After 10 years I am leaving Cloud Academy. It feels strange to write it but I am getting used to the idea by now and it’s time to get back to writing.
We started Cloud Academy in 2013, even if we really started working on it in 2012. I was 24 back then and if I look back there are a few things that come back to mind: in 2012 I was running another company in Italy, I did not know much about the US, I did not speak English (not well, at least) and the only way I thought you could build a company was bootstrapping it.
Back then Cloud Academy was a bit more than idea and we were trying to understand what it could have been a few years later. I felt confused about it, not sure it was the right idea but the more we worked on it the more passionate we became about it. Everything changed a lot in 10 years, our product did, our vision improved and evolved and we matured as founders. Reading my emails of 10 years ago is a fantastic experience!
Cloud Academy has been an incredible journey for me and for everyone that has been a part of it. From day we obsessed on creating something unique and I feel we achieved it. I can’t use a post to describe what I’ve learned and how it changed me, but I am planning to write a few more to remember all the lessons we have learned.
When you build a business like Cloud Academy and scale it to millions in revenues and hundreds of people, the most important thing you remember when you leave are people. Not the product features, not the contracts, not what you have done in that business trip. Your thoughts and memories are full of people and I am planning to talk a lot about what I have learned about people and companies. The idea is to share lessons for new founders, executives, managers and anyone else is involved in building a new company.
This is it for now 🙂
If you are wondering: I am good, Cloud Academy was my life for 10 years so losing it meant losing a part of me but I am fine!
Stefano