September 14. That is the day I consider to be AFT's official birthday. In 1993 I resigned from my job in the power industry and started working on AFT Fathom 1.0 full-time that day. Thirty years ago today I was assembling a business plan and figuring out how I could finance the founding of AFT.
I have found myself reflecting a lot this year – on AFT's history and life in general. I was 30 years old when I started AFT and was young and self-confident. Truth be told, I also was pretty scared when contemplating getting a new company off the ground – and then actually launching it. This year I turned 60. More things to reflect on.
For the first 18 years of AFT, I worked mostly on our products and writing code. Twelve years ago I pivoted to being the business manager. I still hold out hope I can get back to writing code again someday.
We have a great team at AFT. I feel pride in our team and our products. I feel honored by the trust all of our customers have placed in us. I feel thankful and blessed to have had the career I have had doing something I never even dreamed of in engineering school.
Thanks to all of you who made this all possible. For anyone interested in reading more about our history, check out Mission and History.