Dries Buytaert

In a world where innovation is only accelerating, shackling employees with non-competes doesn't make sense anymore. At Acquia, we believe that innovation is about openness and collaboration, and that working together is based on trust and loyalty, something that was born out of our Open Source background. It's been a long time coming but we decided to kill our non-competes. It is the right thing to do. Here is what we just sent to all Acquia employees:

From: Tom Erickson <tom@acquia.com>
To: Everybody at Acquia
Date: Friday, May 2, 2014

Acquians,

We have an amazing team, it's the thing I am personally proudest about.  
When asked by others what's the best thing about our company, I don't
hesitate to answer "our team".

There are many things to value in each of you, from your commitment, 
your integrity and certainly your passion!

The goal that Dries and I have always set was to have a company where
everyone is challenged, has the opportunity to grow and has some fun
along the way.  Most of the time we're successful at that as a company, 
though sometimes we fail.  Yet even when we fail, we want everyone to 
continue to do the right thing and sustain mutual respect.

To this end, the exec team has decided to eliminate non-competes from 
our employment agreements.   We believe its the right thing for our 
team members, for the company and for the industry.  There are many 
reasons why companies have used non-competes in the past, but we 
believe that times have changed and individuals today value the 
companies who value them.  This may seem contradictory .. "value me, 
but let me go to a competitor" .. but we believe that a company who 
respects our team members in this way will actually be a better magnet 
for talent.

While we are getting rid of non-competes, we are not eliminating other
terms, notably the non-disclosure.  So while we do not want to restrict 
free movement of talent, it's important that company confidential 
information remains just that, confidential.  

We do not plan to change existing employment agreements, as that would 
be an administrative burden, and we have many other issues to deal with.
This email should suffice as an assurance that existing non competes 
below the executive leadership level will not be enforced.  

All new hires, with certain exceptions at the executive level, will not
have non-competes.  

Viva Acquia!
Tom