Note — As of December 13th, 2013, I am no longer with Oak.

Today is a big day. I started working for myself a little over a year ago and it was the best decision I ever made. It provided me the opportunity to work on a number of incredibly challenging projects, all the while retaining a real sense of ownership. Most recently, I worked with Oak on their website publishing platform, Siteleaf. My contract only lasted a month, but once we shipped, I knew I couldn’t leave it at that. I felt truly invested in the app, and I knew that Siteleaf would be an invaluable tool for me moving forward.

I emailed Skylar. I thanked him for including me on Siteleaf, but I also proposed the idea of becoming a partner on Siteleaf. I would dedicate a couple days a week to its development and help Oak grow it into an essential tool for anyone working on the web. That was my plan. We met to discuss the idea, but he countered by proposing that I become a partner of Oak—I didn’t see that coming.

We discussed it for a while and everything seemed to make sense. From day one, we had a great rapport—our style and vision couldn’t be more inline. While on my own, I daydreamed of one day having a team to collaborate with. The nine months of solo development on TeuxDeux skewed my concept of time. What I could do in a month, Oak could do in a weekend. Working alone was also incredibly lonely. Even though I had a handful of others to talk to, I knew any forward progress was on me—no one else could fill in while I focused my attention elsewhere.

The more we talked, the more it became clear that joining Oak would not mean working for a company again. I would be a partner, building great products with the support of a team who shares my passion. Today is day one. Keep an eye on us.