Where did the 230-310k/employee figure come from? Looking at the graph, I would have guessed 80k-500k/employee as a more reasonable range. 10mm revenue and 100k/employee sure doesn't look like an outlier to me, based on http://blog.joshlaurito.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Scree...
Is there anything actionable that you found? This all seemed to me to be interesting but non-actionable to a founder.
I assumed that software companies would be more scalable and generate more revenue per employee, but the numbers don’t bear this out.
Any chance that's a bias from your data? Software companies can span the gamut from startup that's optimizing for their monthly-active-user-count to enterprise-software firm that's established with a high margin and low capex.
Also, a little discussion around why you used log-log graphs would have been welcomed by me.
Hey bcbrown- I took the averages from the raw data: you can find them already scraped at https://github.com/jlaurito/inc5000 (inc5000data_cleaned.csv has only these industries).
You are right- the range is wider than I mentioned, and the true minimum is lower (the numbers in the post are industry-by-industry averages).
I used log-log graphs because they reduce the visual impact of outliers. You can play with the graphs yourself at http://blog.joshlaurito.com/inc5000.html if you want to see alternatives.
There are definitely biases in the sample: these are only fast-growing, 3yr+ old companies that want publicity badly enough to open their books to Inc.
If you are working in a company in a company with a similar profile or compete with any of the companies here, I think the data is useful for deciding how quickly to hire and benchmarking against any competitors that might be in the sample. Also, if you're writing a business/evaluating a business plan this might be useful data. For the rest of us, it's just fun to play with!
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Where did the 230-310k/employee figure come from? Looking at the graph, I would have guessed 80k-500k/employee as a more reasonable range. 10mm revenue and 100k/employee sure doesn't look like an outlier to me, based on http://blog.joshlaurito.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Scree...
The 2mm/employee cutoff is an interesting insight. Sidenote - is that what the grey line in http://blog.joshlaurito.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Scree... is supposed to represent? It wasn't fully clear to me.
Is there anything actionable that you found? This all seemed to me to be interesting but non-actionable to a founder.
Any chance that's a bias from your data? Software companies can span the gamut from startup that's optimizing for their monthly-active-user-count to enterprise-software firm that's established with a high margin and low capex.
Also, a little discussion around why you used log-log graphs would have been welcomed by me.
Hey bcbrown- I took the averages from the raw data: you can find them already scraped at https://github.com/jlaurito/inc5000 (inc5000data_cleaned.csv has only these industries).
You are right- the range is wider than I mentioned, and the true minimum is lower (the numbers in the post are industry-by-industry averages).
I used log-log graphs because they reduce the visual impact of outliers. You can play with the graphs yourself at http://blog.joshlaurito.com/inc5000.html if you want to see alternatives.
There are definitely biases in the sample: these are only fast-growing, 3yr+ old companies that want publicity badly enough to open their books to Inc.
If you are working in a company in a company with a similar profile or compete with any of the companies here, I think the data is useful for deciding how quickly to hire and benchmarking against any competitors that might be in the sample. Also, if you're writing a business/evaluating a business plan this might be useful data. For the rest of us, it's just fun to play with!