Business Strategy for Software Executives

March 17 , 2008

Software VC Outlook for 2008

It’s not a particular business model or technology that’ll get your company funded in 2008. The key is to solve a valuable business problem

By Bryan Stolle, Mohr Davidow Ventures

Over the last few years, no entrepreneur pitching a VC for funding would use the words “enterprise software” in their company description. Last year, no entrepreneur refrained from using the word “SaaS” to describe their business model.

Investment trends come and go but software has been the leading category of venture funding for many years. Nearly $5.3 billion was invested in 905 companies during 2007.

Right now, software VC activity is hot again. But what’s different these days is how VC firms are thinking about “software” investments and what entrepreneurs should focus on during their fundraising.

New Study and Podcast:
Achieving Enterprise Software Success

A recent survey of software buyers and sellers investigated perspectives on what constitutes a successful enterprise software deployment. The study, conducted by SandHill.com and Neochange, generated some eye-opening findings about the various measures of software success, the drivers of success, and software buyers expectations' of their vendors in terms of helping them achieve success. Based on the findings, the author's developed a list of best practices aimed at improving the success of today's enterprise software deployments.

To learn more from the study, listen to a new podcast with the study's authors, SandHill.com's M.R. Rangaswami and Neochange's Chris Dowse as they discuss the findings and implications of the research. Or to review the survey findings in detail, download a complimentary copy of the full report, “Achieving Enterprise Software Success.”

Mashups Drive Innovation

Few technology innovations spring from thin air. Most result from evolving or changing other ideas. Jeremy Burton of Serena Software explains how mashups can help foster continued innovation in the software industry in this post to the SandHill.com Blog on Enterprise 2.0.

2007 M&A & VC Wrap-Up

2007 was another strong year for software finance, with growth in venture capital fundings and M&A activity. See all the latest charts on M&A, VC and LBO trends, in addition to lists of the top deals and software VC firms, in this post to the software finance blog.

Saying “Goodbye” to Legacy Systems

Web 2.0 tools are enabling enterprises to create new tools that transform their aging client/server applications with a modular, service oriented approach. Read how in this post to the blog on Enterprise 2.0 by Judith Hurwitz.

Publish Your Perspective!

SandHill.com wants your opinions. Send your thoughts on the enterprise software industry to SandHill.com editor, Maryann Jones Thompson (maryann@sandhill.com) and have your opinions published on our site.

Get the Latest on Hot Topics

Technology and business model trends are the drivers of innovation in the software business. Read the latest news, opinion and analysis on these hot software topics by accessing the new SandHill.com Topics Pages:
SaaS
Open Source
Offshoring & Outsourcing
M&A
Got ideas for other topic pages? Email the editor at maryann@sandhill.com

Starting Up as CFO

There are a few critical tasks that all finance chiefs must tackle in their first hundred days. Read which jobs are the most important in this article from The McKinsey Quarterly.

News Update: Quantifying the Cloud

SaaS drives datacenters in the sky; plus, Forrester names "cloud" vendors to watch, an Oracle exec jumps to Microsoft, a Novell exec regrets the MS deal and IBM debuts "Smash." Read these stories and more software news of the week in the latest SandHill.com Software News Summary.

Poll: Software VC Forecast?

How will software investment levels change in the venture space during 2008?
Take our Pulse Poll >>

Last week, readers forecasted the future for the ad-supported software model.
Give us your opinion and see the results >>

More at SandHill.com:

Bill would double cap on H-1B visas.
Read the most important enterprise software industry news of the week >>

Endeca Technologies secured $25 million.
Monitor the latest software venture capital deals >>

BMC paid $800 million for BladeLogic.
Size up last week's software M&A deals >>

William Price is named CEO of Widgetbox.
See who's made it to the top in our list of recent software executive appointments.

Send us your feedback on this newsletter and the SandHill.com site.

Parting Thought

“Lack of money is no obstacle. Lack of an idea is an obstacle”
–Ken Hakuta

Courtesy of Malcolm Kusher, The Kushner Group

THIS WEEK'S SPONSOR

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SandHill.com is published by Sand Hill Group, which provides investment and management advice to emerging leaders in the $600 billion enterprise software, services and solutions market. Sand Hill Group produces the Software and the Enterprise series of conferences for industry executives, and authors research reports on cutting-edge technology topics.