Scorpion Gets Steppin’

Our pal Matt Surabian (a.k.a. “Scorpion”) has left Bocoup to pursue his interests in the Go programming language and technical operations. In light of this bittersweet news, we found ourselves reflecting on the time we’ve shared since he joined us.

Matt’s been an excellent consultant. From a technical standpoint, he’s consistently demonstrated chops in web development. Matt kept pace with the industry over the years, learning new application frameworks as they reached maturity. That’s par for the course at Bocoup, though, so I’m not giving him any extra points for that. Instead, Matt’s extra points come from his talents in product management and communication. He was a lifesaver for many clients who needed help setting the vision for the software they were building. Not one to hide his light away, Matt would often share his advice during our shared lunch meetings.

Insightful as those presentations were, Matt’s expertise in security and dev ops made him an even bigger asset to his teammates. We really should have seen this coming: Matt came to us with an impressive resume in security and a captivating presentation on “grit” in education. He lived out these interests here at Bocoup in his advocacy of best practices in our internal technical infrastructure. This led to the development of Learn SSH, a training on the topic of the pervasive-yet-intimidating Secure Shell application. We offered that training publicly and used it to on-board new teammates. We have Matt to thank for our fluency on the topic of operations; it’s why so many of his colleagues are today comfortable taking on “dev ops” tasks.

Matt also taught us courage. With “Pewter Chicken” (a game of his own design where players compete to purchase the most garish trinkets from a local souvenir shop), he showed us how to silence our natural instincts in service of a higher purpose. Matt despises space and the cosmos but recognizes that he is unable to escape them. That he continues to thrive in this situation has been a lesson in focus and determination. And through his constant patronage of Boston’s Ding Ho restaurant, Matt demonstrated how willpower can bolster frugality in the face of fear.

We’re proud of Matt and grateful for our time together, but we’re also sad to see him Go.

Best of luck, Scorpion.