When Rob Snyder co-founded Stream Energy five years ago, he never envisioned having nearly 1,200 percent revenue growth in the first four years.
“Probably the biggest issues that we had were posed by the rapidity of our growth,” he says. “Our growth was far beyond our original expectations.”
In fact, he originally signed on as chairman, thinking he was taking a nonexecutive role that required about 20 hours a month.
“That was based upon our view that our growth projections were going to be a fraction of what they are now,” Snyder says. “Hell, I’ve had 20-hour days here at Stream Energy.”
While his title is still chairman, because of the growth the energy provider has experienced, going from revenue of $70 million in 2005 to $825 million in 2008, he functions in the CEO role and has full management involvement instead of those five-hour workweeks he envisioned. And in its first year of eligibility, Stream landed the No. 198 spot on the Inc. 500 list.
“We really didn’t have the luxury of going from start-up phase to early growth to mature,” he says. “Our growth was so rapid that we had to go from start-up firm almost straight to a mature business platform standpoint and without any transitional stages.”
Snyder admits that while he did some things right, he also did some things wrong. Here’s how he kept Stream from faltering during its high-growth period.
