Our own personal stories tend to make sense in retrospect. There may be plot twists that at the time cause a little confusion, but then it all sorts out into a tale that seems predictable in hindsight. That’s how I feel today as I join Orchestrate to start a developer relations team.
It was tough to leave SendGrid, a fast-growing developer-focused company that I’ve respected since my days as an API journalist. I had a good year working across multiple teams and learned a lot. Most of all I’ll miss the great people, but I know I made a lot of lifelong friends there. Plus, this world of developer relations is not very big and there still aren’t very many “B2D” (business to developer) companies, so I expect our paths to cross often.
About half of Orchestrate’s small team is based in Portland, so I’ll have an office in town for the first time in more than a decade. I was lucky to have a handful of news organizations cover my career move:
- Portland startup gets an impresario ‘kingmaker’ as it builds an app developer community
- Orchestrate hires Adam DuVander to lead developer relations
- Playing a familiar tune: Adam DuVander joins Orchestrate as director of developer relations
And this post marks the third time I’ve written about this new job. On the Orchestrate blog I explained why I’m joining and at PIE (an incubator where I first met the founders) I talk about my earlier mentorship role in the company.
From the plot twist of 2008, when I moved from programming to writing about programming, each additional career move seems to have led to this role. Even this site, started in 2004, feels like part of the story–Orchestrate simplifies databases so developers can focus on what separates their story from everyone else.
There’s a lot of work to be completed on this next chapter, but it’s a draft I’m excited to write.
Thank you so much for all the things you’ve done to help the Portland startup scene. And for your tireless involvement in PIE. This really is a perfect match with you and Orchestrate.