Mike Cannon-Brookes on Scaling Problems
The Model Itself
- Do software companies scale?
- Know really really well what doesn’t scale in your model
- Software = Support / Sales
- Invest in simple, installable, supportable, documented, quality product
Simple != Simplified
- Beware of scaling too fast (eg “the US Question”)
- Build the right product not the first product
- Did we build anything new?
- Keep it simple … as long as possible (eg OEM, pro services, training?)
- Invest in IT Systems early.
Marketing
- First - word of mouth scales
- … so make a damn good product to start
- … and make it attractive!
- Google Adwords
- Trust is hard to scale, show customer lists, show testimonials etc
- Beware low touch - ship a t-shirt!
People
- Hiring is really hard
Innovation
- Workout which are the normal things to do.
- Workout what the innovating things are.
