I'm not big on plugging products, etc, but I'm making an exception in the case of Ryan Allis and his new book, Zero To One Million.Ryan is CEO of iContact, one of my firm's portfolio companies. iContact is a high-performing company, and at just 23 years old Ryan is a high-performing guy. He's also an extremely genuine, altruistic young man who o...

In an world where the means exist to engage customers (nearly) constantly, why is it that so few companies Never Stop Selling?Every successful On-Demand/Software as a Service (SaaS) business I've seen has a highly efficient sales process, measuring every move its components make and doing its best to expand the gap between Customer Lifetime Value (...

Today we (Updata Partners) held our annual LP meeting in Reston, VA. In addition to the typical performance and portfolio review, our investors had the chance to see presentations from a several of our CEOs. One particular segment, a panel on the evolution of Marketing on the Web, was particularly compelling. Mark Walsh, formerly of AOL, Vertica...

Note: this entry is a reprint from a May 1, 2007 post I put up on my firm's blog. I'm re-posting it here because I have received several questions about our investment in ForeSee Results following recent survey results highlighting changes in Yahoo and Google online customer satisfaction.THE CUSTOMER IS KING. It?s a Universal Law, right? Like Ne...

Online vertical marketplaces have been the object alternately (and sometimes simultaneously) of love and hate practically since the dawn of the World Wide Web. On the simplest level they facilitate and/or simplify connections and transactions between buyers and sellers; in many cases they create liquidity where previously none existed. I personal...

M is for Metrics. I think I am going to get that tattooed on my forehead. Or at least I am going to get it embroidered on a nice golf shirt that I can wear to due diligence.As a growth stage investor, I spend my days looking at businesses that most likely have grown up into real operations, with real products, processes, and customers. And oper...

After nearly a year in the VC ranks, I'm throwing my hat into the Venture Capital blogger ring. Realizing that it's a forum where there are opinions aplenty, I'm eager to add my perspective to the collective dialogue. After 10+ years in and around the software industry, with a few truly unique experiences, I hope that you find value in my input, ...