Following up on my entry from the other day here, this post is about the first startup I was involved in and how the experiences gained from that helped me progress.

Back in early 1992 myself and 4 colleagues setup a new company called Equisoft. It was backed by a very astute individual investor who knew the financial sector very well and had several companies throughout the world.

Our sole aim with the company was to develop new a software trading system for Windows for Reuters PLC. This was to be their first Windows based application, they were still using good old DOS in those days. The first 9 months of that company were actually the hardest as we worked all hours under the sun to get the first product ready for release, but we got there.

Once things were going over the next 3 years we built the company up from the original 5 to about 100 people. We went through several changes throughout the time, which presented a wealth of issues we had to deal with. Up to about 25 people in the company and things went quite smoothly, no real layers of management, people just got on with the job and we knew what we had to do. Everyone TRUSTED each other, there was a common aim and we had excellent FOCUS.

I emphasis the words TRUSTED and FOCUS specifically because I believe they are very important when you are trying to build something from scratch. There was recently a post by Richard Jones about liking and trusting people, http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=70685, which is very true. In those first couple of years while we kept under the 25 number things worked incredibly well. In the first years our staff turnover was zero, people enjoyed working in an innovative and challenging environment.

As we got bigger that is when we found that we had to start putting in a more formal management structure. That is where I really started to mature more within a small company, as I took on a software development management role. Initially the role was about co-ordination of staff between ourselves and different groups within Reuters, ensuring resources were well used. However over time as we became part of the Reuters group the role changed into one where politics came into it, people looked at other opportunities in the group etc.

Reuters purchased the company in two stages. First they bought out the original investor and he did very well out of the deal. Second they then purchased the remaining part of the company from the original 5 of us. While we made some money from the deal one problem we had was that Reuters were our only customer so they we able to dictate the price!

Was the company a success, definitely a yes;
- the original investor had a good return in a shorter period of time than he had originally planned
- the 5 of us received a fair amount of money from the buyout
- we created the first windows based application in Reuters to ship to customers
- we were the first organisation associated with Reuters at the time to implement CMM
- we were the first group to ship a Java based solution
- lots of people benefited from the experience

So what did I learn from the experience?
- don't put all your eggs in one basic with the same client however attractive. They can dictate the price or even worse pull the plug on funding whenever they want.
- Low staff turnover by treating them with respect, especially when we put the management structure in place
- Recruitment is key in ensuring you get the right staff. I am good at recognising the right staff and only had to get rid of one person.
- Nurture the very good people and they will look after you
- Avoid being too arrogant. It clouds your judgement and that's when mistakes happen
- Trust in people was very important and will make or break the business

Like I said at the beginning these may not sound like rocket science, it isn't, but so many people still make these and other common errors. The experience at Equisoft really helped develop my management skills for technical teams and bringing that gap to the commercial reality, something which I enjoyed immensely and have taken forward into other roles.