
Marketing: Community emerges as a source of customer ‘truth’
During a recent CxOTalk conversation with Wendy Lea, CEO of Get Satisfaction (disclosure: I am an advisor), we discussed the value of online communities in brand marketing. Although support organizations have long used communities to improve customer service and reduce costs, the relationship of community to marketing is particularly interesting. You can view the entire discussion […]

Startup Lessons: Tough Decisions
This is the 6th installment in the Startup Lessons series I have been writing in the wake of my experience with Get Satisfaction. This one is a tough one to write and it is important to acknowledge that when it comes to strategy there is a lot of nuance and the fact remains that you […]

Startup Lessons: Board Management
This is the 5th installment in the Startup Lessons series I have been writing in the wake of my experience with Get Satisfaction. This one will certainly inspire a lot of head shaking around the table as anyone who has been involved with a startup can relate to this. To recap, here is the series […]

Startup Lessons: Marketing
This is the 4th installment in the Startup Lessons series I have been writing in the wake of my experience with Get Satisfaction. We are getting into the topics that are much more specific to Get Satisfaction, therefore I have an obligation to redact certain details that are confidential however in the spirit of shared […]

Startups Lessons: Product First
I have covered a couple of topics in this series, the first being hiring the best people and the second organizing for success based on the attributes of the people you are hiring. Today I want to go into territory less obvious because let’s face it, hiring the best people and creating conditions where they […]

Startup Lessons: Dynamic Org Structures
Last week I posted the first in a series of posts about my startup experience with Get Satisfaction. The first post focused on hiring and was appropriately the first in the series because hiring decisions will make or break your company. However, it doesn’t stop there and once you have a team of smart capable […]

Startup Lessons Learned: Hiring
I spent 3 years at Get Satisfaction, going from around 10 employees to 70′ish at the peak. Leaving was not an easy choice but after 3 years I needed to do something different, not better just different; I detailed my reasons and next move here. After much contemplation I decided to write a blog post […]

My Next Journey: Ping Identity
I recently wrapped up my transition period out of Get Satisfaction and immediately swung into a new role at Ping Identity. This was no easy decision for me as I continue to support the mission of Get Satisfaction and have invested much of myself in it over the last 3 years. Life in the Valley […]

CRM Watchlist 2013 Winners: Social is as Social Does the Mainstream, Part 2
Last Thursday, I reviewed Attensity, Gigya and Jive. This week we complete the circle with the final three social mavens – Get Satisfaction, Lithium, Nimble. Again, I’m a bit tough but I do think a lot of these companies and they have been impact playe…

Busy April Brings Opportunities
I read Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in college (yes, in Middle English and no, it wasn’t that long ago) and now every April brings me back to the opening verses about spring time and renewal. This April was especially memorable in our industry and as the month has just passed I wanted to take a moment […]