2. My Background
• Big Companies
• IBM (InfoSphere launch to 250M organic, followed by 5
acquisition)
• Siebel (WW Marketing Financial Services $800M)
• Nortel (head of incubation)
• Startups
• Janna Systems ($1.4B exit to Siebel Systems)
• DataMirror (exit to IBM)
• Infobright
• Watcom (exit to Powersoft, Sybase, SAP)
• In-Between (as of a few weeks ago)
• VP Marketing, Solarsoft ($100M revenue, roll-up)
2
7. Before You Scale
• Ecosystem
• Economics
• Pipeline Tuning
• Messaging
• Visibility Foundation
Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and
I will spend the first 4 sharpening the axe.
Abraham Lincoln
7
8. Ecosystem & Economics
• Training/
Documentation
• Customer Service
and Support
• OEM software
• Pricing
• Sales Channels
and Distribution
8
9. Pipeline Tuning
Maximize the effect of every $ spent
• Key metrics and A/B testing your brains out:
• Website
• Offers
• Signup process
• Trial/free version
• Messaging (we’ll come back to this)
9
10. Visibility Foundation
How do non-users
observe that others
are using?
Product features
Shareable content
Referrals and Incentives
Reviews/Awards
References/success
marketing
10
11. 3 Steps to Good Messaging
Answer these questions:
1. What the heck is it?
2. Is it for me?
3. Why buy it from you?
(In this order!!)
11
13. What You Do?
Netflix – Watch as many
movies as you want for one
low monthly price.
SalesForce.com – the world’s
favorite CRM software as a
service.
Wikipedia – A free
encyclopedia built
collaboratively using Wiki
software.
13
14. You do WHAT?
Innovative products and
services that power the network
economy. (Sun Microsystems)
Helps companies optimize and
transform their dynamic business
network to accelerate revenues
and reduce costs. (Sterling
Commerce )
Personalize the Internet! (pretty
much every B2C web startup)
14
15. Step 1: What the Heck is it?
Keep it brief
Use simple language
Put it front and center
15
17. Explicit Targeting is Powerful
ThinkGeek: Selling geek t-shirts
for programmers, linux hackers,
and open source geeks.
VS
Customink: your t-shirt expert for
teams, schools, companies and
individuals.
17
18. Go Deep – The Janna Example
CRM for Investment
bankers:
• Use cases, day in the life of a
banker
• Demos, example data
• Whitepapers, articles, opt-ed
• Sales Enablement: the IB
dictionary
18