The importance of growing management teams

One of the things I've come to realize over the years is that our company's management team is incomplete. Much of Stardock's success can be attributed to the incredible talent of our company's developers and management.  But as we've grown, particularly in the past year, holes have appeared. 

For one thing, when you're small, having a management team full of specialists is good. I'm the only generalist in the management team. That works fine when you're a start-up.  But as you get bigger you need more generalists. Bigger companies need more people who know how to code, know how to market, know technology, know business, and know how to deal with other people diplomatically normally or ruthlessly when necessary.

What our company is missing, in other words, is a Vice President.  But you can't easily just hire a VP. I have friends who are well suited to the position but I know better than to hire friends into the company at this point. I have two friends who fit the mold perfectly, Phil and Kirk. So I say to myself, I need people like Phil and Kirk who aren't Phil and Kirk. But that's a real challenge.

I get resumes on my desk on a regular basis from sales managers, executives from large companies, chief technologists, etc.  None of them fit the critiera because they either:

• Are too business-oriented.  In a tech company, you have to know coding or else the developers will walk all over you. Developers respect other developers. I'm not a great coder but my coding credentials are strong enough that I have their respect. I also know the lingo and know how to evaluate different technologies. Too many would-be VPs just don't know technology well enough or at least as well as they think they do.
• Are too sales-oriented.  We already have an outstanding sales manager.
• Could fit the criteria but want huge HUGE salaries (i.e. >$200,000 annually) when in reality we aren't prepared to pay even half that in salary but have stock options.

This has really bitten me in the last few months as I've had to increasingly travel to companies to close deals that really are more suited to a VP.  One trip was to work out an agreement with a major games publisher. A couple weeks later I was off to the other coast to put together a project agreement on a major Object Desktop related project.  Two very different things both requiring me to fly out there.  That's time I'm not helping steer the company (and in 4th quarter, our busiest quarter).

Most entrepreneurs come in pairs or in threes.  That's how they avoid this. A group of friends get together and start a company together.  Stardock was founded just by me. And I'm an only child. And now it's too late to bring in friends to be principles because we're big enough to the point where there is definitely a hierarchy and while one of my closest friends does work at the office, we've known each other for decades now (we met when I started high school) so the company hasn't affected that and I'm not really in an authority position relative to him so it works out. A VP, on the other hand, is someone who would be in the direct chain of command and hence bringing in a friend at this point for that position wouldn't fly.

And so the search continues...