This place has been quiet over the last month plus for two reasons: working through all the issues with the new house and a change in my work situation. Fortunately, I’m happy to report, both are now in good shape.
When I last wrote about the new home (June 17) I thought that passing the city building inspections meant the end was near. Relatively speaking, the actual end was July 2. Except for two plumbing issues that are not dire and a huge landscaping project, which we put aside for the moment to give ourselves a break and some time to reload the cash card. Overall we spent more than 3x the projected amount, which still boils me because from all appearances we have no recourse. But, calm down Bill, relax, we do have lovely home to live in for a long time to come.
Aptana, which provides tools and services for web application development and deployment, is where I landed after disagreeing with the bosses at Marketo about Sales being the right team for my position and I’m quite satisfied with the change.
My title is Manager, Customer Success, with the main responsibilities centering on documentation, support and community. Everyone at Aptana from Paul Colton, the CEO, down is a developer (except for the very capable in-house recruiter and office manager) and is focused on delivering tools and services that address major pain points for web app developers.
Further, Paul makes decisions from the understanding that getting obstacles and frictions out of the staff’s path is the best means to our delivering quality results. For instance, at Marketo I had to wait three months to get a Mac and at that could only have permission to buy the low end MacBook. When I showed up for the first day of work at Aptana my desk had a MacBook Pro hooked up to a massive Apple Cinema Display, the basic software installed and updated.
Plus he gave me a ride to the first company lunch after I joined in his sweet Basalt Black Porsche Carrera GT. This is not a 911 variant but a limited run (1270 made, only 600 sold in the US, from Jan. 2004 to May 2006), a monster burner with a 5.7 liter V10 engine capable of going 0-60 in 3.5 seconds. Which I believe he tried to demonstrate to me that day!
Sound good? Got way above average development skills? We’re hiring.
BillSaysThis 