{"id":5311,"date":"2015-08-19T07:06:56","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T05:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.alainveuve.ch\/tech-companies-every-bottle-needs-a-lid\/"},"modified":"2015-08-19T07:06:56","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T05:06:56","slug":"tech-companies-every-bottle-needs-a-lid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alainveuve.ch\/en\/tech-companies-every-bottle-needs-a-lid\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech Companies: Every bottle needs a lid!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am often asked what is important to be successful in a tech company like an internet agency or a tech product startup. Having worked with many such companies and worked in a few, I think there are a number of factors that are very important. However, they are more general in nature such as good employees, quality awareness, time to market, rationalization via technology and so on. However, the founding duo is of fundamental importance. <\/p>\n

(Reading time 4 minutes)<\/em><\/p>\n

The thing with the bottle and the lid<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you compare the companies, even the well-known and large ones, that have been extremely successful in recent years, it is noticeable that there are always two leaders in such companies who complement each other and who can only be truly successful together. I call them the bottle and the lid. Although a lid and a bottle also make a certain amount of sense independently of each other, only the combination is really effective. <\/p>\n

I think these two parts are part of running a tech company:<\/p>\n

Business person
\n<\/span>One person in such a duo is a talented business person. He draws his motivation from how the business develops (please do not confuse this with money). He likes to shape organizations, likes to see people grow together into teams. He recognizes opportunities and limits in the market and knows how to use these insights for his company. <\/p>\n

Tech person<\/span>
\nThe other person in this duo is a talented tech person. He enjoys technology, challenges and, more importantly, the solutions that he and the team develop. He could mentally live with it if his solutions didn’t make any money. He finds answers to business people’s questions and delivers solutions. <\/p>\n

Prominent examples<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are many prominent examples of such constellations. E.g. Jobs & Wozniak, Gates & Ballmer, Hewlett & Packard, Page & Schmidt, Zuckerberg & Sandberg and so on. It’s almost like a common thread running through the tech world. <\/p>\n

But this is also the case with less well-known companies. Look around you: Practically all larger agencies have emerged from such a constellation. And the agencies that remain in place despite the massive boom that has lasted for years, in the vast majority of cases have a constellation where the bottle and the lid don’t fit together. Because as soon as one person is inferior to the other in terms of talent, effort or drive, things start to get difficult. <\/p>\n

However, this does not mean that the companies do not work. But they are not shooting through the roof either. <\/p>\n

When someone asks me today why their agency is not making progress, I first look at this constellation. If it’s not ideal, all other efforts are usually in vain. Nobody likes to hear that, but it’s true. <\/p>\n

Who is the bottle and who is the lid?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The analogy to the bottle, which as a term does not exactly stand for excellence, is of course deliberately chosen. Because even in times when, fortunately, tech and business are no longer fighting each other (here’s a shout-out to the waterfall<\/a>), most tech people consider themselves superior to business people. And vice versa. And they are basically right. In fact, the counterpart can hardly do anything in the other’s field. So everyone secretly thinks they are the lid and the other is the real bottle. <\/p>\n

What makes this partnership successful is that they have found a way to respect and understand each other. To make appropriate compromises that make their common cause better. I think that’s a kind of secret to success. <\/p>\n

Talent singularity does not exist<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even if it may sometimes seem from the outside that there are people who combine outstanding professional and entrepreneurial skills, I don’t believe it. I have simply never seen it. Entrepreneurs are certainly capable of understanding technical contexts over time, just as experts are capable of making good business decisions over time. <\/p>\n

But they don’t become real experts. For me, that’s because the two areas require completely different predispositions. In a way, it’s the classic introvert vs. extrovert thing. Of course, as always, with nuances and exceptions. <\/p>\n

And if the company grows?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the company grows, such company managers need not worry too much. The employees learn intuitively from this collaboration and behave similarly over the long and short term. To a certain extent, this culture is instilled in the team. Like so many other things. <\/p>\n

Not just tech companies<\/strong><\/p>\n

By accompanying start-ups, also in the non-tech sector, I know that such partnerships are also promising in traditional craft businesses, for example. How many small businesses are there that were founded by a professional but where the spouse is responsible for the administrative part? Many of these craftsmen would not get very far without their wives, who take care of prices, calculations, reminders, customer service and advertising. <\/p>\n

My advice<\/strong><\/p>\n

Therefore, the answer to the question of the fundamental success factor for starting a tech company is quite simple: If you are the entrepreneurial type, look for a specialist. If you are a techie, look for a salesperson. This lays the foundation. However, it is of course no guarantee of success. Rather, it is the foundation on which you must build everything else. Things like: “Employees, quality awareness, time to market, rationalization via technology and so on.” <\/p>\n

Artikel auf Social Media teilen:<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div>