categories
HOT TOPICS
- The Accelerator Conundrum
- The Startup Velocity Question
- Man and Superman
- Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
- The Future: End of Capitalism
- Capitalism 2.0
entrepreneur journeys
Salesforce.com’s Incubator: René Bonvanie (Part 2)
Salesforce.com has developed a truly intriguing concept with the Incubator. I wanted to get a bit of background on the history of the project before we delved into how its working. SM: I am going to focus our discussion primarily on the Incubator, however feel free to include experiences from the broader AppExchange. What was
Salesforce.com’s Incubator: René Bonvanie (Part 1)
René Bonvanie is Senior Vice President and General Manager, AppExchange and Developer Marketing at Salesforce.com. Rene has responsibility for the marketing and strategic direction of the AppExchange on-demand platform and developer marketing through the ApppExchange Developer Network. AppExchange is a novel new business strategy which allows SalesForce to develop symbiotic relationships with established and emerging
Retrevo’s Vertical Search: Before and After
According to Vipin Jain, CEO, Retrevo “is a web service that helps consumers with shopping and support of tech products. Retrevo is your trusted advisor throughout the lifecycle ownership of tech products, from education, research, deals, price comparison, getting the best out of the products you bought, accessorizing, using, fixing issues to servicing your products.
Retrevo’s Vipin Jain on Vertical Search (3)
SM: Who financed the company at the very beginning? VJ: Ammar Hanafi @ Alloy Ventures seed funded in Feb 2006. SM: Did you raise Angel money? How much? From whom? VJ: Three founders bootstrapped the company with $150K cash. SM: Did you raise Venture money? How much? From whom? VJ: Total $3.9M venture money raised
Retrevo’s Vipin Jain on Vertical Search (2)
SM: How big is the market for what you have to offer? (TAM analysis is essentially what I am looking for here … ) VJ: $1B-$1.5B. Assume a conservative $25B online spending out of a total of $150B CE spending in the US. Assume 4%-5% of the total online spend in referral. TAM is much
Retrevo’s Vipin Jain on Vertical Search (1)
A Vertical Search engine called Retrevo has come up a few times in our coverage of the Gadget Geeks segment. Here, I interview the CEO, Vipin Jain. SM: Please describe your business value proposition and your product. VJ: Retrevo is a web service that helps consumers with shopping and support of tech products. Retrevo is
Wize up on what to buy (Part 4)
Wize is a relatively new entrant to the product research field, and unlike its competitor Become, does not offer an integrated search experience whereby you can do your product research as well as comparison shopping for price within the same environement. I gave this feedback to Tom, and he agrees, that the fragmented user experience
Wize up on what to buy (Part 3)
[Part 1] [Part 2] I asked Tom for a TAM analysis, as I ask all entrepreneurs. The analysis is not as crisp as what Shiva presented, and I suggest you tighten it up, Tom. I think, the segmentation also needs finetuning. Nonetheless, here it is. SM: How big is the market for what you have
