View from Seed

MARCH 3, 2015

Ellie Mirman was the first marketer hired by the CMO of HubSpot, the Boston-based marketing software startup that IPOed in 2014. But marketing should always be ahead of sales to alleviate pressure. EM: My rule of thumb is to look at the length of the sales cycle. Some startups have really long sales cycles.

Marketing 120

Marketing Sales Cycle Startup CTO Hire 120

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? This may sound crazy, coming as it does from an advocate of c harging customers for your product from day one. But here’s where a truly great sales artist comes in.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

Next, Umakant Soni discussed Vimagino.com , a software for Web-based Q&A support to engage customers better on sites that are trying to draw people in and convert them into customers. Now, the Web self-service software market is very crowded with major players like RightNow already deeply entrenched. PowerStores.in.

India 114

India Silicon Valley Incubator Bootstrapping 114

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

It included one firm who I asked not to call Salesforce.com as a reference (they were our largest pilot customer) and in their kindness they called Marc Benioff (the CEO) and asked his opinion. I thought, what would I do if I was trying to sell to a customer. Consumer approach to software for business users. Folksonomy.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

A Crowded Space

AUGUST 27, 2014

Some marketplace businesses have started monetizing at least in part through higher-margin software fees. . There is a new trend emerging which combines two of the most beloved business models in tech. . SaaS (software as a service) models are very well understood and straightforward. SaaS + Marketplace.

Sales Cycle 110

Sales Cycle Software .Net Business Model 110

ConversionXL

JUNE 2, 2022

Account-based marketing is an approach where marketing and sales work together to nurture target accounts and convert or retain customers. Sales finds aligned accounts and works with marketing to create customized journeys. This required more product evangelism and customer wins. What is account-based marketing?

Customer 98

Customer Marketing Channel Acquisition 98

K9 Ventures

AUGUST 13, 2010

In fact, at the time (1996-1997) we offered both a downloadable product, that our customers could install on their own servers, and a “hosted-offering”, which came to be known as “On-Demand”, then the “ASP” (Application Service Provider) model, and today we call it “SaaS” (Software as a Service). Not so fast.

Revenue 72

Revenue Developer Java Customer Development 72

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

You can check out part one of this series here: Part 1: Which Is The Best Business Model For Your Startup – B2B Or B2C? B2B” – means that you are selling a product or service to other businesses. What Is “B2B&# ? Ex2: Selling office equipment to companies who wish to upgrade their existing furniture.

B2B 105

B2B Business Model B2C Agile 105

Hippoland

AUGUST 16, 2018

So unless your feature can increase that outcome – and not just incrementally by 20% but a serious differential like 10x – it’s unlikely that a current happy Mailchimp customer will want to switch to your product. Think about it – if you’re using MailChimp and make let’s say $100 in sales for every send.

Sales Cycle 54

Sales Cycle Differentiation Early Stage Bootstrapping 54

Hippoland

AUGUST 16, 2018

So unless your feature can increase that outcome – and not just incrementally by 20% but a serious differential like 10x – it’s unlikely that a current happy Mailchimp customer will want to switch to your product. Think about it – if you’re using MailChimp and make let’s say $100 in sales for every send.

Sales Cycle 48

Sales Cycle Differentiation Early Stage Bootstrapping 48

K9 Ventures

SEPTEMBER 14, 2016

Putting myself in the shoes of the customer, here’s how I would think: “So, you want me to pay you $20K cash up front, for a product that has never been tested before. The best of both worlds is when the customer is willing to pay the upfront cost of the hardware, and is willing to pay for a subscription service on top of it.

Widget 48

Widget Sales Cycle Revenue Business Model 48

ConversionXL

APRIL 7, 2021

The book dedicates quite a few pages to the ‘customer-centric stack’ and argues that because you’re now able to know when someone is in the market for a solution like yours [via IP lookup or 1st or 3rd party intent data], you don’t need to “spam” them. In those days we just called it sales.

IP 98

IP Marketing Technical Review Software Review 98

ConversionXL

JUNE 14, 2021

Why should customers buy from you? In this guide, you’ll learn how to differentiate your business and attract your ideal customers by creating a unique selling proposition. How a unique selling proposition (USP) attracts better customers and builds your brand (and where marketers get it wrong).

Software Review 158

Software Review Audience Differentiation Framework 158

BeyondVC

NOVEMBER 4, 2004

Adam Bosworth has an interesting post on the evolution of software and why software delivered as a service will be the business model of the future. Software delivered as a service enables that and packaged software does not. For the vendor, it makes it: 1.

Software 60

Software Bandwidth Sales Cycle Business Model 60

conversionxl.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

It’s Not a Conversion Problem, It’s a Customer Development Problem. The product or website (be it software, e-commerce, or a service) might be awesome , but if it puts itself in front of the wrong market, or packages itself so the right market can’t figure out why it’s awesome, the startup will fail.

Customer Development 60

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

Duct Tape Marketing

MARCH 23, 2017

How to Use Facebook Ads to Drive Sustainable Traffic & Boost Sales written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Regardless of your business model, incorporating Facebook ads into your marketing funnel can be a dependable way to drive customers to your site and, ultimately, boost sales.

Sales 50

Sales eCommerce Campaign Audience 50

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Since SaaS businesses (or any other subscription-based business) are different from standard software businesses, there are some interesting elements that we will uncover. Or their could be deals from two or more different categories of customers. SolidWorks 2: The best VAR management program in the world?

Metrics 55

Metrics Design Entrepreneur Startup 55

BeyondVC

AUGUST 26, 2008

I have written a number of times about frictionless sales and how on-demand companies have a huge opportunity to reduce their sales and marketing costs and subsequently scale their business more efficiently. Follow that with a 3 month implementation process to get the customer happy.

Cost 60

Cost Sales Sales Cycle Demand 60

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 19, 2016

WeVue co-founder Taylor Wallace told me he doesn’t have a lot of time for training in the competitive software development industry, so he hires the “naturally curious” to fit with the company’s product-oriented business model. Depending on your startup’s needs, it can be a toss-up on whether to hire for attitude or skill.

Startup 100

Startup Burn Rate Cofounder Salary 100

ConversionXL

MAY 19, 2016

Linear funnels are conducive to the traditional customer lifecycle you’re used to hearing about. All of these questions lead to pages like this… Josh suggests that actual customer journeys are much more complex than a linear funnel would indicate. Like any model it has its pros and cons. Tweet It!].

Analytics 78

Analytics Metrics Channel Software Review 78

BeyondVC

DECEMBER 7, 2005

As you know, I am enamored by frictionless sales. Frictionless sales means reducing the pain for customers to adopt and use a service/product and consequently reducing the cost of sales and marketing to get a customer and generate revenue. Follow that with a 3 month implementation process to get the customer happy.

Sales 60

Sales Java Open Source Software Review 60

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 10, 2008

Thoughts from a Venture Capitalist on Software, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Cloud Computing, Internet and more. Only after reaching $1M in CMRR should you consider hiring European sales and services execs behind customer demand. Labels: SaaS , sales and marketing , software. Cracking The Code. at 11:09 AM.

Software Review 48

Software Review North America Europe Metrics 48

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Sometime around 2003/04 my technology team turned me on to “Spolsky on Software&# a periodic newsletter served up blog style from Joel Spolsky of FogCreek Software, a maker of bug-tracking software. Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice.

Software Review 285

Software Review Software St. Louis API 285