No one answers the telephone anymore. What does this signal about the importance of customer service? At least, technology companies in the US surely don’t answer the phone. Not many, anyway. With big companies, you are either presented with an endless phone tree–“press 1 for a company directory”–or that “favorite” communications technology. Yes, the cheerful […]
High Tech Market Research for New Products
One of the biggest problems in high-tech businesses is that a “technology-focused” approach often tends to dominate strategic decisions. This is especially true among startups. This shouldn’t be a surprise, of course. Many founders of software and hardware companies tend to come from engineering, programming, or other technical backgrounds. This enables a corporate strength in […]
Negotiating and Working with Large Technology OEM Partners
The Holy Grail for many software and hardware companies, especially the early stage type, is the big deal. Everyone is looking for a big deal. Especially for startups, the deal that will fund the company’s early activities, provides market credibility and momentum in the marketplace. Of course, if all goes well there can be nothing […]
The Haphazard Development of People in Early Stage High Tech Organizations
Many entrepreneurs start out giving little thought to how they will grow their embryonic software or hardware business in the long run. They are totally focused on designing and releasing the first product or making that first sale. This focus is usually a very positive thing in a new company. Grandiose plans of startups have […]
Selling Through OEMs
I’ve previously discussed selling through VARs as a distribution channel strongly favored (maybe a bit too much!) by many early-stage technology and software companies. In this article, I will look at another “holy grail” channel that is often misunderstood and misused: The Hardware & Software OEM Channel. This channel can pay big dividends. But more […]
