By Michael Tessler, Managing Partner

I decided to take a detour from the normal blog entries. For those of you who know me, most would not characterize me as sentimental but here is my attempt.

Last night I was out listening to my friend Rob Baird playing a music set in downtown Austin. It felt really good to be outside, listening to live music and seeing everyone having a good time. I was also very fortunate to have my daughter with me, as she is visiting me for a couple weeks. It has been almost one year since I have seen her. Last time was when she left Maryland to attend university in Boston. It almost felt normal again and sometimes we forget how great things are until all things suddenly change. The last few weeks have reminded me of that, and that is why I decided to share this blog and encourage us all to be thankful for our family and friends.

Over the last year, it has been great to work with a great set of friends; Scott and Jim and then to expand the partnership with Andy and Dino. Our meetings feel like we pick up from when we left off at BroadSoft. The partnership has been great fun and rewarding, working with great entrepreneurs and learning new businesses. We have learnt so much from these entrepreneurs and hopefully we have helped them scale their business and avoid some of the mistakes we made. 

I never thought about the power and value of the extended BroadSoft family during the last year. Many of us have caught up over video, found interesting ways to work together or just caught up and made sure that we are doing well. What amazes me is the size of this family; colleagues we worked with many years ago, board members, partners and on. There are so many folks that I have connected - too many to mention. But please know I have enjoyed these calls.

We have also had the opportunity to re-engage with many of the BroadSoft customers and partners. It has been great to re-connect and see all the progress. Clearly last year proved that Cloud Communications was always the right answer. Clearly UC is now the new normal. It is so rewarding to see an industry we pioneered take off.

Ok, for my big announcement. Last year as the world shut down, we had planned the first post BroadSoft Disconnection event in Austin. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the event after planning an amazing 24 hrs of fun, music and food. I think it is time to start planning again. Over the next month, I will get to work on a plan and come back to announce a date. 

Have a great rest of your summer. Please reach out if you want to talk or need any help. And please feel free to share your thoughts after the craziest year most of us have ever experienced.