Technology Life Cycle

Debi Rosati of RosatiNet, a venture catalyst firm, (www.rosatinet.com) and I are collaborating on how early stage technology companies create value through their growth stages.  As a starting point, we've created the growth stage model posted below.  We'd be curious to hear what you think. Comments welcome!

Technology Company Growth Stages

 

Comments

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Technology is like a cycle it needs a power to start and if we see that how were the TV of 17 ,18 century so we would see the need or luxury of our life.

[Ian Graham]

Hi Wendy,

I found your blog today and had a look around there is really some great stuff here. The post regarding company growth stages is one of keen interest to me.
You asked for comments and I have a slightly different take on the idea of company growth stages and wanted to offer an alternative point of view. The key differences are that;

1. the stages are for all start-up companies (not exclusively technology),
2. the boundaries between the stages are delineated by the functions and focus of the company rather than number of employees or revenue.

My take from the picture on your blog was that the scale for the stages shown was essentially revenue and number of employees.

Concept à Implementation à Launch à Revenue Growth à Portfolio Diversity

Concept
- Founders
- Focus: Evaluating options
- Function: formulating a business plan
- Essentially identical to Pre-ignition

Implementation
- Founders + Key employees
- Focus: product development
- Function: building team, evolving roles
- Employees mainly product / service development staff
- Sweat equity
- Friends and family financing possibly Angels
- Initial product / service development

Launch
- Founders + Key employees + Sales / Business Development
- Focus: Generating Revenue
- Function: Sales and marketing
- Continued product / service development and feature enhancement
- Product / Service ready for release
- Customer Trials / Initial Revenue
- Financing organically (through revenue stream) or outside investment possibly VC Series A, …

Revenue Growth
- Focus: Accelerating Revenue Generation
- Function: Sales and marketing
- Additional focus building Sales and Marketing efforts
- Partnering to compliment sales channels
- Expanded Business Development capabilities

Portfolio Diversity
- Focus: Increased Revenue through new product introduction
- Function: Broadening Product Portfolio
- Increase development efforts to introduce new and complimentary product lines
- Continue to augment sales, marketing and business development

Hope you find this helpful.

Cheers,

Ian Graham