From startups to seniors
The life cycle of a company
Introduction
Have you also noticed how companies are like people? They're born, they grow up, they stumble through awkward phases, and if they're lucky, they grow old. This blog post is a fun exploration of this idea, nothing too serious, just a lighthearted look at how companies evolve over time. From the naive newborn to the wise (but slow) elder, let's dive into the quirky life cycle of a company.
Phases
New born
The newborn phase is when a company is just an idea brought to life. It's naive, full of hope, and doesn't know much about anything. Like a baby flailing its arms around, it's trying to figure out what works and what doesn't. There's no business model, no structure, just vibes. The first prototype is a Perl script that uploads data to an Excel sheet, and that's all you need. Remember the early days of Twitter?1
It was just a place to tell people what you had for breakfast. No one knew what it was supposed to be, but it was fun.
Children
In the child phase, the company starts to get a hang of things. Revenue starts trickling in, and there's a sense of freedom. Every team has its own way of working. No structure, just play. It's like a playground where everyone is experimenting.
Think of early Google, where engineers had 20% time to work on whatever they wanted. It was chaotic, but it worked.2
Teenagers
The teenage years is the most awkward and dangerous phase. The company thinks it's all grown up now. It goes into hyperscale mode, burns through cash like there's no tomorrow, and buys every shiny new tool in sight. Developers try every new programming language they can find, the tech ecosystem becomes a jungle. This is where many companies make fatal mistakes.
Remember WeWork? They thought they were invincible, expanded too fast, and then... well, you know the rest.3
Adults
If a company survives its teenage years, it enters adulthood. This is where things start to stabilize. The books are in order, the product matures, and tooling gets standardized.
Think of Microsoft in the Satya Nadella era. Focused, efficient, and finally cool again. The company finds its ideal size and starts to operate like a well-oiled machine.
Mid-life
Mid-life is when the company starts to feel the weight of its years. This is the phase of re-orgs, layoffs, and rebranding.
Remember when Facebook became Meta? It's like a mid-life crisis but for companies. They might suddenly pivot to something completely different, hoping to stay relevant. It's a time of introspection and big, sometimes questionable, changes.4
Elderly
Very few companies make it to this phase. These are the giants that have been around forever such as IBM or General Electric. They've found their way of being, but they're so large and processed that adapting to change becomes painfully slow. When disruption hits, they look awkward and out of place, like your grandpa trying to use TikTok. They survive, but they don't thrive.5
Conclusion
Understanding the life cycle of a company isn't just a fun analogy It can also be a useful tool. By identifying the stage a company is in, we can get a sense of where it's headed and whether or not we want to be part of that journey. Is it a chaotic teenager burning through cash, or a stable adult with a clear vision? Recognizing these behaviors can help us make better decisions about where to work, invest, or collaborate. After all, every company has its phases, what matters is how they navigate them.