Encouraging Growth in a Software Company?

entrepreneurial asks: "I'm putting together a business plan with a few partners to start producing software for fun & profit. We have a decent early product, several interested clients and enough talent to get things started. The problem gnawing on my mind, however, is how to grow it? I can see us reaching a point in the not so distant future where four or five guys just aren't enough and we have to start bringing in more people. I've worked in massive, faceless bureaucracy and a couple of smaller, mature companies that had already reached the top of the growth curve, so I've never been there. Can anyone out there share some advice, war stories or resources to help?"

Comments

Marketing

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...several interested clients

You've already had some brushes with a critical ingredient: those people that are willing to pay money for your product. Names, phone numbers, and people that are willing to say they'd pay X for your product that does Y.

If you're talented and have some background in marketing, you can pursue this further, because it needs to be done. Finding out what your customers really want is not as easy as it sounds.

If you're a rational, intelligent person not in need of frequent ego inflation, then you know which subject areas you're good at - say, programming - and which areas you're not familiar with. That's OK; there are specialists for every craft, including marketing. The next step is to get someone on board who knows marketing, preferably of software and preferably with a background in the same areas that your customers interests lie.