The Art of the Org Chart
Happy Sunday!
Nobody complained about my new format last week, so I’m going for it again today. It’s been a formative week for me as a leader - more on that below.
☝️ But first … if you’re new here and find this stuff interesting, subscribe below! I send one email weekly, and you can unsubscribe if you don’t like it.
This week at Bullpen …
We re-launched our web app! This does two things: 1) allows talent to tell us when their skills and preferences change, and 2) allows us to better provide value to the talent in our network when they aren’t on jobs (software discounts, events, etc).
With the launch of the web app, our talent manager no longer is required to “accept” or “reject” people from our network. Rather, we’ll be able to robustly filter the network to identify the right folks for our client’s roles.
Our new account manager closed two new deals. Starting next week, he’ll be off and running on his own.
I became acutely aware that the organization/accountability diagram that we created for the business at the start of last year is no longer working.
“Every time you triple your business, everything breaks.” - Some famous entrepreneur
At the start of 2022, we used the EOS framework to structure our organizational chart. EOS stands for “entrepreneurial operating system” and is a very common way to structure a business.
When we first implemented EOS, we had 3 team members. Today, we have 12 full-time and fractional team members supporting Bullpen. After a few conversations this week with team members who feel like they don’t have the latitude required to do their job, I realized that our current org chart is broken.
In short, too much critical information flows through me. As such, our team struggles to make decisions when I’m not present.
I’ve spent this weekend re-imagining everyone’s roles and responsibilities, and I’m very excited to discuss them with everyone this week. This is the kind of stuff I love about building a business.
My pontification …
I listened to a podcast this week on search funds (link: Really Private Equity). In short, an entrepreneur will raise a search fund to look for and acquire a slow-growing, small business. The purchase is typically structured with 75% debt, and the typical yield that was shared in the podcast is circa 25%.
Small businesses will typically trade at 4x EBITDA, which makes 6% SBA financing extremely accretive to returns.
I think this is a REALLY great way to build wealth. Perhaps Bullpen has some acquisitions in its future?
That’s all for this week! Let me know what you think of this new format.
✌️📤
Tyler
Founder @ Bullpen