🏗️ When your startup becomes a company, will you keep building?
If you plan to grow your startup into a big business, the path can look something like:
You build - launches - get users - join an accelerator - raise money - find investors - hire people - build a team - grow the company...
And at some point, I wonder:
Are you still the maker who builds the product?
Or does the journey slowly turn you into someone who is mostly building the company around the product?
Should the founder keep being deeply involved in the product all the way through?
Or is there a point where you need to step back from building and focus on building the business?
I honestly don't know yet =D
I'm curious how other makers think about this.
If you want to turn your product into a big company, do you see yourself still building the product 5-10 years from now?
Replies
I would keep time for building but stop making every feature depend on me
A small prototype or a customer call each week seems like a good way to stay close while the team owns delivery
@al_kub Would you decide on new features, designs, and directions, or once you build your dream team, would you trust all of that to them?
@al_kub What if your designer or marketer offers something they believe in, but you can't agree? =)
@adana so, we can always have A/B tests, it's not about trust, but numbers :)
@al_kub Agreed =)
Do you think founders should stay involved in the product after the company starts growing?
@shivam_kushwaha16 I think so. It’s the founder’s vision that can make the product and the company unique all the way through.
I’m curious about this too. From the team side, it seems like a founder’s hands leave the product long before their head does, with their taste still shaping what gets built. Do you see that shift starting to happen for you?
@sanya_singh6 Can't say whether that shift is happening or not, but I definitely have the feeling that building a product and building a company require completely different skills =)
I've grown one product for 22 years. It's one of the long-established ones in its industry, but a younger company raised money, grew to roughly 10 times our size, and even went public.
Still, I'm at peace with it. I can decide the direction of the business on my own, it brings in more than enough to support my family, and I don't have to defer to anyone. There's no risk of a vulture fund coming after us either.
I believed this kind of business was possible more than 20 years ago, and I think it's become much easier to pull off now. If time and relationships with your family matter to you, I'd recommend staying small.
@hisashispace Interesting perspective from an experienced founder. I read it twice =)
There are always trade-offs and contradictions in every decision.