This would be a boring story if it were just of me running a software
consultancy
and hanging out with my startup founder friend for
coffee
here and there. That is not what this story is about. Today I'm no longer involved with that old devshop. My partner and I have completely separated, and in fact I no longer work in the
software
sector at all.
That's probably why the
2010s
feel so distant to me now. Go back and tell my old self that come the
2020s
and you'll doing... well what does it matter what I do with my time these days? That would be an even more boring story than that of my past self running a consultancy and killing time the upper-middle class manner. Meeting for coffee and
IPA
s. Discussing new TV shows and politics. Going on hikes and to the lake. Boring stuff.
The point is that the me back then could imagine no future other than just building up this consultancy. I imagined by now it would be three times the size. Maybe even having our own product that we sold directly to customers. And perhaps this is where I would've ended up had that fateful day in autumn not come.
It all began with a phone call. To our landline in the office.
Yes our office had a
landline
. It came with it, was included in our internet bill. When we tried to exclude it from our internet subscription it proved to be a hassle. For some reason having the landline as part of our package saved us 23 dollars a month. So we stuck with it.
But had it not been for my partner the phone would've been left unplugged. Nobody used landlines these days except for spammers. And when the spammers did call the phone made so much noise and disturbed everybody nearby.
But if you knew my partner then you would understand. He can't pay for the landline and not have it plugged in. Also he can't not list it on her contact information. "Some of our clients might like the old school touch." he told me when we were trying to decide what to do of the landline. I said sure, do whatever you want. And that was it.
I say it all began with a phone call because I remember the sound of the ring. It made me immediately hope that it was just a spam robocall. I remember this hope filling me because what I actually felt was happening was that the phone call promised something daunting.
No explanation for this feeling. It was a quiet afternoon. The only thing off about it being that everybody else except for me and one other person had left the office early, to go grab drinks at a nearby bar. I had been the only one in that room, which was usually crowded with busy bees working together. Maybe it was because there was nobody else in there that I noticed the way the sun peered into the room and casted itself onto the floor and long table where there would usually be a small army of people on laptops.
But that image is painted into my memory as I heard the phone screech through the office. It had to ring twice before I realized that I ought to stand up and go pick it up.
V
By the time I arrived at the phone the one other person left in the office entered the room, brought here by the ringing.
She looked at me and I signaled to her without using words that I would pick it up. She nodded, but didn't leave the room. Maybe she knew that this was going to be an extraordinary call as well?
"Hello. This is..." I introduced our consultancy's name in the most formal yet not stuffy way possible.
"Yes. Glad to get through."
From the voice I knew right away it wasn't a spam call. It sounded like a domestic person first of all. And then beyond that it was the voice of an old man who talked slow. They didn't hire that kind of person at these call centers, I knew that much. But this didn't sound like the voice of any of our
clients
either.
My mind quickly raced through the list of people we serviced and I couldn't think of a single person over the age of 65. I thought maybe this was a potential customer who'd found our phone number online. This voice sounded like it had to be at least over 80... but I was giving it the benefit of the doubt.
"We're here at your service." I looked over at the girl who came over when the phone rang. I wondered if I sounded cheesy. She just watched me trying to discern what was happening on the phone. "How may I help you?"
"My assistant has just informed me that you are shutting down your hosting services?"
"Yes. We eval--" I was beginning to provide our reason. The same one noted in the
email
we sent out to our hosting clients. I figured sometimes people needed things repeated to them.
"See, that's going to be a problem."
After he cut me off I didn't know if I should continue my spiel or stay silent and let him continue. I remained close lipped... or actually kept my mouth open, breathing, waiting.
"It would've been nice if you'd given us more of a notice."
"I'm sorry about that. We assumed six months would be enough of a notice. Perhaps we could add on another extra 30 days to that?"
"See, my business doesn't operate like that. Anyways, look I got to go right now. But I'm going to have one of my people named Denis get into contact with you okay?"