Transition
Spring is a time of change and I have a change of my own in store. I am sad & excited to announce that I'll be leaving Mediaphormedia & running Toast Driven as my full-time business, primarily as a consultancy.
Why Leave MPM?
Adrian and Jacob have tread this ground before, and while I'm not the luminaries they are, I want to address reasons up front.
I started at Mediaphormedia (a.k.a. The World Company) just under three years ago. When I got there, Ellington was still running on Django 0.91 & the team had just gotten three new developers, hired specifically to port Ellington to the impending Django 1.0 release.
In my time there, I got to contribute to:
- Porting Ellington to Django 1.0, then 1.1, then 1.2.
- Adding extensive test coverage to Ellington.
- Revamping search in both Ellington & Marketplace.
- Launching Marketplace's API & laying the groundwork for Ellington's.
- Plus many more smaller projects.
However, it has long been a dream of mine to run my own company and now, more than ever before, it feels like it's time for me to pursue that.
Since I am leaving, MPM is looking for a few good developers at all levels. If you want a full-time job doing Python & Django with some of the best developers around, I'd encourage you to apply. Drop me an email and I'll put you in touch with the right people.
What's In Store For Toast Driven?
Effective May 9th, 2011, Toast Driven will be open for business. Officially, the focus will be web development, but I don't think it'll surprise anyone if I say I'll be focusing on Django-based development. That said, a successful web application usually incorporates many different technologies & my goal is to support those as well.
I'll be, at least initially, accepting contracts on a limited basis. I've already accepted several contracts, so what's left of my time is on a first-come, first-serve basis.
In addition, I'm planning on offering commercial support for Haystack and Tastypie. Which means I'll be offering both implementing new features in those projects as well as top-notch integrations in other people's codebases.
And of course, I'll be helping run the Django Dash again this year with my Pragmatic Badger cohorts. And there's a secret project or two kicking around that I hope to give some time & love to that will fly the Toast Driven banner once they're public.