Adaptive Path - been around long enough that many of the original partners have left. Took one foray into product development, MeasureMap (acquired by google).
Pivotal Labs - have one product, Pivotal Tracker, that's been well received but doesn't seem to generate revenue. Good reputation as Rails consultants.
MailChimp - Now just a product but was originally The Rocket Science Group doing web development.
37signals - All product now but originally was a consulting partnership. Not sure what happened to the original partners. Seems like only Jason is still active.
ENTP - Rails consulting and makers of Lighthouse.
I only have anecdotal info on those companies, but have a few thoughts.
The biggest seems to be that you need to have provisions for handling new and leaving partners. For example DHH is new to 37signals but got cut in enough that he now owns a Lamborghini. It seems important that you could allow for that.
On the leaving side, I think at least three of the original Adaptive Path partners have left. AP is still going strong, so you know they did the partnership in a way where they aren't burdened with non-contributing partners taking all the profit.
On the other hand, those three partners left to start their own startups, so there was something in the dynamic where doing product work required leaving. I think this might have been a lesson they learned during MeasureMap. They were so big that only a few people were working on the cool sexy project and I think it might have caused conflict.
I think the other big issue is leadership. I think AP had a rotating CEO position. I guess other partnerships might have a more clear leader. But regardless of the structure, I'm pretty sure that you need to make sure there's a clear and transparent accounting system that everyone buys into. I've heard lots of problems cropping up around financial misunderstanding.
Email me, I'd like to talk more about this: tony@crowdvine.com
Comments
There are lots of companies like this.
Adaptive Path - been around long enough that many of the original partners have left. Took one foray into product development, MeasureMap (acquired by google).
Pivotal Labs - have one product, Pivotal Tracker, that's been well received but doesn't seem to generate revenue. Good reputation as Rails consultants.
MailChimp - Now just a product but was originally The Rocket Science Group doing web development.
37signals - All product now but originally was a consulting partnership. Not sure what happened to the original partners. Seems like only Jason is still active.
ENTP - Rails consulting and makers of Lighthouse.
I only have anecdotal info on those companies, but have a few thoughts.
The biggest seems to be that you need to have provisions for handling new and leaving partners. For example DHH is new to 37signals but got cut in enough that he now owns a Lamborghini. It seems important that you could allow for that.
On the leaving side, I think at least three of the original Adaptive Path partners have left. AP is still going strong, so you know they did the partnership in a way where they aren't burdened with non-contributing partners taking all the profit.
On the other hand, those three partners left to start their own startups, so there was something in the dynamic where doing product work required leaving. I think this might have been a lesson they learned during MeasureMap. They were so big that only a few people were working on the cool sexy project and I think it might have caused conflict.
I think the other big issue is leadership. I think AP had a rotating CEO position. I guess other partnerships might have a more clear leader. But regardless of the structure, I'm pretty sure that you need to make sure there's a clear and transparent accounting system that everyone buys into. I've heard lots of problems cropping up around financial misunderstanding.
Email me, I'd like to talk more about this: tony@crowdvine.com