Boards
I'm writing this from both the perspective of a former CEO (who would occasionally get sideways with his board) and that of a six-time independent board member. I'll look first from the CEO perspective, examining what I wanted in an independent board member (aka non-executive director)
HR
I'm back for my second appearance on the ParkerGale Private Equity Funcast, this time speaking with Jimmy Holloran on topics related to Peopleops and the Chief People Officer (CPO) in a session entitled A Board Perspective on Peopleops. Topic we cover include: * The role of HR and my
Marketing
Please join us for our next episode of the SaaS Product Power Breakfast at 8am Pacific on 5/20/21 as we have a discussion with former Alation CMO Stephanie McReynolds on the topic of category creation and her learnings as she helped drive the creation of the data catalog
Metrics
"Measure or measure not. There is no try." -- My response to being called the Yoda of SaaS metrics. Just a quick post to highlight my recent appearance on the Metrics That Measure Up podcast, hosted by Ray Rike, founder and CEO of RevOps^2, a firm focused
Marketing
Ask most startups about their go-to-market (GTM) these days and they'll give you lots of numbers. Funnel metrics. MQLs, SQLs, demos, and associated funnel conversion rates. Seen over time, cut by segment. Win/loss rates and close rates as well, similarly sliced. Maybe an ABM scorecard, if applicable.
Management
In this post, I'll present what I view as the minimum sales management framework for an enterprise SaaS startup -- i.e., the basics you should have covered as you seek to build and scale your sales organization [1]. 1. Weekly sheet 2. Pipeline management rules, with an
Demandgen
The other day I read a book on account-based marketing (ABM), entitled ABM is B2B, and I must say I disliked it. Capital D disliked. My Thoughts on the Book: ABM is B2B Why? It struck me as the kind of buzzword-laden, hype-filled, superficial-case-study-driven, strawman-arguing, compound-adjective-using [1] marketing book that
Forecasting
This is the second in a three-part series focused on forecasting and pipeline. In part I, we examined triangulation forecasts with a detailed example. In this, part II, we'll discuss to-go pipeline coverage, specifically using it in conjunction with what we covered in part I. In part III,
Forecasting
Ever been in this meeting? CEO: What's the forecast? CRO: Same as before, $3,400K. Director 1: How do you feel about it? CRO: Good. Director 2: Where will we really land? CRO: $3,400K. That's why that's the forecast. Director 1: But best
Career
[Edited 4/16, see notes at bottom] I've worked with scores of founders and companies over the years and I've come to make bright-line distinction between founders and managers. Let me demonstrate it with a story. One day long ago I was in a board meeting.
Marketing
I'm working with a lot of different companies these days and one of the perennial topics is pipeline. * Do we have enough? * Is it spread across reps in a healthy way? * Should I build pipeline then hire reps or hire reps to build pipeline? * From where should pipeline
Grateful Dead
The concept of minimum viable product (MVP) has been popularized in the past decade thanks to the success of the wonderful book, The Lean Startup. It's thrown around so casually, and you hear it so often, that sometimes you wonder how -- or even if -- people define