Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Much has been written about when it is time to hire a “professional CEO” to run a startup company and of course that has long been a norm in Silicon Valley when founders find that their inexperience may be a limiting factor in company growth ( know as the Peter Principle ). and Microsoft had become.

CTO Hire 309

CTO Hire Organization Google Course 309

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2015

The law of large numbers, platforms that can make your company blow up unexpectedly and the trendy nature of tech markets can be deceiving. I have written about the deceiving nature of early successes before – in particular in the SaaS or B2B world leading to a phenomenon called “shelfware.”

Product 150

Product Startup Metrics Technical Review 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2020

We discussed why in Q4 you will see large renegotiations of SaaS contracts and increased churn rates. Of course I believe the market has slowed down massively. We of course need to understand markets and market dynamics but many people understand this from an analytical perspective.

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Marketing Startup Writing 263

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 10, 2014

In the course of dominating their initial direct response market, a number of enterprise-level advertisers began using Invoca''s unique marketing platform in ways the company had not foreseen. Our name was so disconnected from our SaaS business model that we were in the process of rebranding the company when Citrix approached us.

Technical Support 250

Technical Support Marketing Advertising SaaS 250

Steve Reich

OCTOBER 30, 2012

Last week, the WSJ ran a great article (add link) on the value of college humanities courses, and used comments from a successful entrepreneur to make their case. The company builds a SaaS mobile banking platform for community banks. Successful fundraisers tell a complete, engaging story and close the deal. The bigger story?

Startup 65

Startup SaaS Platform .Net 65

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Of course none of these funds (my own included) want to be lumped into just one category because we all move across the spectrum. Booyah – Develops a location based service platform that pairs the virtual world with mobile gaming. Lookout – SaaS provider of security and data back-up services for smart phones.

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Startup Platform Technical Review 240

socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2015

Frost & Sullivan just named MediaPlatform the product leader in enterprise video platforms. Over the course of the year our active portfolio companies received awards or recognition on over 35 separate occasions. Our first investment in the new fund was a $12 million investment in Beverly Hills based MediaPlatform.

Capital 100

Capital Beverly Hills Artificial Inteligence Equity 100

socalTECH

MAY 19, 2017

Andrew Peterson: We have what we call a web protection platform, that provides other companies with protection against attackers who are attacking their web applications. It was that combination of great talent, the great companies we can sell to here, and of course, the great lifestyle of living next to the beach, which is a no brainer.

Web 138

Web Startup Southern California Software 138

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 26, 2010

Of course, I have an advantage because I organize the LA CTO Forum. Of course, since you know those questions, you can just collect up the answers and provide them to your developers. What’s our purchase, licensing, SaaS strategy? Of course, it’s never complete. Gap closed, right? Probably not.

Fractional CTO 225

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire CTO Coach 225

socalTECH

JANUARY 14, 2011

We have a very sophisticated, analytics and software platform that over half the Fortune 50 are now using, to help guide how they invest in marketing and sales activities and investments. Jovian's platform allows us to process and analyze campaigns in-flight, and also provide in-flight course corrections for marketers.

Social Media 235

Social Media Demand Activity Marketing 235

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2015

I read the declarations by industry analysts on Twitter that this was “proof that you can’t build a business on somebody else’s platform” and perhaps DataSift should have known better. Simply put: We never intended to build a business on one company’s platform and despite market perceptions – we never did

Platform 150

Platform Course Customer Custom 150

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

Value Prop Twitter Style : SocialStay is: "An easy to set up & manage mobile platform designed for the hospitality industry. 8 ) SocialStay is effectively a B-to-B, SaaS product that requires you to simultaneously speak to several audiences (hotels, travelers, travel sites, etc.). It drives revenue & engages guests."

Startup 233

Startup Design Mobile Social Network 233

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

I taught a somewhat crazy course about writing and deploying a scalable website in Ruby on Rails and deploying it in EC2. Most big companies initially rejected use of the cloud, just as they rejected SaaS solutions when we launched GoToMyPC in 2001. The term ‘cloud computing’ only caught on much later. John is a CPA and holds an M.B.A.

Cloud Computing 188

Cloud Computing Santa Barbara EC2 Startup 188

socalTECH

MAY 2, 2017

We continued to enhance our software to make it easier for them to follow the steps to cash in on credits, and of course, by following those steps they were able to predictably close more deals. After we launched our first, paid pilot, we had 100 percent adoption of the platform, which is pretty impressive. How's the startup funded?

Sales 145

Sales Startup Email Tool 145

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2016

Invoca had grown steadily and consistently since 2009 and by 2015 SaaS companies with scale had become hot – trading at a median of 7.3x Of course it’s not literally a memo but that’s a metaphor for knowing that things have dramatically changed. But of course public markets had begun gyrating. FOMO was NOMO. As in no more.

Funding 150

Funding Startup SaaS Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2015

I built my first software company in the early days of SaaS and there were few models to go by. It is the opposite of what SaaS is supposed to be. We said to customers, “We only sell SaaS and we think that’s the right solution for you. So we took a stand. How responsive are they to your needs now?

Sales 150

Sales SaaS Startup Venture Capital 150

SoCal Delicious

JANUARY 20, 2010

While the focus perhaps should instead be on the conversations themselves and integrating them across whatever platforms within which they are taking place, the view today is instead still too much on individual tools and channels. This could also address some of the disconnect between older and newer social media platforms I outlined above.

Web 29

Web Technical Review Web 2.0 Social Media 29

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

Vice versa is it’s a SaaS platform company where I spent nearly 10 years running companies. But the overall advice is similar to the detail merchant – you can’t let the naysayer take your agenda off course or everybody else – including you – loses. In a positive way, of course.

Venture Capital 318

Venture Capital Startup Sales Writing 318

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

SaaS 101: 7 Simple Lessons From Inside HubSpot - OnStartups , July 19, 2010 It’s been a little over 4 years since I officially launched my internet marketing software company , HubSpot. So, I’ve had about 4 years on the “inside” of a fast-growing, venture-backed B2B SaaS startup. They ignore/disrespect the platform. Not so bad.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217