Serial entrepreneur and consultant Steve Blank recently pointed out how he experienced that senior engineers left a hot startup when free sodas were cancelled. He uses it as a prime example for the so-called different tech startup culture, but this is not a unicum or specific to the tech startup scene.
I have participated to several new companies both in the bar scene and online and have every time experienced this happening, not because of free sodas or food being cancelled. It’s a natural process in every high paced sector.
Most companies go through 3 different ‘generations’ of teams.
The Foundation
Every company starts with an initial crew of team members, together with it’s founders. Often the team members have previous experience in starting a company, business. These are people who thrive on building something new, it’s a rush. You can feel the adrenaline flow in the days before launch, opening and experiencing a successful launch after the preparation period is one of the greatest professional moments.
It doesn’t matter if you have been preparing this new venture for months or only joined in the last weeks, days before the place opened. In my years in bars I have known many people who wanted to be part of as many opening nights, weekends, as possible. It’s a special rush.
But more than just the opening night, serial ‘starters’ often are driven by the desire to improve. Although they very creative minds are, with a specific view on how they can help a new company and are hired for being people who just have that one thing more on other great minds: personality, character, the ability to bound, they are very open and can analyse signs. They know how to listen and continue improving after launch. A good starting crew does know how to turn a hot concept into a long lasting and successful company.
They know how to turn a hot concept into a long lasting and successful company
In bars you’ll often notice that these people the (Studio) ‘
54‘ or ‘
Coyote Ugly‘ spirit have. They are not just bar tenders or waiters, they know how to kick start a new hotspot in town and are born entertainers. Often they have very unstable private lives and in many cases they spiral into everything shown in the 54 movie but they are some of the hardest workers you’ll ever experience.
This crew, the ‘first generation’ in every company is the most important crew as they will establish the company, its reputation. These people thrive on starting something and usually only know one thing really well: work. It’s their drug, their addiction, their obsession. Gowalla and Foursquare are here.
But they get easily bored.
They want to build, not maintain. They do not like to fall in a regular routine and unless your startup regularly new features launches, they will become susceptible to listen to people who are starting a new company.
Contrarily to online startups in bars you often only need two months to get your name out there and become one of the hottest hotspots in town. You only have two months to put your own stamp on the spirit of the club. After this period everyone is talking about the location and people are lining up to get in to your place. Soon the most hardcore ‘starters’ will start to leave.
The gourmet kitchen has been replaced with a canteen
Usually something has changed in their professional life as well. The sodas and free food. In nightlife these are most of the time the parties after work. Where initially the adrenaline of another great night leads to the almost compulsory after work celebrating as a team, the bounding stage this has become routine. Some members of your crew will start to not participate after work anymore, they will go somewhere else. Another club. Home.
Life’s kicked in.
Consolidation
Our bar or startup is now several months in and has gathered street cred. People are starting to apply and want to work for your company, because you’re all everyone speaks about. They heard of the spirit and fun at work, the culture and want to be part of it. These are top professionals and you to add them to your crew because they can take your company to the next level you think.
Wrong.
If they are that great professionals, able to take your company to the next level, why did you not hire them in the first place?
The new hires will help you consolidate growth. They are driven and a real asset to every team but would not be great members of the ‘first generation’ team.
As your company grows, the focus changes. You are not working at the next hot thing anymore, instead you are keeping the place on the list of hotspots. You are consolidation your startup, your company, your club. This will have a direct impact on your initial crew.
Your company has become just another successful enterprise for your first crew. You are not the newest and hottest kid on the block anymore, the kick is slowly disappearing.
The sodas are taken away
I have seen people leave for the rumoured new place around the corner as soon as after three months in bars and clubs. I have been one of them. Usually the exodus will happen in the second six months of the company. Online it takes twice as long before this process kicks in. Your crew are some of the most wanted and best professionals out there and launching your venture has only fortified their reputation. They will be headhunted. They will leave and there’s nothing you can do. It’ in their blood.
They thrive on taking care of everything needed, filling in gaps, working in small crews. Working very hard and many hours.
The popularity of your startup leaves you no other choice than hiring more staff and while your company grows, new hires, highly valued professionals, will slowly replace every member of the initial crew. The second crew tends to stay twice as long as the first crew: 1-2 years. It still is too early to analyse how long this scheme takes among hot online startups (because the first stage takes 1-2 years), but it seems that twice as long as in bars the measure is. Facebook is at around 55-60% of this stage, Twitter one third in, the exodus is about to start.
Hibernation
The ‘second generation’ takes your bar into its 3rd year, 5th year on average for your online startup. It doesn’t really matter anymore who you hire now, your startup, company, bar, club has become part of the daily life, routine of your visitors, clients. Your company doesn’t need people who live and breathe your enterprise anymore, as long as they are knowledgeable workers.
You are nothing special anymore
You need good workers, not characters. You are nothing special anymore, nothing more than a successful enterprise. Just like everyone else you have a soda machine and a canteen and your employees pay for everything. There is no bowl of fresh fruit on the tables anymore either and the IT equipment isn’t the latest either anymore. Your company now makes conscious financial decisions. You are normal now, not hot commodity anymore. Your call your team employees now. Everyone from the launch has left, often even the founders.
A great example of companies in this stage are Yahoo!, Google and Amazon, both are already experiencing the exodus of the second generation.
I have participated to several new companies both in the bar scene and online and have every time experienced this happening, not because of free sodas or food being cancelled. It’s a natural process in every high paced sector.
Most companies go through 3 different ‘generations’ of teams.
The Foundation
Every company starts with an initial crew of team members, together with it’s founders. Often the team members have previous experience in starting a company, business. These are people who thrive on building something new, it’s a rush. You can feel the adrenaline flow in the days before launch, opening and experiencing a successful launch after the preparation period is one of the greatest professional moments.
It doesn’t matter if you have been preparing this new venture for months or only joined in the last weeks, days before the place opened. In my years in bars I have known many people who wanted to be part of as many opening nights, weekends, as possible. It’s a special rush.
In bars you’ll often notice that these people the (Studio) ‘54‘ or ‘Coyote Ugly‘ spirit have. They are not just bar tenders or waiters, they know how to kick start a new hotspot in town and are born entertainers. Often they have very unstable private lives and in many cases they spiral into everything shown in the 54 movie but they are some of the hardest workers you’ll ever experience.But more than just the opening night, serial ‘starters’ often are driven by the desire to improve. Although they very creative minds are, with a specific view on how they can help a new company and are hired for being people who just have that one thing more on other great minds: personality, character, the ability to bound, they are very open and can analyse signs. They know how to listen and continue improving after launch. A good starting crew does know how to turn a hot concept into a long lasting and successful company.
This crew, the ‘first generation’ in every company is the most important crew as they will establish the company, its reputation. These people thrive on starting something and usually only know one thing really well: work. It’s their drug, their addiction, their obsession. Gowalla and Foursquare are here.
But they get easily bored.
They want to build, not maintain. They do not like to fall in a regular routine and unless your startup regularly new features launches, they will become susceptible to listen to people who are starting a new company.
Usually something has changed in their professional life as well. The sodas and free food. In nightlife these are most of the time the parties after work. Where initially the adrenaline of another great night leads to the almost compulsory after work celebrating as a team, the bounding stage this has become routine. Some members of your crew will start to not participate after work anymore, they will go somewhere else. Another club. Home.Contrarily to online startups in bars you often only need two months to get your name out there and become one of the hottest hotspots in town. You only have two months to put your own stamp on the spirit of the club. After this period everyone is talking about the location and people are lining up to get in to your place. Soon the most hardcore ‘starters’ will start to leave.
Life’s kicked in.
Consolidation
Our bar or startup is now several months in and has gathered street cred. People are starting to apply and want to work for your company, because you’re all everyone speaks about. They heard of the spirit and fun at work, the culture and want to be part of it. These are top professionals and you to add them to your crew because they can take your company to the next level you think.
Wrong.
If they are that great professionals, able to take your company to the next level, why did you not hire them in the first place?
The new hires will help you consolidate growth. They are driven and a real asset to every team but would not be great members of the ‘first generation’ team.
As your company grows, the focus changes. You are not working at the next hot thing anymore, instead you are keeping the place on the list of hotspots. You are consolidation your startup, your company, your club. This will have a direct impact on your initial crew.
Your company has become just another successful enterprise for your first crew. You are not the newest and hottest kid on the block anymore, the kick is slowly disappearing.
I have seen people leave for the rumoured new place around the corner as soon as after three months in bars and clubs. I have been one of them. Usually the exodus will happen in the second six months of the company. Online it takes twice as long before this process kicks in. Your crew are some of the most wanted and best professionals out there and launching your venture has only fortified their reputation. They will be headhunted. They will leave and there’s nothing you can do. It’ in their blood.
They thrive on taking care of everything needed, filling in gaps, working in small crews. Working very hard and many hours.
The popularity of your startup leaves you no other choice than hiring more staff and while your company grows, new hires, highly valued professionals, will slowly replace every member of the initial crew. The second crew tends to stay twice as long as the first crew: 1-2 years. It still is too early to analyse how long this scheme takes among hot online startups (because the first stage takes 1-2 years), but it seems that twice as long as in bars the measure is. Facebook is at around 55-60% of this stage, Twitter one third in, the exodus is about to start.
Hibernation
The ‘second generation’ takes your bar into its 3rd year, 5th year on average for your online startup. It doesn’t really matter anymore who you hire now, your startup, company, bar, club has become part of the daily life, routine of your visitors, clients. Your company doesn’t need people who live and breathe your enterprise anymore, as long as they are knowledgeable workers.
You need good workers, not characters. You are nothing special anymore, nothing more than a successful enterprise. Just like everyone else you have a soda machine and a canteen and your employees pay for everything. There is no bowl of fresh fruit on the tables anymore either and the IT equipment isn’t the latest either anymore. Your company now makes conscious financial decisions. You are normal now, not hot commodity anymore. Your call your team employees now. Everyone from the launch has left, often even the founders.A great example of companies in this stage are Yahoo!, Google and Amazon, both are already experiencing the exodus of the second generation.