Category: Start-ups

Backing a Winner

February 5, 2014

As some of you may know, I am an avid skier and ski & teach at the Georgian Peaks Club. It is a private ski club (a phenomena known only to Ontario). The club has about 750 families and has a reputation for strong competitive ski and snowboard development programs that have produced a number ...

Raising Money: IF versus WHEN

November 1, 2013

Recently, I have been thinking about the challenge of raising money if you are a successful but bootstrapped company. In the last year, there have been cases of successful companies (substantial revenue, cash flow positive, growing rapidly) accepting investment for the first time even though they were well beyond the stage when traditional start-ups seek ...

The Challenger Sale

September 29, 2013

I usually don’t do book reports as part my blog. That said, if you are selling complex, enterprise-class solutions in a B2B environment, you need to check out “The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation” . Developed based on research CEB , the Challenger Sale model seeks to quantifiably defines the success factors of the best sales ...

What start-up CEO’s, Boards and Shareholder can learn from the US election

December 1, 2012

Given that I am an outsider, I recognize that by commenting on the US Election in a polarized political environment, I risk offending someone. So with my apologies given in advance, here are four observations of what start-up's can learn from the US election… 1.       Don't make your CEO re-interview for their job every 4 ...

Why is selling my product or service so hard?

December 6, 2011

This topic has come up repeatedly with clients over the past few weeks. Many companies, especially start-ups, suffer from longer sales cycles than they plan for or can afford. There are many reasons that can often be bucketed into categories as follows: Immature or unproven value proposition Immature or unproven vendor Lack of references and ...

Recruiting Top Talent – Part II

December 1, 2011

I met last week with a friend who is the CEO of a billion plus dollar software company. We were discussing the challenges of finding great talent which lead to discussion on how to recruit this scarce resource when you do find it. We were primarily talking about recruiting people to fill mid to senior ...

GOYAADI

November 25, 2011

There is a lot of noise made about Silicon Valley and why it is such a successful place for incubating and growing start-ups. Many attribute that region's success to availability of investment capital, role models, mentoring resources, the critical mass of talent and its entrepreneurial culture.  Conversely, many point to Ontario's fledging tech start-up community ...

The Power of the Network

This week, I had the privilege of attending a Director's Dinner event organized by Howard Gwin and Derek Smyth of OMERS Ventures, Chris Chapman and Dan Wilson of KPMG's National Technology Practice and Digital Puck.ca . As I sat in this event with 40 other  CEO's and Director's  representing many of the tech stars in ...

The Case of Beer Time Management Rule

November 22, 2011

I was leaving a client's at 6:30 one evening and stopped to chat with one of the folks still at work. She was completing a monthly reporting task that is analytic in nature but somewhat subjective in how you chose to report the data. It is one of those administrative tasks that needs to be ...

Why do we hate (our own) sales people?

October 24, 2011

Have you ever noticed that in a company there often seems to be jealously, almost bordering on hatred, for the company's own sales team? Ever noticed the derogatory jokes being told about the sales team; the stereotyping of them as not knowing their product; their lack of attention to detail;  their being motivated only by commissions, or their being shallow and self-centred? In the words of Rodney Dangerfield, they just "don't get no respect". Why does that happen, given that this team is the life blood of the company? If they don't sell, the rest of the company doesn't work.