Ask HN: Digital Agency stuck in 1st gear | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Digital Agency stuck in 1st gear

1 pointtcm182 comments

Hello,

I have a small profitable digital agency (me and sub-contractors) on the West Coast that I am trying to take to the next level. I'm at a tipping point that I feel could really help the growth of the company but I find myself being a bottle neck in many areas. I'm an engineer and was wondering if it made sense for me to look for a partner that has complimentary skills such as design and business development. Maybe I should look for a partner that has engineering skills such as mine so I can focus on sales and project management? Anyone been in this position before or have experience in growing very small companies that can share what worked for them, etc?

Also, where would be a good place for me to look for potential business partners? I have used craigslist for finding talent but it's so hit and miss. Is there a site that can pair up people that are serious about working together?

Thanks

I've worked in a similar arrangement as the tech founder for a Social Media Marketing Agency. My partner was design and sales focused, with a tremendously string project management background.

I can say without hesitation that the complimentary skillset was key in both landing our projects (both early on and as the company carved out its niche), the variety of perspectives were key in addressing any and all client concerns. Likewise from an operations standpoint it was very clear where the work fell, tech (dev, management, support) on my end, sales & design on his.

I was lucky enough to have a good friend as a business partner and to this day had no issues (eg. friendship troubles due to business). I'm no longer with the agency, but that was totally amicable, it just wasn't for me.

I'm not sure about services for "startup" dating like you've described. But I can suggest you look within your network for the complimentary skillset you think could handle the workload you'd like to shed, box in a few limited scope projects that you could pass on to friends/colleagues, and be realistic about how well those mini-projects go.

My partner subcontracted a few projects this way to me (he made some initial sales before incorporating), and after 2-3 very successful projects, we signed and got started for real.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the nice write-up about your experiences. I was leaning toward the complimentary skill set and when you described your situation it really clarified it for me.

Now on finding that elusive talent to partner up with...

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