I have discovered a website called softwareCEO.com, quite interesting for those who are working in this field. You can find an interesting interview of John Cimral, serial entrepreneur, and CEO of ProSight.
In 2003, ProSight had $9.2 million in sales, and last year it hit $12.8 million; that’s a one-year bump of 39 percent. During the last four years, company revenues have grown 2,399 percent. […]
ProSight helps customers measure and manage every component of their IT investment, to minimize risk and maximize return, and (often) to justify that investment to upper management or shareholders.
Their software plugs a critical gap for CIOs challenged to evolve beyond managing technical details like network performance and take on more strategic issues like IT risk management.
So, John Cimral is giving us his 14 success strategies:
- It’s not enough to know who your customer is; you need to know how your customer buys.
- Reference accounts are everything; in the early days, get your investors to help line them up.
- For your first reference sites, give a bit on software, but not services.
- Choose your investors wisely.
- Let opportunity steer your business plans, but keep your eyes on the road.
- Use corporate sales to leverage government sales.
- When the herd starts running, think of lemmings.
- The CEO must articulate — and embody — the company’s values.
- Use partners (and their cash) to expand internationally.
- Use partners (and their clout) to pull in leads at local events.
- Never underestimate your competitors’ ability to steal your thunder.
- Invest your marketing budget to give your customers a voice.
- Don’t dilute the power of your user conference by letting in non-users.
- Adopt a “customer intimate” business model, starting with sales.
I like the corporate code of ProSight: Make money, have fun, be ethical.
For each success strategy, you find an explanation and some good examples to illustrate. Worth a read! Be careful, I think that the article is not staying on-line for a long time…