Recurly - 'Entrepreneuring' Company Growth - Lessons learned between $0 and $1Bn in...

Preview:

Citation preview

#recurlyboulder

Powering Subscription Billing Success Since 2009

Dan BurkhartCEO and Co-founder

@danburkhart

Renato MascardoChief Technical Officer

@rmascardo#recurlyboulder

2010

2012

2014

Today

4

Building A Company Is An Un-Natural Act

Requiring Many Deviations From Your ‘Comfort Zone’

2010

2012

2014

Today

5

Humans Learn By Repetition

Sometimes Unlearning Behaviors Is Even More Difficult

6

When building a company, it is difficult to know when to shift gears… in People, Process, Infrastructure, and Organization

2010

2012

2014

Today

7

4Seed

$1.6M

12Series A

$6M

60Series B

$12M

85

Funding Team Business Technology Organization Process

1

2

3

4

5

R

2010

2012

2014

Today

8

Lessons learned between then…

2010

2012

2014

Today

9

… and Now

2010

2012

2014

Today

Stage of Business: Determines Approach

10

Influencing Factors

• Seeking Funding vs. Freshly Funded • Architectural Maturity • Customer Demands (B2B vs. B2C) • Business Model • Brand ‘Promise’ To Customers

2010

2012

2014

Today

Pre-Seed

11

Scrappy, Scramble, Survival Mode

• Building functionality at a breakneck pace

• Nothing to lose, everything to gain

• Proof of concept, pursuit of MVP and validation

2010

2012

2014

Today

12

4Seed

$1.6M Early Revenue Monolithic Engineer + 1 Support

Scrappy + Tired

Funding Team Business Technology Organization Process

Where We Were At Our Seed Stage Of Funding…

2010

2012

2014

Today

Post-Seed Funding

13

Pursuit of Traction + (MVP)

• Iterating Quickly • Building Features At A Breakneck Pace • Infrastructure Build-out to become PCI compliant • Added Support

GearShift Moment

2010

2012

2014

Today

14

Series A Funding Sets Expectation For Growth

2010

2012

2014

Today

15

Series A

$6M 8 Revenue Early SOA Eng + Product + Support Early Scrum

Funding Team Business Technology Organization Process

4Seed

$1.6M Early Revenue Monolithic Engineer + 1 Support

Scrappy + Tired

2010

2012

2014

Today

Adding Product Management

16

To An Engineering Culture

• Existing Full-Stack Engineers Resistant • ‘Why Do We Need Product Managers?” • Organization Needed Process and Definition • Engineering Staffing Moved From “I” To “We”

GearShift Moment

2010

2012

2014

Today

17

Coming of Age Rituals

2010

2012

2014

Today

18

Architect For Failure + Resiliency

Postmortem: - Architectural Failures - Process Failures - People Failures

The Wake Up Call:

Lessons: - Hire Ops Early - Hire Experience ($$) - Systems-Level Thinkers - Think In Failure Modes - Test Everything. Again.

2010

2012

2014

Today

19

Startup Mode:

Mature Company Mode:

“I Built This Feature…It Works Like This”

“I Built This Feature…Here’s How It Works…”

“When It Fails…Here Is What Happens…”

GearShift Moment

2010

2012

2014

Today

20

Series A

$6M 8 Revenue Early SOA Eng + Product + Support Early Scrum

Funding Team Business Technology Organization Process

4Seed

$1.6M Early Revenue Monolithic Engineer + 1 Support

Scrappy + Tired

SOARevenue Growth

Eng, Product Support, Design,

QA, Ops, Acct. Mgmt, Sales, Mktg

Scrum40Series B

$12M

2010

2012

2014

Today

21

Stability, Scalability, Performance and Security are Features

2010

2012

2014

Today

22

Technology and Architecture Continuum

Prototype

(MVP) Minimum Viable Product

1-3 Yr. Architecture

5-10 Yr. Architecture

Future

2010

2012

2014

Today

23

Choose Iterative Architectures Over Pure Perfection Or Pure Time-To-Market

Evolve Your Technical Design Review Process

Technology and Architecture

2010

2012

2014

Today

24

‘Stage Appropriate’ Architecture

Technology decisions must consider architectural purpose and ability to execute balanced against time-to-market requirements

They Are Ultimately Business Decisions

2010

2012

2014

Today

25

Technology and Architecture

Always Have A Strategy For How You Build Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) Into Your Product

SOA and Organizational Alignment

2010

2012

2014

Today

26

Technology and Architecture

Entropy Applies to Software and It’s Called Technical Debt

#recurlyboulder

2010

2012

2014

Today

27

Technology and Architecture

Technology Decisions And Staffing Decisions Are More Coupled Than Most Think

2010

2012

2014

Today

28

Organizational Structure

2010

2012

2014

Today

29

Evolution Of Organizational Structure Takes Time..

Organization

Typically The Realization That Change Is Needed Hurts…Before It Can Change

Anticipating Change In Advance Can Greatly Smooth Out PainPoints

2010

2012

2014

Today

30

Organization

Recurly Appropriately Invested In Great Customer Support Early On.

Nothing Can Kill SaaS Companies More Quickly Than Poor Customer Support

2010

2012

2014

Today

31

Organization

Double Down On Ops Early On

Otherwise, BOTH Ops (Stability) And Engineering Progress Suffer

2010

2012

2014

Today

32

Organization

Invest In QA Early, Especially If Your Business Proposition Depends On High Availability (B2B)

Your Customers Will Thank You With Their Loyalty

2010

2012

2014

Today

33

Don’t Be Afraid To ‘Re-Factor’ Your Execution Process

Process

If Your Business Is Growing Your Processes Become Obsolete… Repeatedly

2010

2012

2014

Today

34

Process Is Also ‘Stage Appropriate’

Random Scramble

Kinda-Smells-Like-Scrum

Oh That’s Scrum

Cross-Team Execution

Cross-Team, Cross-Matrix Execution

2010

2012

2014

Today

35

Company Culture

Company Culture Can Help With ‘GearShift’ Moments Requiring Change

Company Values Define Pillars of Culture

…Defines Personality and Temperament During Critical Transitions

2010

2012

2014

Today

36

Be MindfulEmpathetic to customers Champion of the user Accountable to your team

2010

2012

2014

Today

37

Solve ElegantlyDo more with less Focus where it matters

2010

2012

2014

Today

38

Iterate EverythingProduct, Process, Behaviors

2010

2012

2014

Today

39

Debate Passionatelyand Compromise Accordingly

2010

2012

2014

Today

40

Own the OutcomeGet shit done, Play to win

41

Questions?

THANK YOU

follow us @recurly

Recommended