This December will be the 6th year that Stardock has been a Windows ISV. In December 1999, Object Desktop for Windows was released. And by this December, WindowBlinds 5 will hopefully be ready for release (though no promises, nothing ships until it's ready).
Back in 1999, there were only a handful of us in a tiny office in Livonia. Now, there's over three-dozen of us in multiple locations. I think the key to having a successful company in the long-term is to develop your skills in spotting talented people. If there's one thing I can take pride in with regards to the company, it's that we've been able to attract some great talent.
We've got guys who've come to us from Sony, Disney, Maxis, and other very large companies who want a small company environment where their full talents can be unleashed. The stuff they make is simply incredible. We've also been able to bring on some star-entry-level talent as well. Kids, just out of college who are incredibly self-motivated and highly skilled are working on a variety of future projects. To use a sports analogy, it's like we got several good first round draft-choices.
The biggest challenges we face going forward are those of scale. We still don't have a director of business development. Our direct-sales force is still understaffed and under-performing. Those are areas I'm trying to find top-notch people for but it's difficult to get just the right individual for each of those positions -- especially in the midwest.
People looking from the outside see a company, a corporation. On the inside, we're just a bunch of guys trying to balance having a successful business with having an enjoyable environment. Even with our steady growth in revenue, we could be making more -- a lot more if we wanted to be a different kind of company. But wealth generation is not my primary motivation. It is, really, a side-effect of what we do. We want to make really cool stuff and have a good time while we make it. And we are fortunate enough that other people want the cool stuff we make.
Running a company is often very rewarding and sometimes very frustrating. But it's always interesting. I don't necessarily recommend it for most people. I think it all depends on what the goal is. My goal in having a company was to have some level of control over my life. I think if making lots of money was the goal, things would not have turned out as well. I think that it's because we've focused on doing things that are cool to work on that we have been able to attract such wonderful, talented people who in turn are able to create things that do happen to make a lot of money.