To ATDC member companies only:
For all aspiring technology companies, the hiring of new employees is the rewarding confirmation that your business is starting to take off. Unfortunately, this can also be an exhaustive process that quickly consumes many hours. Consider the time required to collect and review resumes, schedule and conduct early phone screens and interviews, and chase references. It’s easy to see why many businesses dread this process, especially in an economy that’s producing an overwhelming flood of applicants. How will you find your "A" players in that ominously tall stack of resumes?
I recently met with ATDC member Toomah.com whom I believe may have the answer. Toomah has released EZRecruiter, a SaaS software application that automates the numerous candidate selection steps normally followed by a recruiter (or small business owner), freeing you up to focus on your business.
The solution follows a work flow process which allows the user to aggregate applicants from all job posting sources and naturally narrows the applicant funnel, so you don’t have to become an expert in interviewing processes. You simply pre-load your company’s job information and a few questions, and the automation takes over. Their system quickly allows you to screen for qualification and motivation, and provides clear insight into candidate experience and qualifications. Perhaps the most impressive technology is the media-rich tool which allows for the voice recording of responses which is then accessible via the web. All the candidate data is collected and maintained within the system, making it easy to share this with business colleagues, regardless of their time zone, zip code or schedule demands. Customers using the Toomah solution can typically expect to save at least 50% of the time they would normally spend screening and interviewing candidates.
Toomah has generously offered to allow any fellow ATDC member the opportunity to "trial" their solution for free for up to a 60 day period (a savings of over $400 per position hired). Please visit Toomah.com or contact either Jay Forman (770-547-3081) at jay.forman@toomah.com or Joe Gruca @ joe.gruca@toomah.com or to learn more about their solution and begin using it in your business.
So, you’ve applied to ATDC – now what? Now, we want to provide you with membership benefits that you need to accelerate your business. To do that, we need your feedback, your suggestions, your comments and questions. Help us help you!
To get you started, here’s a short list of services that we think would be beneficial to you.
- Startup Circles – Each member company will be involved in a Startup Circle – a subgroup of ATDC members (segmented by georgraphy, industry, stage of growth, etc.). These will be created as a means of program delivery, as well as ease of getting together and networking with fellow entrepreneurs. Startup Circles will have their own CEO roundtables, member roundtables (based on subject matter), socials, and the like.
- Startup Catalyst Coaching – The ATDC staff is made up of Startup Catalysts that provide coaching, instruction, connections, and support. ATDC members can request Startup Catalyst coaching by signing up for their office hours.
- St. Charles Open Breakfast – Join ATDC associates every Monday morning at 7:45 a.m. at St. Charles Deli in Technology Square. No agenda – just open dialogue about whatever is on your mind.
- Brown Bag – Brown Bag is a monthly educational program that covers startup business issues (i.e. sales, marketing, fundraising, exit strategies, etc.).
- Social Networking – Social networking with ATDC is as simple as befriending us on Facebook, joining our group on LinkedIn, and following us on Twitter.
Okay – your turn. Is this what you want? If not, expand on these benefits to make them better – or give us some new ideas all together. (Don’t worry – we’ve got more ideas, too – we just want to hear from you first!)
And stay tuned – we’re planning a few open forum sessions so that you can bring your ideas to us in person! Check back for dates and times.
Getting the right first customers is critical to the success of a tech startup. The right first customers can validate a company's value proposition, the market need, and product features. The right first customers can also be an invaluable marketing asset when done right. They can become part of your ongoing development team, helping you plan the product road map and the next release schedule while refining the product delivery model.
There are several competing theories for obtaining first customers:
- Low-risk, low-hanging fruit: In this model, a company can leverage a trusted relationship to get the benefit of someone who is personally invested in your company and where the risk of imperfect delivery may be lower. The personally invested customer can help shape and refine the product, be careful to ensure the results from these customers still prove out the unique value of the solution and do not take you off the critical path.
- Large, reputable leader: A win and an early reference-able customer can lead to a rapid acceleration from one to many customers through this strong reference. The risk of chasing a Bank of America or Coca Cola is that pursuit of that one large customer can consume most of a small organization's limited resources with an uncertain result. If you pursue a high profile, larger first customer, be sure to prioritize companies who whom you have done business. It is also essential that your product is a must have, not a like to have with no alternative.
- Dual path: With sufficient resources, it is possible to pursue a large prospect while delivering value and proving out the value proposition to a set of lower profile early customers.
Critical attributes of first customers include:
- Eagerness to provide feedback and help shape the product
- Participation in a ROI success story or customer testimonial
- Willingness to pay for the product – either in full cash or through significant investment in R&D with a highly discounted product (validate the business model!)
It is probably not realistic to fully prove out your business model or to refine your sales process with first customers, but you should be able to prove and refine your value proposition and to refine your ideal target customer profile. Moreover, you can begin to create a compelling marketing story to take to the next set of customers to prove that you can gain customer traction.
Sound strategy around pursuit of first customers can be one of the most important factors in a company's success. Be sure to pursue them thoughtfully.
If you have a success or failure story about first customers to share, please share with us.
At a recent ATDC lunch and learn, we had Margie Bieler of Rare Agent provide an educational program to our members on lead generation, and in particular, on tactics to cold call successfully to get a meeting with a target buyer.
Should a small company outsource certain lead generation activities to a company like Rare Agent? What are the pros and cons?
In my opinion, for some young tech companies, hiring a good, cost-effective firm like Rare Agent, makes a lot of sense. Frequently tech startups have engineering-heavy founders who are not experienced or skilled at sales. Founders are wearing many hats simultaneously and often do not take adequate time and focus to develop the appropriate messages and processes to be productive with their sales campaigns. Moreover, it is time-consuming, difficult and expensive to hire a trained sales agent to work full time.
In the case of Rare Agent, they price $55 to $65 per hour for a 40 hour week and recommend a 6 week campaign to ensure adequate time and investment to achieve a payoff. The total of $12-$16K is not cheap, but compared to the time and costs of hiring in-house, this could be a good deal for a startup not yet ready to commit to a full year’s salary.
I know companies who have used outsourced lead generation and succeeded and others who have tried and failed. But some of those who failed did not scale their business on their own either. Was it the outsourced company’s fault or perhaps an unclear or uncompelling value proposition?
Please share your experience with successful or failed outsourced lead generation. We want to hear from you.
Social media consultant Josh Hallett recently spoke at an ATDC brown bag lunch on awareness, discoverability, and approachability using social tools on the Internet. Here’s the video of the event:
Yes, VCs do care about your customers. After all, customers are the ones that are taking money from their pocket and putting into your pocket. This will eventually get money into your VC’s pocket!
Atlanta venture capitalist Nelson Chu from Kinetic Ventures recently gave his thoughts on what it really means to "know your customer" and why it matters.
View the video of his full presentation…