If the Shoe Fits: Open to Disruption
by Miki SaxonA Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here
Wednesday I showcased tech careers that have nothing to do with startups, consumers, or social media.
If you plan to spend the sweat, blood and tears it takes to start a company isn’t it best to start one with the greatest chance of succeeding?
Then why not follow in the market steps of Palo Alto Networks, Jive, and Splunk, instead of Facebook and Groupon?
According to Sequoia Capital’s Jim Goetz, the $500 Billion market for enterprise software is ripe for disruption; doing so makes you far more likely to succeed.
“At Sequoia, upwards of a hundred entrepreneurs a week present and if we’re lucky, maybe a dozen of them are focusing on the enterprise. In the last 10 years, there have been 56 IPOs in the enterprise space that have gotten north of a billion [dollars in market capitalization] and just 23 in consumer.”
I have a somewhat cynical take on why there’s a shortage of enterprise startups.
- Enterprise solutions rarely start in a dorm room.
- You need to have some familarity with a market to disrupt it.
- It’s difficult to create a solution to problems of which you are unaware, haven’t experienced and wouldn’t know how to solve if you had.
- It’s easier to create something jazzy and fun and give it away than it is to solve a real problem that must be bought (with real money).
Appearances can be deceiving, but looking at the management of Palo Alto Networks, Jive Software and Splunk it seems that only one founder (Jive) was actually “young” when the company started.
Another thing is that they didn’t fast-track to their IPO based on hope and hype; instead they IPOed on revenues and real growth.
These are the kind of companies that grow, add value and help create a new middle-class.
Be sure to join me next Wednesday for a look at founder Henry Ford’s thoughts on that subject and why you should care.
Option Sanity™ spreads the wealth fairly.
Come visit Option Sanity for an easy-to-understand, simple-to-implement stock allocation system. It’s so easy a CEO can do it.
Warning.
Do not attempt to use Option Sanity™ without a strong commitment to business planning, financial controls, honesty, ethics, and “doing the right thing.”
Use only as directed.
Users of Option Sanity may experience sudden increases in team cohesion and worker satisfaction. In cases where team productivity, retention and company success is greater than typical, expect media interest and invitations as keynote speaker.
Flickr image credit: HikingArtist
