Dries Buytaert’s Post

As many have already said, Acquia provided me with countless opportunities to grow. It's also the place where I formed many long time relationships with friends and colleagues (far too many to list here). I'm eternally grateful for the opportunities, mentorship, and relationships I formed in my time with Acquia. I could spend pages writing about experiences in my 12 years there, but one of my fondest memories was actually at my interview. I had flown out from Phoenix and spent the day meeting and interviewing with folks around the company (only about 50 people total at the time). I finally got to chat with you, Dries, toward the end of the day. We talked for a long time. So long that someone came in hounding you to get your clearly very overdue expense report done 😆 Instead of asking me to leave, you offered me to stay and hang out. You, me, and Heather McNamee (also in from out of town) hung out at your desk - chatting about who knows what - with Heather and I helping you sort through a massive pile of receipts. It was far more fun than it sounds. The levity of the whole situation, and how eager you were to spend your evening with someone you had never met before helped me see that Acquia was going to be a great place to work.

I can't believe it! While I came onboard in year 5, this is the longest I've ever worked with a company. I've always felt my work with Acquia is meaningful, and have felt like a part of the team. One of my favorite memories is working with Christopher Rogers & the LaunchSquad crew on D8...specifically when you all let us follow through with the idea to get a "bat signal" beamed on the side of a building in downtown Boston!

I remember Acquia being talked about at Drupalcon Szeged 2008. A lot of Drupal fans were scared that a company from the Drupal founder would eat up the existing ecosystem of companies around Drupal. And a bunch of the most talented Drupal people being recruited by Acquia. Luckily, over time everyone could witness Acquia helps taking Drupal and its community to the next level, year after year.

Congrats Dries! I remember walking through your first office location (was it Woburn?) and seeing a still somewhat empty space decorated with some kind simulated campground set up and a fake palm tree. You folks have come a long way!

Congrats Dries Buytaert. I remember working with Jay Batson in the spring and summer of 2007 to raise the initial funding for Acquia - while you were finishing your Ph'D and prior to your decision to join Acquia full time. So many fun memories of the early days - launching a company while organizing Drupalcon Boston at the same time (why did we agree to do that?!?), all company support days, the glass conference room in the middle of the office in Andover, the all company trip to Puerto Rico (epic!), the craziness of the all company week at Bentley College, the decision to support all of Drupal (erase the box altogether), building the plan for Fields and Gardens, getting yelled at repeatedly in bars for raising venture capital (you guys are ruining it), hosting the first partner day to a skeptical room full of Drupal agencies at DCon Paris, it goes on and on. It was a hell of a ride. Kudos to everyone who went on the journey.

I wrote a little something when I celebrated 10 years! https://anavarre.net/10-years-at-acquia 😘

Acquia changed so many of our fortunes. More importantly, it opened doors for #OpenSource software to enter the enterprise market worldwide, filling the vendor-level support gap that corporate buyers need. Congratulations to you and everyone who built Acquia along the way, Dries Buytaert. I started in 2008 as the 18th employee and most junior member of Engineering (I was in Engineering when we had ONE SINGLE scrum team). I wrote documentation, tested what we were building, and worked on acquia.com (Code and content! In the beginning, we all did some of everything, and every email went to everybody@). I left as one of a proud 900+, having moved to and through Marketing, community sponsorship and support, evangelism, communication, blogging, podcasting, and representing Drupal and Acquia at so, so many events.  So many memories. I was there when we planned how supporting Drupal could even work, when we decided to offer support for all of Drupal (aka "Big Tent" ... shoutout to Kent Gale!) rather than just core and a specific set of modules, and when Barry Jaspan, Michael Booth, and co. were inventing #CloudHosting and we were running up AMAZING AWS bills on test instances :-P ... con't ...

I started in year 4 of Acquia, and have since spent almost quarter of my working life here, learning and growing from all the genius, being inspired by the dedication to do better and push the envelope, and basking in being surrounded by fellow contributors, Drupalists, and people dedicated to doing their best. Loved it! Still love it!

Congrats Dries and Acquia team! The State of Georgia being one of the early adopters of Drupal and cloud, have partnered with Acquia for the last 12 years! Wishing you and Acquia all the growth and success in the future.

2012-2019 .... An absolutely transformative experience. The job I had just previous was a tour overseas. Acquia bet on me as a veteran and as a person when I really didn't have a startup resume. I had an opportunity to rise based on merit, a career broadening experience and a chance to write a new story. So many smart and talented people, so many complex client scenarios, so much great and new cloud tech: the things I learned at Acquia I've used every day after. But the most precious and enduring thing I've received from Acquia are the life long relationships. Thanks, Dries. I'm honored to have been part of the journey.