3 ms·

A company I worked for hired some expert dude who came in and shaped the company into something that could be purchased. That was very interesting. That proces

A company I worked for hired some expert dude who came in and shaped the company into something that could be purchased. That was very interesting. That process that takes raw talent and startup chaos and turns it into something that will get acquired. It'd be great to hear about that process from both sides. There must be some sort of mentor approach, of giving advice that will work for that company.

natdempk 10y ago
What was the background of the expert? I am curious what skills and experience he had that led him to this line of work.
- monk_e_boy 10y ago
  I'm not sure. It was a long time ago and I wasn't really involved in the process, I am a coder. I think he had tried to sell his business and failed, but the company that wanted to buy his told him where he was going wrong. Then once his business was restructured and sold he got a job buying and chopping up businesses, restructuring them and selling them on. He told us that we had a weird hierarchy and gave us some ballpark figures for new hires. So we needed 5 plebs to one middle manager, 4 or 5 middle managers to one senior manager and then a good board of directors. So we hired middle managers. Split the workforce between them. Hired some people to fill the board of directors, some were there in name only (people with PHDs) (cheap) and some with a lot of experience who actually advised and were more expensive to run. I seem to remember they were on the board of directors of a few local companies, so although they were expensive hires they did generate a lot of extra work. Like, good contracts with good margins. At the end of it they had a company that ticked the right boxes for an acquisition, n coders, n/5 middle managers, etc etc, shove all that in a fancy powerpoint... what happened next was a mystery to me. But they did get purchased and made the owner multi-millionaires. The rest of us? Not so much. We had the choice to move 200 miles to our new offices or quit. :(

natdempk 10y ago

What was the background of the expert? I am curious what skills and experience he had that led him to this line of work.

monk_e_boy 10y ago
I'm not sure. It was a long time ago and I wasn't really involved in the process, I am a coder. I think he had tried to sell his business and failed, but the company that wanted to buy his told him where he was going wrong. Then once his business was restructured and sold he got a job buying and chopping up businesses, restructuring them and selling them on. He told us that we had a weird hierarchy and gave us some ballpark figures for new hires. So we needed 5 plebs to one middle manager, 4 or 5 middle managers to one senior manager and then a good board of directors. So we hired middle managers. Split the workforce between them. Hired some people to fill the board of directors, some were there in name only (people with PHDs) (cheap) and some with a lot of experience who actually advised and were more expensive to run. I seem to remember they were on the board of directors of a few local companies, so although they were expensive hires they did generate a lot of extra work. Like, good contracts with good margins. At the end of it they had a company that ticked the right boxes for an acquisition, n coders, n/5 middle managers, etc etc, shove all that in a fancy powerpoint... what happened next was a mystery to me. But they did get purchased and made the owner multi-millionaires. The rest of us? Not so much. We had the choice to move 200 miles to our new offices or quit. :(