A New Chapter

posted by pete on May 11th, 2007

Today, I have exciting news to report: Ryan McMinn is starting a new chapter in his life by leaving Unspace to accept a position at Microsoft in Seattle.

Six years ago, Marcus MacDonald and Ryan started a small database consulting company called M7 Database Services, with a mission to change the way software was being developed. Marcus had radical ideas that he'd been evolving in practice since the early 90's, and they crafted those ideas into a sustainable, working process. Many of the clients they had at the beginning are still active clients today, in large part due to that process.

In 2004 Ryan and I met, and after working together I convinced him to make the leap to web applications. Anthony came on board - I convinced him to quit his job at his own wedding - and we started Unspace. Both companies have been collaborating on websites and databases ever since, to great success. From two people and one company in 2001, we have grown to twelve people and two vibrant industry leaders in 2007.

In June, Ryan will be joining the Excel and Access Web Services team. While this might seem like a crazy transition, there is a larger plan at work. Ryan has been slowly polishing his presentation of our methodology, and in October we presented several workshops at the Seneca Free Software and Open Source Symposium. Ryan's address was recorded, and eventually we put it online, in the hopes that it would be appreciated by a larger audience. The response was intense, and today close to ten thousand people have seen that video.

The video, combined with Ryan's experience running the most established Access and Rails shops led to an invitation to come to Redmond to address their developers and talk with product managers. It took them about five seconds to recognize Ryan's unique genius and realize that for them to be successful innovators, they need Ryan to steer them in the right direction.

This is clearly a win-win for all parties. Ryan leaves behind two successful, thriving companies and joins a new ecosystem where he will be able to bring our methodology to a huge company that has 70,000 employees and a billion customers. The opportunity to inject the ideas that make Rails great into Microsoft is staggering. As Marcus says, we're in a position to change the course of history, and Ryan is our man of the day. Confidential to Star Trek fans: Ryan is our Hugh.

So, while Ryan will not be here for the day-to-day operation of our company, the fact remains that we're a small team of close friends, and these are ties that bind. Microsoft, for their part, understands this and are being extremely accommodating.

Plus, Ryan gets to brag that he was here, right in the beginning.