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| A Monthly Journal for Venture Partners and Enterprise Software Executives |
| Vol. 1 No. 11 |
In This Issue
 Venture Profile: Tom Kippola, Voyager Capital
CEO Spotlight: Louis Tetu, Recruitsoft
In Search of the Perfect Business Model
Navigating the Post-Acquisition Minefield
Category Convergence
Software M&A - All Hell Breaks Loose
Executive Job Listings
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Venture Profile: Tom Kippola, Voyager Capital
By Angel Mehta, Sterling-Hoffman Management Consultants
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The best CEO's will admit that only 50% of the value from 'venture capital' comes from the capital itself. The primary benefit of involving venture investors is supposed to be the domain expertise and network that come from years of company building experience. Voyager Capital gave it's portfolio companies an edge when the firm added a thought leader from The Chasm Group - one of the high tech industry's most well respected strategy consulting firms. Angel Mehta, Managing Director at Sterling-Hoffman, sat down with Tom Kippola, to discuss his dual career and why companies associated with both sides win in the end.
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Read full article >>
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CEO Spotlight: Louis Tetu, Recruitsoft
By Angel Mehta, Sterling-Hoffman Management Consultants
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The letters 'IPO' have all but disappeared from the vocabularies of most software CEO's, but white hot Recruitsoft has quietly become one of only a handful of private companies with a serious chance at a successful public offering in the near future. The company has zoomed from 2 employees to nearly 400 staff, over 150 marquis customers, and GAAP profitability in under four years. Angel Mehta, Managing Director at Sterling-Hoffman, chats with Recruitsoft's execution-obsessed CEO Louis Tetu about how the 'McKinsey of Human Resources' became a market leader.
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Read full article >>
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In Search of the Perfect Business Model
By J. William Gurley, General Partner, Benchmark Capital
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As companies continue to slog through this muddy economy, many executives are looking deeper into customer metrics in an attempt to uncover some little nugget that might give them a competitive edge in the marketplace. Marketing managers are digging through piles of customer data, evaluating every little thing from the cost of customer acquisition to customer churn, share of wallet and frequency of customer engagement. What if a company could generate a higher level of satisfaction with each incremental usage? What if a customer were more endeared to a vendor with each and every engagement? What if a company were always more likely to grab a customer's marginal consumption as the value continued to increase with each incremental purchase? This may be the nirvana of capitalism - increased marginal customer utility.
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Read full article >>
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Navigating the Post-Acquisition Minefield
By Mark L. Feldman, Managing Partner, The Five Frogs Group
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Doing the deal is no longer an art. It's a drill - an exercise in financial and legal gymnastics. Over the last half-century, the same basic variables has been twisted and stretched through hundreds, perhaps thousands, of permutations. A wealth of deal making knowledge has been created. Yet most deals still fail to create value for shareholders. Why? The real art of the deal lies in the post-merger transition - and there are so few artists.
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Read full article >>
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Category Convergence
By Michael Tanner, Managing Director, The Chasm Group, LLC
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May you live in interesting times! So goes the famous blessing (or curse) that is being played out in our industry today. Certainly, the "times" that we live in are "interesting," and we are all increasingly blessed with both excitement and opportunity. But the "curse" is uncertainty and dramatic change that seem to be happening at a breathtaking speed. In the software and web-enabled services markets, one of consistent themes being expressed today by many is the idea that the industry still has dramatic consolidation ahead of it. Will the consolidation scenario play out? How do Software CEO's respond?
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Read full article >>
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Software M&A - All Hell Breaks Loose
By Ken Bender & Allen Cinzori, Software Equity Group
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Oracle's hostile bid for Peoplesoft is not your average takeover. Beyond the usual drama of bid, rejection and rebid, there's something else playing out here. It causes many of us to feel conflicted. On the one hand, we respect success and value a free economy where market forces and the survival of the fittest rule. But on the other hand, we root for the underdog, the proud little guy who fights hard and keeps the bully at bay. Terminator vs. Harry Potter. And therein lies our dilemma.
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Read full article >>
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Executive Job Listings
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| EVP of Field Operations |
East Coast |
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Our client is a $50m enterprise applications vendor seeking a senior
sales executive to lead them to the next level. Ideal candidate will have
experience managing growth from $50m to $200m in revenue; Strong sales
tenure within enterprise *applications* space; some experience within a
publicly traded company and/or managing through M&A. Candidates that
have spent some time with leading applications vendors such as Siebel,
Peoplesoft, i2, SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards, etc. are preferred.
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Apply to: amehta@SterlingHoffman.net
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| SVP of Worldwide Sales |
Mid West or West Coast |
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A mid-sized applications ISV with superb customer traction and world
class investors requires an SVP of Worldwide Sales to build a sales force
capable of competing increasingly against the large ERP players.
Candidate must have had prior responsibility leading sales for a $200m
business, and will be a master at high end complex selling situations.
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Apply to: amehta@SterlingHoffman.net
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| Vice President of Sales |
North East |
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Early stage enterprise security software vendor seeks VP
Sales that possesses at least 4 years of experience leading and selling
in a pre-chasm environment. Ideal candidate will have built multi-channel
organizations and will have successful tenure with both start-ups and
leading security software vendors such as ISS, Verisign or RSA. Candidates
that have changed jobs more than 3 times in the last 5 years will not be
considered.
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Apply to: mhf@SterlingHoffman.net
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| VP Operations |
Mid-Atlantic |
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$90M market leader in asset management & integrated procurement software
seeking an accomplished operations leader to head up world wide sales,
service delivery, human resources and possibly other functional areas
within the company. Candidates must have experience managing operations
at an established ISV and must also have field experience in
manufacturing plant environment. Emotional maturity and a positive
attitude are necessary. A technical degree would be helpful, but not
required.
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Apply to: jcf@SterlingHoffman.net
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| VP US Sales |
Bay Area or North East |
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$100M publicly traded ISV in the business intelligence space requires a
highly accomplished sales leader to manage the North American sales
organization including direct sales and strategic alliances. The ideal
candidate will have a minimum of 7-years national or international sales
management experience including tenure at both early-stage and market
leading applications vendors. Candidates must have managed organizations
of at least 40 employees and a minimum of $100M in revenue and must be
comfortable with revenue recognition guidelines as set by Sarbane-Oxley.
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Apply to: jcf@SterlingHoffman.net
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| Chief Operating Officer |
North East |
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$75M privately held leader in risk management solutions for the financial
services market requires a highly accomplished and seasoned operations
leader to handle multiple functional areas within the company. Executive-
level experience at a market leading applications vendor is required
along with M&A and IPO experience. Tenure at a publicly-traded ISV a big
plus.
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Apply to: jcf@SterlingHoffman.net
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Note: We appreciate all submissions, but only qualified executives will be contacted.
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