Description: Joaquim Rocha's blog
This end of year post (single post in the year actually, as it’s been for a couple of years) is costing me more energy to get started than others. Maybe because, like many people, I am pretty much trying to get past 2021 and what the pandemic entailed another year. Yet, with all the negative that 2021 has had, I am very lucky that this year was still a very interesting and good one for me.
Professionally, 2021 started already very well for me since I had the chance to hire two very good people to grow my team at Kinvolk. Still, the biggest highlight for my professional life in 2021 was indeed that Kinvolk was acquired by Microsoft , into Azure to be more specific. This not only made me feel very happy and proud that my friends bootstrapped Kinvolk to become a successful company (the acquisition was another sign of that), but also very curious because it meant joining Microsoft.
There are certainly challenges in such a huge company, especially when joining from a multiple times smaller one, but the people I have met, their energy and will, the work itself and the possibilities we’re given, have all been wonderful. Even things like adapting to the shifting work experience by having a hybrid work approach are exactly what I think makes sense for companies to retain and attract talent while keeping productive and competitive.