Be Careful Not to Lose Twice
There are times to fight. No great startup has been built without getting one’s knuckles bloody at times. This is especially true because incumbents now know how much is at stake when they let a startup get a huge head start in a market. So if you’re in a battle, if you’re right, if you […]
What Can You Learn From Ring’s Astounding Success?
Many people will write the history on why Ring became an enormously successful company and why it became a real-world unicorn in a world when many startups are anointed that merely on paper. Since I had a ringside seat to the company before it really existed all the way through the end I thought I’d […]
CIO playbook: Citizen development is your ‘most important’ tool
A citizen developer in action. Photo by Michael Krigsman. The topic of low-code platforms and citizen development has come up a lot lately during my discussions with Chief Information Officers. Given the mandate to innovate while spending less money, interest in this topic is not surprising. The heart of citizen development is giving knowledgeable end-users […]
CIO playbook: Citizen development is your ‘most important’ tool
A citizen developer in action. Photo by Michael Krigsman. The topic of low-code platforms and citizen development has come up a lot lately during my discussions with Chief Information Officers. Given the mandate to innovate while spending less money, interest in this topic is not surprising. The heart of citizen development is giving knowledgeable end-users […]
5 Traits to Look For When Hiring An Early Marketing Team For Your Startup
As the CRO at SaaStr, I am doing a lot of hiring these days! A lot. And that means spending countless hours skimming through resumes, taking phone screens, and meeting candidates in person. Quick shameless plug–seriously, I am hiring for a lot of people, so if interested in working at SaaStr–check out our open jobs […]
How I Became a Tech Evangelist
Two questions I get asked quite often are: 1. How did you get to be where you are with your blogging? You’re not a native English speaker, nor a trained writer…. 2. What kind of name is “iamondemand?” So I figured it’s time to share my “tech evangelist” story. (In the feature picture of this […]
Comcast: How customer experience drives product development
Customer experience is one of those buzzwords that has come to mean anything, everything, and yet nothing at all. Although hype-mongers and tricksters have co-opted customer experience, in truth, the concept is profoundly important. At its heart, customer experience means all touchpoints or interactions between an organization or brand and its customers. It’s a simple […]
Matt Straz, CEO, Namely: What Changes At Employee 200 (Video + Transcript)
As we’re all aware, when your company grows, things start to change dramatically. The way you run a 20-person company is vastly different than how you run a 200-person company. Caroline Fairchild, New Economy Editor @ LinkedIn, sits down with Matt Straz, CEO at Namely, to discuss what exactly changes at 200 employees and how […]
The One Best, “Secret” Hack to Getting Venture Funding
I am fairly confident there are at least 10,000 Medium posts, 20,000 WordPress articles, and over well over 1,000,000 Tweets on How to Get Funded. It bores me personally, but I know it’s an important topic. Raising money for many CEOs is one of the their top 5 priorities. Without venture capital, I’d be nowhere. […]
Artificial intelligence: McKinsey talks workforce, training, and AI ethics
As I talk with the many extraordinary guests on CXOTalk, an interview discussion forum that brings together the most innovative thinkers in the world, three key business aspects of artificial intelligence have emerged. First, AI is a vague umbrella concept that ties together data and a set of technologies, such as pattern recognition and other […]
iPhone X and Note 8 compared: The ultimate guide for business users
There’s a battle raging out there between the Apple iPhone X and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, with strong opinions on both sides. As a proud owner of both phones, I want to share my experience and declare a definitive winner. Also read: iPhone X vs Galaxy Note 8: Which phone has better business specs? […]
Why We Must Have Zero Tolerance for Sexual Misconduct in Venture Capital
Time Magazine published its “person of the year” edition and honored “the silence breakers” for speaking up and forcing our society to confront its position towards men in power exploiting their power for sexual gain. Real change is clearly needed. These brave women who have taken on personal risks and faced doubters to change the […]
What Happens When Startups Turn from Their Innovation Stage to Operational Excellence?
Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. An alternate outcome that I also unfortunately observer in some cases are companies who had extreme early success with an initial product adoption but failed in key areas that limited the […]
Oracle and cloud: Success demands a customer-centric culture
Because Oracle is one of the most important players in enterprise software, I asked three top industry analysts to join me on Episode 261 of the CXOTalk series of conversations with innovators. Read on to learn how these analysts view Oracle, its position in the market, and its relationship to customers. Oracle is a 40-year […]
10 Amazing Sessions on Bootstrapped Startups at SaaStr Annual 2018
One request from last year’s SaaStr Annual was to add even more content for bootstrapped (vs venture funded) startups. We have! We’d like to think 100% of SaaStr content and speakers applies to bootstrapped startups just as well as any other type — but there are differences. So a few sessions to highlight: Ryan Smith, […]
