Gabriel Mizrahi

You said they've gone through three big transitions together.

In a way, that could be an advantage.

Maybe you see the opportunity that they're missing.

Maybe they need somebody with fresh eyes to be the leader.

In another way, though, it could work against you.

They might perceive you as the new guy who just doesn't know how complicated this is, or the noob who's stirring the pot and creating even more risk for people who are tired and have already gone through multiple upheavals.

So just maybe factor that into your approach.

I'm not saying that you're not the person to lead this.

You know your colleagues best, but it's just one other variable you might want to keep in mind.

Even if this plan is not ultimately doable, there are other options here.

The most obvious one is just start your own IT shop.

You know, take a bunch of your colleagues with you and poach clients from your old employer.

They sound like they're halfway out the door already.

So you might be able to literally have paying customers on day one.

The most interesting thing in your letter to me is that you're seeing an opportunity here.

Like Jordan said, trying to buy this branch.

and run it as an employee-owned thing is a very cool idea, and it could totally be the move, but I do wonder if it's just unnecessarily complicated.

Whereas starting your own company and just eating your former employer's lunch, that's not going to be a walk in the park either, but if you're going to be doing all of this work anyway, it might be in your interest to just start fresh.

Plus, if you start your own thing, you get to choose who comes with you and you can be strategic about which skills and which personalities you end up taking.

Whereas with the employee owned entity, I honestly do not know how that works, but I'm guessing it would be kind of hard to say