Thank you Metacube: End Of An Era!

An old adage states – “All good things come to an end”. As cliché as it sounds, I strongly believe that our lives are an aggregation of journeys and we’re all travellers. When one journey ends, another one begins. And my 11+ year old journey with Metacube is coming to an end this week.

When I look back, It’s been a fulfilling and immensely satisfying voyage encompassing more than a decade and I couldn’t be more thankful to the Metacube team for all the learnings, good times and relationships I’ve built over the years.

While I’m gearing up for my next challenge, I can’t help reflect on the past 11 years and how the bond grew stronger with each passing year.

2007 – The Beginning

When I walked into the Metacube office for the first time in year 2007, I was heading into the unknown. Until then, I had been working on protocol stacks & device drivers and was engaged in a small Fax over IP (FoIP) startup back then (Fax was a huge thing back in those years!). I had worked in large companies as well as tasted the startup work culture and I was unsure of what was in store for me at Metacube. On the other hand, I was desperate to move back to Jaipur to take care of my ailing father and although it involved a complete switch of technology, Metacube seemed like the best option available and I decided to pursue it.

Back then, the company was relatively small – less than 70 people and to put things in perspective, as I leave in a few days, Metacube will be well over 700 employees & I hope to walk out with a sense of pride and accomplishment of having contributed to that growth.

Here’s a picture of a colourful celebration from the early days in Metacube

I was still in my late 20s, leaner by nearly 20Kgs and no grey hair – fun times:) It started off with small teams of 2-3 members which gradually scaled up over the years.

2009 – Mobile Practice is born!

While I spent the first couple of years managing small projects and engagements, I believe year 2009 was when things really stepped up & we setup the mobile practice. Smartphones were still in an in-fancy stage and it was a good experience starting off with Symbian and QT before we became early adopters of the iOS & Android bandwagon.

I consider the mobile practice era to be my golden days at Metacube. We hired some amazing folks, built some really cool apps and worked with some amazing clients. The teams went on to win awards and recognition at several avenues and the learning culture was un-paralleled.

This picture is from the days when we were still growing the mobile practice – and it would eventually reach around 35 members before we re-aligned everything to projects rather than a separate practice.

While the practice came to a logical end, my learnings never stopped and till date, I continue to be hands-on in building apps (as they say, Once a developer, always a developer!)

2012 – Stepping up in the Salesforce Ecosystem!

While I got introduced to Salesforce as early as 2008, I believe year 2012 was a transformational year for me in many ways. Until then, we had a few clients who used Salesforce and although things were going well,  I believe we at Metacube had only scratched the tip of the iceberg.

Our teams won a couple of global contests launched by Salesforce (here and here), we were active in the community via several avenues and it was very satisfying that Salesforce actually invited us to present at Dreamforce 2012.

This session will forever be etched in memory as it was the beginning of my special relationship with Dreamforce! To say that I was nervous would be an understatement, but it was a pleasant surprise when a gentleman walked up to the stage after my session stating that we’d love to work with you and your team!

It’s very satisfying that six years since then, the bond between Metacube and the mentioned client continues to grow with a strong working relationship!

Of course, there’re so many other beautiful memories but only if I could write about each one of them!

2016 – 2018 – Re-alignment

To say that I had my hands-full all these years would be putting it modestly, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Around a couple of years back, I decided to re-align my role to a have a more strategic impact and move out of the day to day delivery cycles. I had the full support of Metacube founders and it allowed me to spend more time with the community, experiment with a few initiatives – all while staying in the mix of things and making an impact.

We grew our relationship stronger with Salesforce, moving up the ladder to become Silver & Master – PDO Specialist partners.

*Logos courtesy Salesforce Partner Program

And I’m sure that Metacube will continue to move up the value chain in the Salesforce ecosystem in the years to come! It was an honour for me to be the public face of Metacube at several forums inside the Salesforce ecosystem.

I’ve full confidence in the new leaders that have stepped up in the last few years at Metacube that the company is in good hands for the next several years.

The Founders

I’ll always be incredibly thankful to the founders at Metacube for instilling their trust and belief in me through these years. I went through some challenging times on the personal front during these years and it was comforting to have their back when I needed it the most.

I got a chance to work with both of them closely over the years and I’ll always cherish these interactions for the rest of my life. I wish them good luck and my best wishes will always be with Metacube.

To Colleagues & Clients

I’ve been fortunate to be involved from grass-root level at Metacube, being involved in our campus and lateral hiring programs, working closely with support functions – Human Resources, Admin, Finance and others – there’s just too many people to thank!

To all colleagues with whom I worked, thank you and I hope I leave you with some joyful memories and some good learnings.

To all clients, thank you for your support and I hope I & my teams lived up to your expectations. It was a great experience for me to work with you!

To Sum it up!

Those who know me closely know that I’m very passionate about everything I do. If there was a single picture that sums up my life for the last 11 years, it would be this one – my wife, my kids and the Metacube logo in the background.

There’re very few occasions in life when I’m short of words and this would have to be one of them. As they say, A picture is worth a thousand words so I’ll sign off with few recent pics from my last few days with Metacube.

What next?

While I look back at the last 11 years with satisfaction and contentment, I’m equally excited for the challenge that lies ahead for me. Stay tuned for the next chapter in my book to unfold shortly!

The legendary Steve Jobs has a great influence of my personal and professional life so I’ll wrap it up with one of his most memorable quotes.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice.

And most important have the courage to follow your heart & intuition.

They somehow already know what you truly want to become.

Wishing everyone Happy Holidays, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Gaurav

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