Will They Make It? Examining The Team

We have all been there. Sitting across the table are representativesfrom a new company that until five minutes ago you never heard of. Theyare talking to you about a new product and technology that solves adefinite problem that you have and you are trying to decide if it isworth the risk investing the time and money in their solution.

First let's agree that picking winners in technology is morechallenging than understanding the BCS college football ranking system,and that many financial experts have lost a lot of money investing inthe wrong technology. Also understand that your expectations can be alot lower than the financial experts. It is unlikely that you will needor want to use any particular technology or company that provides thattechnology for the rest of your career. In most cases, if you can get3-5 years out of the technology, it's a winner. Vetting the technology is really your responsibility. Yes, you can talkto peers, current customers, even analysts, but at the end of the dayyour ability to test the technology is going to be what matters most.Assuming that the technology is almost as good as the vendor says itis (it's never really as good as they say it is), and it solves a problemthat you are struggling with, how do you know that the company isgoing to survive?

The first test is the stability of the managementteam. How long have all the people with a CxO or VP in their title beenthere? Having an executive management team that is largely unchangedfor a period of time is a good indicator that those people believe inwhat they are offering to the market. Changeover in the managementstructure, especially if it repeats everycouple of years, is a big red flag that would keep meaway from a company.

With smaller organizations, I'd try to meet with the CEO. I look forCEOs who are articulate about the technology but are more there to runthe business. They can write a blog about the technology but any if asked to go any deeper,they are smart enough to pull in their CTO or someone similar. Theyknow that their job is to steer the ship, not build it. Interestingly, I like it when the CTO was one of the founders of thecompany. There seems to be a formula for success when that CTO helda higher position in the formative stages of the company butrelinquished power to the business CEO to drive the business to thenext state. This tells me the founder was more concerned about theirchild (the technology) than the quest to be a captain of industry.

Finally, look at the VP of Marketing position. I know its atechnology decision, but how well a technology is received depends on alarge part how well that message is communicated. A product that solvesa real problem in simple fashion makes a VP of Marketing's life easy,and they tend to stay with organizations that make their life easy. Next up we will explore the subject of focus. How many problems is thecompany trying to solve and how many times have they tried to reinventthemselves?