Rolling Up E-mail Security SaaS: Gary Steele, CEO Of Proofpoint (Part 2)

SM: How did Eric find you and convince you to join Proofpoint?

GS: He had a search partner who helped him identify people, and they made the connection. It was a classic Valley network deal. We got to know each other and we liked each other. We thought we were a good fit. >>>

Roundtable Recap: July 1 – Get Your Pricing Model Validated

Today’s roundtable had a couple of mobile and social media app companies that I thought were quite promising. At least at the concept and market analysis level, I could resonate with them, although the devil is always in the details.

Sean Malatesta started off by presenting Marengo Movies, a film distribution and marketing venture built on top of the Apple platform, spanning iTunes, iPad, iPhone, and iTouch. Marengo is building a mobile app for all three platforms that will use viral consumer behavior to market movies and episodic video content by independent producers who are struggling with distribution and marketing challenges. The films would be sold on iTunes, and Marengo wants to take a percentage of the retail price as its primary monetization model, aside from a set-up fee of about $500 per film. Apple charges 30% to sell digital content on iTunes. That leaves another 70% to share between the producer and Marengo. Marengo is pointing to Apple’s $1.1 billion app sales on its mobile platforms, and estimating that the 80 million–85 million units of Apple devices (iPod, iPad, iTouch, iPhone) constitute almost 69% of the U.S. television audience of 115 million households that may be ripe for buying independent films that do not have access to any other distribution channel. While I like the value proposition very much, I am also of the opinion that distribution will become commoditized over time, and Marengo’s real value proposition would be its marketing capabilities. Nonetheless, this is a company worth building, and Sean needs to validate his business model and pricing model with customers. His app is just two weeks from launching, and I am looking forward to it!
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July 1 Roundtable Recording

In case you missed it, here is the recording:

Roundtable Starting In 30 Minutes

Today’s roundtable is starting in 30 minutes, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/8:30 p.m. IST. Click here to join.

Rolling Up E-mail Security SaaS: Gary Steele, CEO Of Proofpoint (Part 1)

Gary Steele is the CEO of Proofpoint, a company which is a leader in e-mail security, data loss prevention, and e-mail archiving solutions. Prior to joining Proofpoint, Gary served as the CEO of Portera, an applications company delivering solutions for the professional services industry. Prior to Portera, Gary was the vice president and general manager of the middleware and data warehousing product group at Sybase, Inc., an organization of more than 350 people spanning four regions and generating $150 million in revenue. Gary’s prior experience includes business development, marketing, and engineering roles at Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard. He has a B.S. in computer science from Washington State University.

SM: Gary, let’s begin with a review of your background. Where are you from?

GS: I grew up in a small agricultural community of 600 people in the Northwest. It was a million miles away from technology. >>>

Cleantech In Food: Purfresh CEO Dave Cope (Part 7)

SM: What are some of the other shifts in strategy you have had in the company, other than the move from water to food?

DC: Providing solutions throughout the supply chain was very significant. Another was to add an informatics layer to everything we have. The jury is still out on whether I have made the right decisions. >>>

World Cup Diary: Latin America Reigns

So, we now have the quarterfinal line up: four Latin American teams are in the next round. Brazil and Argentina were expected. Paraguay and Uruguay have also qualified. The only Latin American team that didn’t make it was Chile, but they were matched against Brazil, a tall order. >>>

Cleantech In Food: Purfresh CEO Dave Cope (Part 6)

SM: How much of the market do you think you have penetrated?

DC: We will do just north of $11 million this year. We are different in that we have 500 customers in 50 countries around the world. We are at Series D, which I would normally equate with a company with really high revenues. In our case, however, we have three strategic products. >>>