It is my pleasure to introduce you to the 17 newest members of thoughtbot: Ben Pickles, Bruno Antunes, Rebecca Dunbar, Tom Wey, Murtaza Gulamali, Hannah Steedman, Neil Atkinson, Damien Tanner, Niall Mullally, Iain Beeston, Tanya Joseph, Masha Cernivec, Dan Barber, Ismael Celis, Pablo Brasero, Nick Charlton, and Laurie Young. They all join us in London from the great Rails development team, New Bamboo.
This summer I temporarily relocated to London to help start our presence there. When I arrived in London, in addition to meeting potential clients, designers and developers, and going to events, I did what we do in any new thoughtbot city: I connected with as many other firms as possible to introduce myself personally and get to know them and the local market better.
From the get-go, one team, New Bamboo, stood out to me from my interactions with them and from the high regard I heard towards them in the community. Founded in 2006, they have been a leading Rails development firm in the UK, having worked with great clients such as Red Bull, Walt Disney, Which?, and the UK government, and along the way they created the successful developer-facing products PandaStream and Pusher.
As I got to know the founders of New Bamboo, Damien and Max, we quickly realized that the potential existed to build something greater than the sum of our parts, and we began to explore this further. New Bamboo and thoughtbot are alike in so many ways, and the ways in which we differ are exciting to both of us.
So I am excited to announce that New Bamboo will join thoughtbot to become our London office and help grow thoughtbot in Europe. Our combined team will do the same work we do in each of our offices: turning clients’ ideas into great web and mobile products, improving existing products, and contributing to the local community.
I didn’t set out for London with the intention of finding another firm to join us. As designers and developers, we are motivated to grow primarily to bring our better way of working to as many people as possible, while being happy in our work. The joining of New Bamboo and thoughtbot is a big step toward this goal. I’m very excited to work with the entire New Bamboo team!
