TOMORROW NIGHT, on Tuesday, March 6, 2018 at 630pm, the Boston Entrepreneurs’ Network (ENET) will hold a meeting on this subject, at the group’s Waltham location: Constant Contact, 1601 Trapelo Rd., 3rd Floor, Great Room, Waltham, Massachusetts (Exit 28, I-95/Route 128).
Pre-meeting Dinner at 5:15 PM (sharp) at Bertucci’s, Waltham, (Exit 27B, Route 128)
OK…You started a business and now aren’t sure how to produce revenue. Do you need to begin your company’s sales effort and don’t know where to start or what to do? Simple questions yet no simple answers. Don’t be confused by all the jargon out there! There are many different strategies and opinions, but every company is different. Therefore, your plan to roll out sales is going to be unique to your company. Our panelists combine many years of sales successes and failures in many verticals and will be joining together to discuss how to begin and ultimately consistently grow your sales.
Agenda:
- 630 -730 PM Registration & networking
- 730 -740 PM ENET Chairman’s announcements
- 740 -755 PM E Minute – Up to 3 Startup companies’ presentations
- 755 -855 PM – 4 expert speakers on the night’s topic
- 845 -900 PM – Audience / Speakers Q & A
- 900 -930 PM – Final networking including meeting speakers
Speakers:
Janet Comenos is CEO and Co-Founder of Spotted, the leading celebrity data company that helps consumer brands and agencies make smarter celebrity endorser and ambassador decisions. In 2017, AdWeek named Spotted “a diamond-studded data firm” and Janet was named one of the Boston Globe’s top 20 female tech executives. She was previously SVP of Sales at Promoboxx. Janet is a Board Member of TUGG, an organization that pairs tech companies with philanthropies that serve unprivileged youth, and a Board Member of Influence Examiner, the leading FTC monitoring and compliance solution for consumer brands. She holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and is an avid tennis player.
Louie Balasny is Managing Director of botkeeper, a company that does everything a bookkeeper does, only faster, 24/7, with more reporting, beautiful dashboards, and at a fraction of the cost through the use of software, machine learning & skilled human accountants. Louie holds his Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School and began his career at Thomas Brady & Associates. There, he was Regional Director of Advanced Planning and was responsible for strategic development and implementation of advanced planning strategies.
He specialized in the execution of estate planning, business planning and insurance placement for individuals, executives and business owners. After several years, Louie moved into banking and was a Relationship Banking Officer at Admirals Bank where he was part of a team that helped bring in over $200 million in deposits. The startup world and lifelong desire to build something from the ground up has always been his passion which ultimately led him to botkeeper where his in charge of growing the sales as well as everything else that is done to get a startup off the ground.
Tom Libby, CEO, Diversified Sales Solutions Co-Founder Smarketing Institute
Tom is a seasoned Sales VP and Business Development Executive. He is a Co-Founder of the SmarketingInstitute.Org and the CEO of Diversified Sales Solutions, Inc., a firm that provides outsourced sales solutions. Getting Sales strategy right is part vocation, part mission for Tom. Over the past 18 years Tom has developed his management, leadership, and sales skills in diverse industries and includes experiences in startups, small companies up to and including fortune 500 companies.
Tom, has received numerous awards and accolades during his career. He is a business professional with demonstrated results, as well as the ability to produce in high pressure situations. Today, Tom uses his sales & management experience to deliver interim management, training and coaching to small companies
Moderator:
Ceri Ruenheck is President of It’s Your Call (www.itsyourcall.com), a business to business telemarketing firm that was established in 1994. It’s Your Call helps small businesses make the necessary outbound calls that they might not have the resources to perform themselves. In 2009, Ceri opened a second business www.twocoolcats.com, a website development company. In addition to running those businesses, Ceri consults to small companies who need help with putting together a marketing process. She is also a noted speaker and author of the e-book “Cold Calling for the Clueless” www.coldcallingfortheclueless.com She is the mother of two boys and two cats all living in out of Harvard, MA.
For more information or to register for the March 6, 2018 ENET meeting in Boston, go to LINK: https://boston-enet.org/event-2616647
Tweeting ENET’s Meeting To occur Tomorrow Night! …
If you use Twitter and would like to tweet this event, here are my 4 re-tweets that you are welcome to re-tweet or use for your own tweets about this event –
For additional ENET information on First Sales & Sales Models for Startups…
I helped the moderator with this meeting. I also organized and moderated another ENET a year ago, also on a Sales topic, that might be of interest to you, as follows:
- March 21, 2017 – “Sales Models – Online, Inside, and Field Sales – How and When to Choose a Sales Model for Your Startup”.
On March 21, our first focus will be to help the founders with the question of how and when to choose a sales model for your startup company. In that early stage, the goal should be to start to generate sales as soon as possible, with a minimum viable product. This is the first phase of customer discovery and validation, to establish an impactful value proposition. As Jack Derby (one of our speakers) has written ” At the outset, just focus on selling some stuff for the simple purpose of having customers who are paying you money and from whom you can learn the following:
- Why they bought your product
- How they are using those same products
- What do they want to see in the future, so that …?
- You have the ability to work closely with these early customers and determine the financial value that they receive at their companies.
The company will next want to determine a scalable selling platform and a cost-effective sales model. We will then have focused on the different sales models on which our three speakers were each expert.
- Jack Derby is Head Coach and President @ Derby Management,a 25-year-old boutique management consulting firm, focuses its expertise in three primary services for its 400+ customers: Business & Strategic Planning; Sales & Marketing Productivity Improvement; Senior Management Development Coachin www.derbymanagement.com/ He is an active angel investor and past Chairman of Common Angels, rebranded to Converge Venture, as well as a major figure in the New England entrepreneurial landscape having served as the Chair of the MIT Enterprise Forum, Association for Corporate Growth and number for profit and non-profit boards. He has also taught as MIT and Tufts, where students at the latter voted him “Teacher of the Year.”
- Mark Ruthfield, Vice President of Sales, Executive Team @t Zafus, which empowers B2C marketers to maximize customer lifetime revenue.https://www.zaius.com/ Mark is a Sales Business Leader, Executive Management Team Leader, Corporate Officer with over 20+ years of business experience in leading technology companies in start-up, turn-around, and accelerated growth situations.
- Liz Cain, VP Go-To-Market @ OpenView Venture Partners – Building repeatable and scalable customer acquisition models, Liz has worked in many areas of a software as a service company including technical support, event and customer marketing, sales operations, client/account management and inside sales. I currently oversee OpenView Go-to-Market practice delivering recruiting, market insights and marketing/sales strategy services to our portfolio.
There were speaker slides from my March 21, 2017 panel. Also, Liz Cain was a wonderful substitute for Emmanuelle Skala, VP Sales & Customer Success @ DigitalOcean, and you can view the slides of the three speakers plus those from Emmanuelle at LINK: http://boston-enet.org/event-2314313
Hopefully, these presentations on First Sales and Sales Models for startup companies will be helpful to entrepreneurs in small and early stage companies I represent, along with the ENET presentation to occur tomorrow night.
My Continuing role as ENET Chairman and frequent moderator & occasional speaker…
I remain active in ENET, a Waltham and Cambridge based non-profit group, affiliated with IEEE, that aids tech and life science founders, entrepreneurs, small and early stage companies, and people who invest or work in those companies. www.boston-enet.org
A member of the ENET Board since 2002, I have served as Chairman of this non-profit group since 2009. In May 2017, I was elected to my fifth 2-year term as ENET Chair. During the period of my leadership, ENET’s annual program has grown from 10 meetings per year to 19 for 2016-17 program year just completed: 10 meetings in Waltham, and 9 in Kendall Square Cambridge, plus our annual cruise of Boston Harbor to end the program year. Each meeting has three or more speakers on a subject of interest to entrepreneurs and company founders, in life science, tech and other areas of New England’s innovation economy. Each meeting also has ample networking time before and after the presentations to allow entrepreneurs to meet each other and later meet with the speakers.
On January 30, 2016, at a ceremony at the national meeting of IEEE-USA in Las Vegas, NV, the President of that organization Peter Eckstein (pictured below) presented me with the IEEE-USA professional achievement award for “extreme dedication and contributions to the IEEE entrepreneurial community”. For more information on that award, see LINK: http://www.boston-enet.org/IEEE-USA-Professional-Achievement-Award
On July 13, 2017, I arranged, as cruise director, the final event of the 2016-17 ENET program year, our annual Sunset Networking Cruise of Boston Harbor. In this cruise, that we called the “EntrepreneurSHIP 2017”, ENET was joined by our partners MDG – Medical Development Group, and The EntreTech Forum. This was the 15th annual cruise I have arranged for ENET, and it drew our largest attendance of the year 127 – great views of the sights of Boston Harbor and great food and networking for all aboard. The cruise sold out the day before we set off from Rowes Wharf.
(Our ship – M/V Music City Queen)
Besides my work as ENET Chair, and annual cruise director, I am also active in organizing, moderating and occasionally being an expert speaker at ENET meetings.
Two months ago, on January 2, 2018, I organized and recruited two of the three speakers for the ENET meeting on the topic “Product Development in Life Science & Tech Startups “ Here are bios for the two tech and one medical device product development executives I was able to recruit and who spoke for ENET that night:
STEVE OWENS, founder of Finish Line PDS (www.finishlinepds.com) has over 30 years of successful product development experience in many different industries and is a sought-after adviser and speaker on the subject. Steve has founded four successful start-ups and holds more than twenty-five patents.
Steve has worked for companies such as Halliburton and Baker Hughes. He has experience in the Internet of Things, M2M, oil and gas, and industrial controls. Steve’s insight into the product development process has generated millions of dollars in revenue for start-ups and small businesses. Finish Line PDS provides product and technology development management, mechanical design, and development of electronics, firmware and sensors, as well as design verification testing and other services. Finish Line PDS is a proud sponsor of the Boston ENET. https://twitter.com/FinishLine_PDS
LYNN BIRCH, Vice President, Product Engineering at Skreens
https://www.skreens.com is senior level leader with 20+ years of experience in the areas of business development, product management, and technical architecture and definition with a proven track record of success delivering competitive high technology solutions, products and services. Lynn has recently been working to help bring to market a disruptive technology in display and video delivery technologies that will change the way that content is consumed. Lynn holds both a BS Electrical Engineering from the University of Rhode Island and a Master’s in Business Innovation from Northeastern University D’Amore-McKim School of Business.
Lisa Sasso, MBA, CPCC, ACC, President and Executive Coach,, Medical Development Partners, LLC
Lisa Sasso (http://meddevpartners.com/) is the President and Executive Coach of Medical Development Partners, LLC (MDP). Prior to MDP, Lisa was the co-founder of Radi Medical Systems, Inc., a high tech medical device distributor specializing in innovative cardiology products. During her six-year tenure as President/CEO, she grew the company from inception to revenues of $28M with profitability. Lisa’s vision and strategic direction were responsible for the company’s explosive annual triple digit growth. Lisa built a seasoned Medical Device sales force with more than 550 years of combined sales experience. Motivated by excitement for new technologies, she built strong physician advisory boards and a seasoned clinical/sales team. Lisa and her team ultimately helped healthcare professionals make more informed treatment decisions resulting in better patient care. Lisa was recognized for her efforts and ranked #28 out of 100 Women Led Businesses in Massachusetts in 2004.
If you would like to see slides from all three of the January 2, 2018 ENET speakers, go to – https://boston-enet.org/event-2616641
Earlier in ENET’s program year, on November 7, 2017, I organized and recruited all three speakers for the ENET meeting on the topic “From Zero to Funded: What Do You Need to Get Seed/Angel Investment?” Here are bios for the angel and seed and investor I was able to recruit and who spoke for ENET that night:
GRAHAM BROOKS, Partner, .406 Ventures – joined .406 Ventures in 2007 after nine years of technology-oriented operating, investing and start-up experience and has been a Partner at .406 Ventures, LLC since September 2014. Graham specializes in building early stage companies and loves working with both experienced and first-time entrepreneurs helping them to grow their visions in industry changing companies; go-to-market development and execution, sales team structure and early company strategy. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Bedrock Data, Connotate, Attend.com, Patient, Inc. and Board observer to other companies. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the MIT enterprise Forum. He holds degrees from Princeton and the Dartmouth Tuck School. #BigData, #HealthIT,#DigitalVideo and #AdTech
LISA FRUSZTAJER, Product Marketing & Project Management, Avid Technology – has navigated all ends of the technology world over the last twenty years, first working at Sun Microsystems, then helping grow a small software startup called KYOS, then joining Avid Technology. Lisa currently focuses on angel investing, consulting projects, and running a real estate management company. Lisa’s background is an eclectic blend of marketing, engineering and project management, in technology, manufacturing, higher education and financial services. She is a lead investor of the Portfolia Enterprise Fund, which combines investor education with immediate diversification across early stage companies. She serves on the Board of Trustees at a secondary school and has been a board member of other education-focused nonprofits. Lisa was educated at the University of Chicago, the London School of Economics, and Columbia Business School.
MITCHELL SANDERS, PhD, Managing Director Innovation and Board Member, Alira Health – is a serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years preclinical animal models and clinical product development in advanced wound care. He secured an aggregate of $35M in development funding, and grants for Alira Health and ECI Biotech. In 2015 Mitch joined Alira Health full time to help expand their newly formed and rapidly growing Global Medical Affairs Division and was promoted to Managing Director of Drug and Device Discovery Lab (3DL) now rebranded as the Innovation Services Division.
Mitch is an expert in clinical and translational research and is a reviewer for the Wound Healing Society (WHS), Wounds International, Tissue Engineering, CIMIT, MassVentures, MIT, WPI, Tech Sandbox, Piranha Pond, SBANE and the Venture Forum. He holds an MS and PhD from WPI in molecular biology and biomedical sciences with 2 Postdocs at the Whitehead Institute/ MIT in biochemistry and pathogen genetics. Mitch is also an AALAS certified Laboratory Animal Technician and has over 30 year of expertise in performing preclinical wound healing and surgical models at ECI Biotech, Boston University, and UMASS Medical School.
If you would like to see slides from those three speakers to ENET’s November 7, 2017 meeting, go to – https://boston-enet.org/event-2604810
At the beginning of ENET’s program year, on September 5, 2017, I organized, moderated meeting and was the “surprise” third speaker at ENET’s kickoff meeting (our scheduled third speaker took ill that morning, so I pinch hit on short notice). Our topic was “Case Studies in Extremely Successful Startups. “ Here are bios of the other two speakers, CEOs who achieved considerable success, that I recruited for and who did speak at ENET’s kickoff meeting that night:
Raj Aggarwal, Co-Founder, Localytics. As CEO from its founding in 2009 until 2017, Raj succeeded in creating the leading mobile engagement platform that is used by many of the world’s top brands. Prior to Localytics, Raj spent 12 years building a variety of technology companies. He was a management consultant focused on mobile with Bain & Company and Adventis. At Adventis, Raj worked alongside Steve Jobs at Apple to develop the business framework for the iPhone and led the formation of the multi-billion-dollar Disney Mobile venture in Japan. Previously, Raj held sales and marketing leadership positions at Proco Machinery and Requisite Technology. Raj completed his MBA with Honors from the Ivey School of Business and London Business School.
Ralph Folz is WordStream’s Chief Executive Officer. Folz joined WordStream’s board in August 2009 and was elected the company’s CEO by the Board of Directors in August 2010. He has an extensive background in the digital marketing space, including founding and subsequently selling Molecular Inc., an interactive Web design and marketing agency, to Isobar. Folz spent two years as Global Chief Operating Officer of Isobar, one of the largest digital marketing agencies in the world (part of the Dentsu Aegis network). Folz spends time mentoring and advising venture backed startups in the Boston area and spent four years as a Board Director for Backupify, prior to its sale to Datto. Folz currently sits on the Board of Codeship, a SaaS company funded by Sigma Prime and Ascent Venture Partners. Folz has been named “one of the 10 most influential leaders in e-commerce” by the Massachusetts Electronic Commerce Association, and Molecular was recognized by Deloitte & Touche as the highest-ranking Internet professional services firm in the New England region. In 2004, he was named to the Boston Business Journal’s list of “40 Under 40” and recognized as a Mass High Tech All-Star in the Internet category. He has served as President of MITX, the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange.
If you would like to see slides from those two scheduled speakers for September 5, 2017, as well as the slides I presented as the third speaker of the night, go to – https://boston-enet.org/event-2604730
Additionally, over the past decade, I’ve organized and moderated and/or spoken at a number of ENET panel presentations, including presentations on the following subjects:
- “M & A and Successful Exits”. (May 2017) (Moderator)
- “Compensation and Equity for Early Stage Leadership Teams” (January 2017) (Moderator)
- “Impact Entrepreneurship and Your Triple Bottom Line” (May 2016) (Moderator & speaker)
- “Strategic Alliances for M&A and Successful Exits” (April 2016) (Moderator),
- “ Product Development in Life Science & Tech Startups.” (January 2016) (Moderator)
- “Innovative Ways to Bootstrap Your Startup Company.” (October 2015) (Moderator)
- “Building and Using Board of Directors and Boards of Advisors”, April 2015 (moderator),
- “Founder Agreements and Stock Vesting – Building a Team, protecting yourself, Managing expectations”. February 2015 (moderator & speaker)
- “Entrepreneur Success Stories”, September 2014 (moderator),
- “Raising Money from CrowdFunding”, May 2014 (moderator),
- “Ready, Set, Launch. Knowing when you’re ready & How to start a company”, September 2013 (moderator),
- “Bootstrapping 101: Alternative Ways to fund a Startup without an Angel or VC”, November 2012 (moderator)
- “Seed and Angel Financing”, October 2012 (moderator),
- “Getting Stuff for Free”, April 2012 (moderator),
- “Transforming Your Idea into a Successful Company”, September 2011 (speaker and moderator),
- “Get Going! Launching a Successful Business”, September 2010 (moderator),
- “Licensing Technology”, February 2010 (moderator),
- How to Select and Retain Management for your Startup Company”, February 8, 2008 (speaker and moderator)
- “Getting Initial Money to go from Nothing to Something”, October 2007 (speaker and moderator)
- “Strategic Alliances and Partnerships: to build, finance, and develop early stage companies”, November 2006 (speaker and moderator)
- “Building Boards of Advisors and Boards of Directors”, March 2006 (moderator)
- “Protecting Your Intellectual Property”, January 2006 (speaker)
Business Law Blog by Robert Adelson, Esq. 