How to Measure Your On-Demand Sales Success
Thursday, February 18, 2010 | 6:30PM -8:30PM
Trident Capital | 505 Hamilton Ave (Suite 200), Palo Alto REGISTER!
The myth that SaaS sales drive themselves, and startups don’t need to pour resources into enterprise sales teams has been dispelled.
The sales cycle for enterprise SaaS has proven longer and more expensive than many founders expected and, to add salt to the wound, the on-boarding process can get complex and drawn out too.
Join us on February 18 for a hands-on discussion with veterans of The War for Customers who will give advice for qualifying leads, landing new customers and bringing in revenue (while keeping operational and marketing costs low).
GOT QUESTIONS? You can ask the speakers straight up at the event; or – tell us what you want us to ask!
Jon Miller, VP of Marketing, Marketo | Marketo landed 110 new customers in Q4 2010… Ask Jon how they stir up demand and manage their sales pipeline.
Tom Dibble, Chief Revenue Officer, Aria Systems | Tom’s responsible for Aria’s channel strategy — ask him about forging relationships with platform partners, systems integrators, and ISVs.
David Vonk, SVP Sales and Business Development, PivotLink | Selling analytics tools to customers like Rossignol and Bauer Nike; ask David about what metrics he uses to gauge success when it comes to identifying and landing new customers.
Mobile Monday today announced their top 20 finalists for the Mobile Premier Innovation Awards. We’re stoked to see that many of them are past Under the Radar: mobile presenters. Woo hooo!
Check out the list of the top 20 mobile startups as determined by the mobile community. The final winners will be announced on February 15 in Barcelona.
MobileMonday Austria – Mobilizy
MobileMonday Barcelona – fonYou
MobileMonday Berlin – spendino
MobileMonday Bogota – RedSalvavidas
MobileMonday Chennai – mobiSiteGalore
MobileMonday Copenhagen – Cepa Mobility
MobileMonday Edinburgh – Mobile Acuity
MobileMonday Estonia – TaxiPal
MobileMonday Lithuania – SendFlow
MobileMonday London – Audioboo
MobileMonday Milan – Soundtrckr
MobileMonday Munich – Aloqa
MobileMonday New Delhi – Voicetap Technologies
MobileMonday New York – PercentMobile
MobileMonday Oslo – Bipper Communication
MobileMonday Rest of EMEA – Layar
MobileMonday Silicon Valley – CloudMade
MobileMonday Slovenia – Visionect
MobileMonday Stockholm – MoSync
MobileMonday Tel Aviv – waze
We’re happy to announce that friend and cloud/ startup brainiac Geva Perry has joined the team behind the upcoming Under the Radar: Cloud conference as a content advisor.
“What’s a content advisor?” you ask? Well, that it means that as we sift through hundreds of startups in this space, Geva chimes in with knowledge and practical language that can help cut through marketing lingo and tech jargon to help us filter out the wheat from the chaff. Geva helps out here and there while balancing his work advising startups, writing his blog Thinking Out Cloud and sitting in with James Urquhart in their podcast.
About Geva:
Geva Perry has 15 years of experience as an executive in the enterprise software industry. His blog on cloud computing is widely read and he is a frequent speaker on the topic at corporations and industry events. He is an advisor to a number of companies, small and large, on cloud computing related strategy.
Until recently Geva spent 5 years at GigaSpaces Technologies where he played a variety of executive roles. His latest position was General Manager Cloud Computing. In this role, Geva was responsible for all global go-to-market activities at GigaSpaces related to cloud computing, including strategy and positioning, product marketing and strategic alliances.
Under the Radar is set for April 16, 2010.
Each year Under the Radar brings 350 C-level executives seeking to find, connect and partner with startups who’s products, technology and teams fit strategically into their road maps.
From Microsoft to Google, AT&T, Nokia, Cisco, Sun, HP, Amazon, Rackspace, Salesforce, Pfizer, Coca-Cola, Nike, MTV and more – executives in the audience and onstage (as judges) use Under the Radar to narrow in on tech’s latest cool kids. See you there!
Our friends over at the Telecom Council are hosting an event that’ll help you shake off the winter blahs and get ready to shine as the 2010 conference and networking/BD season kicks in to full gear.
They’re offering a deal for Dealmaker Media. Check it out:
Entrepreneur Forum: Guerilla Marketing for Tradeshow Season
Feb 03, 2010, 12:00pm – 02:00pm
TIPS Group, Palo Alto, CA, USA
Whether your startup has a booth at one of the largest tradeshows, has a speaking slot, or whether you simply have a few people walking the tradeshow floor, there are things you and your company can do to maximize the return on your investment in tradeshow marketing. We have a few marketing experts in telecom and wireless who specialize in the different parts of marketing to give you a refresher course on guerrilla marketing tactics that may fit your product and your budget.
Dealmaker members get 50% when using the code “dealmaker” during registration.
Freemium is not a business model. It’s an effective go to market strategy. And for any SaaS startup filling their pipeline and setting revenue goals for 2010 — it’s imperative this is drilled into your marketing and sales teams’ DNA.
If you’re in Silicon Valley on Feb 18, join us for a Strategy Series Round Table event with SaaS sales veterans talking about new metrics to measure sales success. REGISTER!
Some excerpts from Lincoln’s paper:
“As part of a business model, Freemium has fundamental flaws. The most obvious flaw is that supporting a large base of nonpaying users that will never convert to paying customers can bleed an early stage startup of precious financial resources. In addition, these users can draw on the limited time and attention of the team, taking those resources away from development and support of the premium product that will sustain and grow the company.
While it is the “free” versions of software that get picked up in the blogosphere and social media (for a few minutes, at least), it is also the free products that get lampooned by those very same outlets, and the users, when problems occur. A small base of paying customers can keep both the overhead in check, but also the scale of the venture which the young startup must support.”
….
“Investment in lieu of revenue seems to be on many founders’ minds even when investment dollars have been harder to come by. Many startup founders seem to feel like it is easier to pitch investors than to go out and make sales. When this mindset is considered, it is easy to see how Freemium also became so popular with startups; especially those founded by technologists. It takes the pressure off of technical founders who just want to build a product and not worry about “selling.”
To ensure that a Freemium strategy is successful, and that the motivation to adopt the strategy is aligned with the vendor’s goals, a deep look at the market, the products, and the company is required.
Critical questions for SaaS vendors to ask themselves are:
• First the big one: If no one is willing to pay for our product right away, are we sure there is a market for it?
• Second big question: What is the quid pro quo? What is in this for us? Why should we let them use our system for free?
• Do we sign-up for free versions of applications and then stop using them or do we always move onto the premium version? Why?
• How can we monetize users even if they never “convert” to customers?
• How can the users of our system benefit our customers?
• Are our customers just those that pay to use the “premium” version of the system or might they be stand-alone consumers of the byproduct of system usage?
• Can we glean actionable market intelligence from both free users and customers?
• Can we aggregate the network effect data and monetize directly?
• Can we benefit from the “nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd” notion of having a large
number of users?
Under the Radar: Cloud is set for ‘lights-camera-action’ on April 16, 2010 at the Microsoft Conference Center in Mountain View, CA. Will your startup be one of 25-30 cloud ground breakers to present?
Each year Under the Radar brings 350 C-level executives seeking to find, connect and partner with startups who’s products, technology and teams fit strategically into their road maps.
From Microsoft to Google, AT&T, Nokia, Cisco, Sun, HP, Amazon, Rackspace, Salesforce, Pfizer, Coca-Cola, Nike, MTV and more – executives in the audience and onstage (as judges) use Under the Radar to narrow in on tech’s latest cool kids.
LAST CHANCE TO PRESENT: Apply by January 31, 2010
If your startup would like the chance to present – the time frame for nominations is fast approaching and you’ll want to submit your company on the a-sap. APPLY TO PRESENT HERE.
Categories we’re interested in:
Infrastructure | Platforms | Virtualization | Saas | Collaboration | Business Apps | Development Tools | Mobile | Storage | (and more!)
Past Under the Radar presenters include: Aria Systems, Marketo, Eucalyptus, Zuora, Box.net, Ribbit, Tap In Systems, Twilio, New Relic, CloudKick, Jive Software, Filtrbox, Animoto, and more.
Below, Nike, CBS and Sprint discuss startups at Under the Radar: Mobility in Nov 2009:
It’s been a big week for many alumni startups who’ve presented at Under the Radar. With two acquisitions and some serious funding rounds announced, 2010 already looks up for tech startups hoping to raise dollars and woo buyers as the economy attempts to sturdy itself this year.
Today, two UTR alumni have joined forces, with Jive Software (who presented in 2007 while they were still fresh on the scene) acquiring fellow UTR presenter Filtrbox.
Jive sought a social media monitoring company to bring into its Social Business Software (SBS) platform. The goal is to extend the social footprint of the Jive platform. Jive sees the market becoming far more oriented around conversations on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. These conversations affect everything from product development to sales strategies. Monitoring is critical to following and capitalizing on the conversation flow.
Congratulations to both groups for joining forces!
ChaCha, who presented at one of our past Under the Radar conferences in 2007, just announced that it has raised $7 million in its fifth round of venture capital financing according to an SEC filing. Bringing their funding total to nearly $70 million
ChaCha, a text message-based search engine service, allows users to go online, call or text questions on mobile phones and receive answers within minutes for free by texting 242-242, visiting m.chacha.com, downloading ChaCha’s iPhone app, or calling 1-800-2-ChaCha. The company was founded in 2006 by Brad Bostic and Scott Jones. Scott presented at Under the Radar and won the Audience Choice in the search category.
…Are you still Under the Radar? Apply to be considered for Under the Radar: Cloud (on April 16, 2009) or register to attend to be among the first people to meet and land deals with the next wave of disruptive cloud companies.
In the past three years 58% of presenters have gone on to raise funding and/or be acquired by Google, Microsoft, FOX Interactive, Salesforce, British Telecom, and others. Under the Radar uncovers the next wave of vetted, test-driven mobile startups from around the globe that have launched within the year. Under the Radar brings startups, industry leaders, press, and investors together with one ultimate goal: to get the deal done.
The following is a guest blog post by Matt Mickiewicz, co-founder of 99designs – a multi-million dollar design marketplace, and Flippa. Want to build a business on the cheap, and grow it to multi-millions in revenue? Matt is a jedi-master, so take heed….Below are some of his fave tools.
7 ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR YOUR STARTUP COMPANY
Running a lean start-up is all about efficiency, and making the best use of low-cost or free tools available. Below I’ve highlighted some of my favourite “must bookmark” services that should be in every entrepreneurs toolbox.
1. Google Website Optimizer
You don’t know what you don’t know. Google Website Optimizer simplifies the process of testing your theories and hypotheses against real users using your site or service. Each new day brings new data and knowledge that you can employ to incrementally improve your business. You can also check out my friend Tim Ash’s book, Landing Page Optimizationfor tips on improving your site.
2. Mockingbird
Face it, you’re no designer. But as the founder or CEO of a startup, your role in product development is super-important. GoMockingbird.com is an intuitive, easy-to-use tool you can utilize to create wireframes and clickable prototypes, which you can then pass onto your designer.
3. UserTesting.com
You need feedback, and you need it pronto. Running a lean startup is all about moving quickly, and UserTesting.com allows you to run your website and apps against real users for just $29 per test. Furthermore, you receive feedback in as little as 24 hours. Use it!
4. UserVoice
Are you seeing a pattern yet? Successful startups are built on customer feedback. UserVoice is a great service that allows your customers to make suggestions and then vote on them. The strongest ideas rise to the top, ready for you to implement. Some of the best ideas at 99designs.com have come from our users — and best of all, implementing these ideas has lead to real bottom-line growth in our revenue.
5. Amazon Web Services and RightScale
Unless you already have racks of servers, you’re going to need to be able to scale your business quickly. After all, you never know when you’re going to land on the front page of the New York Times or Wall Street Journal! AWS and RightScale are super low-cost services that allow you to rent servers by the hour and data storage by the gigabyte. Without them, 99designs would be unable to archive over two million designs created by our design community. Check out Host Your Web Site in the Cloud — available for purchase on Amazon.com from January 2010.
6. DropBox
There is no easier way to share documents and files, period. Dropbox replaces your thumb drive and makes it easy to sync folders across computers and mobile devices. It’s much easier than emailing files back and forth as well. Three million users and counting attests to this!
7. AdWords
This is where most startups begin their media buying, because it’s cheap, easy to start with, and quick to optimize. AdWords allows you to quickly gain targeted traffic to your website while you work on your organic SEO. This enables you to start learning through Google Website Optimizer about what works and what doesn’t with actual site visitors. Best of all, by testing different ad copy, you can quickly determine which value propositions resonate the most with your prospects. You can then roll these into your landing pages, email marketing, PR efforts, and other channels.
To bring 2009 to a close, we wanted to review highlights of 2009 and give some thanks to a few of our friends…
Be sure to check out our: 2010 event calendar Become a member of DMM
2009 Under the Radar Year in Review: 12 Under the Radar Acquisitions!
With your support, we hosted a number of great events this year, too - featuring presenters from Nike, AT&T, Verizon, First Round Capital, Pfizer, Salesforce, Amazon, Google, FOX, CBS, and startups like SimpleGeo, Foodzie, Yowza!!, Melodis, Twilio, Boku and more.
We launched a new invite-only event called Unplugged – bringing together the most influential people from media, entertainment, brands, agencies and gaming.
We helped global technology and media companies (like CBS, FOX, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, AT&T, Coca-Cola and more) foster relationships and do deals with tech’s best startups.
We connected Angels and VCs with startups, leading to Under the Radar companies raising over $450 Million in financing through 2009.
Upcoming 2010 Events:
Strategy Series: evening round table events & mixers in LA and the Bay Area
Microsoft BizSpark: The program launched last year, and already has over 25,000 startups involved worldwide. Who’s involved? SoCal starts like DocStoc, AudioMicro, Loqu8, Yammer and Coveroo. Want in? You can access the BizSpark program through Dealmaker Media. Send us an email.
Manatt: Manatt was named a top firm nationally in the areas of Film, Music, Theater and Television; Marketing and Advertising, for both transactions and litigation; Mergers, Acquisitions and Buyouts by The Legal 500. The publication also named nine Manatt lawyers as being among the nation’s leading lawyers.
GRP Partners: With Mark Suster becoming one of the most active VCs in SoCal, GRP had a very active 2009 – investing in a number of startups, including GumGum, Ad.ly and more.
MediaTemple: Has a busy year! They were named one of the best places to work in LA by the Los Angeles Business Journal; made the Inc. 5000 list (again!) and launched (mt) Ventures.
Shout-outs, Congrats and thanks to the friends of Dealmaker Media:
* Adam Hirsch, Mashable and Sharon Feder- the soon to be “power-couple” of NY’s social media world.
* Alex/Dan, Cloudkick – for landing funding AND girlfriends in 2009!
* Alison Murdock – for starting Silicon Valley Rocks – a battle of the bands for the geek community
* Allen Hurff – for starting LA’s next big success story…..investors pay attention, this is going to be huge.
* Andrew Warner, Mixergy – For becoming the “Barbara Walters” of entrepreneurship interviewers.
* Babette Pepaj, Bakespace – for seeing a sweet opportunity, and going for it!
* Bill Maris, Google Ventures – for sharing our love of bad reality TV.
* Brian Solis – for his book, Putting the Public Back in Public Relations and his new book, Engage.
* Brian Zisk – for building SFMusicTech Summit, one of the top music and technology events in the bay.
* Cathy Brooks 3.0 – launching her new Storytelling company and just being awesome.
* Chris Sacca – for being able to tweet while peddling a bike and riding a chairlift.
* Chris Tolles, Topix – being a rockstar, an amazing host and great supporter of DMM
* Dan Gould – for being an active angel and advisor – and an all around stand-out guy.
* Dana Settle, Greycroft – for being the hardest working and best connected VC in LA.
* Danny Robinson, Bootup Labs – for fostering the startup community in Vancouver (while keeping tabs on the Valley)
* Dave McClure, FoundersFund – for taking geeks global.
* David Travers, Rustic Canyon – For hosting one of the coolest mixer parties for us in the water garden.
* Don Dodge – Google is so lucky to have you! Congrats.
* First Round Capital team – Sending the best xmas card video, the Mint acquisition, mom-to-be Christine Herron and great rock shows with Rob and Kent.
* Greg Grunberg/August Trometer. Yowza – winning best in show for Under the Radar and landing a deal with The Price is Right!
* Gunderson Dettmer – Jonathan/Ivan/Josh, for being the coolest lawyers in the Valley.
* Hale Boggs, Manatt – for your constant support of Dealmaker Media, and being our biggest champion, we couldn’t have done this without you.
* Ian Sometrics – For leading a killer discussion at our Unplugged event!
* Jason Nazar, Docstoc – becoming the unofficial godfather of the LA startup community.
* Jason Oberfest – Congrats on your new role at ng:moco
* Jeff Clavier – one of the most active seed investors in the Valley and your unwavering support of Dealmaker Media.
* Jeff Pulver – launching 140con, one of the best real-time conferences of 2009.
* Jeff Smith, Smule – for trying to walk in our shoes…i mean slippers.
* Jeffrey Hazelett, Kodak – for supporting the real-time movement and the influencers who are driving it.
* Larry Marcus, WaldenVC – for bringing music, tech and venture together.
* Len Brody – Congrats on Now Public getting acquired by Examiner.com
* Mark Silva, Real Branding – for leading the way for what todays? innovative ad agency should look like.
* Mark Suster, GRP Partners – Giving credibility to the LA Venture community and creating Launchpad LA.
* Matt Galligan/Joe Stump, SimpleGeo – the new faces of Silicon Valley cool.
* Matt Van Horn, Digg – being the best “connector” in silicon valley
* MediaTemple team – Thanks for hosting an off the hook party to wrap up our Startonomics LA this year.
* Microsoft Bizspark team – for the continued efforts in creating valuable tools and events for the startup community.
* Mike Jones, MySpace – congrats on joining MySpace and attracting an all-star team
* Mike Marquez, CBS Interactive – for taking a chance on us and helping launch Unplugged.
* Mike Prasad, Girlgamer – for bringing gourmet BBQ to twitter.
* Mike Sigal, Guidewire Group – for cutting the cord and building your dream company.
* Mitchell Kertzman – getting that hot new Tesla and hoping one day we’ll get a ride.
* Navin Chadda, Mayfield – voted “most likely to be a late night talk show host” (if this VC thing doesn’t work out).
* Nicole Jordan, Startup PR Guru – for giving her heart n’ soul to raising awareness of innovative founders.
* Peter Pham, Billshrink – for getting Catherine Zeta Jones to promote your startup to the world. Wow.
* Rafe Needleman, CNET and Jeremy Toeman, Stage Two – for being the best Under the Radar hosts year after year.
* Rob Gelick, CBS Interactive – for being a corporate suit who embraces innovation and can hang with startups.
* Robert Scoble – for your ongoing love, support and enthusiasm for startups.
* Robin Chan – becoming the “super-connector” between the US and China
* Ron Hirson, Boku – for reaching over 1.6 billion consumers and loving us just the way we are.
* Ryan Born, AudioMicro – For always representing the startup community and hanging out at all of our events!
* Sean Percival – for starting LaLaWag, the insiders guide to the LA tech scene, it’s a must read.
* Tim Chang, Norwest – for being a musician first and a VC second.
* Tom Beddecare, AKQA – for your long time support and not ever missing and Under the Radar event.
* Valerie Buckingham, Nokia & Gary Bolles – for putting together IdeasCamp, of the best events of 2009.
* Will Jessup, Citrusbyte – for launching the LA web developers meetup.
* William Quigley, Clearstone – being one of the first supporters of Dealmaker LA and an all round great guy.
There are plenty more all stars worth mentioning. You know who they are. Be sure to give them all a high-five at our next event. Speaking of which, here?s our 2010 Event Calendar – (more details soon!).
Stay tuned guys – more to come….. Happy holidays and Best wishes for a great 2010.
Debbie, Jasmine, Stephanie, Giselle (and Jennifer – who just went on maternity leave)
