Striking our on my own - while remaining employed

Into the loking-glass

After a long period of medium-sized soul searching, I am finally starting my own company.

What's funny is that I'm not quitting the company I work for, Nethouse, which I had fully expected when drawing the plans for my new venture.

I have been employed by Nethouse (a Swedish consultancy firm) for over four years and I even though the colleagues that have left the company, have done so on amicable terms, starting what could be interpreted as a competitor (...) made me take measures to be able to jump ship very soon, as I could not count on applause from my boss and current company.

Unexpected support

Now, what happened was that we had a complete mind-opener of a conversation. Far from being cross (I would suspect that my boss had anticipated some sort of move on my part), he was very reasonable and suggested that I continue to work part-time for Nethouse, but in a business development position instead, as they/we are moving towards a new positioning in the market (which I wholly support and am actually quite exited about).

Coopetition

So will I or won't I compete with my current/former company? Well, for over two years I have been the only one in the company with an inclination and competency in front-end web development, since Nethouse has vey much been a .Net shop with some Java inroads - the classical consultancy company, in fact.

So my new clients are mostly international, which I have garnered through this blog and various conference appearances during the last years. Our clientele don't really overlap, so to speak. On the other hand, my expert knowledge is handy for some local customers as well, even if there is not yet so much demand for cutting-edge Dojo front-end applications in Sweden.

Happy start

All in allm this only proves that you can never predict what will happen when you make a sea-change, neither who will be your friend.

So on November 1, I will start on my new company (tentatively named Hermit Village - after the Monty Python skit, and the interconnectedness of actually single individuals that the Internet provides), working 75% with my newfound customers and the rest with secret plan X for Nethouse world domination (it's large, we'll fit all of us :)

And by them, I promise to cut down to only ten or so side-projects. Really!

Cheers,
PS