Scaling Your Company to $30M
A panel of CEOs on stage at the recent Intel Capital Global Summit discussed why $30 million is an important number when it comes to annual revenues and how they managed to scale their companies past that point.
Ever wonder what is inside a CEO’s head? VentureBeat editor-in-chief Dylan Tweney moderated a panel of CEOs, which included GoodData’s Roman Stanek, Kaltura’s Ron Yekutiel, VeriSilicon Holdings’ Wayne Dai, Zimbra’s Patrick Brandt and Max Schireson, vice chairman (and former CEO) of MongoDB. In front of 1,000 startup entrepreneurs, VCs and tech execs from around the world, they discussed topics such as hiring tactics and how to serve the needs of customers.
Even if you aren’t a CEO, understanding the growth of a company as it reaches more than $30M is fascinating, from the decision to establishing proper processes, to creating a consistent culture throughout the team, to even relinquishing the role of CEO so the company can continue to scale. Here are the top five shifts I noticed during the conversation.
1. Time To Grow Up And Establish Processes
“$30M is an important number. It’s half time to an IPO. Building a SAS company feels much harder because we create an experience for the customers. It’s difficult to align and communicate. Customers need to have a consistent experience from on-boarding to the following processes: marketing to sales to support to finance.” — Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData
“When you get these layers, the company is at 150 to 250 people. It’s about training leaders to lead. And it happens around the same time. The sales strategy, product, and internal operations all shift to support scale.” -Ron Yekutiel, CEO of Kaltura
2. One Thing is on Your Mind: Scaling!
“From the product side, $30M is an important number because it’s when you turn a product into something that can scale. From a sales perspective, it’s when you turn the product into something that is more structured. [What changes is you get], three layers under the CEO instead of two.” — Ron Yekutiel, CEO of Kaltura
“[The company] needs to be connected to the life cycle of the customer. You have to understand the lead times and also need to understand what you need to do today. Understanding the lead times is important for a fast growing company.” — Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData
3. It’s All About Your Sales Team
“At $30M, you need a machine. Your sales team needs structure. There’s a critical mass. At $5–30M, you ask do you have a pipeline? At $30–60M, you ask do you have enough capacity and is there enough of a market?” — Max Schireson, vice chairman of MongoDB
“At $30M, it’s a big change. People underestimate what a change it is. It’s about grooming people, giving up being on the sales forecast calls. You are relying on the metrics and making good hires.” — Patrick Brandt, CEO of Zimbra
4. Hire A Players
“I interview every employee. It’s important to start with the A team. B players hire C people and C people hire D people. I was a tenured professor… over time, the more I was responsible for investors, I realized I had to give up my tenured position. [As far as replacing me as CEO], I’ll keep the option open after the IPO.” — Wayne Dai, CEO of VeriSilicon Holdings
5. Know When To Replace Yourself With Another CEO
“I did hire a professional CEO in my last company after I stepped aside. I moved far away to signal to the employees that I moved on to be head of international business [and away from my CEO role both mentally and physically]. It worked extremely well.” — Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData
“[One time] I replaced myself with another CEO. The nature of the job changed.” -Max Schireson, vice chairman of MongoDB
“[You should hire a new CEO], when there is no pulse. It’s about looking into the future, and not about what you did in the past. Beyond that, you need to make sure you aren’t protecting yourself. You shouldn’t play defense politics. That way, then you know if you stay [as CEO], they want you there — not because you need to be there.” — Ron Yekutiel, CEO of Kaltura
“I am the CEO that replaced the founder. We’ve multiplied 10x — and he’s the largest shareholder. I also invested [in the company], so I look at it from a shareholder first and a CEO second. All of our operators are board members. If you can get an engaged board, the value you get out of that is very valuable.” — Patrick Brandt, CEO of Zimbra
Full disclosure: This is the second story of a five article series about startups and venture capital. This series received support from Intel, who sponsored and invited me to attend the Intel Capital Global Summit last week. The first story published is called How to Pitch a VC.
