If you have missed these posts from my recent writings, today may be a good time to catch up on some reading: First, in the blogosphere, online media, old and new media, advertising – big changes have taken place. Here is a set of posts from the Deal Radar series that might help you make
SM: Were they willing to fill out the spreadsheet you sent over? LD: Most people are like, “this is insane … what are you, a root canal?”
SM: The “mush” factor in corporations is amazing. LD: That is a beautiful word for it. Now we have products through which you know what people you need in different roles. Now you need to recruit people to fit into those slots, so we built a recruiting product to get them into the right places
SM: Who finally funded your dream? LD: David Strohm from Greylock. SM: How did you get to David? LD: He was involved in one of the companies, and he was the most skeptical, and that is why I liked him. I don’t like people you can win over easily. He just sat there and looked
SM: How did you find this particular company that you ended up acquiring? LD: From a friend who sat next to me in business school. He was at a venture firm, so he knew of all the good companies that simply did not have leaders. SM: Which venture firm was he at? LD: It was
SM: When working with smart people, it always pays to explain why. LD: Exactly, and they will ask 15 questions to get there if they need to. To this day I adore them. They cannot do anything until they know why. I love that. That was the biggest learning for me was how to manage
SM: Your technology background is nominal by Silicon Valley standards, it seems. LD: Absolutely. At that time I was a little more humble. I thought technology was intimidating even though I had used it in my different jobs.
SM: How long did you stay in that job at Unilever? LD: I moved back to the head office after a year, which is unfortunate because I really liked that job. They moved me back because we bought our biggest competitor, and they asked me if I could travel around the biggest countries and understand