David Conlisk have posted some great minutes from the UK Umbraco Meetup last week including some super relevant questions and critisism on umbraco. I'll try to answer most of them, but this blog post is all about one of them and it's a "regular guest":
"What is the long term plan for Umbraco - will Umbraco eventually get bought out by Microsoft (seeing as they're using it for one of their sites, and there were two Microsoft guys at Codegarden)?"
If you're in a hurry, here's two letters for you: "no". If you got time, read on.
Call / destiny / love
There's no long term plan for Umbraco. A long term plan is for companies living in the past, a company started by "kids" just out of business college, a company with a need to borrow money (or get funding which *is* the same contrary to what companies like to communicate) or a company founded for an exit.
Umbraco is another kind of company. A rare one. I founded umbraco eight (!) years ago because I thought I could built something great. Six years ago it started to take form and four years ago it went open source. Today, it's not about me but still all about building something great. I've been blessed with a wonderful colleague and the worlds friendliest community. Now that's love. And if you ever think of adding a pricetag, Amor probably left you long time ago.
Building something great
Umbraco *is* all about building something great and sustainable. Per and I are fortunate to own a company that has a great product, a loyal following and is as free as our software. We own the company. We got no investors to please and no debt. And we're very close to a major worldwide commercial breakthrough.
At times it's been damn hard, frustrating and I've done more or less everything else than what's common sense. But that's exactly why umbraco is where it is. That's why it's a profitable open source project and loads of fun. And when there's a big chance that it'll even provide financial freedom even though I'm just following my heart, why do anything else?
Umbraco is my destiny - it's what I do, it's what I love, I'm not done and no way I'm leaving on my way to what's the best party in the making ever. And if it ever ends, I'll be the last guy in the bar. Drunk, wet-eyed, smiling and with great stories for my grandchildren that if you listen to your heart you'll always feel rich.