Eric Sink has an interesting series of articles discussing marketing in the context of an ISV. In this particular article he tangentially covers something close to my heart - the loss of something precious to the altar of growth.
I worked for years in a small company that made great software that is used to ensure that people received payments (pensions, stipends, re-imbursements, etc) to which they were legislatively entitled. Great stuff in terms of making the world a better place and great stuff from a nerd perspective - expert systems, cool UI’s, etc.
As the company grew it changed. Dramatically, and in a pretty lumpy and uneven way. At some stages it was fantastic, lots of smart people working hard on making great stuff. At other stages it was a bit more Dilbertesque with people’s talents being wasted and frustration about inexplicable decisions bubbling up. Then it would change back into a fantastic place again. One thing that always seemed to remain was that it was “real”. The company had its own personality which was reflected in the way it did its stuff - it was as if it was a toddler - no self-consciousness or holding back because something wasn’t the “done thing”. No artifice.
Eventually the company’s growth hit about 90 people and all of a sudden it was doing things because it was the done thing. Policies for all sorts of crap were developed (and rarely read by anyone except those creating the policies). Some managers started to wear suits as a matter of course. Worse, a new type of person started to get hired - Grown-Ups. Now, I don’t have anything against grownups. They can sit around anywhere they like thinking their little beige thoughts, worrying about their cufflinks and deliberately stunting their personalities by only discussing business. Sometimes the grownups are actually real people who have been so badly abused by other grownups that they had to disguise themselves in beige (this type seems to be somewhat rare).
So there we were, a fantastic little company that was being overrun by grownups. Why? Because they seemed to be the right sort of person - experienced business people, managing directors of international publishing companies, etc, etc. As with nerds its really hard to pick the good ones from the shitty ones without trying them out. The really bad ones are those that are incompetent but are good at hiding it - unfortunately these seem remarkably common.
The thing that gets me is that we did this to ourselves - we let these bastards in and paid them for the pleasure of breaking our company. If only we knew. I suspect we did know at some level. Money (greed?), of course, was part of it. So was tiredness, its hard to work that hard for so long without the prospect of someone else taking over management seeming an easy way out. Eventually we listed on a stock exchange (after the tech bubble burst) which allowed those people who were lucky enough to own shares to pay off their houses, etc.
The money was/is nice but I’m not sure it was worth it. Something great, something that truly made the world a better place went into hiding. The company itself is crumbling - its lost its biggest customer, had a couple of rounds of layoffs and just had its CEO “resign”. The stupid beige bastards not only have stunted personalities but also can’t run a company. The one thing they’re supposed to be able to do!
P.S. There is hope, one of the founders has become CEO again. I hope the company’s soul is revived and it is able to claws its way out from under the grownups.
P.P.S. Just to show I’m a quick learner - at the place I’m working for now, which is another small hi-tech company, I’m doing my best to warn everyone each time some shithead grownup looks sideways at us. Once is bad luck, twice proves you actually like it.