If you're an entrepreneur, there's a good chance you're hurting from the economic downturn.
More crucial than ever is the ability for companies to scrape in enough revenue -- through aggressive and innovative sales and operations efforts -- to keep you going through the lean times.
We've invited Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, a CEO-in-residence at Accel Partners, one of Silicon Valley's leading venture capital firms, to take questions about how to handle operations during the downturn. Please enter your questions in the comments below (your name preferred, but if you're shy, anonymous works ok too). Please respond by Tuesday, at which time Sukhinder will review the top ten questions and respond by the end of the week. Check back here for a post where she responds.
Sukhinder is a pro. Before joining Accel this month, she was at Google for almost six years. She built the company’s presence in Latin America and Asia-Pacific from less than 17 people in 2005, to where it now serves 103 different countries throughout the area with 18 offices and 8 R&D centers. She led the company's commercial operations in that region. Prior to that, she was general manager of Google Local & Maps, which she helped to launch.
Significantly, though, she's been through a big downturn before. In 1999, she co-founded an Accel-backed company, Yodlee, an online financial company. From 1999 to 2003, including when the valley struggled through a nuclear winter for three years, she managed the company's sales and business development efforts, securing deals with companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, Bank of America and Citbank. Before that, she worked at in business development with Amazon.com and OpenTV. She's now a "CEO-in-Residence" at Accel, a firm that has backed and nurtured companies from Facebook to Glam, Macromedia and MetroPCS. As such, she is helping Accel to evaluate a range of new investments, and will potentially run one of Accel's portfolio companies.
We're looking forward to seeing your questions for Sukhinder. And better yet, Sukhinder's answers!