Earlier today, we wrote about the news that Mansueto Ventures was laying off 20 people including president Ed Sussman.

That, as we were informed, wasn’t the entire story. Turns out Sussman announced he was leaving on Friday to become CEO of a start up he’s been working on since last March. He explained the new venture in an email he sent to us:

This start up has been in the works since last March, and I’ve served as an advisors. Mansueto’s decision to cut back staff made it clear I should take the start up’s invitation to become CEO immediately and take the start up out of stealth mode.

The new venture, still unnamed, will use the Drupal publishing platform give Web publishers “power over the backend” of their site, he said in a phone interview. The collaboration between Sussman, Lullabot and Bond Art + Science, will by monetized by offering premium services such as extra storage space and professional services including SEO and SEM.

Sussman’s email to us after the jump.

Hi Noah,

Saw your piece. It’s not the whole story. I announced on Friday that I was leaving Mansueto Ventures to become CEO of a new start up.

This start up has been in the works since last March, and I’ve served as an advisors. Mansueto’s decision to cut back staff made it clear I should take the start up’s invitation to become CEO immediately and take the start up out of stealth mode. PaidContent.org covered the story here:

We’ve put some 4,000 hours into the project to date — it’s a massive undertaking that will profoundly change and democratize who can create highly sophisticated social media and social publishing websites. The full press release is below and I’d be glad to discuss this with you further. Would be great if you could run something so it doesn’t seem like this company is an afterthought to Mansueto’s decision, when in fact, it has been in the works for many months.

Further details about the technology are discussed here:

Best,

Ed