Silicon Alley’s sneaker set better start suiting up for the C-suite.
As Gotham’s online firms go public over the next few years, the city could face a shortage of executives experienced in turning technology public offerings into healthy, growing concerns.
“There simply is not the bench strength in New York City,” said John Barrett, managing director at Cook Associates Executive Search, a New York recruiting company.
Due to this dearth of executive talent, Barrett sees the city’s fleet of tech startups sailing toward the same jagged rocks that helped pop the dot-com bubble.
“With all of the surge in venture investing in the late ’90s, there weren’t enough executives to step in and build these startups,” Barrett said.
“So we plucked executives out of Fortune 1000 companies. No surprise — the vast majority of these execs failed miserably, and the vast majority of these companies failed.”
While the mavens of DUMBO and Chelsea might be able to code circles around most MBAs, navigating the hazards of a public offering requires a patience for schmoozing and paperwork, sometimes exhausting chores for shoe-gazing whiz-kids.
Nevertheless, a successful tech executive requires a savvy understanding of silicon and social media.
Investors either can draft bigwigs from Fortune 1000 companies (a risky move), head-hunt for proven executives on the West Coast or in Boston (a potentially pricey task) or roll the dice on the IPO’s founders (see Facebook).
Ultimately, Barrett argues, the responsibility falls on investors in these companies.
“Investors in NYC will need to start thinking now about allocating more of their time for grooming the next generation of CEOs and other executive leaders. Most of them aren’t used to doing this, at least to the degree that will be required in NYC, so it will take a profound shift in thinking,” he urged.