Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

Burstly, a Santa Monica based company, provides an open and free ad management platform that helps mobile application developers better monetize their inventory. He has many of the attributes I look for in an entrepreneur and importantly he has deep domain experience in ad management. I’ll explain in detail below.

Mobile 282

Mobile Management Southern California Application Development 282

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2011

I was recently approached by Fast Company to comment on “crisis management&# at startups in the wake of the Airbnb “ranksackgate&# story. Startups often have advisors that help on recruiting, fund raising, biz dev, sales, etc. Bad PR will bury you and make everything harder: funding, recruiting, biz dev, sales.

PR 329

PR Management Startup Vietnam 329

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

The main thing you’re concerned about in this phase of your company is maintaing control of your board, which in a legalistic perspective is ensuring that founders & management have the majority of seats on the board. how much energy to put into channel partners vs. direct sales. how to build an initial sales organization.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

Eventually you need a VP of Product to handle your product roadmap, a CTO for engineering leadership and VPs of sales, marketing & biz dev. You have this tension between on the one side being a micro-manager (by which great people won’t want to work with you) or being hands off (and having quality lapses or team alignment issues).

CTO Hire 385

CTO Hire Entrepreneur Technical Review Leadership 385

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2013

Like most startup entrepreneurs, when I began my first company in 1999 I had no formal sales experience. And when you achieve product / market fit your company often ramps revenue very fast and you need to build an organization to address it from demand generation (aka marketing) to sales discovery to implementation and after-sales support.

Sales 393

Sales Startup Framework Search 393

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 21, 2019

Should All of Your Management Team Attend Board Meetings? The reality is that there are some board meetings in which having a broad set of management present is a great idea and there are some meetings where in can be a hindrance. The age old question for every startup is whom to involve in the board meeting.

Management 161

Management Early Stage Finance Conversion 161

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 8, 2010

Most technology startups seem to be founded by three types of people: product managers, engineers or biz dev types (MBAs and the like). Very few of them are started, in my experience, by sales people and very few early stage companies really understand sales. Here’s mine: Let me start with a few biases.

Early Stage 350

Early Stage Startup Sales Campaign 350

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2013

This is final part of a series that describes a sales methodology for technology companies or frankly many other types of companies, too. Well think of it this way – you have your sales process. And with scarce resources it’s your job to decide which door this lead must go through – sales or marketing.

Customer 324

Customer PR Marketing Technical Review 324

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2013

So when I meet with GRP portfolio companies that do enterprise sales I try to emphasize the following: 1. Often your sales engineers can do the customizations without bugging the core eng team. Integrate PS Work Into Sales & Marketing Processes. Referenceability is the lifeblood of sales.

Software Review 321

Software Review Software IP Technical Review 321

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2013

Every sales organization with more than a handful of reps or that is across multiple offices or time zones would benefit from having a sales methodology. But the number one reason sales stall when customers see the value in what you do is because they often don’t have a reason to buy NOW. The USP solves the, “Why Buy Me?”

Sales 328

Sales Campaign Sales Cycle Early Stage 328

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Here is where I see this really play out: Product Management. At times I wanted the engineering team to produce features to support our sales efforts to I occasionally leaned on them a bit. Allocation planning in product management in ingenious and helps a lot with CEO meddling. Another area we CEOs often meddle is in sales.

Startup 150

Startup CTO Hire Sales Leadership 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

But not anal if one founder who shares equity graciously with early employees who are treated as “co-founders” My idea startup team is heaving on tech personnel but also has strong product management. Your first sales people should be consultative sellers who can fuel evangelical sales. Have them manage their area.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

They will often run all of the daily reports into them covering off for finance, sales, marketing, biz dev & HR. In an early stage start I believe it’s the CEO’s job to manage these functions. What it tells me is that they’re not properly managing their business. CEO’s run things.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Due Diligence 325

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 30, 2013

This is part of a series that describes a sales methodology for technology companies or frankly many other types of companies, too. In order for somebody with IA to be your champion he has to be actively helping you through the sales process. Is she managing a P&L and wants to reduce costs or improve sales?

Sales 322

Sales Campaign Search Technology 322

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2012

“Yeah, but I’m just going to execute this [channel sales deal, international license of my product, new industry, new operating system, biz dev deal] and then it will pretty much run itself.” I always tell teams I meet with, “The scarcest resource in your company is management bandwidth. I hear it every week.

Bandwidth 415

Bandwidth Management Startup Channel 415

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

I’d like to talk about Crocodile Salesmen in 3 scenarios: 1) when YOU are selling (or someone on your team), 2) when you are trying to recruit a sales person. But how to apply “listening&# in a sales meeting? Beware of Crocodile Sales. I still do this sometimes, too. So you’ve identified a problem.

Sales 314

Sales Non-Compete Campaign California 314

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 4, 2013

This is part of a series that describes a sales methodology for technology companies or frankly many other types of companies, too. ” But many people get secure in their sales process with just meeting / talking to the people who are the nicest to you. Unique Selling Proposition. Compelling Event. The enemy is against you.

Sales 321

Sales Dividend Security Campaign 321

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

This is part of a series on sales & marketing. I previously covered how early phase sales teams should be “evangelical&# and consultative in nature. As a tech startup grows it needs to develop more process & management if it is to scale. More experienced sales leaders seldom compete on price.

Sales 289

Sales API Distribution Metrics 289

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

I recently did a post for startups on understanding sales people. The best technologists often aren’t amazing people managers. They work on their own schedule and are often hard to manage. The VP Engineering aspires to manage teams. And first and foremost a VP of Engineering is a people manager.

Fractional CTO 400

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 400

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2013

On my first real day back the first thought I have is that most entrepreneurs don’t manage their VC relationships as well as they could. You would never sell to one department and then trust them to manage all of the relationships with other departments who have to use your software.

Management 309

Management Venture Capital Partner Boston 309

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

” Who cut you in on their bonus because even though you’re “just an sales engineer” they know you really deserved more credit for this deal. So he went on to become the CFO of Fab through their growth years dealing with warehousing, inventory management, facilities, CAC/LTV analyses and of course fund raising.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Cofounder San Francisco Silicon Valley 320

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Of course it is super helpful if a VC can drop you in to important people for business development, recruiting, PR, sales and eventually M&A. It felt like there was a wavelength with management and somebody wasn’t on it. And let’s be clear – in almost every company there is executive management fighting.

Portfolio 364

Portfolio Chicago Sales Incubator 364

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 4, 2009

Most start-up entrepreneurs have little or no sales experience. But through nearly a decade of startups I learned that sales comes down to three essential elements: 1. The real test of sales and the topic of my post is “why buy now.” It’s what kills most sales cycles including raising venture capital. I know I didn’t.

Sales 319

Sales Sales Cycle Startup Reputation 319

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 16, 2011

After college Joanne worked for 4 years in retail apparel at Macy’s where she initially managed sales reps on the floor and then worked as a buyer of clothing. This is where she first developed sales skills. She doubled her salary by going into sales. to $12m in sales. “A lot of sales is innate.

Startup 311

Startup Sales Database Community 311

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business for 4-6 months. “COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

It’s the one thing I miss having switched from player to manager – I love the joy of winning and of competing. I realized that it is not enough to know one partner per firm and it is not enough for only the management team to like you. I later learned one of my biggest lesson in sales. They’re competitive.

China 333

China Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

An example of the systems companies build are pricing & revenue management tools to best help to optimize yield. In a world where startup manuals tell you to just hire engineers or product managers, I would tell you that biggest missing ingredient to successful startups scaling is hiring more Ted Conbeers in the systematization phase.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

It’s the one thing I miss having switched from player to manager – I love the joy of winning and of competing. I realized that it is not enough to know one partner per firm and it is not enough for only the management team to like you. I later learned one of my biggest lesson in sales. They’re competitive.

China 328

China Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review 328

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

You Manage What you Measure. One of the things I discuss the most with the portfolio companies I’m involved with is that “you manage what you measure.”. Or they go in the opposite direction and spend too much time capturing & measuring data that isn’t used to make management decisions. On measurement.

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup Acquisition SEM 346

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

Our sales guys were on the front line and heard what they needed to win deals. They communicated this to product management who looked at all of the internal requirements we had generated (e.g. and product management worked with me to decide what to build & when. The Outside In organization had a one-way flow.

Customer 280

Customer Technical Review Software Review Mexico 280

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

I think as a tech industry we have bred a culture that places more emphasis on product excellence than managing human behavior. Of course it makes no sense to have great people management and a crappy product. – while the other might want a quick sale and pocket some bucks while the tech market is hot.

Founder 340

Founder Sacramento Cofounder Technical Review 340

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

He wrote a post this long weekend on how he manages the board of DataSift. In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. Manages board meeting expectations (before & after). And improve.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

This investment started with Dana Settle (Greycroft) and I each putting in $750,000 into a young company doing less than $1 million in sales and has blossomed into one of the fastest growing companies in Los Angeles if not the entire country.

Los Angeles 387

Los Angeles Intellectual Property LP Venture Capital 387

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2010

They are tasked with “getting deals done&# so they race around talking to tons of potential partners inking anything from channel sale deals , product integration, international distribution agreements, co-marketing arrangements, M&A discussions, etc. Here’s how it goes: You have a business development group with two people.

Development Team Review 323

Development Team Review SEM Channel Social Media 323

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

Gross margin (GM) is the amount of profit you make per sale of your product or service taking into account your total costs of selling that product or service. If you have a very low gross margin (10-30%) it can be very hard to build a large, scalable business because you need to make a lot of sales to cover your operating costs.

Burn Rate 383

Burn Rate Balance Sheet .Net Valuation 383

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

My first company was used to manage workflow & share CAD drawings and plans on the $16 billion refurbishment of the London Underground. It was also used as a project management tool & document storage system for the largest private bank in Europe who even stored images of their bank vaults on our servers. million and then $5.9

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company. The managing partner of the firm called me the next day. we had about 25 firms contacting us – more than I could manage. My blog was wiped out. After Office 2.0 Folksonomy.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274