As much or more than other firms, software companies rely on people to grow. Finding good people takes time, though. One shortcut is to acquire or merge with other companies. Most of the attention surrounding M&A is on the technology, but to us, people are at least as much of the value. All companies need fresh ideas and perspectives in order to thrive. We believe a mix of ideas is ideal – some from current staff and some from new employees.

There is nothing quite like adding a team of people who have taken a different approach to making a company grow. They have technical and market knowledge. They have customer relationships. Many of them have experienced a company’s birth and growth – what it is like to work in a start-up. That is the environment we want to sustain, even as we approach our 20^th year. As we combine new teams with our employees who have made us successful, everyone benefits from the new mix of perspective and experience.

So where do we look? Typically not in our own backyard. In the past three years, we have acquired four companies. They are in four different cities. This is more than coincidence; it has become strategy. Yes, we would like it if all employees were in one location. But that isn’t practical.

To find companies in our industry with a compatible culture and complementary technology/products, we have to go where they are. That is usually somewhere else. We could ask them to move. Many companies have tried. From the stories I hear, though, it doesn’t work because 90% of people like to stay where they are, and those that do move can end up regretting it. So we haven’t asked. By default, people stay where they are. (If someone does want to move to another office, we see if it makes sense.) We work hard at distributed management. We use premium quality teleconferencing. We travel between offices.

In short, we make it work.

Happy New Year!