14 tips for building a startup sales team
Your sales force if your company’s lifeblood. No matter how good your product is, it won’t sell itself, no matter how much you believe otherwise. Establishing a competent, effective team to draw customers is often challenging for entrepreneurs, though, who would rather focus on research and development or chase VCs.
First off, a few disclaimers: I’ve never been a sales person. I’ve never even played a sales person on TV. All the points below have been… Continue Reading
Roundup: FCC opens airwaves, Google slows hiring and more
Here’s the latest action (aside from a certain election):
FCC agrees to open up the airwaves — A section of the radio spectrum known as white space has been set aside for public use, a move pushed for by tech companies like Google and Microsoft.
Google slows hiring — CNBC reported that Google has implemented an unofficial hiring freeze, but the search giant denies the rumor, saying that it has merely slowed down.
Dell making more cutbacks — The computer maker… Continue Reading
Model Metrics grabs $2.5M for iPhone and Salesforce apps
Software-as-a-service provider Model Metrics announced today that it took $2.5 million in first-round funding from undisclosed investors. The money will go toward development of iPhone apps and software tailored specifically for Salesforce.com.
The Chicago-based company supplies others with the mobile and computer software they need to eliminate pain-points in everyday business. For example, its Expense2GO product lets employees manage their company expenses remotely from their iPhones. Any changes made on the handset are automatically synced with… Continue Reading
Salesforce and Google take their partnership a step further with new APIs
Google and Salesforce announced today that they’re releasing the Force.com Tool for Google APIs, a library that allows developers using Salesforce’s Force.com platform to access the data in Google Apps. Like the Google-Salesforce partnership announced in April, this deal should benefit both companies — Force.com gets better applications, and Google gets another push into the larger businesses where it’s trying to make inroads with Google Apps.
The two companies were already working together, so not only… Continue Reading
Zoho releases enterprise-grade CRM
There are already numerous customer relationship management software offerings out there that target large corporations. So you’d think it was game over as far as new CRM entrants was concerned.
But start-up Zoho has launched an “enterprise edition” of its low-cost CRM products, in yet another move by an upstart to lower the cost of software by offering it over the Web.
Zoho’s move comes just a few days after CRM company Salesforce announced it will be… Continue Reading
Google-Salesforce details: We love the cloud, we love each other
Executives from Google and Salesforce took the stage in San Francisco today to celebrate what they’re saying is the impending death of desktop software. The newest nail in the coffin? The integration of Google Apps into Salesforce’s customer relations management service, as outlined by Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff (pictured, left), Google chief executive Eric Schmidt and others, who also offered jabs at software giant Microsoft.
There was a lot of mutual love in the air… Continue Reading
Desktop applications beware: Salesforce integrates Google Apps
Desktop business applications just took another hit with the launch of Salesforce for Google Apps, which integrates Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk and Google Docs into Salesforce’s customer relationship management service.
The concept is pretty simple: Companies who use Salesforce’s online service to manage sales, marketing and customer relations can now access Google Apps within the Salesforce interface. While using Salesforce, businesses can now collaborate with customers on Google Docs, send them messages via Gmail… Continue Reading
Appirio raises $1.1M for Salesforce interface
Appirio, a provider of front-ends and interfaces for businesses using Salesforce, has raises its first round of funding from Salesforce itself and some angel investors, according to VentureWire (subscription required).
The company so far has a Google Gadget builder that can create a Salesforce-based widget for iGoogle pages, a “Professional Services Automation” tool for enterprise use, and Appirio Labs, where smaller applications are developed.
Appirio is based in San Mateo, Calif.
Zuora offers subscription services to all those online software companies
updated
Zuora is a Silicon Valley company that says it offers a simpler, less expensive way for companies to offer online subscription services. It launches today announcing it has gotten $6.5 million in a first round of funding led by venture firm Benchmark Capital.
Until now, software companies like Salesforce or gaming companies like World of Warcraft have faced a lot of pain in selling their products to subscribers.
The main provider of subscription services to date has… Continue Reading
Roundup: Kyte gets more, Microsoft’s ad deal, NetSuite’s golden IPO, more
Here’s the latest (updated) action:
1) Kyte.tv raises $15 million
2) Electric Sheep Company lays off 22
3) FCC receives 700MHz auction applications
4) Microsoft signs $500M ad deal
5) GPS devices fly off the shelves
6) Netsuite sets high price for planned IPO
7) Eric Eldon, celebrity at large?
Kyte.tv raises $15M second round — An online startup that offers a video player allowing near-live communications by video, photo and chat, Kyte has picked up some steam online, attracting a decent-sized audience… Continue Reading
VC’s set up fund for apps on Salesforce’s Force.com
“Platform” has become a buzzword this past year. With more and more business going online, the big Internet companies want to put logs in the fire, and make their living rooms cozy: Like never before, they’re providing third-party software developers support services and access to its users. The most prominent example is Facebook, which lets developers build applications and make money freely directly within Facebook.
Another, older company that has helped pioneered this model is Salesforce…. Continue Reading
IT roundup: OnForce, Freelance, PlanHQ and Salesforce
Earlier this week, Forrester released two reports about social software, and how it is getting adopted within companies
Blogs, wikis, social networks, sharing — it’s all giving IT departments a major migraine.
Here’s a summary of the findings, plus a listing of recent fundings and other news in IT and business software.
IT departments have not stopped worrying about the many “risks” that employees introduce through using social web services, one of the Forrester reports says: Security hacks,… Continue Reading
More thoughts on Google-Salesforce
Here’s more on the product integration announcement yesterday between Google and Salesforce, two of the most important players in online applications space.
At some point, the two companies were bound to collide because their target customers in the online applications world are the same. Salesforce has been a trailblazer in online business application market from the beginning. Google, which last month began pitching a “Search, Ads and Apps” strategy, is a relative new comer. Google has… Continue Reading
Roundup: EA goes to China, Google-Salesforce, 13-year-old CEO continued, and more
Links to the latest action:
Our post about the 13-year-old CEO founder and chief executive of Elementeo, Anshul Samar, attracted an impressive number of outside links, briefly crashing VentureBeat’s site. Take a look at the additional video after the jump below to see him articulate his idea on stage under questioning. He says he is from Silicon Valley, and doesn’t want the adults to have all the fun.
Electronic Arts, the Redwood City video game publisher said… Continue Reading
Roundup: Frontline, Breitbart, Maxthon, Clipsearch, Yahoo-Viacom, Salesforce-Koral
Here’s the latest action:
Big names support Frontline Wireless, which wants to end-run carriers — James Barksdale, former chief executive of Netscape (left, top), and John Doerr, a big-name venture capitalist with Kleiner Perkins (left, bottom), are the latest to back Frontline Wireless, the company we wrote about last month, which wants to bid for radio spectrum dedicated for public safety but which can also be used for profitable wireless offerings.
The long-wave spectrum will support wireless… Continue Reading