Private Equity on Steroids (Part 2)

How Serena went about translating a strong and steady cash flow into accelerated revenue growth with the risk of a new SaaS business model

Private Equity on Steroids (Part 1)

By Dominique Trempont, Guest Author For the last couple of years, we saw an unprecedented wave of private equity deals. Even though the current debt crisis is drying up some of Private Equity’s easy cash source, there are opportunities for savvy investors in the midst of the current chaos.

Serene Serena Wants to Kick up a Storm

I had breakfast with Rene Bonvanie earlier this week, who confirmed my hypothesis that for a high level executive, Salesforce.com is no longer a great financial opportunity. But the reason he really wanted to meet with me is to tell me why Serena is anything but boring. Serena Software offers Application LifeCycle Management (ALM) products,

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Is Salesforce.com Hitting a Ceiling?

Recently, Salesforce.com (Nasdaq: CRM), a hot company by any standard, lost a key executive to another company that is dramatically less hot or even interesting. Rene Bonvanie, whom Salesforce.com had recently hired to head up its super-critical AppExchange program, left for Serena Software. Chances are, you have not heard of Serena Software, while you have

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“Protect Your Dilution” – Justin Floyd

The phone rang this morning, just as I put the last piece of peach in my mouth. It was a scheduled call with Justin Floyd, Founder of SmartFundit. Rene Bonvanie mentioned the company during our recent interview. What followed was a hilarious conversation that started with a very “British” guy, introducing himself, and my saying,

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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

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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

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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

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