Startup CEOs: The Time is Now

September 15, 2010

Startup CEOs: The Time is Now

Irritated by doom-saying commentators on one side and cheerleading VCs on the other, serial software entrepreneur and economic cycle-watcher Jon B. Fisher explains why now is the right time to start a company.

By Maryann Jones Thompson, SandHill.com

Jon B. Fisher is ready to put his money where his mouth is. After selling his third software company to Oracle in 2007, Fisher took a break from the CEO life to become an expert on economic cycles and their impact on the entrepreneurial process. He’s spent the past two years commenting on the economy for major media outlets, lecturing at business schools and hitting the road to deliver more than fifty speeches to entrepreneurs and small business owners around the country.

Now Fisher is betting that it is time to get back in the game: He’s launching a new authentication startup, Predilect. His in-depth knowledge of economic cycles says a recovery is in the works, which will present a window of opportunity in which startups can launch and grow.

Cloud Webinar Tomorrow

SandHill.com’s MR Rangaswami and Kamesh Pemmaraju are joined by OpenQ’s CTO, Otavio Freire, and Ness Software Product Lab’s VP of Strategic Consulting, Neil Fox in a new webinar for software executives on September 16, 2010, at 11:00 AM EST. The discussion will cover the type of applications companies are moving to the cloud, the top barriers to cloud adoption and the top five implications and cloud to-dos for ISVs.
Click here to register and find out more.

On the Radar: coAction.com

As today’s collaboration platform market is being propelled faster and farther than ever before, coAction.com president Jagdish Talreja discusses how coAction is making bold moves in the SaaS field. Read a profile of this up and coming software company on the SandHill.com Radar.

The Masters of Perception

Apple dominates the market with its iMacs, iPods, and now its iPads. Guy Smith of Silicon Strategies Marketing demystifies Apple’s control over the technology market in this post to the SandHill.com Blog on Software Marketing.

Leveraging CRM to Gain Customer Insight

Every successful company absorbs customer insight during the buying process. Anil Gupta of Zoomerang explains how to utilize this information as part of a CRM system and reap more benefits in this post to the SandHill.com Blog on Best Practices Sales.

Cloud Technology Best Practices From the Field - Part 2

Kamesh Pemmaraju shares more best practices gleaned from recent interviews with enterprise experts deploying cloud technology in the field. Get the latest in this post to his SandHill.com Blog, Leaders in the Cloud.

The Lure of New Onshore Locales

Though many IT services have moved to offshore centers from India to Russia over the years, many service providers are staying ashore in second-tier cities of their home markets. Learn more about this trend in this article from The McKinsey Quarterly.

New Webinar: A Renaissance in Software Quality

Today's application architectures require that quality assurance and testing organizations transform themselves into strategic lifecycle partners, working with all parties both inside and outside the organization to champion software quality. Join SandHill.com publisher M.R. Rangaswami as he moderates a thought-provoking discussion, “Is Quality An Afterthought? Moving from Gatekeepers to Strategic Business Partner,” with Kate Gentry of AutoDesk and James Shaw of Cognizant. The webinar will take place on Sept. 29 at 10am Pacific.

Click here to learn more and register now.

Poll: Startup Timing?

Is anytime the right time to start a new company?
Take our Pulse Poll >>

The Latest Software Business News on SandHill.com

All Headlines: Ex-HP CEO Mark Hurd to deliver keynote at Oracle OpenWorld.

VC Activity: VCs invest more in the cloud, including $13 million in StorSimple.

M&A Deals: HP buys ArcSight for $1.5 billion.

Executive Moves: AbsolutData adds four new executives to its ranks.

Quote of the Week

“Informatica is a great target for anyone, but the amount of overlap with Oracle's business suggests that any acquisition would be more about removing a competitor from the field than strategic advancement. I believe Oracle's next move will be in hardware, not software.”

- Merv Adrian of IT Market Strategy on Oracle’s acquisition strategy.

This Week's Sponsor

Ness Software Product Labs delivers the next generation of the managed software development lab - R&D and software product development outsourcing and consulting that extends software product capacity and drives innovation. Ness operates over 50 labs for ISVs and other product-oriented clients, utilizing delivery centers across India and Eastern Europe. These centers are designed to provide software ISVs and enterprise organizations who rely on proprietary software to generate their revenues with a complete extension of their internal R&D software development team.
Click here for more.

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