I met Eddie Tabush back in 2010 at CMS Expo, a semi-legendary event with people from across the open source world. It was the start of a partnership that dominated our work during the 2010’s.
We worked together on OSTraining and Joomlashack, which have gone great. We also teamed up for an attempt at a SaaS project called Admincredible. That didn’t end well, but taught me more than all the successful projects. Recently, we started working on WordPress plugins too.
We’ve spent time together all across North America, including in Atlanta, Denver, Cancun, Orlando, Los Angeles, Nashville and Chicago.
Back when I met him, Eddie was on the board of Habitat for Humanity. It doesn’t hurt a new business connection when your partner has just returned from hanging out with Jimmy Carter.
Over the years, Eddie’s housing work has grown and grown. In particular, he’s been working to launch AVI, an organization that aims to transform access to affordable housing in Guatemala. In July, he presented a law to the Guatemalan Congress which will give formal approval to AVI.
Because the housing work has become a full-time job (perhaps two full-time jobs), Eddie is slowly stepping back from our work together. It’s been a great eight years. But Eddie’s housing work has the potential to transform Guatemala. I’ll be cheering him on all the way.