News and thoughts from the people at EllisLab.

Un-Virtualizing Ourselves

Posted by Rick Ellis on March 22, 2008

Some people might find it surprising that we are a virtual company.  Most everyone on our staff lives in a different city. 

I didn’t plan it that way, it just happened organically, as members of our community stepped forward to fill jobs that became available.  To this day we have never recruited externally.  It’s been a great strategy that has allowed us to tap the best and brightest among us, even though our staff is now scattered throughout the U.S. (and one crazy guy in Canada). 

For most of our history we’ve been small enough that we could collaborate efficiently via email or IM, so the physical address seemed inconsequential.  As we’ve grown, however, the question of whether we should remain virtual has weighed on me. 

Once a company reaches a certain size, it becomes more difficult to build, mange, and grow effective teams.  I’m not sure it’s even possible to scale a tiny, connected, highly productive virtual team into a much larger company without losing many of the attributes that made the team so great in the first place. 

Four years ago our entire staff consisted of Paul, Les, and Me, along with a little part-time help in our forums.  Paul and I were the development department, and Les handled sales.  Not a terribly complex company structure.  With such a small group there was constant overlap, as each of us did whatever was needed to keep moving forward.  We were agile, lean, and productive, and our communication and camaraderie were great.

Since then we’ve become several teams, with two or more people in each group.  There are more roles now, more personalities, more voices, more of everything.  Even though we’re still quite small, I’ve already begun seeing new challenges emerge.  What worked for us when we were smaller doesn’t always scale.

The critical question for me is this:  If we stay virtual as we continue to grow, will our company continue to be as good? 

Will EllisLab create better products and take better care of its customers if our people never interface physically?  Will we develop better camaraderie?  Will our creativity and ideas be as good?  Will we be as connected to one another?  Will we be able to cross-polinate between teams as well?  Will we solve problems more effectively?  Will a virtual company fulfill its potential better then one where people work together?

I’m not sure the answer to any of these questions is yes.

Of course there are some lifestyle advantages to working from home.  These certainly have value and contribute to personal fulfillment.  But on net balance, do those advantages outweigh the negatives, particularly if you can build enough of an upside to having your staff in one place?

As much as I love working from home, I believe a fundamental shift in our workspace and location will be necessary before long.  The challenge, of course, becomes how to make that transition.  How do we un-virtualize ourselves?  There are some challenges here.  Fortunately, some of our staff have already made a commitment to this change, even though we haven’t decided when and how, exactly, it should happen.

Les made a great point recently.  He said that all small companies, if they are to grow beyond the core founding team, must turn a corner and embrace whatever changes are necessary, even if it means a fundamental shift in how the company must operate.

He’s right.