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- The Startup Velocity Question
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Portaga’s TripSync: Simplifying Business Travel (Part 2)
Robert Kost is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Portaga. In the early 1980s, he worked as an analyst with the Office of Technology Assessment of the US Congress. He later joined Prodigy (IBM/Sears/CBS) in the mid-80s, securing patents that are today at the heart of Internet innovation, and writing the first online banking,
Portaga’s TripSync: Simplifying Business Travel (Part 1)
Continuing on our coverage of the Online Travel industry, I bring you Portaga, a small private company that is working on simplifying the challenges of booking and changing travel plans from within your calendar, desktop or mobile. Here, we speak with Portaga’s CEO Robert Kost. SM: Please describe your business value proposition and your product.
Salesforce.com’s Incubator: René Bonvanie (Part 11)
To conclude the interview, I bring up the topic of branding. It seems obvious that Salesforce is moving beyond what it’s name suggests it offers clients. At this point, their brand is vastly less ambitious than the company. SM: My final question is regarding AppExchange. Salesforce seems to be moving beyond CRM. RB: We are
Salesforce.com’s Incubator: René Bonvanie (Part 10)
Here we continue to discuss potential locations for future Incubator sites. Salesforce is attempting to locate in areas which have high supply, meaning an abundance of talented software engineers with entrepreneurial spirit, along with areas with high demand for on-demand software. India would have to be considered one of the highest supply markets. Israel could
Salesforce.com’s Incubator: René Bonvanie (Part 9)
René shares some recent Incubator success stories. As the Incubator matures, the number of these stories is undoubtedly going to increase. SM: I know you have only been going for five months so far, but do you have any success stories you can share with us? RB: In the past few months a number of
Salesforce.com’s Incubator: René Bonvanie (Part 8)
Here we finally see how the Incubator does indeed assist companies with obtaining their original customer base, and they do so in a very effective manner. SM: There is nothing wrong in that motivation to try to expand the pie. It is absolutely the right motivation to have. RB: I think the most difficult skill
Salesforce.com’s Incubator: René Bonvanie (Part 7)
I continue my discussion regarding the need for Incubator companies to receive assistance in their initial customer acquisition phase. I push Rene a fair bit. I think he is getting slightly annoyed and defensive 🙂 SM: If you go back to the beginnings of Salesforce.com, and you ask Mark Benioff, I am sure he will
Salesforce.com’s Incubator: René Bonvanie (Part 6)
Among the most significant challenges a company faces is obtaining its initial reference customers. Salesforce has a core competency revolving around telemarketing and sales, so I inquire about the type of support they provide to companies in the Incubator in order to address this challenge. SM: How do you handle the go-to-market phase with Incubator