categories
HOT TOPICS
- The Startup Velocity Question
- Platform as a Service
- Man and Superman
- Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
- The Future: End of Capitalism
- Capitalism 2.0
Cleantech In Food: Purfresh CEO Dave Cope (Part 2)
SM: How long were you at Marimba? DC: I stayed there for a while. I loved it, but it was a little heady. It was the beginning of the hype Internet days, and it ended up being about certain people and not very much about running a business. That ended up being a majority of
Cleantech In Food: Purfresh CEO Dave Cope (Part 1)
Dave Cope joined Purfresh in 2004 as chief marketing officer and was promoted to CEO in 2006. Prior to Purfresh he was president and CEO of BizGenics and held a variety of executive positions for Extricity, Marimba, Illustra, and IBM. Mr. Cope holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biochemistry from San Jose State University.
Creative Bootstrapping To A 350 Million Dollar Exit: Nimsoft CEO Gary Read (Part 7)
SM: Essentially you are saying that CA’s vision was the enticing factor for the sale? GR: They had a very clear vision. The more people we met with and the more time we spent with them, the more their vision became clear. It was a very similar vision to our own.
Creative Bootstrapping To A 350 Million Dollar Exit: Nimsoft CEO Gary Read (Part 6)
SM: In 2004 when you merged the two companies, what was the revenue of the new entity? GR: It was just shy of $3 million.
Creative Bootstrapping To A 350 Million Dollar Exit: Nimsoft CEO Gary Read (Part 5)
SM: What was going on in the marketplace at that time? Why was there doubt that additional network monitoring software would be needed? GR: While customers had plenty of choices, many times those customers were not happy. The companies they were buying it from were not focused on customer satisfaction.
Creative Bootstrapping To A 350 Million Dollar Exit: Nimsoft CEO Gary Read (Part 4)
SM: What was your solution for European companies? GR: It is very difficult for European companies to get established in the United States. The United States is such a large market, and European companies can spend such a large amount of money trying to get established without much success.
Creative Bootstrapping To A 350 Million Dollar Exit: Nimsoft CEO Gary Read (Part 3)
SM: So you were able to build a portfolio of skills by working as many different types of positions as you could? GR: Yes. By 1997 I had worked for a couple of different companies and had learned how to do sales, marketing, and manage channel partners. I already had the technical and engineering aspects.
Creative Bootstrapping To A 350 Million Dollar Exit: Nimsoft CEO Gary Read (Part 2)
SM: That is an interesting parallel to how Zoho is operated. They have a very large operation in Chennai, India. They recruit high school grads and train them in their own operations. It is great because unless these kids get into one of the top colleges in India, they are not going to learn much.