Netbooks Resurfaces from Hibernation as WorkingPoint: SaaS for SMB with Nicer UI but Much Less Functionality
SaaS, Software, Startups June 17th, 2009
Iāve previously covered Netbooks, provider of an Integrated SaaS Business Suite for Very Small Businesses.
The company had an affordable On-Demand integrated business management solution for theĀ Ā VSB ā very small businesses, the āSā in SMB / SME: typically companies with less then 25 employees, sometimes only 3-5, and, most importantly, without professional IT support, in which case Software as a Service is a life-saver.
NetBooks tried to cover a complete business cycle, from opportunity through sales, manufacturing, inventory / warehouse management, shipping, billing, accounting ā some with more success then others.Ā Ā The process logic, the flow between various functional areas was excellent, but it was rendered almost unusable by a horrible UI. And it didnāt scale⦠so the company disappeared for a long year, completely re-building their code base.
Read on ā¦
Tags: accounting, Accounting Software, bearingpoint, branding, business bydesign, business names, crm, Enterprise Software, erp, inventory management, manufacturing software, netbooks, netsuite, On-Demand, order fulfillment, procurement, quickbooks, SaaS, salesforce.com, small business software, smb, sme, vsb, workingpoint, xref
Startup CEO Who “Won’t Take VC Abuse” Is Now a VC Himself and Blogs About Both Sides of the Table.
Blogging, Startups June 12th, 2009
ValleywagĀ named Mark Suster, then CEO of Koral “one entrepreneur who won’t just take VC abuse“Ā for his blog postĀ “slamming one VC partnership for tardiness, inadequate preparation, and bad Blackberry manners.”Ā That was late 2006ā¦
Not long after the “incident” his startup, Koral received funding, which, in hindsight was probably unnecessary: a few months later, barely out with a beta product Koral got acquired by Salesforce.com.
A few months later the āanti-VCā (not really) CEO has become a VC Partner himself.
Read more ā¦

Tags: Blogging, entrepreneurship, koral, mark suster, Startups, vc, vc Funding, venture Capital, xref
Business Planning on Twitter
Humor, Startups June 4th, 2009
As with all-things-Twitter, you should read this bottom-up:
And the text summary ā again, read from bottom up:
- amandagbeals @bencasnocha love the biz idea but dont leave out the gays!!! they wld be ur biggest clients!
- zolierdos @bencasnocha On second thought, this business model is one of the oldest, although not limited to kissing
- djnotfound @bencasnocha but… but can they get pregnant by kissing?
- zolierdos @bencasnocha Haha, will it be bootstrapped or VC funded?
- constantmotion @bencasnocha I have to ask, did a specific experience lead to this idea?
- jeffnolan @bencasnocha you could rely on craigslist as your go-to-market strategy
- msimonkey @bencasnocha Who decides whos the expert?
- bencasnocha Business idea: create a kissing school where people pay to practice kissing "expert" instructor of opposite sex and get immediate feedback.
Tags: ben casnocha, business plan, Humor, Startups, Twitter
Accessorize Your Algorithm, Amazon :-)
Humor, Marketing / PR June 2nd, 2009
I think this email promo Iāve just received from Amazon after purchasing the replacement filters (first item shown) speaks for itself. I guess if I had bought a kitchen sink or some furniture, they would offer a house as accessory.![]()

Tags: adveritising, amazon, online shopping
The Cat is Out of the Bag (Again): The Not-So-Hidden Business Model in SaaS
Business, SaaS June 1st, 2009
Forget software: itās all about (your) data.
Hyper-growing Financial Management system provider and Quicken / MS Money challenger Mint recently raised eyebrows announcing their plan to sell anonymized aggregate customer data. Some reviewers were screaming, we saw bombastic titles like Personal Finance Startup Mint Wants To Sell Your Money Trail ā but in reality the news wasnāt earth shattering. You donāt really believe your spending patterns are not dissected ā aggregated ā analyzed in every possible way and sold by your bank and credit card company, do you?
So nothing new ā but a good opportunity to discuss the role of user data in SaaS business models ā and there is more than outright sale of data.
Read more ā¦
Tags: aggregate data, benchmarking, business model, data ownership, data privacy, freshbooks, mint, saan, SaaS, xref
Amazonās PaaS with a Twist
Business May 27th, 2009
If you think this is yet-another post on Platform as a Service, youāre wrong.Ā Ā Iāll be talking about much simpler things here:
- PaaS ā Pasta as a Service
- TaaS ā Tea as a Service
- GaaS ā Groceries as a Service
No kidding.Ā Well, maybe a bit, but this is about real business ā also the focus of a recent article by Fortune: Amazon’s next revolution, discussing the early days as Earthās Biggest Bookstore, then moving on to other businesses, and now Kindle-izing our reading habits while revolutionizing the publishing industry.
So letās talk about retail, from the consumersā point of view, examining how Amazon changed our shopping habits and is on the way to becoming the default vendor for just about everything we buy.
Read on ā¦
Tags: amazon, amazon subscription, Google, googlezon, groceries, online retail, paas, price comparison, retail, subscription, xref
The $199 Palm Pre that’s Really $299
Customer Service, Misc May 19th, 2009
ā¦And I am not even talking about TCO, calculating life-time cost with subscription. No, just plain simply purchase price, with a dirty industry trick: rebates.
The long expected Palm Pre will be available from Spring on Jun 6th, at $199 with qualifying data plan, and after a $100 rebate. And therein lies the rub ā it will cost $299 for many.
Fellow Enterprise Irregular Winnie Mirchandani has a long-going series on business processes that badly need āangioplastyā. Processing rebates is certainly a most convoluted process ā unfortunately often by design. Why? Itās simple, 40% of rebates never get redeemed, says Business Week:
The industry’s open secret is that fully 40% of all rebates never get redeemed because consumers fail to apply for them or their applications are rejected, estimates Peter S. Kastner, a director of consulting firm Vericours Inc. That translates into more than $2 billion of extra revenue for retailers and their suppliers each year. What rebates do is get consumers to focus on the discounted price of a product, then buy it at full price. "The game is obviously that anything less than 100% redemption is free money," says Paula Rosenblum, director of retail research at consulting firm Aberdeen Group Inc.
What this old article fails to point out is that itās often not the consumerās fault who forget to send in rebates. Sure, weāre sometimes lazy to do the paperwork for a $5 discount, but you would dot it for $100, wouldnāt you? Yet itās often the ugliness of the rebate process with built-in traps (did you cut out the UPC code from the right corner on the box, did you circle the right amount..etc), or just the ignorance of the rebate processing company (yes, that is a thriving business in itself) that robs you of your rebate check. And donāt for a minute think itās only from Tiger Direct and other retailers who thrive on the rebate-scam. Brand-name trusted vendors arenāt any better. Since weāre discussing the Palm here, hereās my rebate experience from Handspring (the former Pal-spinoff that later reunited with the parent) from a few years ago:
Sent in not only paperwork, but an actual, working older Palm III as trade-in unit (This condition was so ridiculous, later Handspring changed it to providing serial noās of the trade-ins.) The $100 rebate never arrived, not even after numerous phone-calls and emails. They demanded copies of everything, which I sent ā but how do you copy the trade-in unit? My loss: $100 rebate, $50 trade-in value for the old Palm (thatās what it sold on eBay at the time), postage and about a full day of my time fighting the bureaucracy.
Did that stop my from buying Handspring / Palm products? Not when they were the only game in time, so I bought two more Treoās. But guess what: Palms are not the only choice if you want a smart phone, and obviously I am still not a Palm-fanā¦
Back to the angioplasty, one way to streamline rebate processing is to make it an all-online process, removing the intentional hurdles. I canāt see why in the 21st century this is such a big deal. Costco sets a positive example, with simple online rebate entry, prompt payment, and online audit available for years.
But the real angioplasty would be to kill the the whole process. Forget rebates, itās time for true transparency: call it what it is, $299 or $199, if you want to promote your product, provide a temporary discount, but forget rebates, which are just a Big Fat Lie.
(Cross-posted from CloudAve. To stay abreast of news, analysis and just plain opinion on Cloud Computing, SaaS, Business grab the CloudAve Feed here.)

Tags: angioplasty, business process, customer disservice, Customer Service, deception, handsrping, palm, palm pre, process angioplasty, rebate, rebates, retail, smartphones, treo

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