PhotoShopped cakes with a text layer for the candles 4eva.

The number 13 has a bit of a reputation.  But from a longevity standpoint of this enterprise, I’m feeling pretty lucky.  In these last 365 we here at CA got a whiff that, yes, even coaching platforms die.  Meanwhile, CoachAccountable keeps merrily humming along.

CoachAccountable’s 13th year saw the addition of numerous quality of life enhancements in the December release of Version 5.1.1, and in smaller releases sprinkled throughout (such as last week’s addition of appointment series scheduling for clients).  All told, there were 32 bug fixes and 66 such tweaks and enhancements added.  If you’re curious what you might have missed, go check out the Release Notes!

In October, I launched and subsequently ran a highly effective Bug Bounty Program, inviting the internet at large to take a stab at finding vulnerabilities in CoachAccountable.  $26,500 in bounties awarded later, I feel better than ever about the security of the platform and you should too.

On Sunday March 2nd, CoachAccountable had its only notable downtime this year, and it’s one I’m very proud of.  It was for 6 minutes while I moved CoachAccountable out of its server environment of the last 7 years, and into a shiny new one with far beefier machines.  Fun fact: in the week leading up to the migration, the old server setup had an average execution runtime of 0.1966 seconds across 294,963 requests.  In the week following, the new server setup’s average was 0.1009 seconds, i.e. just a hair over a half that of the old.  That is a nice gain in app responsiveness that you can feel!

In April, I had a blissful 3 weeks of not checking my email a single time while traveling abroad (thanks Jaclyn for so thoroughly taking the reigns!)  It was the longest stretch of not being in email since getting my first address as a freshman in college.  On the heels of that I thought “You know what?  A fella could get used to that.  Maybe it’s time to hire again and grow the team a little so that I may do this more often.”

Now then, anyone familiar with the trappings of management probably recognizes that as a rather naive sentiment.  I hear it, too!

I still figured I’d try.  This time I got smart and posted the roles just to the CoachAccountable community, rather than on general internet job boards.  And what a difference that made.  The result (thus far!) is Noah, who joined the team in early July.  Please do take a beat to get acquainted and say hello!

It’s already going very well.  And so now, bolstered again by having a team behind me, I’m feeling quite free to truly step away for weeks at a time.  And lest you think I’m going soft, I’m also feeling inspired and supported to take on what we might call more ambitious projects, to shift the very definition of coaching itself to include more than the conversations.  This of course is a drum I’ve been beating in our little corner of the internet for quite some time now; more on that another day. :)

And that’s a wrap on year 13!

My many thanks to the CoachAccountable community, without which this party would hardly be a party at all.  Thank you all for coming.  I appreciate and remain honored as ever to be your coaching platform guy.

Happy Birthday, CoachAccountable!