Assessing Management: How techie are the techs?

It is a common and fairly dependable maxim within the VC industry to rate the probable success of a new tech firm (or any firm) by the quality of the management in place. This also extends to the quality, experience and knowledge of the technical leads at any firm whose competitive advantage relies on their in-house technology.
It is rarely an issue of how many types of code does the lead developer know or how many SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) models does the team use. Rather, it is more of a measurement of the entire team in terms of a number of factors.
These factors include relevant experience, experience within the specific industry & experience within the company itself (familiarity with the product in question). These three axes are a decent, back-of-the-envelope rating system to get a firm grip on how a companies technical leads can be assessed. Included is a very simple chart I included for a VC client of mine who wanted a general, objective summary of the technology leads (in relation to the other management) that I performed for a technology due diligence review.
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The key personnel were rated in terms of their relevant experience in their roles within NewTechCo and are a mean of three axes including High-Tech Industry, Career Overall, and time at NewTechCo Overall experience.

Summary of the personnel, title held and ratings are provided in the following chart:


These interviews served to emphasize the perception that the key strength of the company lies within their technical prowess but they are lacking in operational and business development resources, relatively speaking. As illustrated above, the COO and the Director of Sales are lacking in experience either in the technology sector or within the NewTechCo firm itself. These findings are not meant to be reviews of their ability but rather a quantitative rating within their peer group.

Copyright 2008, CSC. Inc. www.tech-duediligence.com

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