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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Is Google Monetizing YouTube?

Now that it has been a few months since Google bought YouTube, we can look at how it is benefiting from it. Comscore data for March 2007 seems promising. YouTube’s popularity has made Google the most frequented site for streaming videos. Out of 57.4 million unique visitors who played video clips on Google, almost 53.5

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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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Online Display Advertising Rocks

First Quarter U.S. Internet Display Ad spending hit $2.7 billion–a 16.7% increase over the same period last year, acc. to TNS Media Intelligence. There are some very interesting statistics from this report:

Salesforce.com’s Incubator: René Bonvanie (Part 8)

Here we finally see how the Incubator does indeed assist companies with obtaining their original customer base, and they do so in a very effective manner. SM: There is nothing wrong in that motivation to try to expand the pie. It is absolutely the right motivation to have. RB: I think the most difficult skill

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Palm: Stop Missing Obvious Opportunities

I spent a chunk of my professional career working on turnarounds. Thus, I always find it interesting to look at companies which are in turnaround situations. Palm, obviously, is. What’s incredible to me is how Palm keeps missing opportunities to provide real value to its customers. Take the example of 2 services that have become

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Salesforce.com’s Incubator: René Bonvanie (Part 7)

I continue my discussion regarding the need for Incubator companies to receive assistance in their initial customer acquisition phase. I push Rene a fair bit. I think he is getting slightly annoyed and defensive 🙂 SM: If you go back to the beginnings of Salesforce.com, and you ask Mark Benioff, I am sure he will

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iPhone Competitors: Nokia’s Convergence Device Strategy

WSJ has a good roundup on the various iPhone competitors. One of the top iPhone competitors is expected to be Nokia’s N95, a high-end smart phone that, like the iPhone, has a relatively large color screen (2.6 in), can surf the Web and can play music and DVD-quality video. Unlike the iPhone, the N95, however,

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