ADS specializes in using Ruby on Rails to build advanced, scalable, database-backed web sites for organizations of all sizes. Find out more at our website.

Something that struck me in a recent Wired Magazine article featuring David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of Ruby on Rails, and Jason Fried, a co-founder of 37signals, was the following expert:

“The company has just 10 employees, five of whom telecommute and none of whom are expected to work more than 40 hours a week. But 37signals hasn’t remained small out of sloth or through lack of opportunity; indeed, it’s taken some effort to keep it from growing…What’s more, 37signals’ ideological objections to outside funding could make them less able to withstand competition. Nicholas Carr, author of The Big Switch, says companies like 37signals won’t have the resources to fight should larger firms with huge economies of scale and backend infrastructure decide to take them on. ‘They’re going to have a very tough challenge,’ he says.”

You can read Jason’s response on the 37signals blog.

One of the topics that Dan Benjamin and I discussed over Thai food yesterday was the growth of ADS. Within the past year we have gone from outsourcing all of our development to having a full time staff of seven developers. Lately, I’ve been looking at our workload and considering hiring our eighth developer. Dan and I talked about it, and he asked me how long I intended to grow ADS, and when will our team be big enough. My response was that we will continue to grow as long as we can maintain the integrity of our principles, our process, and our approach to work. I adamantly believe that to be possible, even faced with the fact that many companies, as they grow, tend to slather on layer and layer of stifling bureaucracy. I shiver at the memory of the horror stories told by my fellow MBA’s of how the large companies they work for operate, and how they succeed in spite of themselves. Why is that? That doesn’t have to happen!

Growth? Yes Please.

What must happen is growth. Growth allows you to compete in a world that has become flat, and where the barriers to entry have been lowered. There are many types of growth.

There is growth of hardware assets. A company doesn’t have to have huge data centers and purchase inane amounts of hardware to compete. Traditional hosting companies have lowered their costs, and when combined with solutions like Amazon Web Services, a business can add infrastructure on an as-needed basis. Don’t need it anymore? Shut it off.

At ADS: we use Amazon Web Services in many of the applications we build, and provide full infrastructure support as well. In addition, we will soon be providing fully managed hosting thanks to a partnership we will announce in the coming weeks.

There is growth of teams. Teams no longer have to be in the same location in order to work together. Services like Skype, Yugma, and a host of online project management applications allow teams to collaborate in real-time across time zones. They also allow for the rapid growth of teams, limited only by the speed of their Internet connections. With the right tools, employees can feel as if they are working side by side. No need for large offices to get face time. That’s the old way of thinking.

At ADS: we have two “offices,” one here in Orlando, Florida, and the other in Stillwater, Oklahoma. We get everyone together for team building and to hack. This helps to ensure that no one feels disconnected. We use Skype and Yugma to communicate with each other and with clients located domestically and internationally. No one comes to us, we go to them.

There is growth of features in an application. As software evolves users want more. It’s only natural. More features aren’t necessarily a bad thing. Historically though, the quest to satisfy user requests has led to bloat, so today’s applications are doing less. Some agree with this while others do not. Ultimately, the users will decide, and rightly so. If an online app doesn’t do what you want or fit the way you do business, build your own. It is the rare occasion that an application built by someone else will model the way you do business.

At ADS: we don’t have any applications in the wild yet, but just wait.

Bottom Line

Which area you choose for growth is up to you, but grow you must, or risk not being able to compete against bigger fish. That is, if you are competing. Some are happy with where they are. I’m not. I’m competing.

In order to compete in an ever expanding marketplace a business must grow. The avenue for that growth is determinant on the business and what works best in the given environment. The good news is that the amount of resources required to grow is less than ever before. Just remember as you grow to stick with what is core. Don’t try to be all things to all people. That model doesn’t work, trust me.

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