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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?"
...worry about the stability of the team you currently have. Any friction or personality conflicts will be exascerbated by both success and failure, potentially tearing apart your core group before you really reach growth phase.
Make sure you have clear roles (who really is in charge?), ramifications for non-performance, and -- I can't stress this enough -- written agreements on company ownership and compensation, vetted by an attorney and signed by all parties.
If your core group includes personal friends, these issues get even tougher because of the emotional baggage and existing interpersonal dynamics.
Beyond those points, my advice towards successful growth would be to think in terms of roles and responsibilities. Fill the roles with people that can perform the jobs the best. Management by concensus does not work in a fast-moving industry.
Statistically your company, like hundreds of others, is doomed to fail.
You need to work out how you are going to survive before you work out how to grow.
Technical skill is not enough, you need people for support, sales, accounting and other admin.
Try not to borrow money, surviving without debt is a great lesson.
If you are the leader, be ready to give up the reigns when necessary, you won't need to micro-manage everything and one day even your presence might be a liability.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Managing growth is where the PHBs come into play. Smaller companies are usually made up of just a core group of people who already work well together and understand the strategies of the company. Not a whole lot of real managment is required at that point.
When you start adding talent, above a dozen people or so, it becomes paramount to streamline all the communication in the company. The person(s) at the top, who today participates in product development will now become more of a project manager / operations officer directing information and keeping the pulse of the company.
Encouraging this growth is difficult to do sometimes since your core team will likely be overachievers - thinking they can do it all. This leads to re-active growth, which can be a bad thing. So make sure everyone has a clear growth strategy, including when and what new resources to bring in. This will allow you to be careful and take your time - this is critical.
As far as managment structures go, get the founders together and develop a structure that everyone is comfortable with. Titles are relativly meaningless in a small company - only 3rd parties will care if you're the CEO or not. So make sure that your title reflects what you actually do.
Get your stars in a list right now - and give them high-end titles. These are the people who your company could not function without and, if yuo trust them - and you should, will be deciding who to place in roles similar to theirs.. under themselves. So their title should reflect that authority.