11–20 of 347 posts
I’ve seen this twice. First time the PE firm installed their CEO who came in and immediately started talking about cleaning house. A bunch of developers left fearing a layoff. That was bad enough, but what he really meant was sales. He gutted the sales team and brought in his guys. Sales tanked, company growth stopped, hard. Features dwindled and bugs grew. This clown and his cronies were gone after two years and the…
I see this on a smaller scale where ICs leave a company and take a copy of "their" code (ask Sergey Aleynikov [1] if that's a good idea). It's not yours. If you ever use it you could face legal consequences. And there's no code I've ever written that I wasn't convinced I could write better from scratch the next time if it ever came up. Side note: it never has.
Don't be that guy who takes the check and then expects control. Don't be that guy who is convinced the new owners are messing it up and then goes out and does the exact same thing..
Move on.
I think it's safe to assume that if your company is acquired, it will be "ruined". Even in the best case, where the product/service stays alive and some of the original team is still working on it, it's going to be somebody else calling the shots and taking it in all sorts of unexpected directions.
FFS, if it’s a good idea do it again. I built a satisfying career on a couple of those. Good ideas are for squishing obsessively into the fuzzy pumper until you get an iteration worth sticking in the oven.
My thought on trying it again though is that IP rights could be tied up in the old entity.
FFS, if it’s a good idea do it again. I built a satisfying career on a couple of those. Good ideas are for squishing obsessively into the fuzzy pumper until you get an iteration worth sticking in the oven.
I'm sorry, I can't resist. What is a "fuzzy pumper" in this context?
Edit: see the sibling comment, they gave a link. Brother need a little off the top.... and I never even had this or most of the crap whose jingles are still in my head.
If you own the company and you decide to close a product line, you're pivoting and being a good owner.
If you sell your company to someone and the acquirer closes a product line, they're ruining your company.
This exact pattern has preceded every mismanagement disaster I've ever seen:
1) Management gives an unreasonable deadline to developers before defining the deliverables. Clock starts ticking.
2) Management then fails to settle on the requirements for months and/or continuously moves the goalposts while people are trying to work, turning an unreasonable deadline into an impossible deadline
3) Developers start realizing that they're going to receive the blame when impossible deadline isn't achieved, despite not having any control in the matter. They start leaving for new jobs, and the death spiral begins.
It's the universal pattern of a management team that doesn't know how to do anything other than make demands and then apply pressure. Unless you can get someone in charge who has real leadership and planning skills, it's not recoverable.
I’ve seen this twice. First time the PE firm installed their CEO who came in and immediately started talking about cleaning house. A bunch of developers left fearing a layoff. That was bad enough, but what he really meant was sales. He gutted the sales team and brought in his guys. Sales tanked, company growth stopped, hard. Features dwindled and bugs grew. This clown and his cronies were gone after two years and the…
MuleSoft?
Here's better advice – the moment you sign the contract start counting the days left in your retention agreement and quit right after.