Small Deals at Large Companies. Hooray!! And 100% At Risk.
Every customer you close, the next day, is at risk of churn. A month-to-month customer can basically cancel anytime. An annual contract customer can sort of cancel anytime, but really probably won’t for a year, or even 3 (more on why Year 3 is the biggest risk for bigger customers here). You know this, of […]
Marketo: Winning, IPOing, and Going Upmarket (Video + Transcript)
In anticipation of the upcoming SaaStr Annual 2017, we’ll be releasing the full series of transcripts and videos from all the awesome 2016 sessions. We were super excited to have Phil Fernandez, CEO and co-founder of Marketo, sit down and talk to us about the triumphs (and struggles) leading Marketo from inception to IPO. Phil […]
David Sacks (Yammer) Stewart Butterfield (Slack): Unicorns or Bust
Missed the 2015 SaaStr Annual? We’ve got you covered! We’re publishing the full series of both the videos and transcripts from all of the 2015 sessions. Today we’ve got David Sacks, Co-founder of PayPal and Yammer, now COO at Zenefits, and Stewart Butterfield, President/Co-founder of Slack, where we had a wide-ranging, 40 minute discussion on […]
In SaaS, Your Burn Rate is Muchly a Function of Your Chosen Competition
I’ve been doing this SaaS thing for a solid decade now, with some success, and plenty of mistakes, and yet there are some questions that are at some level, almost a mystery, mostly around “average” CACs and “average” burn rates in SaaS: Why was Veeva able to burn only ~$10m net on its way to an IPO? […]
Why Hiring From Your Direct Competitors Usually Doesn’t Work Out
The time will come when you are first tempted to hire someone from your competitor. They must know so many things we don’t. Have so many skills. It’s pretty tempting. People will tell you about the risks in litigation, trade secrets, etc. I don’t think any of those are necessarily a big deal or a […]
Why You Should Kill Your Competitor in SaaS
IMHO, most SaaS CEOs/founders aren’t Killers. They can’t be. They’re Builders. In fact, the two jobs of a founder/CEO are antithetically opposed to zero-sum and attack thinking. First, at a strategic level, the founder/CEO has to see the future, a positive future, that is 100x bigger than today. Focused on putting the internal pieces together […]
The Shifting Sands of SaaS Relationships. Here’s How to Handle It.
I know why Steve Jobs was so very, very mad at Google and Eric Schmidt. Why he pledged to go “thermonuclear”. Why he vowed to spend up to $100 billion dollars (Apple’s cash) to “bury Google”. It couldn’t have been about Android per se. Google bought Android (the company) in 2005, a “software system for […]
Who Will Disrupt AWS?
Last week Amazon Web Services (previous CloudAve coverage) announced that they are lowering their support costs and also introducing a free plan. The AWS Support program just got even better! We have added features, lowered prices, and created a new free support plan that includes immediate access to customer service and technical support for AWS […]
Europe Sets Course for Cloud
There’s a perception that cloud computing has become a “mature” technology, a perception shared by few but anticipated by most everyone else with the exception of those trying to preserve their self-interests. I don’t blame them – each person inherently protects self-interests. They’re wrong though. Cloud is not mature. It is evolving. The paradox is […]
PRCCDC 2011 it is that time of year for all Student Cyber Defenders to face down hackers
If you are not aware of the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, this is a good place to start. If you are aware, then you might know that the regional competitions are underway, and this year I have been very involved with one awesome team from Highline Community College with a huge assist from CityU of […]
Why You Should Make Your Competitors Your Frenemies
Yesterday I wrote about how to talk to investors about your competitors. In short, acknowledge they exist, be transparent about strengths & weaknesses and use your differences to talk about how you want to position yourself in the market. Conventional wisdom in most companies is that “the competition is the enemy” – it’s the rallying […]
Talking to a VC About Your Competitors
Competition. Unless you’re Microsoft selling an OS for a PC you probably have some. And even then Microsoft has substitute products as anyone who has taken Econ 101 will tell you. So if you’re raising money – from angels or VCs – you’re going to have to address the question of whom you’re competing against. […]
X PRIZE Takes on Oil Spills with $1.4 Million Open Innovation Challenge
The BP Gulf Oil spill has unleashed somewhere on the order 150 to 200 million gallons of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Thankfully, much of this oil has been eaten by bacteria, reducing its damage. But much of it is hitting the Gulf coastlines, and scientists know that a disaster of that magnitude will […]
3 Cs of Innovation 2.0 – Crowdsourcing, Competition, Collaboration
At the E2.0 Forum in Milan (June 9-10, 2010), I had a chance speak about innovation. Specifically, on the latest advances in leveraging communities to advance innovation. The title of my keynote was: “3 Cs of Innovation 2.0 – Crowdsourcing, Competition, Collaboration”. The presentation is provided below: 3 Cs of Innovation 2.0 – Crowdsourcing, Competition, […]
Designing for Innovation through Competitive Collaboration
In a recent blog post by Intel’s Enterprise 2.0 manager Laurie Buczek, she reviewed her organization’s 2009 experience with social software. One item caught my eye: My entire year has been a quest to find quantifiable ROI. I swear I have nightmares with the “Where’s the Beef” lady crackling out a “Where’s the ROI?!” In […]
