Yesterday entrepreneur turned VC Mark Suster had a quite interesting post on why distributed teams are less effective.  Mark goes as far to say he won't fund a startup without the CEO, VP Products, and CTO in the same locale. 

I agree.  And then some.

It's no big secret that I have been working on a side project called Socialytics.  It is a little bit more closely held that it has not been progressing as fast as planned.  I have been reflecting about this a bit.  I attribute the pace of progress to three factors.

One.  There is actually not a CEO, VP Products, and CTO in place.  I do deals, market, and can play Mr. Outside but am by no means a product guy and certainly not a CTO.  You need these three players in place to move a startup forward.

Two.  Without getting into details the pace of development slowed when the proximity of the team working on the project expanded.

Three.  No one is working on the project full-time.  I am putting in 15 – 20 hours per week and most other folks are at about 10 max.  Not enough focus. 

The past six months have convinced me that you need three key team members working full-time in the same locale to significantly move a startup forward.