Looking back on the WordPress NYC Meet Up 2011 Holiday Mixer, which of us could have known that we’d spend the rest of the winter huddled in downtown coffee shops, putting together a company and launching a website in time for WordCamp NYC 2012?
The answer is Dana, with whom I had collaborated on a few client projects. Dana introduced me to Kevin, Rindy and Andrew, and over the din of loud music and partying WordPressers, she described what she called a “workers’ cooperative” and asked us if we’d be interested in pooling our skills and resources to offer an expanded set of services to clients.
Somehow it all came together! Somehow, despite being mostly strangers to each other, we carved out time every other week to listen to each other’s ideas and cobble together a plan. And here we are, ready to introduce ourselves as Tadpole Collective. Tadpole was Dana’s idea, too, but in the spirit of a cooperative we always aim for consensus. In this case it wasn’t difficult. We all liked the Tadpole concept: a small creature, water-borne and vulnerable until it develops the legs it needs to stand firmly on solid ground.
While many things at Tadpole are only just starting to take shape themselves, we’re pretty well positioned to offer help to others. Between us, we have a pretty impressive and diverse set of skills and experience, if I do say so myself. Kevin’s background in server administration and database management has already come in handy as we get our operating framework in place, and Andy’s ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical people is going to ROCK our training program! Rindy just seems to be multi-talented: he can write, code — apparently he bakes, too. I’m around to offer SEO and general online marketing advice (which makes sense since that’s what I do for a living).
Dana, of course, demurs when I credit her with getting all this off the ground. Isn’t that just like her, wanting to share the credit? It’s in the spirit of sharing that tadpole.cc is born, a Community Collective in the truest sense.