Alan Lewis Has Left eBay and Joined Ning

I'm breaking my unintended blog radio silence to announce that I have joined Ning as the platform product manager. Ning is a really cool company that lets you create a social network for anything. I am working with some great people at Ning. When I came in to interview I didn't know much about the company other than what I had read on Techcrunch, but everyone I met with really impressed me. I am not announcing what I am working on at Ning yet (keep track of the Ning blog if you are interested in that).

Of course joining Ning means leaving eBay. So why leave? My decision to leave was personal (in other words, it is none of your business), and had nothing to do with anything else that is going on at eBay right now. eBay has had some hard choices to make, and while I haven't always agreed with every decision they have made, the people who work there are basically good, and they are trying to do the right thing. Really.

I am most bummed out to leave my baby (eBay Desktop) behind. I transitioned the product to a great team within eBay, but until they update the eBay Desktop blog to announce themselves (hint, hint) I don't want to give away any more details. It was awesome to create a product, work with a fantastic team, and then see it grow to hundreds of thousands of users. eBay Desktop was a very successful small project within a big huge company, and it didn't always get the credit it deserved, but it was overall a rewarding experience. I made it known before leaving that I strongly believe that the future for auctions growth at eBay is in eBay Desktop, and I hope that message got through.

-Alan

Comments

[Greg Owen]

Congratulations on the new job. I expect to see some really cool innovative thing come out of Ning now ;) I don't know if he told you, but Jason is moving to San Fransisco in a few weeks, so you guys should meet up for drinks.

[Tyler Hannan]

Alan,

It has been a fair while since we've had the chance to chat. Enjoy Ning! I look forward to hearing how things go.

[Michelle]

Sorry to hear you are leaving. You are a wealth of info for eBay developers.

Best wishes,

Michelle

[Allan]

Congratulations on the new job! I think it's a good move as eBay has already grown to a point where your innovations and contributions would barely move the needle. Ning, if successful, still has a long ways to go and anything you do could have a huge impact.