I'll cruise down shortly, catch you guys soon On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 10:36 AM, David Jones <david.jo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Sorry I can't attend today. > > I like Mat's points. Domain Expertise does seem to be pivotal. VC's don't > just look at team's previous performance but their knowledge of the segment. > In security for instance, you find serial security guys. I think this is > because the needs of an enterprise become more deeply defined over time > whereas consumer products have a shallow feature set with a broad value prop > - this is because people > > Phil, I don't think that consumer has more tendency for unrealised/unstated > need - this is why any startups exist at all: > - When I say down in '98 to write an enterprise email filter, I only > suspected virus and spam will become pandemic > - When we started threatmetrix, I suspected anonymity would drive fraud. I > had no idea ppl would hijack online social gaming accounts and steal/sell > their magic swords/potions. (thats still an enterprise sell) > As Mat says, we provide a solution to a weakness in a segment. Also Mat's > point about SaaS. It seems that Enterprise solutions need to be conscious of > macro trends of current purchasing and deployment. e.g In USA SaaS is well > understood but in Asia its still emerging. > > Then, in Enterprise the awareness and leverage of the right "Channels" is > important. If you want to sell to SME, then you may not need a channel. But > if a large part of your "Addressable Market" is Banking/Finance or Fortune > 100/500/1000, then trusted partners of those companies (existing integration > partners, resellers, OEM deals) are probably going to be pivotal to your > market penetration/success. > > Lastly, in Enterprise, sales requires understanding of the process for each > type of customer SOHO, SME. Who are the stakeholders, blockers, is it a > business unit sell or do you need C-level support. Oh and.. "is there > budget"? > > > > On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 1:32 PM, Mat French <mat.fre...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> From my experience, when entering into the Enterprise space, investors >> seem to be hung up on this "me too" issue. Let's not forget that competition >> is a good thing. VC's are especially interested in large volumes, short >> runways, less direct competition (Consumer Space) sorry bout stating the >> obvious... Where as in the Enterprise space, it's a little harder to find >> that niche (Mass Market). What we have done is identified a weakness in an >> industry segment and aligned this with SaaS design and delivery / SaaS >> Market maturity. >> >> Part of the smaller valuations is that there is a little more competition >> in Enterprise space and the runway in our case is effected by changing buyer >> mentality which poses a little more of a challenge. It's also a leverage >> point to be haggled on price (Investor). >> >> Domain Knowledge = Credibility = Opportunity. >> >> >> >> On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 9:53 AM, Phil Evans <goo...@remunerate.com.au>wrote: >> >>> This sounds like an interesting group. I wonder what other >>> differences there are in the commercial space besides the additional >>> sales challenges (and the legendary enterprise price black hole). >>> >>> Unfortunately I can't make it on Thursday, but would be interested to >>> lurk on the subgroup if that's allowable. >>> >>> You might also like to see if you can drag Duncan Bennett along. He >>> spoke at GrowthTown 4, knows his stuff and I think he's in Sydney on >>> Thursday. If you want to know about selling to enterprises he's >>> someone to talk to. >>> >>> >>> As an aside, I have been wondering of late if this enterprise-focussed >>> start-up space is poorly serviced globally. Silicon Valley seems to >>> be primarily consumer-focussed, perhaps there is a global opportunity >>> for Australia to specialise in the enterprise space?? I have some >>> half completed thoughts on this topic and probably need your (SBA) >>> help to refine and articulate them intelligently. I think the essence >>> might be that, where the consumer market seems to be all about >>> creating and servicing an unrecognised "need" or want (eg: facebook, >>> Twitter, etc.) and funding via numerous small transactions, the >>> enterprise market is all about identifying and servicing an existing >>> perceived need - probably more of these that are easier to identify, >>> but ultimately lesser (but still not small) business valuation >>> potential. Half completed thoughts...... >>> >>> Regards, >>> >>> Phil. >>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach >>> Australia mailing list. >>> >>> Guidelines on discussion: http://tr.im/ujKF >>> >>> No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself: >>> http://tr.im/ujMm >>> >>> To post to this group, send email to >>> silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<silicon-beach-australia%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> Regards, >> >> Mathew French >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach >> Australia mailing list. >> >> Guidelines on discussion: http://tr.im/ujKF >> >> No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself: http://tr.im/ujMm >> >> To post to this group, send email to >> silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<silicon-beach-australia%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > Australia mailing list. > > Guidelines on discussion: http://tr.im/ujKF > > No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself: http://tr.im/ujMm > > To post to this group, send email to > silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<silicon-beach-australia%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en > -- Dan Purchas GradConnection 044 909 7781 www.gradconnection.com.au -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Guidelines on discussion: http://tr.im/ujKF No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself: http://tr.im/ujMm To post to this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en
