Open Source Go-To-Market Success: Liferay CEO Bryan Cheung (Part 4)

Sramana: The sales cycle you just described illustrates the beauty of the open source go-to-market strategy. I like how that model allows entrepreneurs to bootstrap the early company with services. I also really like a model that allows customers to find the company. Bryan Cheung: Exactly. Another nice thing is that a lot of times

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Open Source Go-To-Market Success: Liferay CEO Bryan Cheung (Part 3)

Sramana: What were you doing at that time? Bryan Cheung: I was consulting with Universal Music, which was trying to sell artist memorabilia online. They were doing a few things on eBay and some special promotions with artists.

Open Source Go-To-Market Success: Liferay CEO Bryan Cheung (Part 2)

Sramana: At that time there were a lot of companies in the Valley that built expensive offices without a business plan to support them. Bryan Cheung: I remember some of my co-workers had varied backgrounds. We met writers and former voice actors, and they were working as Web experience engineers. A lot of money was

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Open Source Go-To-Market Success: Liferay CEO Bryan Cheung (Part 1)

Bryan Cheung is the CEO and co-founder of Liferay. Drawing on his technical experience, understanding of customer needs, and a passion for end users, Bryan leads Liferay in meeting its commitment to deliver focused and effective business solutions to its customers and its community. He graduated from the University of California Berkeley with a bachelor’s

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Rolling Up Professional Networks: Dan Serfaty, CEO of Viadeo (Part 7)

Sramana: I can definitely understand why you would have the biggest challenge in India. It is an English-speaking country, and it is well connected to Silicon Valley and tied into America. Dan Serfaty: The Silicon Valley connection is key. LinkedIn is very popular in Silicon Valley.

Rolling Up Professional Networks: Dan Serfaty, CEO of Viadeo (Part 6)

Sramana: What is the size of your user base today? Dan Serfaty: Globally, we have 35 million members. We need to distinguish between emerging countries and other countries because that affects revenue generation. We did not start reaching out into the international community until 2007.

Rolling Up Professional Networks: Dan Serfaty, CEO of Viadeo (Part 5)

Sramana: Did you monetize any other channels besides recruiters? Dan Serfaty: After a short while we decided to implement a membership fee. Early on I decided that I did not care if people left because we were going to charge a membership fee.

Rolling Up Professional Networks: Dan Serfaty, CEO of Viadeo (Part 4)

Sramana: What did you ultimately do with the import business? Did you sell it? Dan Serfaty: I sold it to my partner and the management of the company. When 1999 came around and the Internet was going crazy, I felt I had the perfect profile to get involved. I had the right diploma, which makes

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