What's Next? Acquia and Drupal social publishing

A year ago we were about to set out on our family version of Travels with Charlie. At the time our thinking was that we would be looking to move out of Southern Nevada in a couple of years. On our return to Southern Nevada we talked and chewed on the options. Finding no great reason to wait we packed up and moved north. Along with the move came a change in my focus. I made a great move from the world of running an information technology department to running a small Drupal shop. Along the way I've had many great experiences. From traveling to Drupal camps to having visited Boston for the first time for Drupalcon last spring.

While the moving van was hauling our worldly possessions down the road something else was happening on the other side of the country. A couple of really smart folks were starting Acquia a company providing commercially supported Drupal. Drupalcon in Boston brought more information about this startup. Beyond the uber-cool launch party at Felt the community also got a glimpse of what was to come next. The Drupal community was getting a company that could help all manner of Drupal shops, from small to large, provide support. The end result was certainly clear... it is a great time to be a part of the Drupal community.

After Drupalcon life went back to what it had been. Basically that included living the Drupal lifestyle. Coding cool Drupal sites, coding sites that paid well and coding cool sites that paid well. Hard to imagine things getting much more exciting. And then, over the course of the summer I was approached about an opening at MySQL. The opening was a great opportunity to work with a great team of people. One of those things that comes along once in a long while and is hard to imagine passing up. All of that made sending my regrets in response to the offer all that much harder. There was, however, something that was an even better opportunity for us on the horizon.

Some find the stability of a Fortune 500 to be comforting. For me the energy of a startup is much more attractive. The energy and synergy coming from a team of people pulling together for a common cause is fantastic. When that startup is a company like Acquia doing blindingly awesome work its all the better. So it is with great joy I spent my first day at work as a part of the Acquia support team today. It is the start of a great adventure and my first day at Acquia. It is fantastic to be joining such an accomplished and deep team, those who have been colleagues in the Drupal community for some time and those who I have only come to know in the last few weeks.