I had dinner with Zack Urlocker (EVP of Products at MySQL) and Luis Sala (one of my very best hires, ever) last night in San Diego. We talked about a wide range of things, but spent a fair amount of time talking about the people at MySQL, and especially the management team. Zack has recently been sporting long hair (pictured at right) and was pretty open about the nature of the people with whom he works.
He didn't say this, but the description I inferred from the conversation was "confident but humble." Those of you who know Zack, or Marten, or Mark, etc. will probably be nodding your heads at this point. I've yet to meet at jerk at MySQL. There's something about the culture that demands performance but doesn't gloat about it.
It makes being around the MySQL team very pleasant. (Yes, even you, Mark. :-)
I think this is exceptionally important to an open source company. Why? Because no one has figured it out completely. The minute you grow complacent, you lose, because the best of open source has yet to come. The best things I've done or learned in open source have sprung from need, need born of ignorance about how to solve a business problem.
Culture is one of the primary reasons I believe MySQL will succeed. The company is doing well, but not pretending to have won, or even to know what winning means just yet. Someday the MySQL team will be baking in a sauna somewhere and the thought will hit them that they "won."
They'll smile, pour on more water, let out a wild "Bork! Bork! Bork!"
And life goes on.
Posted by Matt Asay on May 10, 2007 08:11 PM
