impact of the person whose manager recommended promotion.

• I also helped establish a new hiring process. In it, apart from collaborating on defining the different steps, I documented my approach to manager interviews, capturing the philosophy and tactics that worked. If you want to see it, it's available here.

• Together with Miquel (Senior Engineering Director and one of those friendships I'm taking with me forever) I helped define the new career path. I won't lie, the bulk of the work was on his shoulders (and it was a huge job), I helped shape the narrative, the definition of different roles, growth expectations, rubrics. All of that is public, you can see it here.

Results

Results are nothing more than the accumulation of everything else. When things are in their place, facts are reflected in numbers. Two and a half years later, I can say with pride that through the Talent domain I led together with Alba first, and Marta later:

• We significantly increased eNPS

• We increased retention

• We contributed a substantial increase to ARR

• We never stopped innovating

There's no word that describes the feeling when you see things, step by step, falling into place, when you see your strategy taking shape and crystallizing, when you see your plan working.

So, what?

For all this, and more, I can only say THANK YOU to Factorial. To Bernat, Jordi, and Ilya mainly, for trusting me. For believing in me. For allowing me to contradict them when necessary and letting me fight for what I thought was right.

I also thank each and every one of my colleagues, who after so many adventures gave me one of the most beautiful goodbyes anyone could wish for. I left overwhelmed, full of affection and kind words.

What’s next? You may ask. The truth is I have no idea. I'm open to exploring new opportunities, but in the meantime, I want to pick up certain routines I had abandoned. Writing is the first of them. The third part of The Only Truth trilogy won't write itself, and although everything is already finished in my head, I need to put it on paper.

I also want to recover the cion.es project. I have some ideas to execute on some subdomains like vaca.cion.es, so I'll get to it. My time as director had distanced me a bit from code, which I was forced to recover on my weekends and holidays. Now I can be full-time during this interlude.

I'm leaving, but not without remembering something that's important to me. That has been key in my development and in my way of seeing life both personally and professionally. Something I want to endure, and if you've made it this far, to be etched in your brain.

ALWAYS BET ON PEOPLE.