There Really Is No Place Like Home

I’m very excited to be home.

What? What do you mean home?

Well, a few years back you may recall I set out to help people with some website security issues they were dealing with. Over the years I ended up speaking about security at events, helped clean and protect 1000’s of websites, and ultimately, I helped influence the way a lot of people considered and implemented website security principles.

In the middle of all that awesomeness, and alongside my great friend Daniel Cid and brother-in-law Tony Perez, we started a small company you may have heard of….Sucuri, Inc.

Give me some background here, good buddy!

In 2014, Sucuri had grown and I was looking to venture into the agency space. I wanted to experience and engage in new challenges. So I did. I moved on and took a great summer to spend time with my family. I took time to decompress for more than just a weekend and let me tell you, it was worth it.

As the story goes, I was presented a great opportunity to work with the amazing team at WebDevStudios which is where I spent the last couple of years. I was immersed in large scale WordPress projects alongside great thought leadership in Brad Williams, Brian Messenlehner, and Lisa Sabin-Wilson. It gave me direct insight and interaction with the intricacies of both business needs and impacts, large organization decision making and challenges, and all the aspects of the sales, operations and development life cycles you see in the agency space. A lot of my time at WebDev reminded me of what I experienced when I worked in large enterprise corporations, but at a much faster, agile pace. It was a great experience and I am thankful to WDS for the great things we worked on together.

If you check out my last blog post, after nearly two years, I stepped away from WDS this June. So naturally, I took some more time with the family. A group of about 30 family members took a cruise to the Caribbean, we went camping (glamping), and did a few pool days when Menifee was feeling like the surface of the sun! Tony and I also started training camp for one of the biggest Jiu Jitsu tournaments of the year which we competed in last month. Needless to say, it was a bitchin’ summer!

Through all of these adventures we had great times, barrels of laughs, and a ton of thought provoking discussions. Some of the more professional and business discussions even drummed up the notion of me going back home to Sucuri. This got me thinking about what I was doing, and where I was going professionally.

So what gives? What’s the deal?

I thought a lot about my passions and where I wanted to direct my energy. I never lost passion for security or Sucuri for that matter. I still consider it my baby and I surely have missed being away. The company has grown and it’s in a very exciting place. I am very excited to announce that in August we agreed that it would be really awesome if I was able to rejoin the team. So I did. September 1st was my official first day and I couldn’t be more stoked.

As a Co-Founder, it’s always neat to see the progression of something you help create. Daniel and Tony have done a brilliant job of scaling Sucuri over the last couple of years, and I hope to help them in those efforts moving forward. I will be working on various special projects across the company’s marketing, sales, and business development efforts. You’ll see me ramping up for events along with engaging a series of initiatives over the coming months. I would love to chat to you a bit more about what I’m doing and how we can help you and your organization. Hit me up. (Yup. I just went there.)

What about Armeda LLC?

Armeda LLC will always be! It’s a consultancy that I bred from my own name. I offer marketing and creative services. It’s a consultancy and I have clients large and small that I will continue to support with no change. I am always speaking with folks that need help. Whether it be funnel optimization, branding strategy and other services. Shoot, even vinyl stickers. So if that’s a need, you know where to find me 🙂

In the end?

In the end, my goal in life is to positively influence and impact people. Whether it be through branding, selling your idea, or securing your livelihood online. I want to help people! Today I can help people most through Sucuri and the wonderful work we’re doing.

So when you wonder how Dre’s doing. Just know that he’s doing fine. He’s working hard from home!