Scott_Allison
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I had feared this was just another online network (yawn), but in fact this seems similar to EO or YPO type networks, with local chapters and face-to-face meetings. Very powerful, as long as the quality is high. Would love an invite :p
@DaveMcClure Great insight Dave. Although I've heard you talk of your preference for SMB I'd never heard the full explanation. I'd also point out the subset of enterprise, which is B2D. Businesses like Atlassian, Mailchimp and Twilio have done very well (as you know) with this approach. This is much easier to scale than traditional enterprise, but only lends itself to certain products.
Great choice of image :)
Great post Ben! Yes, enterprise is harder and slower but as you said, "The result is a high margin business with predictability."
@flotastic They need one of those too, and I'm sure that will come as Downtown gets more populous. But that's not the only reason people need to drive! In fact you can already get groceries delivered online, but there's so many more reasons people still need to drive, but don't necessarily want to own a car.
Nice post Bob!
While transparency may seem like a nice thing to have, secrecy in your organization can erode your coworkers’ enthusiasm and intelligence.... In order to develop this visibility, you’ll need a regular cadence of planning meetings at each level of planning. These should be built into your culture and done at regular intervals — even if there’s not much to talk about. (Similar message from Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish - well worth a read if you haven't).
Congrats! It's well deserved recognition!
We've been an app partner of tibbr's since they launched their marketplace, and we wanted to make sure from day one their mobile users could make the most of Teamly. So we did this with the use of Teamly hashtags. Tag any message with #task to turn it into a task, or #thanks to record some recognition for a colleague. If you want to see how it works, check the videos on our website: http://teamly.com
What companies are you most excited about in the enterprise space and why?
Box, Asana and Atlassian; all have had varying degrees of success, in different areas of the marke. Some have captured a lot of hype and attention which hasn't perhaps been in proportion to their true position. So, I'm intrigued to watch these companies. How big can they really get? Are we seeing the next Salesforce.com in the early years?
What are the biggest challenges facing enterprise companies?
Getting their first sale.
Is the excitement over enterprise companies a “bubble” or the real deal?
I would say that since Yammer got acquired last Summer for $1.2Bn suddenly the media has picked up on the space, but I don't think that means there's a bubble at all; TechCrunch et al still prefer to write about consumer, and that's never going to change. A lot of enterprise companies are doing boring things for boring companies (sorry). It's way easier for people to identify with a mass-market product that anyone can use.
How should enterprise startups market their products?
I think the same things still apply; B2B is a relationship business, based on reputation and credibility, so doing trade shows and being written about by analysts is critical for success.
Should they target end-users (employees) or pitch to employers?
Finally the bubble has burst and many founders and VCs are realising that for most enterprise startups ground-up is a fairytale. For the last few years we've been drinking the kool-aid, but the most experienced VCs have known all along that ground up was bollocks. Ok, so Dropbox (still not really enterprise IMHO) and Yammer have done well, but I've heard both Aaron Levie and David Sacks both say that they wish they'd started traditional enterprise sales a lot sooner. There's also a limit to how many applications can even think of ground-up as a strategy; you're not going to get an enterprise to adopt core and mission critical systems in that way. e.g. finance, HR, even email. Ground up is perhaps only possible for completely new applications which don't replace anything? That said, what has changed is that UI and product design has become table stakes, and ground-up can perhaps provide a stream of leads.
Where does the future of enterprise software lie: On mobile or on desktops?
While mobile is becoming more and more important, it seems improbable that we'll only be doing business on smartphones and tablets. Full screens, keyboards and mice have been around for a long time and they're going to be around for a lot longer. Enterprise is web first, mobile second and will remain so. (Certain applications may be better suited to mobile-first, but that's in a minority).
Do too many companies call themselves “enterprise” when the label isn’t always accurate?
Yes, I think we've seen a lot of companies call themselves enterprise when maybe they're better described as SaaS or B2B. Enterprise is about selling to [large] enterprises.
When they announced the Teslas Downtown everyone was amazed, it's impressive and gutsy, I can't wait till it launches. though, it did cross my mind why Teslas are a better bet than, say, the Nissan Leaf, or even a Prius. Great publicity for all involved though. And the Tesla is mindblowing.
Congrats to 500 and George Kellerman!
Unlike many startups what Romotive does is deeply technical, so it's no surprise they would have to relocate sometime to be near their peers and attract the top talent. Romotive incubating and accelerating in Vegas, and moving on to the next stage is awesome - congratulations to them!
Are you on Google+?
Well said Francisco, we all have a breaking point, and stress, rejection and the constant "struggle" can just wear you out. We all know being a founder is a rollercoaster, and usually we bounce back, but sometimes the wheels fall off and it's more than just a single off-day but a crushing despair which is hard to shake off for days or weeks. We are trained to put on a brave face, but that's actually harmful to us. So there we are pretending everything is fine and telling people how great everything is instead of being more open and actually helping others help us. RIP Jody.
@jmspring I think that you may have a point. The reality is an entrepreneur you have very little spare time, and you have to say no to a lot of things. If I had a straightforward 9-5 job I'd be have much outside interests.
Congrats guys, excellent job over the last year, and it feels like you've been around forever!
You should take a look at TIBCO's tibbr product. tibbr is deployed either in the cloud, or on premises. With their 15 year enterprise background they are well experienced in serving the needs of Fortune 500 businesses and have not gone down the freemium route, everyone pays. http://try.tibbr.com
Disclaimer, my startup Teamly is a launch partner of in their new marketplace.
This app is great, glad to see it launch! Congrats Leo and Josh. #500strong
Congratulations to team Goldstein!
This article from Fast Company is required reading for anyone in Silicon Valley, and offers a jaw dropping insight into what goes on in Bill's head:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1784823/bill-nguyen-boy-bubble
I was impressed and appalled in equal measure!