Lessons learned in building a tech company
Quite often I get the question from early stage entrepreneurs "what’s the secret sauce for building a successful tech company?". And then I have to disappoint them, there is not a single magic formula in my view, you actually need to do a lot of things right. Since SYKES Inc. acquired Qelp in July 2015, the company I founded, I’ve been asked to do a presentation or interview from time to time. Here are some of my lessons learned when going through Early Stage, Growth and the Exit process of a company like Qelp. Let me add that before founding Qelp, I co-founded ThreeFive Photonics, a venture capital backed optical chips company. I benefitted enormously from that experience when building Qelp.
Early stage
Follow your passion aggressively, regardless what others tell you
Entrepreneurs are typically early with their idea, sometimes too early, timing is critical
Finding a launching customer often requires a long deep breath
Friendship can take you through the toughest times
Limited funds can be a blessing in finding creative solutions
Hire hands-on people, no corporates
Read the signs of the time, such as trends: SaaS, mobile first, cloud, analytics, IoT
Run your company digitally, end-to-end
Get input from coaches, boards, advisors, investors, but you make the decisions
Try to bootstrap your company as long as you can, venture capital has it’s pro’s and con’s, winning venture capital does not equal success
Growth
Ensure you have the right business model before accelerating growth
Invest in growth, but profitable growth
Think globally from day 1, break out of your national market, but start with a narrow geographioc focus
Select people on growth potential, changing business requirements will require them to change and grow into new roles and responsibilities
Choose a mission, vision, core values. (Mission Qelp: Helping people outsmart technology; Core values: passion, personal growth, end-user focus, can-do mentality, openness)
Designing and rigorously implementing processes is critical to make your company scalable and profitable
Building a great company is not something trivial, it takes a lot of time, hard work and making a lot of “right” choices.
Exit
Ensure alignment of the interests of shareholders, management, employees
It’s a marketing and sales job and you are the product
Be prepared for a 6 – 12 months roller coaster, with a lot of twists and turns
Share the success with your employees, share- and stakeholders.
