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A Late Bloomer on Building a Legitimate Unicorn: Veeva Systems CEO Peter Gassner (Part 6)

Posted on Sunday, Jul 3rd

Peter Gassner: The thing that most people thought why it wouldn’t be good was that they’d say, “Hey, there are no big companies doing pharmaceutical CRM. Therefore, it’s not possible to build a big company doing it. What do you mean you will build your product on somebody else’s platform? Nobody had done that before.

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From an EIR Experiment to a Fast Growth SaaS Company: Joe Kinsella, Founder and CTO of CloudHealth (Part 3)

Posted on Saturday, Jul 2nd

Sramana Mitra: Did you go work for Dell? Joe Kinsella: I did. I like to tell people that I spent three years at Dell, two of which I can explain because I was under a contract. I wasn’t sure why I stayed the third year. Dell is a great company, but I’m a software person. Sramana

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A Late Bloomer on Building a Legitimate Unicorn: Veeva Systems CEO Peter Gassner (Part 5)

Posted on Saturday, Jul 2nd

Sramana Mitra: Where did you find traction? In building the product for the pharmaceutical industry, how did you scope the product? Did you have some anchor customers? Peter Gassner: This wasn’t that complex really. This was pharmaceutical CRM. We just decided to go there. It’s a known area and these companies had systems for it.

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From an EIR Experiment to a Fast Growth SaaS Company: Joe Kinsella, Founder and CTO of CloudHealth (Part 2)

Posted on Friday, Jul 1st

Joe Kinsella: From there, I decided that I wanted to start a business. I started a company called Tarragon. I wanted to build out a tools business. It ended up being more of a consulting services business. I wasn’t able to balance the consulting and software side. I built a small team of people. We

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A Late Bloomer on Building a Legitimate Unicorn: Veeva Systems CEO Peter Gassner (Part 4)

Posted on Friday, Jul 1st

Sramana Mitra: When you came back, how did you re-engage with the working life? Peter Gassner: It was just a matter of deciding. That was the first decision. I also wanted to do something I was good at. I didn’t want to open a coffee shop and compete with a 23-year-old who knew as much

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From an EIR Experiment to a Fast Growth SaaS Company: Joe Kinsella, Founder and CTO of CloudHealth (Part 1)

Posted on Thursday, Jun 30th

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  Joe founded CloudHealth as an EIR at a Boston VC firm. Last year the SaaS company had 300 customers. The story explores how he achieved product market fit and found its stride. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your personal journey. Where are

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A Late Bloomer on Building a Legitimate Unicorn: Veeva Systems CEO Peter Gassner (Part 3)

Posted on Thursday, Jun 30th

Sramana Mitra: What was the trigger to leave Peoplesoft? Peter Gassner: The management team had changed at Peoplesoft. I had started as a developer there. At the end of nine years, I was handling a team of 500 people. I worked hard there. I loved the team I assembled. Then, the management team changed. Culture changed

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A Late Bloomer on Building a Legitimate Unicorn: Veeva Systems CEO Peter Gassner (Part 3)

Posted on Wednesday, Jun 29th

Sramana Mitra: How did IBM figure out, given that you have a strange background from their perspective, that you would be good at this stuff? Peter Gassner: My first internship was at IBM. Sramana Mitra: They noted you then. Peter Gassner: Yes, “That’s a kid that can work hard. He gets work done. He’s got

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