62 karma · joined January 8, 2015
I've done half million dollar deals that take 8 months from first contact to close, and I have had deals of $30k / yr close without me ever talking to the customer. I sell Software and services to SMBs and Enterprise accounts.
The larger deal (with a F500 company) had contract negotiations with multiple levels of executives and stakeholders on their end. They decided our solution was right for them after about 3 months, and spend 5 on contract and implementation. This probably could have gone smoother, but would be impossible to automate IMHO.
We have a fairly low level of sales automation. It works for SMBs, but not for the larger clients. A lead, at this point, stays with the sales person until it's closed when it's handed off to an account manager.
The most tedious parts are the back and forth, waiting on legal to approve and redline a contract version.
Showing up at their work is likely not going to get you what you want because their day is probably already scheduled and it could be a pretty big inconvenience. Or likely a major waste of your time. Let them schedule through email. I'd be willing to bed if you get 10 - 20 email address or companies, you'd get a couple responses agreeing to a phone call or company.
Make your first interaction short (5 - 10 mins) and work to develop that relationship as they could maybe even become your first customer.
If you didn't sign anything then you are free to do as you like. But this is probably an unlikely scenario.
If you build a side project without your employers knowledge, especially if it's in a similar space, and you are successful ... your ex-employer and their investors will make your life very very difficult. In my experience, companies don't care if you're working on a non-competing idea. Just get clearance before hand.
No need to take a risk here.
This is kind of the crux, right? If the investors believe that there is a future roadmap to essentially automate what the team is doing ... That's one thing. If they are investing today because the CEO is saying "Look! It's automated!", then that's pretty much on them.
That said, these investors have literally millions of dollars to complete due diligence, and if they miss on something like that, it's on them. Investors are putting so much money into these companies on "demos" and without really looking under the hood. So if they complete their due dilligence, their essentially saying "we are investing in your current product and our current understanding of it". I don't think there's going to be a fraud lawsuit here.
Theranos was changing the output data that the investors saw, not just saying "we do blood tests better!". That was straight up fraud because the data reviewed in due diligence was false.
A growing company is worth a lot more to BigCo than a flat company.
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/facebook/facebook-build-7...
Average rent for a 2br is somewhere around $800, and about 3 hours from Nashville and Atlanta.
Does anyone know software that can keep real time accounting of my personal expenses?
I mean ... if I were an institutional investor in Tesla, I'd really wish he would have answered those questions. He must have known what the outcome would be.
This is really well articulated. At least in my case, this hit the nail on the head. The difference between me being bought in vs not is almost out of my hands. If results aren't happening at the rate at which is expect, I feel like I can enter an "autopilot" mode. Where I get things done, but I become overly complacent.
On the opposite end, when growth/results are exceeding my expectations, I feel an overwhelming urgency to push even hard, and more frequently.
In both instances I can feel like I get burnt out. Burnt from boredom or burnt from overworking. On some level, I think this contributes to a bit of anxiety (especially as it relates to work), but it's something I feel like I've learned to manage better over the past couple years.
I understand not wanting to out this investor too, the truth is, he is more powerful than you and it sucks. The best advice is take it as a lesson, and focus on your startup. You know not to do business with him, and later when he wants in on one of your oversubscribed funding rounds, you can politely point him to earlier conversations when he was not interested. :)
Don't make this into something more than it is. This will not break your business, but making it a big deal when you don't have the power/resources to do so could.
We experimented with a lot of different business models, but the reality was ... no engineer was willing to pay us for something like "analytics" ... or "hosting" ... They were just going to keep using the code.
It's also incredibly difficult to track actual usage. There was no way to enforce the use of it on our CDN, so people were likely using our product, and we didn't know about it at all. When you open source, you just give up a lot of control. When you're end user are engineers, they won't pay unless it's something they can't do themselves, or aren't already using another service.
If you look at a company like SugarCRM (open source CRM product), businesses will pay. Granted, they aren't salesforce, but they have a legitimate business model that works for them. So while it can work, before making a decision, I would talk to your customers about what they would be willing to pay for, and how much.
I did the hourly break down and realized she was the highest paid person in the company (CEO included) for about a year and a half.
I couldn't believe it.
These people have a network, and know who has been where and for how long. After that 3/4/5 year mark, they start pinging people to let them know of interesting opportunities. That said, you DO want a good recruiter who's well respected.
I'd do your research on who some of the best are, and target them to work with. Perhaps people here can make suggestions?
Also, is your meeting on July 4th...?
@bartozone