Starting a Tech Business: A Practical Guide for Anyone Creating or Designing Applications or Software

Scaling

Fast forward a year and a half, and Enable Quiz is a huge success. The numbers are off the charts. Andrew wakes up at night in a thrall of exhilaration and fear. What does he do now? It's not just a matter of cashing bigger checks. A lot of things happen with the business to keep moving forward. A lot of things could go wrong. Here are a few things he should consider:

• A big plane flies a lot like a small one.

  Running a company that's going through a large increase in scale is difficult and it does require change. One key facet is to remember that you're still in the same business, and you need to keep doing the same basic things that made you successful in the first place. You'll need to operate at a higher level of abstraction since more people will be involved, but that doesn't mean having stifling bureaucracy and process. You're still a learning machine.

• It's not your company anymore.

  If you're the founder, you'll have a strong feeling of ownership over the whole company, as well you should. That said, it's not your company anymore. You're responsible for commitments you've made to customers, employees and their paychecks, and probably shareholders as well. It's your responsibility to do what's right for the company. Think of the company as its own entity rather than an extension of yourself.

• Things have to happen without you.

  We reviewed department missions, job roles, and process in Chapter 7. If you have too many e-mails, if the whole company's waiting on you for ...