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- The Startup Velocity Question
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Bootstrapping a Language Product Company Using Services from London, Then Taking it Public and Scaling It to $450M: SDL CEO Mark Lancaster (Part 5)
Sramana: The other side of that coin is that the UK does not have a lot of technology companies. VCs who want to invest in the UK are looking for strong companies and don’t have as many opportunities. Mark Lancaster: At that particular time, the company was all services and was just starting to develop
Bootstrapping a Language Product Company Using Services from London, Then Taking it Public and Scaling It to $450M: SDL CEO Mark Lancaster (Part 4)
Sramana: What is the composition of your business? Are you selling these products to software companies who do translation work themselves, or are you selling it to competing services companies who compete with you using your own products? Mark Lancaster: About 50% of our revenue is derived from technology. Since that very early translation technology,
Bootstrapping a Language Product Company Using Services from London, Then Taking it Public and Scaling It to $450M: SDL CEO Mark Lancaster (Part 3)
Sramana: Can you give us an example of the types of products that would be labeled as language technology products? Mark Lancaster: There are a lot of products that fit in this space. We started out by building products that would make translators more productive as they translate. We have gone on to create many
Bootstrapping a Language Product Company Using Services from London, Then Taking it Public and Scaling It to $450M: SDL CEO Mark Lancaster (Part 2)
Sramana: How did you get your first clients once you started this new company? Mark Lancaster: Most of my contacts were at large companies. I knew people in Microsoft, Computer Associates, and a company called Contact Software in Dallas. I was lucky because I am not really a salesman. We got our first big contract
Bootstrapping a Language Product Company Using Services from London, Then Taking it Public and Scaling It to $450M: SDL CEO Mark Lancaster (Part 1)
Very few technology companies have been built from the UK. ARM and Autonomy come to mind. Here’s the story of a lesser-known company called SDL. Sramana: Mark, let’s start with the beginning of your personal story. Where are you from? What is the backstory of the SDL story? Mark Lancaster: I was born and raised
Bootstrapping a Cloud Startup with Services on Force.com from London: Alex Fuller, Co-Founder and CTO of CloudSense (Part 7)
Alex Fuller: External investment has allowed us to increase our Sales & Marketing investment to reach more companies. Our R&D investment has allowed us to create more vertical specific features that further differentiate us from the competition. We have also established a US presence with people on the ground in a number of locations headquartered in
Bootstrapping a Cloud Startup with Services on Force.com from London: Alex Fuller, Co-Founder and CTO of CloudSense (Part 6)
Sramana: What is your geographical scope in terms of the markets served? Alex Fuller: In terms of product software license sales, our focus is led partly by our regional presence. The US, UK, and Europe are our primary areas. We are also engaged in Australia. Additionally, we have system integrators who have partnered with us
Bootstrapping a Cloud Startup with Services on Force.com from London: Alex Fuller, Co-Founder and CTO of CloudSense (Part 5)
Sramana: Did the AppExchange or Salesforce teams generate leads for you even if you had to do the selling? Alex Fuller: We definitely had some leads coming off of the AppExchange. Our own direct selling efforts accounted for the vast majority of our leads and closed deals. I include the leg work of staying in