Although I feel sad that Mindquarry did not work out the way it was meant to be, I am also excited about some great opportunities which came up lately.
First of all, I’d like to thank all my former colleagues at Mindquarry who proved once more that they are real sports especially during the rough times that lay behind us. You can tell their commitment and proudness from the fact that they kept working on the now available Mindquarry 1.2beta release until the last day of the company’s existence.
I very much welcome that the three Mindquarry founders now help Day Software to add collaborative tools to their Enterprise Content Management System. This is an extremely smart move by Day, because each one of the founders are superb developers with an entrepreneurial attitude. Plus, the founders already gained a lot of experience and insights in the collaboration market space – something of high value for Day’s business, because it accelerates time-to-market.
So, what will I be doing? In fact, I am yet undecided whether I will enter employment again or start my own business with a very good friend of mine. Either way, I plan to continue working in the domain of Open Source marketing, be it as part of a firm’s management or as a consultant.
Up-to-now, I have four job opportunities, most of them would also be interested in working with me as an external consultant. What do you think would be the best choice?
Sandro Groganz 
I think it doesn’t really matter if you are employed or freelancer. The main question is what you are doing, do you like what you doing and last not least: are you able to pay your bills? (keep in mind that you are an house-owner and upcoming family father now. 😉 )
Anyway, I have a high trust that you’ll doing the right thing, even if I just might know 2 of the 4 choices. Good luck.
LikeLike
Hi Stephan,
right, it’s important to do what you can identify with – that’s something I already found and feel happy with, which is OSS marketing.
My concerns are mainly related to working self-employed/building a business: Can the business scale and make all customers happy? Can I do it without sacrificing my private life?
I am quite sure that it would be a good time to start such a business now, because
a) OSS companies, who are mostly technology-driven, realize that they need to become market-driven;
b) there’s a growing amount of OSS start-ups and also existing companies incorporating or switching to OSS;
c) governments start to embrace OSS for their institutions.
The bottom line is that marketing is what helps OSS in general to get from geek tools to mass adoption while sustaining and growing demand in OSS products.
Sandro
LikeLike
Hi Sandro,
Can the business scale and make all customers happy? That’s up to you, right? It’s not much different from going and working with a company, similar risks apply.
Can I do it without sacrificing my private life? Working 8,10 or 12 hours a day for somebody else is also sacrificing your private life.
Give it a go. Has it done Lars and co. so much harm? What, it’s been 3-4 weeks before he is working elsewhere right and he’s come out of it with a great amount of insight that would have taken him years to learn otherwise.
LikeLike
If you have the opportunity of working with many exciting companies opposed to working with a single exciting company, take the first option. It’s not much you can lose (basically time and money), but you have got a lot to win.
LikeLike
I keep my fingers crossed for you. Hope that you’ll find the right decision.
LikeLike