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I recently did a post for startups on understanding sales people. I know this will fall like a lead balloon to the many people who believe it is possible to have a [insert: startup incubator or technology accelerator or technology consultant or outsource firm] build your technology. I don’t believe that one exists.
Rather than directly explaining their value proposition with all the passion and heartfelt stridency that only an entrepreneur can deliver, they outsource this communication to a Public Relations (PR) firm. Beyond PR, such roles include: Sales, Product Development, Strategic Planning and Fund Raising. Thought not.
San Diego-based SmartDrive Systems , the developer of video-based, fleet safety systems, said yesterday that it has named Dane Smith as its VP of Worldwide Sales. SmartDrive said that Smith has previously been at VMware, where he was VP Americas Field Operations and Global Vice President of Systems Integration and Outsourcing.
Early-stage companies shouldn’t: outsource core product development, have consulting firms build it for them to speed up time-to-market, shouldn’t hire too many business people until product is complete and early product/market fit tested. Don’t hire “relationship management” sales people too early.
Los Angeles-based TaskUs , which provides business process outsourcing, said this week that it has named Jarrod Johnson as Senior Vice President of Sales. Johnson was most recently SVP of Sales, Marketing, and Client Development at FacilitySource, and also had served at IBM and Xerox. Johnson will be based in Dallas.
But while universities are developing online content they are not fundamentally disrupting leaning because the method of delivery is not a new business model. The numerator (return) encourages more sales, which is fine. “Online education is truly going to kill us.” He spoke about ROCE (return on capital employed).
The era of VCs investing in successful consumer Internet startups such as eBay led to a belief system that seemed to permeate many enterprise software startups that hiring sales or implementation people was a bad thing. But the “no sales people” mantra isn’t what I’m here to take on. I believe it’s flawed.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked away from deals where the entrepreneur insists on a start-up premoney valuation that is so high, no angel could expect to make a return upon the investment, even with a reasonable sales price for the company down the road. Why fight about valuation, or disappoint the founder at the outset?
Santa Monica-based private equity investor Clearlake Capital said this morning that it has acquired Tolt Services Group , an outsource, IT services company, and merged it with Kyrus Solutions , to form a new company called Tolt Solutions. Financial details of the deal were not announced. Tolt will be based in Greenville, South Carolina.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked away from deals where the entrepreneur insists on a start-up pre-money valuation that is so high, no angel could expect to make a return upon the investment, even with a reasonable sales price for the company down the road. And here’s the “why.”.
Companies were saying--we want to outsource these kinds of things, because they''re not our core competency. However, when they went to build out a second, disaster recovery site, they figure out that they had been there and done that, and didn''t want to build another one--they decided to outsource it. Grant Kirkwood: No, not at all.
In the initial phases of any new market you’re developing a product (hopefully with a minimal set of features), getting feedback from customers, refining your product based on user feedback and then re-launching your product. Markets develop for a complex set of factors that are often beyond all of our control.
Minimize one-time sales in your business model. Facilitate rapid growth through contracted resources. In this age of the gig-economy, you can more quickly hire and manage freelancers, contract workers, and contract operations. Every new business has unexpected pivots and adjustments, and outsourcing is easier to manage.
First Principles. Steve Blank , January 25, 2010 10 Tips for Adding Game Mechanics to a Non-Gaming Service - ReadWriteStart , September 21, 2010 Startups & VCs: Learn How to Design, Market, & Eat Your Own. -
It wasn’t so many years ago that starting a new e-commerce business on the Internet was a complex custom development project, usually costing a million dollars or more. You can now skip the mandatory office space rental, with secretary and bookkeeping staff, or outsourcing. Social media facilitates marketing and sales.
Very few entrepreneurs have the range of skills and experience to be the solution creator as well as business creator, or operational as well as sales leader. If both of you are experts at software development, even though one loves design and the other loves coding, that still won’t get the marketing done. Marty Zwilling.
During the down market they were able to double down on recruiting, sales, outsourcing, new market entries and marketing (yes, with Tiger ads ). “Reality is, at the seed stage, most rocketships look more like the cardboard variety you’d make as a kid than something NASA developed.
My first job after college was as a developer at Andersen Consulting. I don’t believe you can hire great business people who outsource the development to a hot incubator who builds you code to match your ambitions. Sales is the lifeblood of every organization. I installed Windows 3.1 THE FIVE C’S.
At Silicon Beach Fest Hollywood 2012 Kevin Winston organized a panel called “How to Find and Hire a Developer”. Always have a developer do a test project before hiring them to make sure they deliver quality work. This will prove your product is worth building to you and to the developer. Ask for is code samples.
Some potential buyers or strategic partners might want your intellectual property, or revenues, or profitability, geographic advantage, or sale force, or your employee base. A wise board and management would take their own hint and strengthen that core, whether it is your development team, your geographic dominance or other trait.
Entrepreneurs need to document a process of responding to a market need, sizing opportunity, assigning a specific business model, and planning for marketing, sales, and customer satisfaction. Solution development and delivery. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation.
Outsourcing your core competency does not work. The sales professional. A sales fanatic on the founder team helps to contain that risk. The combination of technical insight, founder authority, and sales experience is a hard-to-beat advantage in a competitive market. The operations superstar.
Outsourcing your core competency does not work. The sales professional. A sales fanatic on the founder team helps to contain that risk. The combination of technical insight, founder authority, and sales experience is a hard-to-beat advantage in a competitive market. The operations superstar.
Outsourcing can be an extremely cost-effective solution here. Not only will you avoid adding to overhead costs at this early stage, but you’ll save management time — and free yourself to focus on developing your business. At a minimum, you should engage a lawyer to draft and/or review every contract you enter into.
Steve Gilison worked as a market researcher and product manager at a startup where my company, TechEmpower , did the software / web development. I have about 11 years in the technology sector including roles doing market research, sales and product development. My focus has been marketing strategy and product development.
The short story is that he received 400+ responses and goes through how he categorized/vetted the responses: 300 Didn’t Fit – Outside expertise/interest, pushing for immediate funding assistance, too many ideas (not focused), looking for sales agents. And a big factor is how big is the Founder Developer Gap.
Entrepreneurs need to document a process of responding to a market need, sizing opportunity, assigning a specific business model, and planning for marketing, sales, and customer satisfaction. Solution development and delivery. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation.
Marketing is key in helping you to develop long-term, strategic plans that can stop your cash drain. Your sales forecast is an essential variable for cash and profit planning. Once you have your budgeting goals, you need to create your workable plan, implement, and, most importantly, stick to it. Create a Marketing Plan.
Now, he ‘outsources’ his investments through John Frankel of Frankel Asset Management. After AltaVista, Mike spent a year doing business development for USA Networks ( now IAC – Interactive Corp ). It took 3-4 months into the development of the product for Hashable to realize that it is a mobile first, web second service.
Outsourcing your core competency does not work. The sales professional. A sales fanatic on the founder team helps to contain that risk. The combination of technical insight, founder authority, and sales experience is a hard-to-beat advantage in a competitive market. The operations superstar.
It’s like the entire industry wants to outsource its brain to the smartest person they know and then follow that person. I have successfully used this in business development, sales, fund raising and even the press. Wait, make that $1 million. And please reserve another $1 million for me?—?I
Ahead of the conference, we sat down and spoke with Kevin Anderson , co-founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based Appetize (www.appetizeapp.com), a rapidly growing developer of point-of-sale software, on the topic of customer service. Lots of startups talk about trying to outsource all their customer support.
It wasn’t so many years ago that starting a new e-commerce business on the Internet was a complex custom development project, usually costing a million dollars or more. You can now skip the mandatory office space rental, with secretary and bookkeeping staff, or outsourcing. Social media facilitates marketing and sales.
Outsourcing your core competency does not work. The sales professional. A sales fanatic on the founder team helps to contain that risk. The combination of technical insight, founder authority, and sales experience is a hard-to-beat advantage in a competitive market. The operations superstar.
If both of you are experts at software development, even though one loves design and the other loves coding, that still won’t get the marketing done. Look at the big picture first of development, finance, and marketing/sales. This is probably the best place to apply your “gut” feeling. Complementary skills. Marty Zwilling.
Develop your business plan. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important.
Entrepreneurs need to document a process of responding to a market need, sizing opportunity, assigning a specific business model, and planning for marketing, sales, and customer satisfaction. Solution development and delivery. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation.
If both of you are experts at software development, even though one loves design and the other loves coding, that still won’t get the marketing done. Look at the big picture first of development, finance, and marketing/sales. This is probably the best place to apply your “gut” feeling. Complementary skills. Marty Zwilling.
Develop your business plan. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important.
Initially, you may be able to do everything in your startup, including product development, marketing, and shipping orders. Too many entrepreneurs I know burn themselves out as this burden grows, and they are hesitant to use available tools or outsourcing non-critical tasks to allow scaling.
If both of you are experts at software development, even though one loves design and the other loves coding, that still won’t get the marketing done. Look at the big picture first of development, finance, and marketing/sales. This is probably the best place to apply your “gut” feeling. Complementary skills. Marty Zwilling.
Develop your business plan. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important.
In a very recent international bribery case, Alcatel-Lucent decided to pay $137 million to settle charges that it paid millions of dollars in bribes to foreign officials to win and maintain contracts in Costa Rica, Hondurus, Taiwan and Malaysia. In practice that meant that we could once again focus on running our sales and service activities.
If both of you are experts at software development, even though one loves design and the other loves coding, that still won’t get the marketing done. Look at the big picture first of development, finance, and marketing/sales. This is probably the best place to apply your “gut” feeling. Complementary skills. Marty Zwilling.
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