“But the sun is gonna come up the very next day. It’s gonna to be so
bright it’s gonna blow you away…”
– Wayne Coyne (The Flaming Lips)

I’ve been so excited about the re-launching of Make & Build, that I’ve vacillated on what to write at least 40 times. It’s hard to share what has been going on these past months without it feeling overwhelming. So, I’ll try to keep this high level…but I promise to communicate more details soon, as there is much to share.

Let’s start with the basics:
• Make & Build has relaunched & engaged! We are independently owned & operated now.

• This re-launch is helmed by myself & John Brothers…but there are some from M&B 1.0, as well as others from different stages across my career that we are reconnecting with to rebuild our Leadership team. Even so, we’ll likely be hiring this Summer, so stay tuned to our Careers page when it goes live.

• Beyond the Architecture, Development & Integration project work we’ve been known for…we’re laser-focused on producing Enablement Solutions Agencies (ESA). ESAs build professional services ecosystems around powerful (but poorly supported) technical products, which make them effective at solving all kinds of problems that crop up in the biggest companies.

• The 1st ESA has already rocketed off the drawing board & is actively engaged on several concurrent efforts. It is named PACLabs (Policy As Code Laboratories), and it is targeted at the intersection of Authorization & Access Control challenges for large enterprises. PACLabs is solving many of these enterprise grade challenges w/ Policy As Code cornerstone technologies like Open Policy Agent (OPA) & Rego. More info about this adventure can be found here: www.paclabs.io

• BTW, if any of that previous bullet made sense to you professionally…you’ll be happy to hear we are presenting a brand-new webinar w/ our friends @ Styra on April 11th . You can come hear us talk about Entitlement Explosion Repair, a huge issue for many regulated business sectors…or I can post a link below w/ the recording once it is available. More info & registration

Link here: https://www.styra.com/resources/webinars/entitlement-explosion-repair/

I’m going to share a good bit more about this ESA initiative in the coming weeks. Early results indicate that this way of attacking large corporate business challenges w/ targeted Professional Services might be a game-changer. Breathing life into this new way of thinking w/ John has been one of the most joyful things I’ve done to date.

I couldn’t close this without expressing my deepest gratitude to all the people in all corners of my life that took my calls, listened to stuff that sounded crazy, encouraged me, reminded me who / what I was, challenged my assumptions, reconnected w/ me after a LONG time….I could go on.

Thank you especially to John Brothers. You helped to create all the parts to this Professional Services foundry that couldn’t have made without you. Your selflessness, friendship & loyalty was essential in helping me to confidently push through all the tedious things that needed to be done / learned / implemented / thought of.

I appreciate all of your often very good ideas, and you have been a huge part of how my days went from the black & white part of The Wizard of Oz & turned into the full Technicolor pageantry of when the house lands & they open the door.

Here’s to opening lots of new doors…