Business Archives - Page 59 of 72

SVASE VC Breakfast Club with Cardinal Venture Capital

Posted on April 10, 2006 ·

I’ll be moderating another SVASE VC Breakfast Club session on Thursday, April 13th in San Jose. It’s an informal round-table where up to 10 entrepreneurs get to deliver a pitch, then answer questions and get critiqued by a VC Partner. We’ve had VC’s from Draper Fisher, Hummer Winblad, Kleiner Perkins, Mayfield, Mohr Davidow, Emergence Capital …etc.

Thursday’s featured VC is Joyce Chung, General Partner, Cardinal Venture Capital. The Zvents post has all the info and a map, but please remember to click through to register either from zvents or directly here.

These sessions are an incredible opportunity for Entrepreneurs, most of whom would probably have a hard time getting through the door to a VC Partners. Since I’ve been through quite a few of these sessions, both as Entrepreneur and Moderator, let me share a few thoughts:

It’s a pressure-free environment, with no Powerpoint presentations, Business Plans…etc, just casual conversation, but it does not mean you should come unprepared!
Bring an Executive Summary, some VC’s like it, others don’t.
Follow a structure, don’t just talk freely about what you would like to do, or even worse, spend all your time describing the problem, without addressing what your solution is.
Don’t forget “small things” like the Team, Product, Market..etc.
It would not hurt to mention how much you are looking for, and how you would use the funds…
Write down and practice your pitch, be ready to deliver a compelling story in 5 minutes. You will have more time, but believe me, whatever your practice time was, when you are on the spot, you will likely take twice as long to deliver your story.
Last, but not least, please be on time! I am not kidding… some of you know why I have to even bring this up.

See you on Thursday!

Tags: Venture Capital, VC Breakfast, Funding, VC Funding, Startups, Entrepreneurship, SVASE

Filed Under: Bay Area, Business, Social Networking, Startups ·

What’s the Big Fuss About the Exit Exams?

Posted on April 10, 2006 ·

(Updated)
From the Merc: “In what could become the first school-based rebellion against the state’s high-stakes high school exit exam law, one of the Bay Area’s largest school districts is considering awarding diplomas to seniors who have failed the exam but are otherwise qualified to graduate”

What exactly does “otherwise qualified” mean?

“There’s a whole group of kids who are working really hard and, for whatever reason, can’t pass this exam,”

Working hard is nice but not enough …

“Most of all, students realize that having a diploma is key to better job prospects. If you want a decent job, the diploma opens doors.”

So it’s about entitlement? We deserve a diploma so we get better jobs.. even if we can’t pass a very basic exam?

I just don’t get it. There is a competitive world out there, at the end of High School it’s about high time (pun intended) to learn that achievement is what gets rewarded, not sitting through all these years.

Update (4/12): Why Johnny cannot get a tech job – a good example by Vinnie on what happens when we “pump out” high school graduates without proper educational achievements.

Update (8/11): Appeals court refuses diplomas for 20,000 who failed exit exam (SFGate, hat tip: Jeff Nolan). Justice Ruvolo: “A high school diploma is not an education, any more than a birth certificate is a baby.’’

Tags: education, exit exam, high school exit exam, california, california exit exam, cahsee

Filed Under: Business, Misc, Politics ·

Software 2006: Questioning the McKinsey Study

Posted on April 7, 2006 ·

(Updated)
McKinsey and Company in collaboration with the Sand Hill Group, organizer of the Software 2006 Conference released their Industry Study (pdf) that I have to take issue with. (yes, I know, who am I to disagree with McKinsey?)

“Business Model Discontinuity: Software as a Service (SaaS) and Open Source. Two major business models are vying for an growing share of software spend: Software as a Service and Open Source. …SaaS has already gained traction in number of application areas – such as payroll, human capital management, CRM, conferencing, procurement, logistics, information services, and e-commerce) – and should make gains across a much broader cross-section of applications over the next 3 years. Out of 34 application areas we have examined, only nine are unlikely to see some SaaS adoption over through 2008”

Apparently McKinsey tells us that Financial Applications are the back-office function most unlikely to see SaaS adoption for years to come. Hm … I know the trendy app now is CRM, but there were widely-used web-based packages long before CRM. Intuit, NetSuite (originally NetLedger), Intacct, 24SevenOffice, WinWeb ..just to name a few.

Perhaps these companies can jump in here, and tell us what they think of McKinsey’s prediction that SaaS will not take off for financial apps?

Update (4/7): Dennis Howlett has a really good point bringing up Document Management, the other “unlikely” area per McKinsey. As to confidentiality concerns: the numbers in the financial apps are the result of real business activity that may very well have been in other hosted systems, e.g. CRM, Procurement..etc. Document Management? Oh, well, our external interaction is often on hosted platforms (email), sales contracts are largely in hosted systems (CRM)… I could go on.
Interestingly enough businesses lost more confidential data stored “safely” inside the firewall due to disgruntled ex-employees than due to “exposure” to SaaS providers.

But the point I made about Accounting systems, that this isn’t subject to predictions, it’s already happening, or has happened largely: accounting was available On-Demand before CRM was “born”.

Update (5/31): New McKinsey paper bullish about SaaS model. (hat tip: Nick Carr. Free registration required to read).

Update (8/17): Dennis points us at Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Software as a Service.

“On-Demand Financial Management Applications and On-Demand Sales Force Automation are said to be at the peak.”

Interesting. McKinsey says it’s not coming for years, Gartner says it’s already at the peak. Go figure …

Filed Under: Business, Enterprise Software, ERP / CRM, SaaS, Software · Tagged: 24sevenoffice, accounting, crm, Enterprise Software, Financial Applications, intacct, intuit, McKinsey, netsuite, On-Demand, SaaS, software2006, winweb

Software 2006: Wikis Win

Posted on April 6, 2006 ·

(Updated)
Wikis and blogs -social software in general – were the “latent” subject at Software 2006, popping up at several sessions throughout the conference.

In his opening keynote Ray Lane talked about the inter-personal enterprise: collaboration, increased participation through friendlier, better user experience; the user as an individual, “consumer” has to like the software, then will use it, and usage spreads within the company: a pull process, rather than push – the traditional enterprise sales model. This is exactly the model wikis are “sold”, as we discussed earlier. Ray specifically mentioned how useful they found using a wiki at Kleiner Perkins.

Then during the last panel, Toby Redshaw, CIO of Motorola talked about how he installed wikis and blogs: turned it on, decidedly not telling anyone “above” or laterally until it was too late for anyone worried about “control” to interfere. People discovered the new tools, started to use them, and before he knew there were 1900 blogs and 2000 wikis used in Motorola. Grassroots action at it’s best, just like Ray explained. Joe (JotSpot) and Ross (SocialText) could not have asked for a better plug of wikis, just minutes prior to their software showcase.

On the way from this session to the showcase room Ross was showing me his latest baby, Miki, the mobile wiki. One of the conference attendees (Director at a major organization) walked alongside us, overheard the conversation, and jumped in: “where can I get it?” Wow, I think Ross just closed a 30–second sale

There is something funny about these product names, though. Ross just found out that Miki in Irish slang means male genitalia… hm… close .. here’s the Urban Dictionary definition. Never mind, it didn’t hurt Jobby, won’t hurt Miki either. Incidentally, Miki in Hungarian is nickname form for Nicholas, and in Japanese a female name meaning “flower stalk.” Not bad.

The Miki launch was the last announcement of the day, then we headed off for some “Open Source” cocktails and appetizers.

Related posts – Miki seems to enjoy a warm welcome:

Update (4/8): It was fun to see JotSpot and SocialText together – would have been even more fun to see the third (and by the number of enterprise customers definitely not last) product: Confluence by Atlassian.

Filed Under: Bay Area, Collaboration, Enterprise Software, Personal Productivity, SaaS, Social Networking, Software, Startups · Tagged: atlassian, confluence, Jotspot, miki, Social Software, socialtext, software2006, wiki, wikis

SVASE Event: Angel Investors – Alive, Kicking & Investing!

Posted on April 6, 2006 ·

It’s a good time to be an Entrepreneur – Is it also a good time to be an investor? Jason Wood says: “I spoke to several colleagues in the industry today and there was a consensus of disappointment in the current landscape. I’m hardly the only one who’s been saying there’s excess capital in the VC industry for some time [in fact, there’s excess capital everywhere], but with entrepreneurs more willing [and able] to bootstrap their way to product launch and with GoogleYahooMicrosoft unafraid to throw fractional portions of their cash hoard at interesting startups, I’m not sure I see the light at the end of the 2005-2006 vintage VC tunnel.”

At the Software 2006 Conference yesterday I found myself in the middle of an interesting conversation betwen 2 VC Partners and an Angel Investor – they basically shared the above view, adding that startups either bootstrap their way to acquision, or take Angel funding, than the GYM jumps in before an A-round.

Angel investment is back big time, and this is the subject of the SVASE event tonight at 6pm in Palo Alto.

How have the dynamics and metrics of Angel investing changed during this time? Is becoming an Angel still an attractive investing option? What are the metrics Angels look for in their investments today? What technologies & deals are most attractive to Angel investors right now? And what types of people are becoming Angels Investors, and why?

Seeking Angel Funding, want to become an Angel?

This lively panel discussion will explore current trends and panelist opinions on topics including:
• How have the dynamics of Angel investing changed in recent years?
• What are the current trends in Angel investing?
• Is Angel Investing still interesting for High Net Worth Individuals?
• What type of people are becoming Angel Investors, and why?
• What are the metrics Angels look for in their investments today?
• How are Angels working with Venture Capitalists?
• What technologies and deals are most attractive to Angel investors right now?

The Panel:
• Stewart Sonnenfeldt, Managing Director, Sand Hill Angels
• Laura Roden, Managing Director, The Angels Forum
• Randy Williams, Founder & CEO, Keiretsu Forum
• Antonio Salerno, Deal Selection Committee, Band of Angels
Moderator: David Frazee, corporate/IP shareholder, Greenberg Traurig

Thursday, April 6
6.00-7.00 pm: Networking and Dinner
7.00-8:30 pm: Panel discussion and Q/A

To reserve an Exhibit Table
Contact Info@svase.org, $500 Members, $1,000 Non-members.

Location:
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (WSGR Campus), 950 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, 94304

PRE-REGISTERED RATES (All Rates Include Hors D’oeuvres)
Members – $20; Affiliates who advertise this event – $29;General Public – $49

WALK-IN RATES: Add $10.00 to the listed price

Click HERE to Register NOW!

Tags: svase, startups, entrepreneurship, angels, angel investing, angel investors

Filed Under: Bay Area, Social Networking, Startups ·

SaaS vs. Open Source for SMB’s – Part 2.

Posted on April 5, 2006 ·

Yet another “Pros and cons of Open source vis a vis SaaS for an SMB” post today. I feel this one barely scratches the surface, missing basic points like the availability or (mostly) lack of IT skills at a lot of SMB’s.

For reference on the subject I recommend Shop Talk: SaaS vs. open source – what SMBs should know by Paul Gillin and my own SaaS vs. Open Source for SMB’s? A No-Brainer.

Tags: SaaS, Open Source, SMB, SME, On-Demand

Filed Under: Enterprise Software, Open Source, SaaS, SMB / SME, Software ·

Software 2006: from 1.0 to 2.0

Posted on April 4, 2006 ·

In my previous post I complained about the lack of interaction at some of the Software 2006 sessions. Well, the last two sessions I attended (actually running back and forth between the two) were definitely more participatory.

The panel discussion on Blogs and Web 2.0 in Marketing Communications was lively, and finally (!!!) they took a lot of customer questions. There we go, participation!

Greg Gianforte’s presentation on “SaaS – successful go-to-market strategies” was more a traditional one, but there is something in his presence and style that made it very interesting. Of course it’s not just the presentation, but the success story behind it: while his company is not as super-hyped as Salesforce.com, RightNow is definitely a significant player, with Fortune 1000 customers and over $100M in revenue.

Some of Greg’s key points: One-size-fits-all is OK for the typical SMB customer, but large corporations will demand choice in a number of areas:

Deployment choice: on-premise and hosted. They have to offer both, even tough 90% of business is now SaaS. Often the large corporate customer insists on on-premise, but their own IT gives them 12 month timeline, so they go live with the hosted version “temporarily” – then they get a taste of it and never move on-premise.
Payment choice: a common misunderstanding is to equate On-demand to pay-as-you-go. Payment terms have nothing to do with deployment methods, so they offer monthly term, term net thirty, and perpetual licence+maintenance for both on-demand and on-premise. Interestingly enough, monthly payment (which comes at a premium) is often not chosen by small businesses, but large companies who want to “hide” the cost in the operating budget vs capital.
Upgrade choice: Forced upgrades are unacceptable, they have an automated system that allows customers to pick their upgrade schedule in a multi-tenant environment.
Integration choice: They’ve done hundreds of integrations, web services making it easier.
Customization choice: meeting 80% of the requirements is not enough. High configurability, customization for the rest. Need architecture that supports customization even in the multi-tenant architecture.

Summing it up, these two sessions were informative, lively – but I need to stop now, the wine I smuggled out of the reception area is starting …. to … take …… ef….f….e…c….t.

Enterprise Start-up Strategy by Will Price
SaaS Customization is Great. But at What Price?

Tags: software2006, RightNow, SaaS, On-Demand, Enterprise Software, CRM, blogs, blogging

Filed Under: Bay Area, Blogging, Business, Collaboration, Enterprise Software, ERP / CRM, SaaS, Software ·

Software 2006: “Tacit Interaction” is the New Buzzword

Posted on April 4, 2006 ·

I’m sitting (actually standing in front of a workstation typing this away…) at the Software 2006 Conference, which started off with a really good keynote. Before walking up to the workstation, I already knew I “lost the race”- having seen Ross sit close to a power outlet with his Mac in his lap, I knew everything that could be said is already said . Jeff also covered the Welcome Address in detail.

Real-time update: these guys are posting faster then I can read: full coverage of Ray Lane’s keynote by Jeff and Ross. Again, I can’t really add anything (other than congrat’s to Ross, Ray did a good plug for the wiki). Ray’s session was followed by Vanessa Colella from McKinsey, and I *swear* I heard the term Tacit Interactions more often then Web 2.0, SaaS, Ajax, Collaborative and Social all lumped together at a TechCrunch party. Too bad Tacit is a private company, I’d run to buy the stock before it gets hyped up. OK, I am not being fair, the fact is, it’s pretty hard to deliver a speech immediately after Ray Lane spoke.

Back with a cup of coffee now … oh, well, considering my poor typing skills, I’m actually glad these guys posted all the facts, so all that’s left to me are a few observations.

For all the “Web 2.0” talk I feel we’re sitting in a “1.0” type conference. Sitting, rather than participating. None of the speakers took any questions, and while it’s OK for the keynote, one would expect the Pundit Panel to end with a Q&A.

Never mind, off we go to the Software Showcase. Well, not much of a showcase, we’re getting Powerpoint-supported presentations of CollabNet, Compiere, Digium and Ingres. Again, no Q&A in the end. Finally, Zimbra saves the day, we’re actually getting an impressive live presentation, the audience wakes up, and in the end, we’re offered free beer. Free, as in Open Source. Opening the bottle is $1, as in support for Open Source. Beer or not, I can’t wait to get out of Microsoft-prison and start using Zimbra.

All in all, it’s a good conference, interesting topics, good networking, but it’s a bit “old-fashioned”: “They” present, “we” listen passively, missing all the “Tacit Interaction” we’ve just talked about. Perhaps I’ve attended too many “unconferences” recently, I can’t expect a regular corporate-type conference to be TechCrunch or Techdirt-style 🙂

Tags: software2006, web 2.0, tacit interactions, buzzword, Zimbra