Introducing Neil

Yesterday, I outlined our development re-organization. Specifically, that my co-director, Neil Main, would be taking over as Product Manager for Web Helper Browser, freeing up my time to focus on Oriador Rota. As I signed off the post, I wrote "More on Neil tomorrow...", so, a little later than planned, here goes.

Neil and I met many years ago when he was thriving as a freelance contractor to my previous employer, developing various databases and applications. Neil's example sparked my curiosity in the independent life, and he was largely responsible for me getting started. A few years after we met, his offer to send some surplus freelance work in my direction gave me the perfect opportunity to break free from the 9-5 world and head out on my own. After surviving another couple of years, crossing paths on occasional projects, we decided to formalize our relationship by creating V4 Solutions. It wasn't all plain sailing, and it took us another couple of years to figure out that an ISV was the best type of company for us to run, but we managed to keep it together.

Neil and I are very different. Where I'm essentially a young Windows child, Neil is a grizzled Unix veteran. When I'm looking for something to do right now, Neil will be looking off into the distance for a big picture. Where I can handle written communication and email conversations, Neil is much more effective in person and over the phone. When Neil gets excited about some new idea or technology, I think I'm still young enough to learn it quickly and get something working. When Neil has 10 new product ideas before breakfast, I'm there to crush his dreams with the practicalities and point out that we have enough on our plate already.

I don't fully understand why we work well together, we rarely agree on anything, but we have managed to craft a situation in which we both have enough authority to push ahead our better ideas and a perfect devil's advocate to weed out most of the really stupid ones.

I'm sure a fair share of you would rather be reading what Neil has to say about all this, so you might be wondering where you can find his blog. This presents a great opportunity to link to a post on Guerilla Consulting, the excellent marketing blog. Neil is one of those consultants who shouldn't blog, so for now you'll have to make do with me (if you ever decide to give us a call you'll probably end up talking to Neil, and I'm sure you'll like him). Actually, reading the comments on that post brings up an interesting idea, I'm sure Neil could be an effective audio or video blogger. Maybe I'll suggest he think about producing podcasts or videos as he stamps his mark on Web Helper Browser.