Managing Hypergrowth

I'm speaking today at a World Financial Symposium event on Growth and Exit Strategies for Software and IT Companies. Earlier today Veritas founder Mark Leslie spoke on the sessions, three CEOs who have experienced managing hypergrowth companies. Some good management insight from people who have been there and are doing that. Brian Bacon, President & Founder - Kabira Technologies (1550% growth) On hiring and cycling: Looking to add new players to the team at all times. Early in your career you hire on gut reaction ,then you learn practices, but he has come back to gut reaction. When things are going well, its an indication to start thinking about what to change. When things go well, its because of decisions 9-12 months ago. Comes back to his gut about who can take them to the next step. Sales learning bump, is about when to push the pedal to the floor. When you get the signals that you have a product, acceptance, then picking the hotspots where the product was applicable. Now they challenge is to take a generalized product and figuring out how to take it to the next level. I actually personally give away the upside and internalize the failure. You think about if you should exit, but you should also try to learn how to scale yourself and your company. Layoffs are about communication. We all have investors. Its another test for a CEO, a hurdle to get to value down the line. Tony Naughtin, CEO - PaymentOne (9300% growth) Focus on the early stage clients. What it takes to drive their metrics, they monitor client metrics above their own. Think big from the outset, plan to be big, think about large markets where you address pain points with differentiation. Go big or go home. When you start small and have an intimate relationship with customers, there is room for profit, which then provides a model to explore and scale. Stages of growth. Early is Wild West, not all people thrive in all stages. Set expectation that this business will grow and take on entrenching processes. A CFO who is really a VP of Finance and the need for a true CFO, can be handled if expectations are set for the team up front. Have to have, if not me, who? That keeps me in my seat for now. On the sales learning curve...They help merchants get their charges into the telecom bill. In the early stage it was a CEO/CTO selling the deals. At $31M we still dont have the renessance sales rep, partially because of the size of our deals. Recurring model, so they have a big infrastructure sale, then sell services on top Managing the downturn...layoffs can be a mystery or you can let people know what's coming. Most important element was communicating a transparent view of the business to the entire company in a day after meeting. Transparency and honesty is the best approach to manage something that is never fun and always difficult. After it happens, every day its like 100 days behind you. Socialtext, an emerging provider of Enterprise Social Software that dramatically increases group productivity and develops a group memory.