Last month I told you about The Node Firm, a new consulting firm dedicated to the open source server side JavaScript platform called Node.js. The Node Firm is a “bite sized” consulting company, focused on very short engagements of one day or less. The team is focused only on high level Node.js consulting – not writing or maintaining code. I’ve also highlighted Jetpacks for Dinosaurs, a firm started by Up and Running with Node.js author Tom Hughes-Croucher, which is also focused on high level consulting and architecture.

Today The Node Firm is announcing a partnership with the consulting firm &yet to provide longer term services. “We have a very high level goal for The Node Firm – providing access to the top developers in the node community,” said Daniel Shaw, a partner at The Node Firm. “&yet can step in and do some more of the hands on consulting.”

&yet founder Adam Brault said: “We came to them, but they were in the process of coming to us it turns out.”

&yet provides a range of services, including software consulting, infrastructure operations and design. The team started Node.js because the firm has a particular emphasis in real-time and near real-time software development.

For example, &yet built a platform for the asset tracking company Recon Dynamics that blends Node.js and other technologies.

The firm has also built its own real-time collaboration product called &!, created to scratch the company’s own collaboration itch but now available to external customers.

Brault spent 10 years as a pastor before starting the firm. He had been doing consulting for friends for free, having learned Web development in high school around 1996. “I had an uncle who owned an ISP, so I just started learning, but I never had a class on it.”

Brault’s passion for technology took over and he decided to dedicate himself to it full time. He founded &yet as a solo freelance business in February 2008, almost exactly four years ago. Brault started out offering PHP and Ruby on Rails consulting, but as the firm grew it developed a focus on Django, which is still a large part of the company’s business.

&yet has now expanded in scope and employees 15 people. The firm is also the organizer of the Keeping It Real-Time conference.

ServicesAngle

&yet’s story is becoming familiar. A very small consultancy starts, and then stumbles on a particular niche that isn’t being met and grows into something very different. Take Engine Yard, which started as a Ruby on Rails consultancy but has grown into a platform-as-a-service with support for Ruby and PHP and more languages on the way.

There’s already shortage of Node.js developers. As the Internet of Things gets more real (see for example, the role of Internet connected devices to the analytics revolution in health care or the surprising enterprise demand for Geoloqi for example), the sorts of services offered by &yet. Watch for larger firms to play catchup.

Here’s my interview with The Node Firm partners Nuno Job and Mikeal Rogers from theCube at NodeSummit.