New CEO for SugarCRM - Larry Augustin

[longreach]

With the resignation of John Roberts, now only Clint Oram remains of the original three founders of SugarCRM. Jacob Taylor did a spectacular job getting Sugar's architecture into shape as quickly as he did - he left SugarCRM last year, which was a great loss. And John Roberts, while never a fun guy to negotiate with, deserves so much credit for leading an open source applications company to so much success - and funding!

With these two talents gone from SugarCRM the company, should we the community of SugarCRM the open source project have any concerns?

Clearly Larry is an experienced and well connected player in open source circles - I remember him from VA when I was at Rebel.com. But just as clearly, he is there to maximize return for the VC masters, and represents a potential change of direction for the company. While it is very early days as yet, is it anticipated that there will be any significant change of direction for the company, or the open source project?

One thing that stands out was a radical revamping of pricing strategy a week before a CEO change.

What would SugarCRM like to say to the community at this point in time?

(See new leadership page on Sugar site - http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/about/leadership.html)

[clint]

Thanks for kicking off the thread, Michael. Clearly this is an important discussion to have with the community.

First, I’d like to start by saying SugarCRM has become this wildly successful open source project and company because of John’s leadership. I still vividly remember the lunch in early 2004 when he pitched me on the idea of open source CRM. It certainly changed my life and kicked off what is now this awesome community that we call SugarCRM. John has been a visionary in revolutionizing the CRM marketplace and an outstanding leader in building SugarCRM to what it is today. He will be missed by all of us here at Sugar.

As we move forward, I am personally excited to have Larry Augustin more directly involved in taking Sugar to the next level. Larry’s track record in open source is unparalleled. From leading VA Linux for ten years to his more recent directorships at all of the leading open source companies, Larry stands out as one of the top movers and shakers in the software industry today. I am sure you will all see that passion for the open source community very quickly in the weeks to come.

However let’s not forget that SugarCRM is much more than just any one person now. With almost 6 million downloads from SugarForge.org alone and over 17 thousand registered developers, SugarCRM continues to grow and grow. The core Sugar development team remains diligently focused on the 5.5 release. There have been no changes, and there won’t be any changes, in the engineering team or in our dedication to delivering to you the world’s best open source CRM solution.

On a final note, I encourage you to continue asking questions. When a change like this happens, it’s important to ask the hard questions. Rest assured, we are on track and firing on all cylinders.

[crmsiva]

Thanks for the info. Let us see the growth of SugarCRM under the leadership of Larry.

[splendidcrm]

I spoke with John Roberts nearly four years ago and he did not seem very open to me. Two years ago, I called and asked if he was interested in working with Splendid CRM and I got a one-word response, "No!", before he abruptly hung-up the phone.

I hope this posting will serve as an open invitation to Larry to talk.

Paul Rony
President
Splendid CRM Software, Inc.

P.S. I'm probably asking for too much, but it would be a nice gesture if the web masters of this forum would not delete this post and would stop treating our company name as something offensive. Besides, instead of ........... Software, I can simply type Splendid CRM Software.

[longreach]

Excellent answer Clint - one I'm sure the entire community will appreciate.

[dtokeefe]

Thanks for the reassuring words Clint.

We at Lampada Global are very happy to be part of SugarCRM's incredible evolution and, for his vision and leadership since the beginning (and musical performances at the Sugar events), we are sorry to see John leave. Great job, John !

At the same time, Larry Augustin seems like a great pick. Welcome, Larry ! Dos seus amigos na comunidade SugarCRM do Brasil, boa sorte e tudo de bom ! Abraços.

David

[sugarcare]

It was surprising that Jacob left. Do you know why he left?



However, this Sugarcrm is a good product with vibrant people. I moved on to other products as well. I check in here every 2-3 months to see what is going on.

[longreach]

Yes - I was always surprised that so little was made of Jacob's departure. I thought he did a spectacular job while he was there, and feel that his talents are missed. He took Sugar technically from zero to hero (to quote Simon Cowell ) in no time flat. And he was very open and friendly as well.

[dtokeefe]

btw, please don't forget the partners when IPO time comes around...