Pioneering Data On-Demand: Salary.com CEO and Serial Entrepreneur Kent Plunkett (Part 7)

SM: Did you enter the competency arena organically or through acquisitions? KP: We moved into the competency area by acquiring some libraries. The ITG Competency Group library is, in our view, the largest standalone productized library of competencies.

Pioneering Data On-Demand: Salary.com CEO and Serial Entrepreneur Kent Plunkett (Part 6)

SM: What are you using your IPO proceeds for? KP: We continue to favor a philosophy of growth with internally generated cash. We are using IPO proceeds mostly to acquire small companies that are good strategic fits with our product line. I am probably one of the few people you talk to who thinks going

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Pioneering Data On-Demand: Salary.com CEO and Serial Entrepreneur Kent Plunkett (Part 5)

SM: Aside from your on-demand aspect, how else do you differentiate from the consulting firms? KP: We do not charge on an hourly basis for customer service and the help desk. Our customers call us all the time and ask for help pricing a job – we try to help our customers with those problems.

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Pioneering Data On-Demand: Salary.com CEO and Serial Entrepreneur Kent Plunkett (Part 4)

SM: What was the competitive landscape like when you started? Besides consultants, was there anyone else in that space at the time? KP: Even today the competition is fairly scant. Back then there was no one doing it. We were alone in the consumer and enterprise business for a solid three or four years.

Pioneering Data On-Demand: Salary.com CEO and Serial Entrepreneur Kent Plunkett (Part 3)

SM: It was easy to raise money in 1999. It was not easy to raise money in 2001. What was your experience raising angel money during that time window? KP: I have never had a problem raising angel money. It was extremely easy in 1999. We did talk to some venture capitalists, but they did

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Pioneering Data On-Demand: Salary.com CEO and Serial Entrepreneur Kent Plunkett (Part 2)

SM: What was the genesis of Salary.com? KP: Right before I started Salary.com I was building software for What Color Is Your Parachute?, which is also in the career management space. There we ended our process with a recommendation as to what would be a good career fit for an individual. The goal was to

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Pioneering Data On-Demand: Salary.com CEO and Serial Entrepreneur Kent Plunkett (Part 1)

Kent Plunkett is the CEO of Salary.com. His efforts there earned him the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2007. He has domain expertise in data on-demand and data syndication, with expertise leveraging this at all levels from the enterprise to the consumer. SM: Where do you come from? Give us some

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Urging Authors to be Entrepreneurs: iUniverse CEO Kevin Weiss (Part 7)

SM: What should I have asked you that I didn’t? KW: We have not talked about our overseas facility yet. I recently did a press conference with the governor of Indiana where I announced the closure of our Shanghai facility.