Some news updates.

I don’t think I completed my year end review for 2018 or wrote a resolution post for 2019. However a bunch of things have happened so far this year, mostly in the past few months. As it’s almost exactly halfway through the year, I thought it might be cool to share them.

As one door closes…

Towards the end of last year, my wife and I decided to sell the family business we’d been running together since 2011. It was a hard decision to make, but as our boys were growing older we found ourselves less and less inclined to want to work on weekends, which the business required. I’m happy to say that we successfully sold the business earlier this year.

Castos and accelerator funds

Back in December of 2016 Craig Hewitt contacted me looking for someone to help him extend the podcasting plugin he had recently acquired. I’ve been working with Craig ever since, and so I was very pleased to find out the Castos, the company built to support and enhance the plugin was accepted into the TinySeed Accelerator. Which brings me to…

…another opens.

The investment Castos has received has allowed Craig to offer me a full time role in the company. I’ve been the designated lead developer of the project since pretty much just after we launched what was then called Seriously Simple Hosting back in 2017, but now it’s an official position, with all the benefits and responsibilities that go along with it. I couldn’t be happier, because I think we have a great product, and I now get to work with a small group of amazing people, helping our clients and plugin users from all over the world, every day, so I’m looking forward to what the next year holds for us all.

That’s not to say that I won’t be able to continue to work with my clients at Codeable. I’m lucky to have made great relationships with a group of repeat clients and I will continue to serve them in whatever capacity they require.

This position will also give me some security and time to to put into other areas, including expanding my contributions to WordPress, and getting back on the ‘building my own products’ train. Watch this space.

Castos goes to WCEU

Part of the Castos/TinySeed news was that I was able to travel to Berlin and (finally) meet both Craig and fellow Castos developers Danillo and Stefan. It was the first of what looks to become a regular, yearly team retreat. Working along side people remotely in a start up environment is a fun-filled experience, but there’s nothing like actually meeting in person. We know also know who the tallest member of team Castos is, and no, it’s not me! I’m hoping that the next team retreat will include the other members of our team.

The team retreat was timed to coincide with WordCamp Europe, which meant I was able to attend this year again. My favourite thing about WCEU is meeting people in real life, especially those I’ve only ever meet online. It’s always great to see my community team friends, but this year I was able to connect with, and meet in person, an entire years worth of ‘online only’ folks.

Highlight’s of WCEU 2019 was being able to secure a 15 minute chat with Matt Mullenweg, the Codeable experts dinner and group photo, and Monique Dubbelman bringing me some amazing and authentically Dutch stroopwafels, which I now have to find a supplier for locally.

Professionally, 2019 is shaping up to be a pretty awesome year. I have some plans of things I want to accomplish for the rest of this year and the next, but I’m also acutely aware that one cannot succeed at everything. Win or loose, I’m exceptionally excited to be able to at least try.