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Company Stages Revisted

Written by: Brad Feld

Article Overview: A few days ago I wrote about the transition from a small to medium to large business. I had a few people write to me with additional questions, including requests to define the sizes, talk more about the issues during the transition, and make suggestions about how to address things. One of the notes came from a long time friend – Barry Culman – who is currently the president of SPADAC (Spacial Data Analytics Corp.) I’m not involved in SPADAC, but Barry shared a framework that he used recently at a management retreat to explain his view of the evolution of a company. Following is a quick summary of the stages according to Barry.

Company Stages Revisted

A few days ago I wrote about the transition from a small to medium to large business. I had a few people write to me with additional questions, including requests to define the sizes, talk more about the issues during the transition, and make suggestions about how to address things. One of the notes came from a long time friend – Barry Culman – who is currently the president of SPADAC (Spacial Data Analytics Corp.) I’m not involved in SPADAC, but Barry shared a framework that he used recently at a management retreat to explain his view of the evolution of a company. Following is a quick summary of the stages according to Barry.

Birth

Idea created
Product or service utilized to deliver idea
All energy on creation
Leader is the core driver of revenue
No process or structure
Project or products – not a business
Teenager

Add overhead and infrastructure
Grow revenue base
Leader comes “in-house”
Cash is King
High energy
All executives involved in all parts of the business
Everyone feels like “I know what’s going on”
Young Adult

Add process and structure
Profitability dips
Must determine “who we are” / what do I want to be when I grow up
Leader is an evangelist
Separation of duties
External funding
Loose budget
People issues being to appear
Adult

Answer to board / investors
Tight budget controls
Consistent processes
Leader deals with external forces
Business is in a steady state
Emphasis on managing people
Senior Citizen

Death or Rebirth
While I don’t necessarily agree with every aspect of this and would likely cast some of it differently – especially based on the type of company (e.g. bootstrapped or venture backed), I think Barry’s framework is great and I appreciate him letting me share it with you.

Read this article in Brad's blog.

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Article Tags: analytics, consistent processes, core driver, culman, dips, evangelist, few days, friend barry, high energy, long time friend, management retreat, managing people, profitability, rebirth, senior citizen, separation of duties, spadac, steady state, tight budget, young adult



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