New DivaBlog

Misplaced Ire

Yesterday I posted about REvolution Computing and my unexpected change in employment status.  My friend and former direct-report David M Smith, who remains at REvo and took a promotion in the same reorganization, caught the brunt of negative comments concerning REvo's actions on his blog announcing the company's new leadership.  David's blog about the R Language is one of the most popular on that subject today, and controversy there is rare, those comments really caught his attention.

I would like to say that David didn't make the decisions that led to last week's debacle, in fact he tried to convince the new management that they were being hasty and leaving important work unfinished in enacting their reorg plans.  I take comments on David's blog such as...

"I'm sure the open source community into which you gained so much insight will take careful note of the way you have treated all the people who got you this far. Summary dismissal without severance is a lousy way to say "thanks", no matter how you try to sugar coat it here.

I hope your future business doesn't depend on any of us because we have long memories."

...to be directed at those who joined REvo along with the funding, and not at hardworking and honorable people just trying to remain employed through difficult times.  David and many of those left behind at REvo expressed their concern and compassion directly to we who were asked to leave and it was clear to all of us that they were concerned by the actions taken and would have done differently.

So while I continue to believe that REvolution just got much less interesting, I would gladly work with David Smith again and continue to call him my friend.  In fact I'm having dinner with him Friday night.

Start the REvolution without me...

Some of you may have become aware of REvolution Computing, a commercial open source company organized around the R Language, when I joined in March of this year.  For the past few months we have been working on a B-Round of funding.  It was an interesting process and I was happy to be working in my first startup company after so many years in very large corporations. 

We built a small team to work on "Community Engineering", by which we meant developing assets both to benefit the R Language community as well as to entice and inform the "Alpha-Geek" community to learn and use R.  We set up an Advisory Board designed to advise REvolution management about decisions relating to REvo and Open Source, and we helped put REvolution R into the Karmic Koala release of Ubuntu.  It was really fun to work in a small, agile team and I felt like I was getting a great education in startups and we were rapidly moving the company forward...Why didn't I join a startup years ago?

The funding deal closed on Wednesday last week...

Late the next afternoon I received a call from the new COO notifying me that my services would no longer be required at REvolution., effective immediately and with no severance.  Apparently, the company is moving in a different direction.

I was surprised that the new CEO,  wasn't personally handling this unpleasant task...but I guess that might have been distasteful after the many assurances he gave me and my team last July at OSCON that we were "absolutely critical to the company's success" and that he would be "making no changes for at least three months after he assumed control".  Personal courage in difficult situations is rare.

What I find most interesting about today's REvolution announcements is the space they spent thanking the previous management team, given nearly all of us, including the Founders and the Board, were just fired.  47% of the company wiped out and nobody left with more than a year of experience...Shit happens...

And so we begin to pick up the pieces and move on.  I've spent much of the past few days consoling coworkers, personally breaking the news to the many kind friends who had agreed to help us increase interest in R and Revolution, and working out what I might be doing next.  I have some interesting possibilities already, although I'm still open to suggestions...so stay tuned.

Meanwhile I can honestly say that the new REvolution Computing will little resemble the company I was proud to join and represent.  I still think the R Language is really interesting, but I'm no longer sure REvo is the one to watch in this space anymore...For the sake of my friends among the remaining employees and shareholders I hope I'm wrong.