A few years ago I was at a casino with some friends for a bachelor party, and the groom-to-be won some time in the money tank. (I try to start most of my stories that way.)
To answer your question, the money tank is a glass tube about the size / shape of a phone booth. A person steps in, and a dollar tornado fires up. The goal is to grab as much cash as you can in 30 seconds and push it through a slot. I think the tank was filled with $15,000, but, if I remember right, Br walked away with a five dollar bill.
Yesterday felt like we were in the money tank. A public nod from Guy Kawasaki, a burst of attention to the ARSE, some time on the front page of del.icio.us, and a dozen other unrelated factors resulted in about 6 times the visits and 20 times the leads we see in a typical day.
It’s one of those rare occasions where it seems like our ambition to stay small might need to be revisited.
There are 10 of us at ep today (looking for 11,) and I think that puts us close to a threshold. It wouldn’t take many more (employees) to lose the culture of small, especially as an owner of the company.
At our current size, Mk, S, and I can still contribute as developers. Bigger begins to change that. Bigger brings sleeves-down administration and management. Bigger is dull.
Today seems like bigger would be better at getting bills out of the tank, though. (Just for the record, money is not our key motivator, regardless of my money tank reference.)
I can’t remember which machines are more efficient, simple or complex. Anybody pay more attention to high school physics than I did?
10 Responses to “Simple machines”
If you guys were laid back, worked off and on throughout the day, on your own schedule, no office, etc (I have an idea of what I am referencing), small would most likely be the way to go as their is a high value on “MY” time (i.e. YOU control every hour of the day). Instead, from what I gather, you guys (the partners) work most waking hours, know the industry inside-out or atleast most facets, can do both the technical and business aspects, and can lead…both your company and major clients. If the business flow is there, I would take these strengths and grow as possible…Avenue A/Razorfish, throw in some Atlas type stuff, call MSFT, sell for $6 billion…
I had sale envy today for a bit over a 4-person affiliate marketing company that Linkshare acquired. I am over it now…my 2 hrs of wishing that IDC was the first…and instead am just back to business. Not yet where you are (in size)…2 full-timers (me included), 2 part-timers, and solid contractors – yet the growth pattern is set…if we get over 6 full-timers, I will be full-time management and biz dev…it is already evident.
Hire monsters, tackle as much work as possible, grow smart and fast if together, and some day, create your own sale envy.
Here is what I should have said in one sentence…
EP and its partners are one of the few teams I know that definitely could make BIG work well.
You do small well too, but I bet you could do BIG even better.
Does MSFT even buy web development companies? EP seems like a hard company to sell, unless you want to work for The Man. Correct me if I’m wrong, but EP’s value lies with the people, not exactly the product (the customer gets to “keep” the product). Although maybe you could sell Feed Rinse to Google for n million dollars. That’d be sweet.
Having never worked at a company like EP (small or large) my input is going to be pretty worthless, but, since I just scored a 20 on ARSE, I am going to provide my opinion anyways (because I have one, and most likely, it is correct).
Go big and do the best you can to keep the small feeling to your company (I think a lot of what Google does is pretty cool to accomplish that, although I haven’t worked their either). But don’t just hire people to hire people. Only hire the best people. The smartest people. The people who really plug into the culture you have going on at EP.
We’ve definitely built ep around our involvement. It might take a crowbar to pry us loose. I know we could grow it, and 100 leads might even justify it, but I don’t know that it’s worth it.
@Greg – thanks. Big(ger) might begin to creep in regardless of what we’d “like” to happen. As far as selling IDC goes… I wish I had some extra cash laying around.
@Paul – I’ve posted about selling your way of life (a service company) before – that would be tough. We actually have a surprising amount of residual income going on at pulp, but you’re definitely correct to assume an effort like Feed Rinse (or Wellstream) would be easier to transfer. Not that we’re at all interested.
Thanks for the votes.
Would you consider handing out some contract work?
I was recently hired on as web developer/admin, graphic designer and technician for a company in Berkeley, and am now a bit attached to the Bay area, but I’m always looking for freelance PHP, HTML, CSS work… and am quickly picking up JSP for my current job. I greatly like the EP site and your blog (I think you’ve noticed my lurking), so I figured I’d ask.
~Antonio
Antonio – I’ll get an email to you later today.
I was going to stay silent here–what with the youth and relative inexperience. My job demands self-management skills, but I’ve never managed others.
However, the counter-argument is underrepresented.
It sounds as though you’re concerned that expansion will detract your personal involvement in projects, and I don’t think you should brush that concern aside. The frustrations of an expanded team management role could lead to job dissatisfaction and micromanagment, trying to keep your hands on -through- your staff. It really sucks to lose a good lead (try to think of it as picking the better leads), but surely not as much as being a business owner who hates his job.
Things are still pretty crazy in my own development schedule, but do be bugging me. I’d love to work with you guys.
Hey Joe. If Akismet hadn’t thought your comment was spam, I probably already would have bugged you. As it stands now, I’m too tired to be any good at it. Expect a ping tomorrow.
As for your note, you’ve nailed my concern. I got into this for a reason, and it’s not to watch others do.
Aaron, allow me to explain my position in more depth. I think it comes down to how you think about “your” work. Do you value and think highly of only projects that you are directly working on? Or would all projects that Electric Pulp does — regardless of whether or not you directly contributed to the project in question — be something of value to you (especially as one of three partners in the company)?
When I say to hire only the best people, I don’t mean just the best technical people (as though they would/should replace you so you can watch them do it). I mean the best people for every position. If you like the technical work (or the artistry, or whatever), then hire the best people to do the other work. The best HR people (who intimately understand the culture and quality of EP) to hire new people (as the company grows), the best accountants, the best project managers, the best artists, etc.
This will allow you to choose the area where your talents fit best, hence allowing you to create value in the areas that you enjoy the most. But at the same time it will allow EP to grow and continue to take on interesting projects and create more value (and I don’t mean money, but rather the end result of your hard work). And if everyone at EP really is the best, then the projects you take on won’t suffer, nor will the quality that EP churns out (even if the same core group isn’t writing code for every project). You’ll just be able to take on more projects, and bigger projects. And if you view “your” work as EP’s work (so to speak) then you can do what you love all day long, but have a wide array of cool products, sites, etc. that EP has done.
So the trick is finding and keeping the best people, while maneuvering yourself into a position that you enjoy the most and feel you can create the most value. (Also I don’t think this means a person has to cede control of the company. You (and the others at EP) can be “in charge” yet still focus on the things you want, if you hire the right people.)
Great comments Paul – looks like you’ve thought about this before. We definitely need to find project managers in addition to tech monsters. I think we found the point where we need interns and office managers and CEO’s too.