There are some moments in life when silence seems impossible; when the weight of what you know threatens to burst from your lips every time you open your mouth. When the news you carry is especially good (and you know those listening would be as excited as you are) the act of holding back is almost unbearable. A slight smile and a spark in the eye the only subtle betrayal of the truth which lies inside. If you know those moments then you can relate to the state I’ve found myself in these past few months.

In fact, it’s been one of the reasons why my blog has been so quiet and my posts so glaringly missing. I could not trust myself to write without sharing more than I intended to share. I was too anxious, too nervously excited, to see if what I was working so diligently to accomplish would be successful - or even possible.

This brings me to an obvious point. I am writing again, and more importantly, I am sharing my exciting news with all of you. The time has finally come to allow you in on the work I’ve been undertaking for the past few months and I hope to see you share in my excitement and enthusiasm about what will happen next. (Are you sufficiently curious? I hope so. It’s only fair you experience at least a little of the anticipation I have lived with for the past while.)

Before I share the specifics I would like to take you on a quick trip through the past several years and reaffirm the goals and objectives we have established as we have labored together.

The Beginning

You’ve no doubt all heard the story at length surrounding the earliest days of our open source marketing automation project, Mautic. You’ve heard the story about our surprising and somewhat startling rise in popularity. As such I won’t regale you with tales of the past or the confidence we had from the earliest days that we were embarking on an adventure with certainty. But for those of you who are new, here are the basics of our beginning.

I’d heard many things about the world of marketing automation. Most of what I heard consisted of outdated, bulky, extremely expensive software. Marketing software far too complex and far too cost prohibitive for most organizations. As a longtime advocate and outspoken evangelist for open source I found this situation reprehensible...and yet...correctable. I believed there was an opportunity for open source to yet again prove that the power of people focused on a shared vision or goal held far more potential than any closed source software. And thus Mautic was founded.

The Goals

A shared vision or goal. If our new community was to succeed then we needed to establish a shared vision about what we believed. We had to create a view of the world and establish a culture to accurately represent and properly motivate those around us to desire to join in our efforts. Our goal started simply enough: Equality. Or with a bit more detail:

The Mautic community believes in giving every person the power to understand, manage, and grow their business or organization. Mautic is focused on helping this belief become a reality by getting powerful marketing automation software into the hands of everyone.

This was our fundamental belief and the basis upon which we built our community. In fact, you can still find these words on our website when looking at our About section. I am proud to say we have not strayed from this objective. And so, with a vision and a goal established our fledgling community began to grow.

The Present

Over time our community has seen the usual ebbs and flows associated with any community. We’ve seen incredible volunteers take on enormous tasks and accomplish them. We have thousands of active contributors pouring in countless hours into improving this software, focused on our mission, driven by a common desire. And of course we have experienced the sadness when some of those contributors have moved on. And yet our community, our project, and our software continues to grow, continues to improve, and continues to accomplish our mission.

The Future

I knew from the very beginning this would take time. I looked around and saw other successful open source projects succeeding after a decade or more of hard work and diligent, slow, progress. As I have frequently said we built the Mautic community on the shoulders of giants. I drew upon my close friendship with those leaders in the open source world who had succeeded (or were succeeding) creating vibrant open source communities. One of my closest sources of inspiration, Dries Buytaert, was always quick to talk shop with me. We would often swap stories about our communities, our struggles, and our successes. He never failed to offer at least some words of wisdom from his history with the Drupal community.

I always valued those times and believed that when open source projects like ours worked closely together the sum was always greater than the parts. We often spoke about forming possibly the largest open source community in the world through the combination of our two groups. It was truly invigorating to think about.

But those conversations would draw to a close and once again I would return to our young community inspired to see its continued success and striving to nurture its slow and steady growth.

The News

Now you’re caught up. If you’ve been in our community for a while then you have been reminded about what we do and why we do it. If you’re new then you have been made aware of our mission and our past. I am thrilled to share what comes next with you all. We have in front of us a path to see our goal and our vision realized faster than I could ever have imagined and with a path to success within reach. Based on what I’ve already shared above the following should not come as too great a shock, but after one such deep conversation with Dries, he and I outlined a path whereby we could find a mutually beneficial and successful future for Mautic, for Acquia, and for Drupal. And so it is with much enthusiasm that I share the news of Acquia and Mautic merging into a single company.

I’ll let that sink in a moment and let your minds race through the dozens of questions your intrigued mind is formulating. Take a deep breath. I’ll do my best to answer them to the best of my ability (but know that some questions I’ll still be working through answers myself).

A Few FAQs

First, and maybe one of the most important questions, will the Mautic community continue under the Mautic name? Yes. Quite simply what we have established is unique, special. The last thing I, or anyone, would want to do is disrupt that.

Next, what changes are coming for the Mautic community? Lots. All of them extremely good. For one, the incredibly powerful Drupal community is full of highly talented, world-class developers, agencies, and brands. The similarity between our underlying platforms presents an opportunity for this myriad of skilled volunteers to quickly take an active role and presence in our community as we join forces.

There are dozens more questions which I am sure are probably running through your brain and I could never answer all of them here, however there are some great posts on Dries’ blog, the Acquia blog, as well as the Mautic, Inc. blog as well. Take a quick look at those and then if your questions persist reach out and I’ll do my best to answer them. In fact, in an effort to answer those additional questions Dries will be joining me for a Q&A webinar soon where we will seek to offer more details.

Next Steps

These are exciting times for Mautic, our community and our project. We are taking an enormous leap towards our vision and the future looks incredible. And yet we are still growing, still evolving, still improving; so I’ll end with a similar call to action as I have countless times before. If you are looking for a way to do something bigger than yourself, if you are seeking a way to get involved in open source, if you are searching for a community to call home, then join Mautic. We need your unique skills. We need your ideas. We need your personality. We need you.