Solo

I have made the decision to lay off my team.

This may sound dramatic. It is not meant to be. I just don't want to waffle about "due to market", "we were forced to" and so on. I am fine with the accountability. I made a decision. The market was the primary reason. The alternative seemed the economic end of the business over some time.

Thankfully two out of three of the people I let go already have new Elixir positions and we have found a lead for the last one. I have helped as best I can. I care a lot about them all. To my knowledge no-one is angry. I've been quite transparent about how things are going leading up to the decision.

If you do have a position for a solid Elixir developer who lives in Stockholm, Sweden. Holler, I'll connect you.

This post is mostly about the changes for me. I don't want to speak on their behalf.

It sucks to make this decision. Mostly because we had some nice plans and they are great people.

It will kind of rock as well. For me. I am very excited that people I helped bring into Elixir are leaving my sphere of influence. Now they get to really show what they know. Makes me very curious to meet them at future conferences and figure out what they've been up to. Because I won't know.

As for being a soloist again. I am glad to have less responsibility for others as that is stressful for me. Keeping track of what's happening, balancing trust, accountability, client expectations and all the parts of managing well, leading well. It is hard work and with trying to also build things. It is a lot. Getting that off of my plate will probably help me breate more easy.

It will simplify my sales process. I'm pretty good at making an impression, marketing and selling myself for work. Or I have been at least. It is a different beast to sell a team or a company and I never felt as good at it.

The lever is much shorter. When all three devs were gainfully engaged in client work I could essentially focus on speaking at conferences, open source, relationships and essentially didn't have to do billable work. In theory. Because lining that up consistently was difficult. Now I definitely need to keep my billable hours locked in. But runnings costs will go down. The swings will be milder.

It only feels like a change for the better compared to the state of uncertainty that preceded it. The clarity is calming. I can handle change.

In some ways I'm back where I started. As a soloist, freelancer. But I have many more irons in the fire now. I've helped establish three awesome Elixir developers that I have not seen the last of. And I'm quite curious to see what's next.

Thanks for reading, feel free to write a reply.