Highlights from Venture Atlanta 2013

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2 responses to “Highlights from Venture Atlanta 2013”

1. 

   October 23, 2013

   david_moeller (@david_moeller)

   Alan Dabbiere Venture Atlanta Recap

   Alan Dabbiere founded Manhattan Associates, led the company through a successful IPO, and it is now valued at nearly $2 billion. And he is in the process of doing it again. He is the Chairman of AirWatch, which raised a $200M Series A round at a valuation over a billion, currently has 1500 employees and expects to have 3000 by the end of next year. His entrepreneurial career, devoid of any failures and containing two grand slams, is so extraordinary it is hard to believe.

   His keynote at Venture Atlanta has been on my calendar for months. Startups are hard, the grind is tough, and when you’re in the trenches like I have been for the last few years, you look everywhere for strategy, tactics, and perspective that can help you make it a little further. Therefore, when given the chance to learn from one of the best, I jumped at it.

   Here’s my recap:

   The Entrepreneur’s Personal Playbook
   1. Find Your Way. And Master It.
   2. Best Person in the Right Job
   3. Show up. And Listen.
   4. No Excuses

   The Entrepreneur’s Business Playbook
   1. Define A Market You Can Monopolize: Be a Monopoly
   2. Hire the Right People
   3. Be Willing to Change
   4. Don’t Forget the Carcasses. Differentiate and Endure

   The Entrepreneur’s Personal Playbook

   1. Find Your Way. And Master It.
   As a high school wrestler, Dabbiere utilized only two moves. Rather than relying upon an extensive repertoire, he focused on developing and refining those two. Even though his opponents knew his two moves, they could not stop him, as his two moves were too effective. He identified a path and then mastered it, similar to the greatest insurance salesman of all time.

   The obituary of the greatest insurance salesman told a story of a small, quiet, reserved man who would show a flipchart to prospective customers, with 2 pennies taped to the first page, and a $100 bill taped to the next. It was not flashy, nor was he, but his presentation was remarkably effective. That salesman found something that worked for him. Don’t worry about copying others – find what works for you. And then dig in and master it. Also be willing to prepare yourself for future personal development needs.

   As an undergraduate, Dabbiere realized that communicating to groups might be important in the future. Since teachers routinely addressed crowds, Dabbiere pursued a teaching assistant position in the only subject he considered himself capable, Fortran programming. There are little things you can do that will drive success, and they aren’t necessarily fun.

   2. Best Person in the Right Job
   Manhattan Associates Version 1.0 had a different cast. After subsidizing the company with his own capital, Alan was approached by his four co-founders, who wanted to reduce his ownership from 50% to 20%. He instead offered them 100% of the company and left. These individuals were the wrong people. The right people can be wrong, though, if the stage of the company is not a fit.

   Alan’s top salesperson from Manhattan came to AirWatch to lead the sales team, but the missionary sales needed – highly educational, lots of rejection, and not lots of sales – just wasn’t a fit. While Dabbiere absolutely recruited an “A” player, the growth phase of the company dictated need for a different person. It took Dabbiere five years to grow to 30 employees, and then just three years to grow to 500. The type of person hired shifted as the company grew.

   3. Show Up. And Listen.
   When the capital within the company was running low, Dabbiere approached the CEO of Jockey with prototype software, and Jockey International ended up the first client to deploy the PkMS (Pick Ticket Management System). And in the process, he listened to additional requests the CEO made, which were incorporated into the product.

   Feedback from customers is different than feedback from those who aren’t buying from you. Starting in 1989, Manhattan Associates leveraged Indian software developers, long before outsourced development became the norm. Many doubted this approach, but Dabbiere didn’t worry about the naysayers, as the income from paying customers spoke louder.

   Showing up doesn’t just help to drive sales – it helps to drive morale, as leadership by example is inspiring. At AirWatch, John Marshall and Dabbiere went to trade shows and sold to coffee shops. They did everything they expected of the employees and more, and this helped to drive a performance culture.

   4. No Excuses.
   As the startup CEO, you can change everything. There is no such thing as a bad business. If you have the nicest house in a bad neighborhood, then move. That is your choice. Do something. You can define your market. There are other areas/submarkets that you can focus on. Be tenacious and don’t give up.

   Whether at cocktail parties or with customers, Dabbiere’s passion for logistics was unquestioned. What about entrepreneurs without passion for their industry? Develop a passionate hatred for losing and that will get you through. Bobby Knight stated that he had coached many players with “the will to win. But few with the will to practice to win.”

   The Entrepreneur’s Business Playbook

   1. Define A Market That You Can Monopolize: Be a Monopoly
   Manhattan Associates started with printing & picking tickets, then scanning for accuracy, and then advanced ship notice. The important thing is that they did not pursue these in parallel, but in series – sequentially. They started with a beachhead niche they could own. This allowed them to declare victory in the territory they defined. By executing a narrow and focused strategy, they developed a monopoly, similar to conquering Australia in the game “Risk”.

   2. Hire the Right People
   There are three types of people: (1) those that can’t get it done, (2) those that can get it done, but need direction, and (3) those that can get it done with no direction. It is members of the last group that are essential in the early stages. At AirWatch there is little hierarchy and no “VP” titles. This is intentional as they attempt to only hire the self-starting type of person. Hire people who will ask for forgiveness rather than permission. Micromanaging isn’t needed if you hire the right people: “Don’t buy a dog and bark for it”, Dabbiere says.

   How do you get the incredible 3rd type of people? At Manhattan, Dabbiere was intentional about utilizing recruiting to create a mystique around the company. He “over-recruited” and rejected most candidates. This created an aura of exclusivity that Manhattan was the place to go. Dabbiere would bring potential hires on sales calls to meet him, and this was a differentiator. Other tactics involve hiring for passion in the industry and pursuing hard workers.

   And when thinking about where to hire, Dabbiere advocates looking at Atlanta for three reasons: the time zone allows for greater productivity, the airport provides easy access to customers, and Georgia Tech is a tremendous feeder for engineers.

   3. Be Willing To Change
   “The fish that follows every shiny thing it sees in the ocean will starve.” Be willing to pivot but don’t chase everything. While attending tradeshows for Wandering WiFi and learning a really tough business, wireless networks management for small businesses, Dabbiere and Marshall discovered a new potential business – they identified mobile device management as a sector with explosive growth. And seeing the potential they went for it. Sometimes there is too much planning and focus on business plans, says Dabbiere. Be willing to throw the plan out of the window. React. Sense and see what is happening and adjust.

   4. Don’t Forget the Carcasses. Differentiate and Endure
   Companies that forgot to grow, scale, market, and leverage what they do will end up as carcasses along the roadside; companies that did not know how to differentiate. There are many, many carcasses. What is one reason that Dabbiere thinks Manhattan did not become a carcass? Differentiation in messaging and focus.

   What was the differentiator at Manhattan? Pick, pack, and save labor? That is what all of their competitors stated. But they “guaranteed compliance for the top 100 retailers”, and this contrasted starkly with their competitors. And they communicated their differentiator to their existing and potential customers. And it worked.

   Manhattan Associates succeeded in differentiating themselves, but they did not stop with owning a niche. They added product lines, bought businesses, and took risks, growing the business. They had a real message and willingness to scale, and sometimes that isn’t enough.

   There will be bad days and bad periods. From 1990 to when Manhattan IPO’ed in 1999 there wasn’t a single bad day. Profitable from day one, there had not been any missteps. Failures, though, are an important part of developing resilience, says Dabbiere. It was tough for the team at Manhattan after the IPO when they had bad days. They didn’t know how to deal with them at first, and now embrace those types of challenges, as a means of increasing resiliency.

   Summary
   Dabbiere delivered. His credibility allowed him to reach through the noise and speak truth to the technology community of entrepreneurs, investors, and service providers. He provided a thorough execution guide, and answered the questions his talk generated. Hiring “A” players isn’t a new strategy, but Dabbiere provided tactics: generate exclusivity, differentiate in recruiting, and leverage your strengths. Again and again, he challenged the crowd – don’t just find your way. Master it. Don’t just find your niche. Scale. And he never said what the entrepreneurs were thinking – “If you are scared it can’t be done, I’m proof.” Be tenacious and don’t give up. Make Dabbiere proud.

   Reply
   1. 

      October 24, 2013

      David Cummings

      Wow! That’s an awesome write up. Thanks David.

      Reply

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