October 2010
Beginner
352 pages
6h 11m
English
Content preview from Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Chapter 22. Startups Seek Friends
Micah Baldwin
Micah is the CEO of Graphic.ly, a social digital distribution platform for comic book publishers and fans. Micah has been a TechStars mentor since 2007 and joined Graphic.ly after the company participated in TechStars in 2009. The company went on to raise $1.2 million from DFJ Mercury, Starz Media, Chris Sacca, and others.
Salespeople sell. It's what they do. Have you ever seen the play (or the movie) Glengarry Glen Ross? Salespeople sell. Want the pink Cadillac? Sell. Want the Glengarry leads? Sell. Don't sell? You're fired. It's really that simple.
In sales, the process is focused on having the salesperson win. The salesperson cannot think in any other way since his only purpose in life is to sell. For a salesperson, the customer's only reason to exist is to buy. While there is much discussion about the importance of the relationship, the relationship's only importance is to allow the salesperson to continue to sell. It's not evil—it's just how it works.
However, this doesn't work for early stage startups. The sale is not what is important. In early stage startups, the relationship reigns supreme. Why? Because startups screw up a lot. If you have solid relationships, there is an allowance for failure.
Take Lijit Networks, the last startup I worked for before becoming CEO at Graphic.ly. Lijit provides a search widget for publications that ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.