McAulay moves on
After the sale of Gravity Lab in 2006, ran by Graeme Benzie and myself, I joined forces with Stuart Ebdy and Mike Duguid and founded East Coast Interactive. Over the following 4+ years we grew the company into a well regarded digital media agency. Today, in March 2010, I have decided, after many months of careful consideration and much discussion with friends and family to leave "my baby".
Really?
Anyone who has had the gritty determination and lets face it, the balls to set up their own agency can tell you how difficult a decision like this actually is. Its not simply a case of "swapping jobs", "moving on" or "finding a new challenge" although these things do form some part of the decision. The emotional attachment I have to East Coast Interactive is very strong and I consider my co-founders and colleagues to be friends. The decision to part company is an amicable one and I know I can still have a beer and talk digital media down the pub with them like we've done for years.
East Coast Interactive will continue to grow in reputation and offering without my direct involvement, of this, I have no doubt. The groundwork has been done and with the guys there at the helm, continued hard graft and the client base that has been built up over the years, there can only be a good outcome in the long term. I consider myself very fortunate to have been part of the company we have collectively built. We've delivered some outstanding, and at times cutting edge work to clients the world over. I know the guys will do very well in the future and I leave as a friend. Whats next?As of right now, I have nothing lined up and will start the process of looking for a new full time job so if you're looking to hire someone in the Aberdeen area with 10+ years experience at virtually every level in digital media then I may just be an option to investigate. I've not entirely ruled out the possibility of freelancing either and have an idea that i've been mulling over for many years which may come into play also. Now that I have some spare time, I may even get around to finishing my personal website http://funcy.co.uk and I may have more time to blog here on the cool stuff i've been teaching myself or maybe i'll do more OS work and start contributing stuff on my super inactive github account. Lets see what happens...I'm looking forward to it.
Late nights are not a thing of the past...
Running your own agency becomes a huge part of your life and every waking hour is spent on it. It is both a blessing and a curse. This is a situation I've been fortunate enough to experience twice now with both Gravity Lab and East Coast Interactive. I'll still stay up late hacking out code and exploring design ideas because it's my passion to do so, I'll just have more time to focus on new "toys" and further enhance what I am capable of delivering.
East Coast Interactive FTW...
East Coast Interactive will continue to grow in reputation and offering without my direct involvement, of this, I have no doubt. The groundwork has been done and with the guys there at the helm, continued hard graft and the client base that has been built up over the years, there can only be a good outcome in the long term. I consider myself very fortunate to have been part of the company we have collectively built. We've delivered some outstanding, and at times cutting edge work to clients the world over. I know the guys will do very well in the future and I leave as a friend. Whats next?As of right now, I have nothing lined up and will start the process of looking for a new full time job so if you're looking to hire someone in the Aberdeen area with 10+ years experience at virtually every level in digital media then I may just be an option to investigate. I've not entirely ruled out the possibility of freelancing either and have an idea that i've been mulling over for many years which may come into play also. Now that I have some spare time, I may even get around to finishing my personal website http://funcy.co.uk and I may have more time to blog here on the cool stuff i've been teaching myself or maybe i'll do more OS work and start contributing stuff on my super inactive github account. Lets see what happens...I'm looking forward to it.
