On Startups: Blyk and Management-to-Developers Ratio
Mar 21 2008
Blyk is a startup company. What they are doing seems pretty cool. They have an interesting management team, ex-Nokias and other. That said, I’ve seen and experienced startups that are management heavy. But Blyk is an extremely management-heavy startup… 30 folks? That seems way to high for a startup. I wonder what’s the ratio of management-to-developers there? Not to mention the impact on other areas such as investors, dilution, the development/tech team, etc…
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Those 30 are not the complete Blyk team - the names are mainly Finnish, and they have IRO 20 or so people (I’d estimate) in the UK, some of whom are definitely not on that list. A few of these are ad development types too.
That said, if they’re outsourcing much of their infrastructure then perhaps there isn’t a need to be development-heavy?
Yes I’m sure that is not the whole team at Blyk.
Perhaps a different way of thinking (from how I think) w.r.t. technology companies and their IP and technical (people) capital.
Even then, if outsourcing all or most of development, which is a total business decision and great for some and not others, more reason to be lighter on management.
BTW, this might work great for them; I’m not criticizing… just an observation as it is unusual for technology startup companies.
My recommendation for Entrepreneurs starting technology startups — be technology heavy, and management light.