Last week was a big one for blist. We took a small step towards a future of meeting accelerated milestones and great features rolling into blist.

We added another software engineer to the team.

Big deal you say. Startups add software engineers all the time and it’s not newsworthy. This time was different. It was a big deal for me personally. Chi, my long time colleague, friend and one of my favorite people, joined us at blist.

Chi and I began working together in January, 1997. He was the biggest contributor in building Prospector, which as I’ve shared previously, was an application from whose DNA blist has evolved. In February 2003, Chi became MessageRite’s first employee. When MessageRite was acquired by FrontBridge, Chi came along too. When Microsoft acquired FrontBridge, Chi came along that time too. When I left Microsoft last fall to start laying the foundation for blist, it was the first time in 10 years that Chi and I were no longer colleagues. Chi signed up for a two-year stint at Microsoft and was fulfilling that commitment.

While we still haven’t disclosed too many details of what we’re building at blist, I can say we’re ahead of schedule by almost every measure. The primary reason for this is that we have a phenomenal founding team, all of whom are new to working with me. Every one of the core blist team is an all-star and an argument could be made that we don’t need him. We’ve certainly accomplished much without Chi.

As the CEO, I internally struggled with the thought of having Chi join us. On one hand, he’s a great engineer whose capabilities and talents I know well. On the other hand, the new team was already doing well, in large part because they’ve gelled together. Team chemistry is vastly underrated in the productivity of software engineering teams.

You already know how it turned out. Chi has joined us. I’m excited about his involvement with blist for many reasons, not the least of which is that he’s a great software engineer. But the deciding factor was something far less tangible and much harder to describe. It’s like putting on your high school baseball glove again for the thousandth time and having it feel as good on your hand as it did decades before. It’s the comfort of the familiar.

When assembling your startup team, scour within and beyond your network for the best talent you can find. New people bring energy, fresh perspectives and new skills and you definitely want them. But save a spot or two for friendly, familiar faces. It’s been a week since Chi joined us and it’s already clear that it was the right choice to make.