In part I, I talked about how up-front investment in a high-caliber strategic business development function helped to save Loudcloud when an existential crisis hit in 2002. But the value of strategic business development didn’t end there. In fact, it was only beginning. Opsware V1: Single product, single customer The EDS transaction closed in mid-August, and…
Visit Site »This series of posts starts off with a short quiz for the startup CEO: Q: Who’s responsible for developing your product? A: That’s easy—Engineering! Q: Who in your company is responsible for selling your product? A: That’s easy, too—Sales! Q: Who in your company has primary responsibility for: Mapping and networking your ecosystem? Building long-term relationships and driving deals…
Visit Site »I recently had the privilege of attending F.ounders, a unique event for a select group of tech founders and others from Europe, the US and Asia, held in my hometown of Dublin, Ireland. In the best Irish tradition of limericks, this is a tribute to the event and its own remarkable founder, Paddy Cosgrave. (For…
Visit Site »Summing it all up We’ve covered quite a bit of ground together since I started this series. Here’s the executive summary: There are simple steps you should take to lay the groundwork for international expansion from the moment you start your company. Before you launch internationally, you should have an explicit, well-articulated strategy. You should assign a qualified executive to…
Visit Site »A startup within a startup Doing a startup is really hard. No one in their right mind would consider doing two startups in parallel, would they? And yet that’s what going international is: a second startup inside your first one. And like any startup, it needs people and money to succeed. Two key questions Once…
Visit Site »The first couple of years of Loudcloud provide a useful illustration of the challenges of rapid international expansion, even in the best-managed companies. The business had taken off like a rocketship from its founding in late 1999—revenue grew from $2M to $55M in a year. While that growth was exciting, it led to a very…
Visit Site »Twenty-five years ago, I funded my Stanford MBA by becoming a junkie—a spreadsheet junkie, that is. IBM had just acquired a high-flying Silicon Valley technology company called ROLM, and the IBM execs needed data and analysis to manage and track their progress against their business goals. As a young engineer just entering the business world,…
Visit Site »In the first part of this series I discussed the importance of laying the groundwork for a global company up-front. In this part, I’ll talk about developing an explicit strategy to guide your international expansion. What’s your international strategy? International expansion can happen almost by accident—if you’re a consumer Internet company, you get offered a…
Visit Site »In browsing Quora recently, I was struck, but not surprised, by how many people sought advice on how to expand a startup internationally. Not surprised, because for many young companies international expansion ranks with M&A as something that’s easy in concept, but difficult to execute well. (See the many Quora responses, including my own, to Why…
Visit Site »As entrepreneurs who experienced the first wave of the Internet, we regularly recognize ideas from the creative ferment of the late ‘90s being pitched to us in a new form by today’s entrepreneurs. The newest member of the Andreessen Horowitz family, however, is reinventing a concept pioneered by a 1920s startup—and doing so with dazzling…
Visit Site »Although Mark Twain’s statement that “There is no such thing as a new idea” may be an exaggeration, some of the world’s best businesses have been built on leveraging old ideas in a “new and curious combination”. Some great ideas work spectacularly the first time around, handsomely rewarding the original entrepreneurs. Others fail or flounder…
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