David Cummings on Startups

Category: Entrepreneurship

  • Real-Time Lightweight Business Dashboards

    One of the trends we’ll be seeing this decade is more intuitive reporting and real-time dashboards. At Pardot we employed LED Scoreboards whereby we had a large TV mounted on the wall with our current quarter’s goals displayed in a Google Spreadsheet that was manually updated daily. From a technology standpoint, we had looked into real-time business dashboards but hadn’t gotten around to implementing one.

    Here are the real-time lightweight business dashboards I’ve seen on the market:

    • Geckoboard –
      $19/month for 20 connections
      12 employees on LinkedIn (source)
    • Cyfe –
      $19/month for unlimited everything
      1 employee on LinkedIn (source)
    • Leftronic –
      $42/month for 2 dashboards
      10 employees on LinkedIn (source)
    • Ducksboard –
      $25/month for 3 dashboards
      9 employees on LinkedIn (source)

    At a glance, it looks to be a small but competitive market. Real-time lightweight dashboards will become even more common as more and more businesses switch to products in the cloud with open APIs. I’m looking forward to trying them out.

    What else? Do you use a real-time lightweight business dashboard and what do you think of it?

  • Sam Walton: Made in America Book

    Recently I finished reading Sam Walton: Made in America, the autobiography of the founder of Wal-Mart. Two years ago I had read about the book on another blog as a great one for entrepreneurs to read — I wasn’t disappointed. Entrepreneur autobiographies is one of my favorite categories of book and this one is awesome, especially if you like entertaining anecdotes, leadership lessons, and inspiring ideas.

    Here are some notes from the book:

    • Sam started out in retail because that was the best job offer he had out of college
    • Bentonville, Arkansas was chosen because it was close to his in-laws and near four states for hunting seasons
    • Wal-Mart wasn’t started until Sam was in his 40s as it was an itch he had to scratch (a market opportunity he felt compelled to go after)
    • Having a plane and a pilot’s license was a competitive advantage for Sam so that he could fly around and visit stores as well as scout sites in the rural towns
    • Kmart was the 800-pound gorilla in the industry and many people thought Wal-Mart would stay regional and not be able to compete in Kmart’s markets
    • Wal-Mart’s heavy investments in technology and communications systems (e.g. satellites were necessary to share data since the internet wasn’t available) were considered unusual at the time but proved to be a critical part of their long-term success
    • Wal-Mart owned its distribution centers and tractor trailers, which was different than Kmart and Target, thereby providing greater levels of communication and responsiveness (a store could order something and have it delivered in 48 hours)
    • Culture was a main focus for Sam and he constantly looked for people that had talent and abilities in advance of their experience (people who could punch above their weight class)
    • Sam did an in-person weekly huddle on Saturday mornings with hundreds of store managers and the executive team religiously for decades, analyzing everything and sharing stories of what did, and didn’t, work much more frequently than most other companies — he cited this as one of the reasons they were able to grow so fast and dominate

    Whether you like Wal-Mart of not, it’s impressive to read the stories of the early days and learn how it was built. Sam Walton is an entrepreneur in the truest sense.

  • Balancing Product Input with Focus

    Finding the right balance between market/customer feedback and your own vision for the future is tough. Very tough. There’s no shortage of input from different constituents like customers, prospects, team members, investors, partners, and analysts. When starting out, balancing input is even more important because it’s so difficult to get people to talk with you — it’s tempting to take everything to heart from the first couple discussions.

    The risk is that the feedback group is too small of a sample size and doesn’t represent the market. Real customer usage is oxygen for a product, but early on it’s especially hard to achieve much since the product is so early in it’s development. Finding the right balance of input while focusing on what you believe is directionally correct, while having an open mind, is so important.

    When you receive your next piece of product feedback, ask yourself where it fits in with your vision, and whether or not it increases or decreases your market focus.

    What else? What are some other thoughts on balancing product input with focus?

  • 3 Books Every Atlanta Entrepreneur Needs to Read

    Atlanta has a much richer and extensive history with entrepreneurs than most people realize. Many people know about the big success stories with Ted Turner of CNN / Turner Networks, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank of Home Depot, and Asa Griggs Candler with John Pemberton creating The Coca-Cola Company. There are many other entrepreneurs in Atlanta that have had major successes including the founders of WebMD, Spanx, and even The Elf of the Shelf from CCA and B Publishing. To better prepare for one’s future it helps to understand one’s past.

    Here are three books every Atlanta entrepreneur needs to read:

    1. A Man in Full – Tom Wolfe’s best-selling novel is also a great way to learn about one of Atlanta’s most prized industries — commercial real estate — and insight into how certain types of people operate
    2. Call Me Ted – Ted Turner was one of the most successful cable entrepreneurs anywhere, let alone Atlanta, and his autobiography is full of interesting stories and anecdotes (fun fact: CNN’s headquarters was an opportunistic purchase of a failed real estate venture)
    3. Jungle Rules – John Imlay built the largest software company in the world right in Atlanta and is the benefactor of angel investing in the city, so it’s only fitting to read his autobiography (fun fact: Imlay’s company, MSA, invented the first maintenance contract to have recurring revenue)

    In 2011, Atlanta’s entrepreneurial activity ranked second in the country with 500 per 100,000 adults. Atlanta has a bright entrepreneurial past and future — study it, live it, and create it.

    What else? What are some other books Atlanta entrepreneurs should read?

  • Scholarship Criteria at the Atlanta Tech Village

    One of the projects we’re working on at the Atlanta Tech Village is setting up a scholarship program for entrepreneurs and startups. The idea is that internally as well as sponsors might want to support certain areas that aren’t as represented like social enterprises, student entrepreneurs, B2C startups, specific industry verticals, etc. We’re confident that our strength is going to be B2B/enterprise software but part of our overall mission is to support the entire tech and startup ecosystem.

    Besides the obvious question of how many scholarships will we have, which will be determined by sponsorships, the next question is: what criteria will we use to decide?

    Here are some criteria ideas we’re currently brainstorming (it would be a combination of attributes):

    • Startups that haven’t raised any money
    • Startups that have less than a certain amount of total revenue (e.g. $10,000)
    • Startups with specific founder characteristics (e.g. certain demographics)
    • Startups targeting a vertical desired by a sponsor (e.g. a large digital media company that wants to help other digital media startups)
    • Startups with a double or triple bottom line (e.g. a social enterprise that helps the community and makes money)

    Over time we’ll figure out what does and doesn’t work with scholarships. Right now, we’re looking forward to trying it out and learning as we go.

    What else? What are some other ideas for scholarship criteria?

  • 7 Ideas for Startup Metrics to Track

    With so many metrics out there, it’s easy for a startup to get bogged down looking for the elusive “perfect” KPIs to monitor. From a CEO perspective, I always like to focus on keeping it as simple as possible with no more than two high-level numbers for each department to report on weekly. Now, of course, there are many more metrics tracked behind-the-scenes, but a small number makes it easy to concentrate.

    Here are seven ideas for startup metrics to track on a weekly basis:

    1. Annual recurring revenue — the current run rate of the business, which represents the health of the enterprise from a top-line, financial vantage point
    2. Lost recurring revenue — the amount of annual recurring revenue that churned in the previous week
    3. Weighted sales pipeline — the amount of new annual recurring revenue expected to be added in the next 30 days, weighted by likelihood of closing
    4. New marketing qualified leads — the number of new leads that came in the past week that meet marketing’s definition of a qualified lead
    5. New marketing pipeline value — the dollar amount of sales opportunity pipeline added in the past week from marketing qualified leads (the marketing qualified leads don’t have to have come in the same week)
    6. New on boarded customers — the number of new customers that have finished the quick start/on boarding process in the past week
    7. Net promoter score — the percent likelihood of customers surveyed in the past week to recommend the product to a colleague or friend

    Bonus: if the startup is venture backed, another important metric is burn rate or number of months until the business runs out of money.

    Tracking metrics on a weekly basis, displaying them on a public LED scoreboard, and making sure everyone knows where the startup stands, is a great way to align the company and hit the goals.

    What else? What are some other startup metrics you really like to track?

  • 7 Ideas from Today’s Interview at the Insights with Entrepreneurs Series

    Earlier today I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Sam Williams of the Metro Atlanta Chamber in front of 100+ people as part of the Insights with Entrepreneurs series. We covered a variety of topics ranging from Atlanta entrepreneurship to Pardot to the Atlanta Tech Village.

    Here are a few notes from today’s conversation:

    1. Atlanta has all the natural resources to be a top 10 tech startup city due to Georgia Tech, a low cost of living, many young professionals, the world’s busiest airport, and great internet connectivity (Atlanta is the number one place in the country for data centers)
    2. Pardot’s success came down to culture, timing, and execution
    3. Pardot’s culture was defined by the following:
      Be the best place to work and the best place to be a customer
      Good work, good people, and good pay
      Core values are positive, self-starting, and supportive
    4. Most often, the original business idea isn’t the idea that ends up being successful — Pardot started as a PPC bid arbitrage platform before pivoting into marketing automation software
    5. Atlanta Tech Village’s goal is to be a rainforest where chaos and weeds ensue instead of being a planned farm with organized crops
    6. The Atlanta Tech Village, at 103,000 sq ft, is the largest tech entrepreneur center in the Southeast and the largest coworking space in the Southeast (25,000 sq ft)
    7. Atlanta Tech Village has sold over 100 memberships in the first 75 days purely through word of mouth, Twitter, and PR

    Bonus: I shared my work / life balance strategy.

    I enjoyed the Metro Atlanta Chamber event and it was fun to meet several new people.

    What else? If you were at the event, what are some ideas you took away from it?

  • Differentiating Tech Startups from Service Providers

    At the Atlanta Tech Village we’re reserving 80% of the space for tech companies and tech startups while leaving 20% for tech-related service providers. Of course, the next question that comes up is “how do you define a tech startup?” Some companies that we believe fall in the service provider category claim they are actually a tech startup, so we’ve been debating how best to handle it and have a few ideas.

    Here are some ideas on how to differentiate between a tech startup and a tech-related service provider:

    • Tech startups generate the majority of their revenue from proprietary technology
    • Tech startups have a scalable product and actively strive for a reproducible customer acquisition process
    • Tech startups have product managers and software engineers on staff (service providers could have them but rarely do)

    We don’t have all the answers but we’re actively working on ideas. Over time, we’ll have a better understanding and ways to clearly differentiate tech startups from service providers.

    What else? What are some other ideas to differentiate tech startups from service providers?

  • 7 Ways to Increase Employee Retention

    Employees are the most important part of a business. Anyone who says otherwise hasn’t built and scaled a growth business from scratch. With the economy slightly improving and demand for talented team members continually increasing, it’s just as important to focus on employee retention  as it is on the recruiting and hiring proces.

    Here are seven ways to increase employee retention:

    1. Build an environment of autonomy, mastery, and purpose (see Drive by Dan Pink)
    2. Be the best place to work and the best place to be a customer
    3. Have all managers read Patrick Lencioni’s book Three Signs of a Miserable Job
    4. Define the culture and religiously enforce it (everyone has a culture but it’s rarely defined and consciously strengthened)
    5. Implement a consistent meeting rhythm and over communicate
    6. Regularly celebrate the small and large wins as a team, regardless of other challenges
    7. Anonymously survey the team members every quarter looking for ways to improve and asking the ultimate question to get a net promoter score

    Here’s my prediction: as the unemployment rate drops, employee retention will become a more popular topic. My recommendation is to create the best place to work and make employee retention a non-issue.

    What else? What are some other ideas to increase employee retention?

  • 7 Sales Metrics to Track

    I love sales, I really do. Unfortunately, it took me many years to fully appreciate it. You see, I’m a product guy — I love the nuts and bolts of the application. Naturally, I thought that if I helped build a great product the world would beat a path to our door. It didn’t happen. What did happen is that after struggling for 3+ years, I realized I needed to become a sales person myself and learn how to build a customer acquisition machine.

    After managing sales people for almost 10 years now, and helping build a sales team from scratch to 28 people, I’ve found seven simple sales metrics to track:

    1. Calls logged — Some sales people love picking up the phone and dialing. Most don’t. Calls logged is the simplest of metrics that reflects activity.
    2. Conversations logged — What good is making calls if no one answers the phone? Conversations are more important than calls logged and are a combination of effort and skill.
    3. Demos scheduled — With a conversation underway, the goal is to get a web demo on the calendar, build rapport, and more fully understand their problems before proposing a solution.
    4. Demos completed — Not everyone shows up to scheduled demos. It’s just as important to track demos completed as it is demos scheduled.
    5. Proposals sent — Once the budget, authority, need, and timeline (BANT) has been established, it’s time to send a proposal. Without BANT, more nurturing is needed.
    6. Deals lost — No one wins them all. Tracking lost deals, and reasons why the deal was lost, is critical, and sales people rarely do it.
    7. Deals won — Victory favors those who are prepared. Nothing is more satisfying to a sales person than a new customer win.

    Sales people hate tracking their activity in a CRM. What gets measured gets done and sales is no different — zealously track sales metrics and hold the team accountable.

    What else? What are some other sales metrics to track?