New challenge ahead: Thank you Microsoft! Hello Autocosmos!
After almost six years and a half, I’m leaving my job at Microsoft, to join Autocosmos.com as CTO next March. Leaving Microsoft has not been an easy decision at all but I’m extremely excited about my new challenge. I’d like to share a few words to thank many folks I had the opportunity to work with these years, reflect on some of our achievements, and share some insights about my next role at Autocosmos.
My road at Microsoft
I joined Microsoft in November, 2007 as Developer Evangelist for the Microsoft South Cone region. A few eras ago if you think so in terms of our software industry: Facebook or Twitter were not very popular, smart phones where almost exclusively used by business people, Software as a Service was already in the streets, but no one would mention The Cloud unless referring to weather conditions. Microsoft had just started focusing on revamping its Web stack, releasing a promising project known as ASP.NET MVC, making it more friendly to work with client code on the web. It had also surprised many people by open-sourcing it, which eventually became a common practice within the ASP.NET and eventually all .NET code was opened to be downloaded and inspected. Since then, the company has really evolved a lot. Windows Azure is an extremely open and mature platform. Windows has been (and still is being) completely reimagined, making it more touch-friendly, and able to run in smaller and lighter mobile devices. Internet Explorer is no longer the browser developers hate, and .NET is no longer the only choice on Microsoft platform, but you have lots of other options. Office is not just an app you run on Windows, but really a service you can access from any device in the street.
Innovation is not the easy road. The easy rode is to stay who you are, and keep cashing in (especially when you are already making a lot of cash). I love Microsoft for its constant determination to keep being relevant and significant in an amazingly evolving industry. I am really proud of having been part of that road, working closely with developers and companies who were also able to innovate and dedicate their time, resources and passion, trusting on Microsoft, our partners and myself to do so.
Thank you guys
I am so gratefully of all the people I got to meet and learn from along the road. I had the opportunity to work closely with an amazing bunch of guys known as MVPs. I have many mentors and teachers along this crowd… I know I am not fair mentioning just some of them, but who would ever think I would have the opportunity to work with people like Daniel Seara (perdón Dani que “blogueo” en inglés), Diego Gonzalez, Daniel Laco, Rodolfo Finochietti, Leandro Olivestro, Eugenio Serrano, Carlos Perez, Carlos Walzer, Fabian Imaz, Daniel Cazzulino, Martin Salias, Victor Garcia Aprea, Juan Pablo Garcia (now a collegue at Microsoft), Luis Hereira, Mauricio Grimberg, Matias Iacono, Jose Mercenaro, Matias Woloski, Maximiliano Acotto, Andres Aguiar… Amazing people that not only collaborated with Microsoft, but also had a really strong voice on how we could improve our work, and impacted directly on who I would became as an evangelist.
I am especially grateful with the Microsoft User Group, and my friend Oscar Turquet. The MUG mission is probably unique around the world. It has helped thousands of professionals in Argentina to make a better and more efficient use of technology, while creating a fantastic community around it. We have achieved amazing things working together, and I personally learnt a lot from Oscar leadership and passion for nurturing true friendships along the country. Gracias Oscar!
I am also extremely grateful of the many students, developers and ITPros that directly participated in hundreds of events, webcasts, blogs, etc, participating as speakers, arranging a hall to give a speech, calling out the press in some cities, inviting attendees. In the student community, some of them were recognized as MSPs. We absolutely loved working with you guys, and we were always extremely humbled with your collaboration. I hope we helped in your career development as much as you did on mine. I also appreciate a lot the many Universities, deans, teachers, who supported many of our initiatives, prividing their facilities and time (remember CodeCamps?).
During the past two years, I moved away from community engagement, and focused on Microsoft’s landing of it’s Devices and Services strategy. Working closely with multiple brands in Argentina and Uruguay, building their mobile experience on Windows devices, or using the cloud with Windows Azure. I cannot be more grateful with all our customers who believed in Microsoft technology, and allowed me to collaborate with them in their mobile strategy definition. While most of my previous experience had been on the web, I learnt so much from our customers about how to be succesful on mobile ecosystems as well.
I may have visited several dozens of customers, but few or none of those project would have been succesful without some of ourMicrosoft Partners. Lagash, Kinetica, Innicia, FX2, Orugga — you have an amazing talent, we share the same passion for technology and customer satisfaction, and I’ve always considered you guys part of my team. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!
Finally, I am so grateful about the talented teams I got to be part of at Microsoft. Some of these people is still in Microsoft Argentina, some of them moved to Microsoft Latam or Corp. Some of them are now part of other companies. I could never really identified what’s in Microsoft hiring process that brings in people with that much passion, commitment and creativity to solve big challenges. I made great friend, had incredible leaders, and learnt from the best managers I could have. I respect Microsoft employees for not choosing the easy road. Thank you all.
I may be missing many people on the thank you list, but it’s time to share about my next trip.
Joining Autocosmos.com
Autocosmos.com has a long history on the Web. It has been out there for over 14 years, extending their presence in several countries in Latin America becoming the leader automotive website in the region. Millions of users visit Autocosmos.com (organically) every month, either to find information about their current or next car, know what’s going on in the industry, or to buy or sell a vehicle. Autocosmos also has deep connections with many of the big players on the automotive industry, partnering with them to improve and innovate in their businesses.
I have a passion for product development. Especially when it comes to improve people lives by allowing them to take better decisions. People no longer take a buying decision, without reaching out the web to form their opinion, and by the time they reach a salesman, many times they have deep knowledge of the product their buying. Autocosmos.com plays an interesting part in it, and still have a lot of opportunities to explore. I am so excited to learn deeply about its current business and how to take advantage of the many opportunities the web has to offer. From mobile devices, to social, social graphs, big data and the cloud. I also have a lot to learn from the team I will become part of, and I believe we will be able to create great things together.
Change is never easy, but it feels so exciting. I expect to blog more actively in the future, in order to share some of the technical decisions and ideas I will be reviewing in the months ahead. I expect to keep participating actively in the community, so we might probably bump on either on the web, or at an event.
One of my mentors, Tim Osborn, once recommended me: always make sure to be significant with the work you do, making an impact on the people around you. I always thrived to do so, and in many cases I achieved it.
If we had the opportunity to work together in the past, or you just want to say hi, I’ll really appreciate your comment at the bottom.
Miguel.