I joined Protocol at the height of the pandemic. It was the best move of my journalism career.

In September 2020, I got an email from then Protocol Executive Editor Tim Grieve asking if I would consider joining the new tech news publication.

I still remember the first thought that popped in my head: "Like hell I’m going to join a media startup in the middle of a pandemic."

Protocol had just launched in February, shortly before the pandemic lockdowns began. It was a rough debut. Protocol went through a round of layoffs and there were soon serious doubts that it would survive.

But Protocol’s mission intrigued me. I began my career as a social issues reporter before switching to tech. Now comes a news site focused squarely on the impact of tech on society -- on government policy, on issues like inequality and discrimination, on communities.

I joined two days before the January 6 insurrection. Protocol’s policy team led by Chief Correspondent Issie Lapowsky quickly focused on the tech issues related to what happened, including a incisive piece titled “Doxxing insurrectionists,” on how the riot has divided online extremism researchers.

Within weeks of joining this scrappy news organization, it became clear to me that I had just become part of a solid, impressive team with great ambitions.

Tomio Geron and I helped expand Protocol’s reach by launching the fintech vertical. We were joined by the brilliant veteran editor Owen Thomas who led us -- including reporters Biz Carson , who covered VCs, Veronica Irwin , Ryan Deffenbaugh and Lindsey Choo --? in covering a tech sector that was going through dramatic changes.

The rest of the Protocol team focused on other sectors: climate tech, enterprise, workplace, cybersecurity, gaming.?

This was my first time joining a media startup. We were building both a news organization -- and a business.?

But our business team led by veteran pros made one thing clear to the Protocol journalists: We should focus squarely on the journalism. Don't worry about the business stuff. The business team will take care of that. And there will always be a wall that separates the editorial and business teams.

We will never interfere with Protocol coverage, Susannah Buckley-Green , our vice president for strategic partnerships, stressed to us at our memorable offsite retreat in Washington D.C. in April. We will never ask a reporter to cover a company favorably to appease or woo a sponsor or advertiser. We will always operate as a reputable journalism organization.?

Of course, the editorial team played a critical role. It's our job to produce compelling journalism and to follow a basic principle: Don’t get things wrong and if you do, fix it fast and tell readers about it.

It certainly helped that we had a first-rate copy desk. It became part of my routine every time I filed a story to stay alert to questions from Laura Adamczyk, Becca Evans , Caitlin Wolper and Deputy Managing Editor Karyne Levy .

There were memorable, informative and even entertaining exchanges and interactions between journalists from different backgrounds and generations. (I was one of the oldest.)

One time, Caitlin Wolper flagged a quote from my interview with Credit Karma CEO Kenneth Lin who recalled a phone conversation with Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi who he said argued that a merger between the two fintech powerhouses made perfect sense because “there’s a there there.”

Yes, that's how Lin recalled the conversation, I told Caitlin. And Owen Thomas chimed in with historical context that I didn’t know about. The expression, he explained to us, came "from Gertrude Stein’s famous aphorism about Oakland: 'There is no there there.'"

"People often read that as a dismissal of Oakland," Owen continued, "but it actually refers to the vanishing of her childhood home."

Caitlin was satisfied: "Syntactically I abhor it, but I begrudgingly understand it ha ha." (Recalling such exchanges makes me really miss working with this team.)

By early 2022, we were on a roll.

We had found our voice. We were covering tech with a fresh approach. Protocol had emerged as a respected and important news outlet, described by a comms executive as "the ESPN of tech."

Executive Editor Jamie Condliffe included some of our best work in the final edition of Source Code, Protocol’s flagship newsletter. I want to highlight a few of them here:

Issie Lapowsky ’s in-depth report on the World Wide Web Consortium explored the raging debates over privacy and data in “one of the web’s geekiest corners.”?

Enterprise editor Tom Krazit wrote a compelling portrait of Kelsey Hightower, one of the most respected technologists in cloud computing.?

Biz Carson offered a close look at the Palantir Pack, Silicon Valley’s newest mafia.?

Joe Williams wrote an engaging profile of the GE Mafia.

Anna Kramer explored the plight of Google's data center contractors and probed Amazon’s notorious injury rates at the tech giant’s warehouses.?

Veronica Irwin was one of the first reporters to cover the Elonjet saga.

Allison Levitsky took a look at the impact of layoffs on a tech company's reputation.

Lizzy Lawrence examined the impact of Adobe ’s acquisition of Figma .

Hirsh Chitkara explored the world of Corporate Memphis and of underpaid, overworked illustrators.

I didn't really get the appeal of BeReal. until I read the Protocol stories by Lizzy Lawrence and Sarah Roach .

Tomio Geron wrote about how Wall Street was warming to crypto.

Ryan Deffenbaugh explained the growing push to regulate traditional banks dabbling in crypto.

Nat Rubio-Licht told us what it was like to attend Hollywood’s hottest NFT minting party.

Max A. Cherney broke the story of the Biden Administration’s plan to block the sale of older chip-making technology to China.

Donna Goodison talked to Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian about the tech giant's cloud ambitions.

What does the company formerly known as Facebook really plan to do in the metaverse? Mark Zuckerberg himself explained it to Janko Roettgers .

Just last week, Kate Kaye 's brilliant series on AI was cited by Senator Elizabeth Warren in a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The decision to shut us down was shocking and painful, a move that I personally view as stunningly short-sighted.

But I don’t have any regrets.

Friday was officially our last day. But we have kept in touch as a team, inspired by the spirit of team work and camaraderie that enabled us to build a dynamic and respected news organization.

I’m writing this to celebrate what we accomplished and to thank my Protocol colleagues for an amazing journey during two of the best years of my journalism career.

As Gertrude Stein would say, there's a there there.

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