No, I’m not moving to Boston. Shut up already.

The views expressed in this post are completely my own and do not reflect the views of my employer or anyone else associated with Moontoast.

So…

For the last two years, Moontoast has been expanding into Boston to build out some capabilities on the team and technology that frankly were not abundant in Nashville at the time. While Nashville is developing, the type of company that Moontoast is required us to pull expertise from either San Francisco, New York or Boston. The company chose Boston when we selected Blair Heavey to be our CEO in 2010. Best decision I’ve made as Co-Founder was bring Blair in as the company’s leader. I’ve gained a great mentor, friend and guide in this crazy world of startups.

Part of the deal was that I would have to spend half my time in Boston to help him build out the part of the company we needed to have in Boston in order for Moontoast to be succesful. That has meant over 180 days on the road each year for the last two years for me, away from my family, girlfriend and friends. Anyone who is close to me knows that this has been very difficult for me, for my family, for my girlfriend and for my close friends. It has also been hard for the Nashville Moontoast team, as they have not had consistent access to me as I’m sure we all would have liked.

But sacrifice is part of what makes success. And we are where we are as a company because of this sacrifice and many others made by the amazing team at Moontoast.

From Day 1, Blair and I agreed that it was important for us to build this up to be a win for BOTH Nashville and Boston. Almost two years after he and I started this journey, the Boston team has developed nicely, and we have a fantastic office in Boston after two years of bouncing around sub-leases, never having a place to call our own, and never being able to really settle down. We did this to keep costs low as we proved what a valuable company we could be to ourselves, our investors and the market. The new Boston office was earned, 100%.

I’m proud of what we have done, and I’m proud that we have continued to grow the Nashville team as well as the Boston team. That was ALWAYS the deal.

However, one thing I haven’t been able to shake for the last two years, is the constant rumor mill in Nashville that I and Moonbtoast are moving to Boston. No matter how many times I say that’s not true, I still hear chatter that it is true. And it’s usually from people in the tech community, which I consider myself a core member of, and sometime people I consider friends.

This hurts. And I’m tired of it.

All I’ve done for the last ten years is try to contribute in whatever way I could to make sure Nashville becomes a premier tech city. This has been anything but easy, but the community and our staggering growth makes it all worth it. Except when people start to incinuate that I have something up my sleeve.

Barcamp, Jumpstart, Moontoast, Emma. Half a year away from my loved ones.

WTF. Seriously. What do y’all want? A tattoo on my forehead that says “Nashville 4 Eva!”

I heard today from a good friend, that another person who I consider a friend, was once again spreading this mistruth that Moontoast is leaving Nashville.

Well, if that happens, then I am leaving Moontoast. And that’s not happening.

This is not something I wanted to say publicly, but I hope this serves as a public record to anyone who may have doubts about what Moontoast will do with regards to Nashville. This was a last resort.

Here is what we are going to do.

1) Build the best piece of Social Software Nashville has ever seen.
2) Build the most passionate team in the space, in the city.
3) Win or die trying.

I don’t care if you think this is a publicity stunt. I had to get this off my chest.

If you have been spreading false rumors about Moontoast leaving Nashville, you clearly don’t know what you are talking about and you should stop. You are damaging what will be a great Nashville company, and in so doing, damaging Nashville.

Stop saying I’m leaving Nashville. As long as Moontoast is its own company, we will build it in Nashville and Boston, proudly.