On the Road Again

Things always start in an unassuming way, don’t they? Having recently returned from a short paternity leave, the Tembo CTO wanted a short meeting last Friday morning, and I assumed it was so he could catch up with our projects. Instead, he informed me that the company was changing direction, and my services would no longer be necessary. I knew the company was beginning a sharp pivot, but was hoping my project would survive the tumult. No such luck.

This is one of the many potential risks when working in a startup which has only recently won its Series A funding. A coworker and I were essentially working on a long-term education initiative to drive traffic and prospective developers to Tembo. Instead, that foundational work has likely been shelved indefinitely while Tembo ignites some new internal engineering objective. I will be negotiating to obtain the rights to that content so it can survive in some form. Who knows, maybe it’ll appear in my next book?

I don’t fault them for it. A series of in-depth guides, documentation, and how-to articles regularly released over the course of a year can easily appear like a cost center with questionable ROI. A larger enterprise can easily bear that kind of long-term investment, but if a startup feels like it has lost focus and needs to bump up their ARR, guess what’s likely the first sacrifice?

I’m not privy to what Tembo is doing next, but I’m sure it’s something groundbreaking. The Postgres market is quickly becoming saturated with companies like Nile, Neon, Supabase, Crunchy, Postgres.AI, and several others releasing genuinely monumental and innovative technology. Tembo has a good thing going with Trunk, and David Wheeler is leading the charge in standardizing Postgres extensions in a way that will make distributing and installing them much easier. If I were a betting man, I’d say they’re going to announce some great advancement in the extension ecosystem.

The effect on me is obviously inconvenient, but being a professional in high demand has its perks. It’s about time I finally start an LLC anyway, though I may delay until January purely for tax and yearly fee purposes. I’m normally incredibly risk-averse, but having worked with a startup and surviving the experience, I’m not as afraid to abandon the world of regular salaried gigs. I turned down several contracts while at Tembo, so I’m curious how that side of the industry lives.

Wish me luck!