Sunday, April 11, 2010

Working for the man

My last day at Rackspace was April 2. As of the 6th I'm officially the co-founder of a Delaware C-corp, Riptano.

On the one hand, I'm a lot more nervous about this than I've ever been looking for a job. Partly because, with one exception -- two if you count the company that didn't pay me for my last 3 months of working for them -- I've always found a new job before quitting the old one. Riptano doesn't have funding yet, and if and when it does, my co-founder and I have agreed to pay ourselves far below market rate to leave more to hire other people. But I think more because with job interviews, if you don't get an offer, there's always other places to try. If Riptano fails, it's going to be a lot more public.

On the other hand, it's only been a week and I already have trouble imagining going back to working for someone else. (This could be problematic in that public failure scenario!)

We don't have offices yet; we're just working from home so far. In my case I am literally working out of a closet. It is actually a nice large closet, and I will post pictures if I ever clean it up a little more. It has an air vent, so when I need to close the door to keep out marauding one-year-olds I don't bake to death. All it needs now is a mini-fridge.

5 comments:

GoodReason said...

The very best of luck to you, and the whole family!

Adrasteia said...

I wish you incredible piles of good luck. This is a very brave step. I don't know that I'd have the stones to step out on my own like this. Well done and I'm sure you'll be a smashing success!

abby said...

Now you can explain to me why every corporation is a Delaware corporation.

Jonathan Ellis said...

I preemptively linked an explanation because that is the first thing everyone asks. :)

Unknown said...

Congratulations Jonathan!