Living to Do What You Want to Do (or why b5media is the best funded company around)
About a year ago, I began working with b5media on a limited basis. I was contracted to migrate the About Weblogs network blogs into b5media – a job that included having to write a custom importer for WordPress which would migrate the content from Nucleus CMS. Little did I know at that time that doing so would eventually lead to today. In December, I started a new blog, Emerging Earth, in the Technology Channel, a channel that I would someday be in charge of. In February, I volunteered to spearhead a new Channel, the Sports Channel and we launched Light the Torch which covered the Olympic games in Turino. It was the first time we opened up a blog to be a group blog that was open for anyone to post on – and we did it well for the most part.
Later in February, we moved the fledgling b5media network to a robust cluster (well it was robust for the time) and I assumed the mantle of systems administrator. We saw the network grow to almost 150 blogs, monthly network pageview statistics that make me sweat, several denial of service attacks that caused me to take my lunch break early to put down, as well as several hack attempts (some successful, some not).
It’s been a learning experience all the way and when the directors of b5media clued me in to the fact that they were going to explore the possibility of getting venture capital funds and that, if successful, they wanted to bring me on fulltime, I was elated.
Truth be told, I began looking on to my next venture back in February – I even hit some speedbumps. Back in July, we had even planned on moving to Virginia (though that is not in the near future) and had mentioned I was quitting my job with Northrop Grumman. I couldn’t go into details at the time. However, today I put in my resignation notice effective October 18th and now I can tell you why.
b5media is now a fully funded company and here’s the reasoning of Rick Segal of JLA Ventures, one of our VCs. (For the record, Brightspark is the other VC). By that, I mean, the founding partners have raised $2M in investment capital that will allow us as a network to grow beyond where we currently are. It will also allow me, as a core team member, to go full time and help make this amazing thing grow. I will be joining b5media full time as the Technology Manager, but I think Technology Architect/Strategist is more descriptive.
We have a number of large projects in the near future that will demand my time and attention. Notably, we plan to move to what I like to refer to as “Nuclear Proof” infrastructure. Our humble cluster of three servers are reaching their max and though they have done well for us (no noticeably obnoxious downtime, ya’ll?) so far, we believe our future lies in a more robust system. We have our plans and we march forward.
Also a key component of my job is going to be to spearhead some major development jobs. I won’t be doing most of it. We’ll outsource some and as money allows, we may even hire a developer or two in the months ahead. But I’ll be responsible for the deliverables.
We have other things that need attention. As the network grows (and exponential growth is expected now that we have passed this hurdle), the demands for WordPress support grows. This will include examining our current infrastructure, determining security risks in plugins and templates, and addressing those concerns as well as helping our bloggers use the tool to write. We want them to simply write and not be concerned about the technical stuff.
In the next weeks and months, my schedule is already filling up. In a few weeks, I may be headed away for a long weekend, then in November, I expect to be at Ad:Tech and the Techcrunch 8 party in NYC. Next spring, I’ll be at SXSW’07 in Austin, Texas and I’m sure more will pop up between now and then.
So that’s that from this end of the world. I’ve been dying because I have not been able to tell anyone what was happening. But it’s happening. It’s happened. It’s going to happen. Congrats, b5media!
Update: For the sake of posterity, let’s monitor Technorati mentions of b5media, shall we? :)
Posts that contain B5media per day for the last 30 days.
Get your own chart!
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Written by Aaron Brazell on October 4, 2006
Popularity: 1% [?]
Aaron Brazell
Steven Fisher
Ray Capece
Carlos Granier-Phelps
Andrew Feinberg
Mike Dougherty
Chris Bachmann
Leslie Poston
Jerald Sheets
Scott Goldblatt
Mykel Nahorniak
Peter Corbett
Jonathan Dingman
Geoff Livingston
Jeremy Toeman
Rachel James
Chris Parandian
Warren Sukernek
Joseph Hauckes
Shana Glickfield
Vinnie Garcia
David Nick
Duncan Riley
Carol Ott
Darren McLaughlin
Mike Oliver
Rico Masterson
Lou P. Nuts
Oh goodie, you are coming to TX – you will be about an hour from me. :)
And everyone knows you deserve where you have landed Aaron, great job and I can’t wait to see how far everyone goes with this.
Oh goodie, you are coming to TX – you will be about an hour from me. :)
Oh goodie, you are coming to TX – you will be about an hour from me. :)
Oh goodie, you are coming to TX – you will be about an hour from me. :)
Oh goodie, you are coming to TX – you will be about an hour from me. :)
Oh goodie, you are coming to TX – you will be about an hour from me. :)
When you need some code slung fast, you know where to find me. I’ll be sure and charge my extra-special “the venture capitalists are paying for it” rates. :)
And everyone knows you deserve where you have landed Aaron, great job and I can’t wait to see how far everyone goes with this.
And everyone knows you deserve where you have landed Aaron, great job and I can’t wait to see how far everyone goes with this.
And everyone knows you deserve where you have landed Aaron, great job and I can’t wait to see how far everyone goes with this.
And everyone knows you deserve where you have landed Aaron, great job and I can’t wait to see how far everyone goes with this.
And everyone knows you deserve where you have landed Aaron, great job and I can’t wait to see how far everyone goes with this.
Christina: Look out!
Jim: Thanks, I’m looking forward to it as well.
Michael: You got it. ;)
When you need some code slung fast, you know where to find me. I’ll be sure and charge my extra-special “the venture capitalists are paying for it” rates. :)
When you need some code slung fast, you know where to find me. I’ll be sure and charge my extra-special “the venture capitalists are paying for it” rates. :)
When you need some code slung fast, you know where to find me. I’ll be sure and charge my extra-special “the venture capitalists are paying for it” rates. :)
When you need some code slung fast, you know where to find me. I’ll be sure and charge my extra-special “the venture capitalists are paying for it” rates. :)
When you need some code slung fast, you know where to find me. I’ll be sure and charge my extra-special “the venture capitalists are paying for it” rates. :)
nice to finally officially have you as part of the paid team – this is going to be fun :-)
Christina: Look out!
Jim: Thanks, I’m looking forward to it as well.
Michael: You got it. ;)
Christina: Look out!
Jim: Thanks, I’m looking forward to it as well.
Michael: You got it. ;)
Christina: Look out!
Jim: Thanks, I’m looking forward to it as well.
Michael: You got it. ;)
Christina: Look out!
Jim: Thanks, I’m looking forward to it as well.
Michael: You got it. ;)
Christina: Look out!
Jim: Thanks, I’m looking forward to it as well.
Michael: You got it. ;)
Hey, congratulations! :-)
nice to finally officially have you as part of the paid team – this is going to be fun :-)
nice to finally officially have you as part of the paid team – this is going to be fun :-)
nice to finally officially have you as part of the paid team – this is going to be fun :-)
nice to finally officially have you as part of the paid team – this is going to be fun :-)
nice to finally officially have you as part of the paid team – this is going to be fun :-)
Hey, congratulations! :-)
Hey, congratulations! :-)
Hey, congratulations! :-)
Hey, congratulations! :-)
Hey, congratulations! :-)
Many congrats Aaron – you deserve it. I’m really glad it’s working out for you. It can be painful getting there (I feel and hope that I’m a few steps behind you, maybe) but if you really believe in something it can happen. Still not sure why you left bluefish though :) (kidding) I’m hoping similar things are going to happen this side of the pond
Many congrats Aaron – you deserve it. I’m really glad it’s working out for you. It can be painful getting there (I feel and hope that I’m a few steps behind you, maybe) but if you really believe in something it can happen. Still not sure why you left bluefish though :) (kidding) I’m hoping similar things are going to happen this side of the pond
Many congrats Aaron – you deserve it. I’m really glad it’s working out for you. It can be painful getting there (I feel and hope that I’m a few steps behind you, maybe) but if you really believe in something it can happen. Still not sure why you left bluefish though :) (kidding) I’m hoping similar things are going to happen this side of the pond
Many congrats Aaron – you deserve it. I’m really glad it’s working out for you. It can be painful getting there (I feel and hope that I’m a few steps behind you, maybe) but if you really believe in something it can happen. Still not sure why you left bluefish though :) (kidding) I’m hoping similar things are going to happen this side of the pond
Many congrats Aaron – you deserve it. I’m really glad it’s working out for you. It can be painful getting there (I feel and hope that I’m a few steps behind you, maybe) but if you really believe in something it can happen. Still not sure why you left bluefish though :) (kidding) I’m hoping similar things are going to happen this side of the pond
Many congrats Aaron – you deserve it. I’m really glad it’s working out for you. It can be painful getting there (I feel and hope that I’m a few steps behind you, maybe) but if you really believe in something it can happen. Still not sure why you left bluefish though :) (kidding) I’m hoping similar things are going to happen this side of the pond
That’s great! I hope you get some nice stock options.
That’s great! I hope you get some nice stock options.
That’s great! I hope you get some nice stock options.
That’s great! I hope you get some nice stock options.
That’s great! I hope you get some nice stock options.
That’s great! I hope you get some nice stock options.
truely EXCELLENT news! finally you are getting the props you deserve and have worked hard for!
Congratulations from a fellow Baltimorean! So I guess this means you are staying in town?