Re: The Joy of *small* business

On Sat, 14 Dec 2024, Lars Poulsen wrote:

As I young engineer, I was puzzled at how little interest the "hot" code
writer had in the slightly bigger picture. They would be happy to fix
bugs, but refused to participate in the ECO procedures to release the
product updates. I spent some time in customer support, and got an
appreciation for what customers needed, distinct from what the
programmers would like to tweak. I connected with some of the people
running the ERP systems and learning their report generator programs, so
that I could do a roll-up of the BOMs affected by a changed part, and of
the recent ECOs that affected an assembly that came in for repair.
>
Later, when my former boss and I started a company, he took on
marketing, while I did book-keeping. We were both engineers: He was an
RF guy, while I was a systems programmer, but in a small business, each
job is 3-4 part-time jobs adding up to full time. And it makes for a
diversity within the jobs that I find is good for me.

On 2024-12-14, D <nospam@example.net> wrote:

Did you grow it into a big business? How did the experience change from
the start to where you are now?

Growing big was never a goal.

My business partner and a friend had left a small company that made
sonar systems for the navy and started a radio company when spread
spectrum became a thing. They built it into a 30-people comapny and then
sold off the half that was least interesting to a utility meter company,
and the friend went with it. They did not like the managing part of
business and hired a CEO to do that, tasking him to find another
company to buy the remaining part so they could cash out. Meanwhile that
remaining part grew back to about 35 people. The CEO managed to find a
buyer, but the deal closed right as the dot-com bubble of 2000 burst,
and in the end, we found that they had given the company away. The deal
stated that "essential staff" were kept on as a design center,
guaranteed for at least 2 years, and on the second anniversary of the
closing, they fired us all, stating that because engineering salaries in
California were so much higher than in Calgary, Alberta, it was
unsustainable to maintain a development group in California. Never mind
that the product we had brought in, was the only thing thye ever could
build at a profit. Six months later, they changed their focus from radio
manufacturing to patent litigation, and moved to Toronto.

My boss and I looked out and saw that there were no engineer jobs
available in town; LM Ericsson had just closed their US Internet group
and put 300 Internet engineers on the street. So he asked if I would be
willing to join him in a startup.

From the beginning, the goal was to do something that would fill our
days and feed our families. We have mostly stayed at a headcount of 4.
My tagline is "4 guys in a garage".

5 years ago or so, we looked at the feasibility of "cashing out", but
realized that the value of the company is the knowledge base of the two
of us, so we are stuck with each other until we wind it up, which we he
started to do. We have offered a "last time buy" to our major customers,
and expect to be done in two years or so.

--
Lars Poulsen