

Everything Changes After Lift - wensing
http://wensing.tumblr.com/post/31523619639/everything-changes-after-lift

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jseims
As someone who has run a company for a decade, there are several meaningful
inflection points:

* Becoming cash flow positive (aka Lift) is wonderful and stress relieving.

* Becoming profitable enough to start hiring lots of people and building a team culture marks a sea change in how you must think about your company and how you spend your time.

* Switching from growing to shrinking (albeit still profitable) changes the company culture, as everyone now feels like they're rats on a sinking ship. It's amazing how much people react to directional changes over absolute amounts (i.e., a company with $100K in annual revenue that doubled from last year is more positive than one with $20M that shrank by 20%).

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ryanwaggoner
_a company with $100K in annual revenue that doubled from last year is more
positive than one with $20M that shrank by 20%_

I would expect that more than a predisposition to react to directional changes
over absolute amounts, such a reaction would be due to individuals within the
organization being concerned with their own personal fate. Being one out of
two or three in a company with annual revenue of $100k that's doubling every
year puts you personally in a very good position. Being one of 250 in a $20M
organization that is shrinking by 20% annually...not so much.

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jseims
Good point.

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yesimahuman
Incredibly timely for me as my company has achieved lift and we are
transitioning to the next phase. I am a hacker so my temptation is to sit and
hack on things, but that is not what a company needs after it reaches lift, as
you say. It's a great learning experience though, and a chance to grow out of
your comfort zone.

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tfe
To stretch the airplane analogy some more, it's interesting to think about how
breaking contact with the ground allows you to accelerate faster, because
you're no longer spending any thrust to overcome rotational friction of wheels
on runway. It can all go into increasing your velocity.

Maybe the startup analogue is getting enough people or money in place that you
as a founder can avoid the day-to-day distractions of running the business and
focus.

