Remember when you were a kid and adults would ask you "What do you want to be when you grow up"? Many of us would respond with I want to be a doctor, a fireman, a nurse, a policeman, an astronaut, the president or any number of other roles we all aspired to be at one time or another as kids growing up.

Now as an operational Venture Capital partner I get to ask that same question all the time. Only instead of asking kids I ask founders and CEO's of early and expansion stage companies that are looking for investors to raise growth capital to scale their companies.

Somewhere between early and expansion stage in every company several good things have occurred...

1.) You have released a functioning product/service that relieves a pain point in the marketplace

2.) You have paying customers

3.) You are starting to understand and build a distribution model to sell your product/service

Also, during this time because of the stress on early/expansion stage software companies to generate cash flow, many of you are also likely suffering from a bad habit I refer to as doing Anything For A Buck (AFAB).

This is when you need to ask yourself the question "What do I want to be when I grow up?" The reason this is so critical is until you actually answer this question you can't determine what the correct strategy is to scale the company in a capital efficient manner to maximize your potential in the market place.

There are several old statements that drive this home...

The shortest distance between 2 points is a straight line...

You can't be all things to all people...

And when you answer this question lots of good things can happen like...

 
As kids everybody has to grow up sooner or later and the same is true with companies... so if you have not answered the question yet, you might want to start thinking about it!

All the best!

G

As a Boston Venture Capital firm, OpenView Partners believes it is not just about the growth capital a venture firm invests in an expansion stage software company but more about the operational support they can offer you as you scale the business in a capital efficient way. 

Back in October, we started our blogging effort within the firm as a way to demonstrate the real difference an operational venture capitalist can make by sharing our thoughts on building great businesses that result in great exits and as a way to help early stage and expansion stage founders, CEO's and management teams think about their companies and how to  grow them.

One of the earlier blogs I wrote was titled "What a 16 year old girl wanting to raise chickens can teach us all" Well I thought it might be time to update everyone on the status of the girls start up by sharing with you the output from the business.




It is obvious that she has moved from the early start up phase to expansion stage by releasing a commercially available product. Understanding how focused she was on this project I am sure she will also achieve a successful exit with a strategic buyer when the right time arrives.

Unfortunately we all know starting and building successful software companies are not this easy. If you are looking for a firm to help you with real world operational experience and not just capital check out OpenView partners and our blog's... we might be the right firm for you!

All the best!

G

While I was in Colorado this week before attending the VCIR conference www.vcirwinter.com/ which showcases some of the rocky mountain regions top emerging growth companies I had a chance to meet with Jim Dickie, a managing partner in CSO Insights www.csoinsights.com/.

CSO Insights is a firm that does a tremendous amount of survey research every year across thousands of sales executives to identify, measure and track sales effectiveness metrics and trends. As a former senior software sales executive who is now an Operational Venture Partner with a Boston based venture capital firm that provides growth capital to expansion stage software companies it did not take long for Jim and I to get into a great discussion around sales performance optimization (SPO).

Jim was taking me through some of the latest results from their report "Sales Performance Optimization: 2010 Key Trends Analysis". As part of this conversation around the key trends from the survey we touched on a topic that I have discussed with many founders and CEO's that is very topical in the current economic climate. The topic was "You can't cut your way to success"

From the fourth quarter of 2008 until now OpenView Partners has provided advice and operational support to our portfolio companies and their management teams with an emphasis on optimization of their human capital across all areas of the company while managing for capital efficiency. While in some cases this resulted in under-performing or excess headcount being let go we continued to emphasize the need to invest in the remaining employees to improve their performance and execution to maximize the companies' growth and return during this difficult time.

What CSO Insights discovered through their research is that many companies did just the reverse in their sales organizations...

Consider the following:

Lead Generation Did Not Keep Pace With Sales: In last year's report we noted that the number one sales effectiveness priority going into 2009 was optimizing lead generation. But while sales rep quotas increased, 67% of the firms taking part in our 2009 Lead Generation Optimization study reported they had frozen or reduced their lead generation spend for the year.

Improvements in Sales Knowledge Management (SKM) Were Under-delivered: The number two sales effectiveness priority for 2009 was improving sales rep access to sales knowledge. Less than 1 in 10 firms delivered on the promise of implementing an SKM system, as the vast majority of companies moved this out to a 2010 priority.

Sales Training Investments Were Curtailed: Across all the firms surveyed in the 2010 SPO study, the average investment per rep for training (sales skills, product training, negotiations, justification skills, etc.) decreased by 13%.

Decisions on Tools for Optimizing Sales Management Were Tabled: Only 12% of the firms that stated they were going to move forward with implementing new technologies to help their sales managers optimize pipeline/forecast management and rep coaching actually followed through on those investments.

In reality these companies actually contributed to their poor performance by turning off investment in the very things that would have helped their sales organizations deliver more of what their companies needed... customers and more revenues!

During 2010 OpenView will continue to stress operational execution through cycle time reductions and process improvements across all operational areas (including sales) in our portfolio companies. However one thing we won't be doing is encouraging them to try and cut their way to success by not investing in the resources they have.

If you are interested in more key trends around Sales Performance Optimization feel free to reach out to either Jim Dickie or the co-founder Barry Trailer who I have known for years at CSO Insights. Both are great guys with a wealth of knowledge and experience in this area.

All the best!

G

As a venture capital firm that provides growth capital to expansion stage software companies there are as many business growth strategies as there are companies.

You can deploy expansion capital and additional human resources across one or all of the operational areas of your business to differing degrees. From marketing to sales to product management to development to customer care to consulting services to finance and on and on. 

As an operationally focused venture capital firm we leverage our partners real world experience, combine it with strategic consulting services to help build great companies through best practices and improved business processes.

Last week while I was in an operational review I heard of something so simple and yet compelling that any founder or CEO can put in place to get more from their team without venture capital funding and or strategic consulting that will contribute to your business growth that I want to share with you.

I was talking to Pete Gombert, the CEO of Balihoo www.balihoo.com, about operational leverage and improving the productivity of his team when he let me in on this idea. Pete believes (And I agree) that most people are more productive when they show up to work in the beginning of the day. Taking that a step further he believes that interruptions like meetings that break up the time when people are most productive reduces the team velocity and output. Consequently to increase the teams velocity and productivity Pete decided that company wide there will be no scheduled meetings from the beginning of the day until 11:30 am thereby giving the team a large block of their most productive time uninterrupted.

When Pete told me this I had that "DUH" of course this makes sense moment and I knew what this weeks blog topic would be...

All the best!

G

P.S. Pete's team loves this new policy... talk about a win/win!

As a Boston venture capital firm with operational skills that focuses on building great companies after investing expansion capital we spend a lot of time providing operational support in the areas of product management and product development.

As part of our efforts in working with our portfolio companies we stress the need for always soliciting feedback from;

Prospects
Customers
Partners

around their experience at your web site and with your products and services. In my opinion you can never get enough of this type of feedback and in it makes a difference between the winners and losers on the field of business in the software industry.

I am in Boise this week spending time with Balihoo www.balihoo.com/ one of our portfolio companies. As we were going over their Q1 SMART Goals

blog.openviewpartners.com/blog/strategy-focus-and-execution/0/0/strategy-for-the-new-year-whats-yours

with the Vice President of Product Management, Kevin Donaldson we were discussing the need for ongoing feedback around the user experience and user interface. Kevin brought me up to date on one of the tools they are using to get feedback around the website and product. The tool from Kampyle www.kampyle.com/ allows them to easily get feedback on their website and product to increase conversion rates, reduce churn and improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

While there are a bunch of tools that are out there if you are looking to increase your feedback to gain a competitive advantage over your competition this might be one you should consider.

All the best!

G

As an Expansion Stage Venture Capital firm we look for software companies that are growing rapidly quarter over quarter, have products and services that are relevant and differentiated within their markets and have strong founders and management teams to invest growth capital in.

Before we invest capital in any company that meets our business and economic criteria we spend time assessing the companies cultural fit with our firm. Since we are long term investors with an investment horizon that can be 4-8 years or longer and are actively involved with the companies over the investment lifetime, being comfortable with the founders and the management teams' culture and values are important to us.

I was reading an editorial last week where they were discussing how Dov Seidman the CEO of LRN that helps companies build ethical cultures likes to talk about two kinds of values: "situational values" and "sustainable values". Leaders, companies or individuals guided by situational values do whatever the situation will allow, no matter the wider interests of their communities. A banker who writes a mortgage for someone he knows can't make the payments over time is acting on situational values, saying "I'll be gone when the bill comes due."

People inspired by sustainable values act just the opposite, saying: "I will never be gone. I will always be here. Therefore, I must behave in ways that sustain - my employees, my customers, my suppliers, my environment, my country and my future generations."

OpenView looks to find the right companies with the right culture and values that we can team with to build great companies.

All the great companies I know have sustainable values.

All the best!

G

As a venture partner within a firm where we invest growth capital in expansion stage software companies I spend a lot of my time coaching founders and executives on how and where to spend their time productively and efficiently.

As an executive who has spent his whole career in the high tech software industry, first as a sales and operational executive and now as an operational venture partner with OpenView Partners, having the discipline to do one thing at a time... as old fashioned as it sounds in today's world of multi-tasking has been critical to my success. While this may be contrary to what many people think there was a study that came out from Stanford that validates this perspective.

news.stanford.edu/news/2009/august24/multitask-research-study-082409.html

As a founder, CEO or senior executive you set the tone for your company, management team and employees. Whether you like it or not people follow your example. Therefore you need to lead by example so the team understands the importance of discipline, focus and attention to the task at hand.

Having the discipline to turn your phone off or better yet leave it in your bag so you are not scanning emails or text messages when you are having discussions with individuals, your management team, partners or prospects and customers.

Not looking at your laptop during meetings and discussions in your office.

In group meetings asking everyone to turn their PCs and phones off or better yet leave them in their offices. If notes need to be taken designate a scribe for the group.

In a board meeting asking your investors to leave their blackberry in their bags.

The above actions send the right message and help set the tone. By removing the distraction and noise from multi-tasking you bring clarity to the mission and the teams actions. You will create more focus within your management team and company.  The team will execute better and the results will show up in bookings, revenue growth and your bottom line.

All of the OpenView firm members and executives I work with across the portfolio are probably sick of hearing me say that doing less is more and focusing on the few things that matter really does matter.

Expansion stage software companies looking to achieve a successful exit... be it IPO or strategic acquisition do so through Strategy, Focus and Execution not multi-tasking.

All the best!

G

It is the beginning of the new year and once again we are in the middle of our operational reviews and board meetings with the management teams of the expansion software companies we have invested growth capital in.

Over the last few days I am reminded again why it is so crucial for software founders, CEO's and management teams to make sure they have not only set their Strategic Goals for the coming year but that they are SMART GOALS (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reasonable and Timely). For more on this visit the link below

www.topachievement.com/smart.html

The importance behind defining the Strategic themes or goals for the new year with your management team is to create the alignment and focus of all the operational resources across you team. It also sets up the framework for measuring your progress against these strategic goals as a team during your daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly operational and management meetings.

Once you have set your strategic goals for the year you break them down into quarterly (SMART) goals for each of the operational management teams. Those teams then break them down further and assign them out to the teams within their organization.

This process creates focus around execution on the few things that matter for you to achieve your annual goals. It also provides a decision frame by which you evaluate and make decisions around where you align your resources for the new year and whether you take on new tasks during the years. If they do not align with your strategic goals they are not worth doing and will be a distraction and waste of your critical resources both capital and people.

As I mentioned earlier it will also provide you the founder and or executive a framework to measure the team's progress against these goals on a daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis with your team. If each of your managers comes prepared to your management meeting with their (SMART) goals for the quarter and has them color coded in green, yellow or red with a list of impediments that may be in the way for the team to remove you can easily identify whether you are on track or need to adjust.

Think about it... if you are not there yet take some time now with your team and get there... this will set the direction, the tone and help you focus and execute for successful 2010!

All the best!

G

This week we are at one of our expansion stage software companies that we invested growth capital in. They are new to the portfolio so we are working with them on our Extraordinary Execution Workshop to help them define their Mission, Vision and Values as well as defining their major themes for 2010. We use this as the foundation to help them build out their strategy map for the year to execute against and share with their organization.

www.openviewpartners.com/events/extra09.html

Now you might ask what does this have to do with the topic of building a team. As part of the workshop they have some reading to do in preparation. One of the two books we recommend is all about how to build a high performing team... something every expansion stage software company needs to build a great company.

The book is The Five Dysfunctions of a Team a Leadership Fable by Patrick Lancioni.

www.tablegroup.com/dysfunctions/

In the book it covers the challenges you face and the behaviors you need to develop, foster, encourage and hire to in order to build a high performing team which in turn will help you build a great software company.

Every founder and or CEO should check it out. The book is a quick read and is a great tool to help along the road as you build your team.

All the best,

G

As founders and or CEO's of early and expansion stage software companies, many of you have a fiscal year end that coincides with the calendar year end. There is a tendency at the end of the year more so then any other time to take a deep breath and relax. And that is not how you make sure you have a successful year.

Consequently the most important thing for you to focus on right now is getting your management team and company off to a good start in the new year.

25 years ago I went into an executive's office where he had an old African proverb on the wall that I immediately identified with that is below.

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.

As a Venture firm that provides growth capital and operational expertise to expansion stage software companies we are doing everything possible to help each of our portfolio companies wake up in the morning running this week. Encouraging them to make sure all the operational teams from Development, to Marketing to Customer Care to Sales etc. have their goals for the quarter, have their compensation plans if appropriate and have their teams off the sidelines and on the field executing the strategy for the year.

If you want to grow your software company in 2010 you better start running!

All the best!

G

This is the time of year that reminds me of a lesson that took me a long time to learn... about 25 years give or take a year or two.

As a former high tech software executive running expansion stage software divisions in several software companies and some start up experience thrown in to boot I always encouraged my management team to go off the grid and disconnect during their time off. I told them to do as I say not as I do since I always stayed on the grid and connected during my breaks and vacations.

All I can say is I was wrong back then and it took me a while to figure it out. It is not healthy for you, your family, your management team or your company if you don't take the time to truly relax.

As a senior team member of an expansion stage software company that invests growth capital in software companies and management teams I encourage all the top executives of the portfolio companies to truly disconnect when they take vacations. It provides an excellent growth opportunity for your management team and will prove that the company can run without you being there 24/7.

Leave your laptop at home, turn your blackberry or iPhone email off and enjoy your vacation. Once you try it you will realize what a difference it makes. When you come back you will be relaxed, refreshed and ready to take on the world again.

All the best!

G
 

As an expansion stage software executive you have probably heard this before... people are the only strategic asset you have. The people build the product, sell the product, support the customer, create the marketing content for your website, run the operations for your data center and on and on. In other words it is the people who will execute your vision and strategy for the company.

Where would we be without good people or better yet the best people? Whether you have raised growth capital or are still boot strapping your operations the key to getting the best people starts with having the best management team. It is the management team that is in charge of attracting, recruiting, hiring, growing, motivating and retaining the talent that will be responsible for making your company successful today and in the future. People want to work with people they admire, they can learn from and who will support them. As an expansion stage venture capital firm with operational experience we always stress that the strength of the management team is a key indicator of the future success of the company.

As you look to 2010 now is the time to take a hard look at your management team and assess whether you really have the best people in the right roles. Remember you are betting the company's future on the team so it pays to be honest. You may have a great manager but they may be miscast in their role or you may have another manager who has been with you from the beginning but who is now struggling as the company has expanded, or a manger that the rest of the team feels is holding them back with their performance. If you have challenges with members of your management team the sooner you resolve them the better. For both the company and the management team.

In addition as you look to 2010 it is important to think about who the next key management team hire will be. If you are growing by 50%-100% or greater you will most likely have to expand the team. Start early, define the role, network with trusted advisers, interview as many suitable candidates as possible and measure the candidates against the vision and values of your company. Take your time in hiring since adding a new management team member is one of the biggest bets you will make in the coming new year.

Taking some time to reflect on your management team's strengths and weaknesses and on who the next key hire to the management team is an investment that will pay off for you in 2010!

All the best!

G
 

Whether you are a founder and or CEO of an expansion stage software company one of the keys to your future lies in your ability to drive revenue growth.

As a Venture Capital firm that provides growth capital with a team of partners who all have strong operational experience one method we espouse to all of our portfolio companies to drive revenue growth is through segmentation of the market opportunity as you build your distribution model.

Most software companies that have sales forces regardless of whether they are inside, inside/outside, field sales, partner sales or some combination practice some form of market segmentation within their distribution model. In its most basic form it may be segmentation by geography, zip code, industry or company size.

The key to segmentation is understanding the data around leads, qualified opportunities, close rates, number of deals, average deal size and revenue over a period of time by geography, company size and industry. Usually it is looked at on an annual basis and revisited every year.

As an executive you want to be able to analyze the data and look for trends that highlight where you should invest your resources both people and capital to accelerate growth and capital efficiency within the business while reducing your risk. You are looking for areas where you are experiencing above average growth in the segments you are analyzing. This data should allow you to ask the questions like... if I had 1 additional headcount in sales against what segment would I allocate this resource to maximize my return, if I am going to create new marketing messaging for my website which segment should that messaging resonate with, if I am going to develop some new features within my product which segment should be a priority to build for?

Segmentation is like looking for veins of gold in the mountain. When you find them you want to mine them for growth.

All the best!

G


 

Every founder and/or CEO of an expansion stage software company that I know is always looking for ideas on how to get an edge to grow their companies within their chosen market spaces. As an expansion stage Venture capital firm that provides growth capital we are always looking for software companies and management teams that have an edge over their competition.

Some of the most successful software companies in recent years have found ways to create and take advantage of viral marketing.

There is a new book out by Adam Penenberg called "Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter How Today's Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves". The link to his site is below.

viralloop.com/

Through a series of interviews with pioneers and leveraging articles and books by other authors he does a nice job of identifying several characteristics of successful "Viral Loop" companies.

If this is of interest to you you might want to pick up the book... I certainly will!

All the best,

G

Last week I blogged about our forum on Content Marketing that we held for the management teams of expansion stage software companies we invest growth capital in.

I included a link to Joe Pulizzi's Junta42 website for those of you who are thinking about content marketing strategies for your companies as a way to generate more awareness about your products and services and ultimately to drive more revenue.

Often time's companies decide they want to execute a content marketing strategy but are challenged with where to start or how to expand their strategy and execution over time.

Junta42's website is not only a great place to help you think about a strategy but also has a great playbook with ideas on how to connect with your customers. I have included the link to their Content Marketing Playbook below.

www.junta42.com/content-marketing-playbook.aspx

My recommendation to companies looking to start a content marketing effort is;

1.) Start small... this takes resources and dedication so don't think too big.
2.) Make sure the content is relevant to your target base... otherwise you are wasting your time.
3.) Update the content religiously on a regular schedule. Daily, weekly, bi weekly or monthly,
     whichever is appropriate. The more frequently the better... remember this takes resources
     and dedication if you want to be successful... see number 1 again.
4.) Measure the results and iterate... learn as you go.
5.) Expand your content strategy over time look to cover all the channels your customers visit or
     look to for information and guidance.

Good luck and all the best!

G

Part of our role as a Venture Capitalist firm who invests in expansion stage software companies we spend a lot of time as adviser's to the CEO and the rest of the operational leaders of the management team.

To facilitate the role we hold forums for our portfolio companies every quarter in an area of interest to help them develop, scale and grow their software companies. We held one such forum on content marketing on 10/7 - 10/9. The intent of the forum was to educate and give new ideas to the CEO'S and Marketing leaders of the software companies that we have invested expansion stage capital in.

Below is the link to the agenda.

www.openviewpartners.com/events/contentmkt09.html

The forum was very well received and each of the companies went away with one or two practical ideas around content marketing they could start to execute on going forward.

OpenView views a proper Content Marketing Strategy as a capital efficient way for our software portfolio companies  to raise brand awareness and to drive more qualified prospects and visitors to their web site ultimately driving more revenue.

One of the forum facilitators and presenters was Joe Pulizzi the founder of Junta42. Joe is a long time marketing executive who is also extremely knowledgeable in the area of content marketing. He has a great website with tremendous practical knowledge and tips on Content Marketing Strategies. How to get started, how to be successful, how to improve and how to expand over time.

I have included a link below for you to Joe's web site. Check it out if you have interest in starting, improving or expanding your Content Marketing Strategy.

www.junta42.com/

All the best!

G

It is that time of the year for expansion stage software company CEO's and Sales Executives... budget time.

How do I grow the company faster than the competition in today's economic climate without taking on too much risk and burning through the venture capital we have raised to capitalize on our market opportunity?

Rule number 1... Make sure you understand your Sales Learning Curve

Rule number 2... Revisit rule number 1

In today's business climate no one can afford to get in front of their headlights by hiring too aggressively or investing without getting a return you can count on. In order to lower your risk when expanding sales with a predicable return you need to understand your Sales Learning Curve.

Mark Leslie the founder of Veritas took a 6mm venture capital investment and grew it into a billion dollar software company called Veritas that Symantec later acquired. The link below is to Marks presentation on the Sales Learning Curve.

cdn.content.compendiumblog.com/uploads/user/206a9a2b-627f-446d-b836-03b603106274/ec91f66a-ef65-40a9-8081-9d2ead807529/File/a0671e21b2378df46120df334132de0b.pdf

Mark actually presented this concept to our portfolio companies in one of OpenView's quarterly forums back in April of 2008.

www.openviewpartners.com/events/salesmkt08.html

Every CEO and Sales Executive should understand and leverage the principle behind the Sales Learning Curve when looking to scale a company in a capital efficient manner while leveraging the growth equity they have raised or the sweat equity they have contributed. Remember if you grow your expansion stage software company in a capital efficient manner you may never have to raise another round of growth capital.

All the best!

G

I was in a meeting this morning talking to our Research Analysts who are part of the OpenView outbound team that spend time talking to the CEO's and founders of early and expansion Stage software companies.

While they were enjoying a bagel with cream cheese or a donut from the dozen I brought in for our discussion they asked me a question... "What are you looking for from us?"

This allowed me to discuss what I think is the ultimate criteria for hiring people or evaluating their performance when you are running any company, not just an early or expansion stage software company. This criteria should be used whether you have raised growth capital from a venture capital company or not.

The one thing I look for over and above anything else is consistency of performance over time. Whether you are talking about an elite athlete, a business, or an individual member of your team, the ability to perform at a high level consistently is key. It is how companies or individuals ultimately get rewarded over time.

As an expansion stage Venture Capital firm that evaluates companies for investment of growth capital we look at over 3,000 companies before we find one that fits our metrics. One of the reasons why the numbers work that way is we are looking for consistency of growth and financial performance over time as the best indicator of future success.

I would rather have a whole team of sales reps who year in year out deliver 115% of their goal then a bunch of reps who do 150% one year and 80% the next. Or a team of developers who hit their burn-down targets every development sprint than a team that exceeds the burn-down one sprint and misses the burn-down the next. Or a customer care team that deliver high satisfaction rates every month versus a team that delivers exceptional satisfaction rates 7 months out of the year and below average satisfaction rates the remaining 5 months of the year.

As a CEO and or founder when you are looking to expand your team you should always have a clear understanding of a candidate's track record of performance over time. This is the criteria that should be used to hire all employees not just sales reps.  Whether you are hiring developers, customer care reps, marketing staff, finance or any other position you should be looking for the track record of performance as a way to weed out people who will not contribute consistently to your success.

Using this criteria will raise your success rate of hiring team members who will perform over time and help you build a great company in a shorter time period and deliver superior results in the marketplace.

All the best!

G

I just came back from the 16th annual pheasant hunt in SD I go to every year with a group of former Oracle friends. One is a Managing Partner at a Venture Capital firm, one is actually back at Oracle after they acquired Siebel Systems and the rest are either running or in management positions with early, expansion and growth stage software companies.

Gary one of my friends who is a founder and CEO of an expansion stage software company was telling me the story about his 16 year old daughter who decided she wanted to raise chickens like one of her girlfriends. He was skeptical like a lot of dads would be about how serious she would be about taking care of the chickens after time passed so he told her she needed to go away and put together a justification for this endeavor. Explain why she should be allowed to do this and to demonstrate her commitment.

Undaunted she went away and came back with a presentation that Gary sent me. I was blown away by the job she did. It made me wonder why so many early, expansion and growth stage software companies have trouble presenting their solutions to their target markets. Even after raising growth capital from venture capital firms management teams continue to struggle with competitive messaging and getting their story across.

This young lady reminded me on several things all companies need to do to experience success.

1.) She understood her audience or target market. She knew the persona of the buyer
     her dad.

2.) She kept her message simple.

3.) She focused on the facts and proof points. In other words the content and messaging was
     relevant to the buyer

Three simple things that all software companies struggle with when trying to get their story across to their buyers and users.

Most of us don't take the time to understand the persona's of the buyers and users (Which often are different) of our product and service.

For whatever reason most of us struggle with trying to keep a message simple. We over complicate it and always want to tell everybody everything about our product and service versus the few things that are important. Maybe it is because we are so proud of what we have done or so many of us are engineers.

Last but not least a lot of what we present is frankly just not relevant to our buyers and users.

So if you are having trouble getting your message or story across to the marketplace maybe you should take another look at the presentation this 16 year old girl put together on "Chickens for You and Me".  You will find the link below.

cdn.content.compendiumblog.com/uploads/user/206a9a2b-627f-446d-b836-03b603106274/ec91f66a-ef65-40a9-8081-9d2ead807529/File/2eecff4cfe97ec9f4d07e49b2e931136.pdf

I certainly will.

All the best!

G

Whether you have raised venture capital or not as a CEO and or Founder running an expansion stage software company an important habit to get into is holding Quarterly operational reviews with your management team. It should be part of every company's management rhythm.

A quarterly review is not a board meeting but an operational meeting with the leadership from all the key operational units within your company. They typically involve Development, Product Management, Customer Care, Finance, Sales, Marketing and Professional Services.

It is an opportunity to review how the company is performing against its annual strategic goals, how it performed against the last quarter's SMART goals and to set and agree as a team to the current quarters SMART goals.

They help achieve and maintain alignment within the organization leveraging all of your assets, both capital and people for creating competitive advantage. It gives you an opportunity to ask three basic questions as you reflect upon your performance that will result in actionable steps you can take to improve execution;

What did we do well?

What did we not do well?

What can we do better?

It is important that they be timely... within 1-3 weeks of the end of the quarter. The sooner the better.

That they be formal... every operational leader comes prepared to be held accountable for their performance.

That they be specific... all the operational goals are SMART goals (see link below).

http://www.topachievement.com/smart.html

That they be honest... you have to look in the mirror what is not working and where the impediments are.

That they result in management agreement... to remove the impediments that are slowing you down and keeping you from achieving your goals.

As a venture capital firm that provides expansion stage capital we do operational reviews with all of our portfolio companies every quarter. Frankly once an expansion stage software company raises growth equity it is all about execution not capital. Quarterly reviews are all about improving, adjusting and refining executional performance. As part of our business development efforts we provide operational support to all of the portfolio companies we have provided expansion stage capital in through our team in OpenView Labs.

If I had to choose between a board meeting or an operational review to have each quarter with our portfolio companies the operational review would always win. It is the one meeting that consistently makes a difference because it improves the performance of the team.

Like exercising daily, if you want to build a stronger management team, leverage your capital and people assets better to build a high growth software company quarterly reviews are a GOOD habit to get into!

All the best!

G