I dream of driving with the brakes failing on my car all the time. As CEO, sometimes you just have to put your foot on the gas and go, knowing you may have no brakes and if you take a wrong turn you may not have time to correct and recover. It's part of growing fast. But how do you know when is the time to put your foot on the gas? First, you have to have enough proof of the value of your product - proof that some people, [...]
Silicon Valley is on a roll right now. The relatively low levels of capital needed to start a software company has meant that start up incubators and small software companies wanting to be the "next big thing" are popping up all over. Bars are crowded, San Francisco is hip and traffic is worse than L.A. All signs of a booming economy and tech infrastructure that has spawned new wealth-generators like Facebook, Zynga, Instagram and now Yammer. And yet, this is just the face we like to present to the world. [...]
Previously published on the Huffington Post The world is slowly climbing out of the great recession as companies around the world begin to increase investment and hiring. But for B2B sales teams looking to recapture growth during these early days, it's critical to understand who's really paying their bills and keeping the lights on--and guess what? It's not your customer ... it's your customer's customer. And if your sales team doesn't deeply understand the business problems of these folks, then you'll lose to competitors who do. Before I get into [...]