Editor’s note: Scot Wingo, co-founder and CEO of ecommerce services provider ChannelAdvisor, writes about the launch of the Morrisville-based company that went public a year ago, in a new feature at ExitEvent. WRAL TechWire and ExitEvent are news partners.
MORRISVILLE, N.C. – Flash back to 1995—I was 27 and the CEO of my own company, living the entrepreneurial dream. After getting an undergrad degree (University of South Carolina) and a master’s (North Carolina State University) in Computer Engineering, I went to work for a software startup in Connecticut. While I loved the startup lifestyle, I wanted to a) move back to the Triangle and b) take a shot at starting my own company with a couple of friends. We called it Stingray Software.
About six months into it, we were doing great—we had hundreds of customers, revenue was flowing in and we were profitable very quickly. On the surface, everything looked great, but I was somewhat freaking out. The challenge was that we quickly grew from three founders to ~15 employees. The sales people were in-fighting. Their comp plans were not well thought out. Some employees wanted to know about their ownership/stock options while others wanted to know about our inclement weather policy.
As an engineer by trade, these topics were way out of my league. Why couldn’t we just create a great product and sell it?! Did we really need all these team members?
Scot’s entire column can be read online at ExitEvent.
CHANNELADVISOR THROUGH THE YEARS:
- WRAL TechWire has reported extensively about ChannelAdvisor over the years, with special emphasis on its march to and executive of its IPO.. Check out our ChannelAdvisor archive.
More ExitEvent news at WRAL TechWire:
- Eyewitness account of SnapYeti’s first funding
- Hows and whys of hiring first marketing employee
- Path to growth for odd jobs site “Sweeps”
