We are honored to have Sphere Software feature our CTO, Nickolay Schwarz, in a recent interview. Nickolay has been with BenchPrep since it's inception, and during his time here he's played a critical role in helping BenchPrep become the company it is today. During the interview, Nickolay shed light on three tips that led to BenchPrep's success as a profitable tech business.
Once you have a product that fulfills a market need, what is the most difficult part of scaling a tech company?
NICKOLAY: Just because you have a product-market fit, that does not mean you have figured it out. You still need to determine how to scale the revenue engine, scale the delivery, correctly identify ops, and determine how to scale your ops. Usually, pressing challenges do not lie in infrastructure and technology. The challenges tend to be more in the business model and go-to-market strategy. Maybe you have figured out the technology, but how will you sell it?
After you have figured out the business model and your approach to selling the technology in the market, technology talent is the next significant challenge. Finding the right talent is important and challenging: the right people will make your company, but the wrong people will break it.
As an organization grows, how can it maintain its culture and strategically evolve it?
NICKOLAY: I think anybody who is strictly dedicated to the preservation of a multi-characteristic culture might be doing it incorrectly. Ultimately, it comes down to what is important to you. What are the building blocks of your company’s DNA? Are you more focused on selling? Are you dedicated to building the best place to work? Is the organization process-oriented? Is there a culture of transparency and openness?
Whatever cultural elements are there, identify them, and be honest with yourself. Ultimately, you have to figure out what is really at the core of your culture, preserve what is most important, and be open to adjusting everything else. Attempting to keep all the characteristics of the organization’s culture steady over time will not work, especially as the company grows.
What is the best advice you can offer CTOs or founders of young and growing tech companies?
NICKOLAY: Establish trust with your business partners early and be nimble. If you do not establish trust early, you are probably going to fail (especially if you are not one of the founders). You are impacting something people are very committed to. You need to prove yourself and do it fast so your partners trust you to manage and advance what has taken so much of their blood, sweat, and tears to develop.
Nimbleness is a second piece of advice I would offer, especially in the early days of a company. Nimbleness will allow you to pivot as you need and not be afraid to ask yourself tough questions.
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