JAG’s Next?? has some comments on his next moves. Mostly taking some time off right away, but, from there…
These are interesting and challenging times. The global economy is showing signs of life and the technological landscape has some pretty interesting terrain, despite the apparent consolidation of the industry through a rash of acquisitions. Here in Silicon Valley, starting a company has become pretty tough: the traditional method of getting funding from venture capitalists has largely fallen apart. A couple of key factors have been the poor health of the financial markets, making exit strategies hard to come by; and the expensive and grotesque mockery that SOX compliance has become. But bootstrap funding can be workable for service and support businesses, which is a common model in the open source world. Given that a central pillar of Oracle’s acquisition methodology is making job offers that involve a (often significant) salary cut, there are lots of talented folks leaving and trying to figure out what to do next in their lives. One significant positive impact looks like it’s going to be the creation of a whole pile of small businesses. It’s already happening, and I’m sure there will be a lot more.
