jim's profile飞雪空间PhotosBlogLists Tools Help

Blog


    April 11

    Before the Call Secures $2.54 Million in Series A Funding

     
    Gould Investments and Band of Angels Lead First Round for On-Demand Sales Intelligence Solution
    SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 10, 2006-- Before the Call, the market and technology leader in on-demand sales intelligence solutions, has received $2.54 million in funding led by Gould Investments of Menlo Park. The Band of Angels, a formal group of more than 100 former and current high-tech executives in Silicon Valley, also contributed to the round, along with Steve Blank, Epiphany founder, and Martin Brauns, former CEO of Interwoven.
    Before the Call will use the funds to finance its go-to-market strategy, increase marketing and sales efforts, and expand the company's on-demand sales intelligence offering to a broader group of customer relationship management vendors. Its sales intelligence solution currently runs on salesforce.com's AppExchange, the world's first on-demand platform.
    "There is an undeniable need for greater efficiency within the intelligence-gathering part of the sales process, which is typically expensive, disjointed and extremely time-consuming," said Kathryn Gould, who heads up Gould Investments. "Before the Call dramatically improves sales effectiveness by letting reps focus on closing deals instead of on research, and its on-demand model costs a fraction of what traditional intelligence tools run."
    Dr. Ian Sobeiski, Ph.D., a founder and managing director of the Band of Angels, said the Band examines more than 700 business plans a year but only invests in about eight. "We look for companies that are using cutting-edge technologies to solve real business problems, and that's exactly why Before the Call captured our attention. Sales effectiveness is a major challenge facing today's enterprise, and Before the Call has come up with a cost-effective solution that we believe will change the way companies run their sales operations."
    "This investment validates the need for sales intelligence solutions that empower sales professionals," said Fred Walters, Before the Call co-founder. "For anyone who has lived the time-consuming pain of researching and cobbling together data, Before the Call will undoubtedly make a difference in their future success."
    "Sales intelligence is exactly what sales organizations need to become more efficient and more effective," said customer Andy Creach, Intervoice director of inside sales. "So much time is wasted manually researching leads that turn out to be irrelevant, and hot leads often go cold because no one gets to them in time. Before the Call not only tells you which leads are hot, it brings the intelligence you need to close the deal right to your fingertips."
    About Before the Call
    Before the Call incorporated in March 2005 and is privately held. Its on-demand sales intelligence solution provides details about each sales lead and ranks the leads according to the criteria that the user chooses, including industry, company size or location. Content partners include idEXEC, Factiva, Harte-Hanks, LinkedIn and ZoomInfo. Before the Call then automatically provides the most appropriate internal documents for each sales call, such as relevant case studies, product brochures, technical whitepapers, and other sales collateral. Before the Call retains all the information in a customer "portfolio" that is forever associated with the lead record within the user's CRM system and is made available throughout the entire sales process. The company is located at 1250 Oakmead Parkway, Suite 210, Sunnyvale, Calif. 94085. More information is available at www.beforethecall.com or 408-501-8889.
    About Gould Investments
    Kathryn Gould began investing her own money through Gould Investments in 2005. She was a venture capitalist for nearly 20 years, the last 10 at Foundation Capital, which she co-founded in 1995 and which now has more than $1.5 billion under management. Before that she was a partner at Merrill, Pickard, Anderson and Eyre and was the original vice president of marketing at Oracle. Companies in which she has invested include Interwoven, Documentum, Chordiant Software, Applied Digital Access, Eloquent, Visioneer and Storm Technologies. More information is available at www.gouldinvestments.com.
    About the Band of Angels
    The Band of Angels is Silicon Valley's oldest organization still dedicated exclusively to funding and advising seed-stage startups. The Band is a formal group of more than 100 former and current high-tech executives who have founded companies such as Symantec, Logitech, and National Semiconductor and been senior executives at the likes of Sun Microsystems, HP and Intuit. More information is available at www.bandangels.com.
    CONTACT: PR Strategy, Cynthia Harris, 650-520-8343, charris@vocecomm.com
    April 07

    猎人与猎狗

     
      一条猎狗将兔子赶出了窝,一直追赶它,追了很久仍没有捉到。
      羊看到此情景,讥笑猎狗说:“你们两个之间,个子小的反而跑得快得多。”
      猎狗回答:“你不知道,我们两个跑的目的是完全不同的!我仅仅为了一顿饭,他却是为了性命!”
      这话被猎人听到了。猎人想:猎狗说的对啊,我要是想得到更多的猎物,就得想个好法子。
      猎狗发问
      于是,猎人买来几条猎狗,凡是能够在打猎中捉到兔子的,就可以得到几根骨头,捉不到的就没有饭吃。这一招果然有用,猎狗们纷纷去努力追兔子,因为谁都不愿意自己没吃的。过了一段时间,问题又出现了。大兔子非常难捉到,小兔子好捉。但捉到大兔子得到的奖赏和捉到小兔子得到的骨头差不多,猎狗们善于观察,发现了这个窍门,专门去捉小兔子。
      猎人知道后,经过思考,将分配方式改为根据猎狗捕捉的兔子的总重量决定其待遇。于是猎狗们捉到兔子的数量和重量都增加了。
      猎人很开心。但是过了一段时间,猎人发现,猎狗们捉兔子的数量又少了,而且越有经验的猎狗,捉兔子的数量下降得就越多。于是猎人又去问猎狗。
      猎狗说:“我们把最好的时间都奉献给了您,主人。但是我们会变老,当我们捉不到兔子的时候,您还会给我们骨头吃吗?”
      猎狗出走
      猎人决定论功行赏,规定如果捉到的兔子超过了一定的数量后,即使捉不到兔子,每顿饭也可以得到一定数量的骨头。一段时间过后,有一些猎狗达到了猎人规定的数量。这时,其中有一只猎狗说:“我们这么努力,只得到几根骨头,而我们捉的猎物远远超过了这几根骨头,我们为什么不能给自己捉兔子呢?”于是,有些猎狗离开了猎人,自己捉兔子去了。
      重新归队
      猎人意识到猎狗正在流失,并且那些流失的猎狗像野狗一般和自己的猎狗抢兔子。情况变得越来越糟,于是猎人再次进行了改革,使得每条猎狗除骨头外,还可以获得其所猎兔肉总量的N%,而且随着服务时间加长,贡献变大,该比例还可递增,并有权分享猎人总兔肉的M%。这样之后,连离散的猎狗也纷纷要求重新归队。
      挤垮猎人
      日子一天一天地过去,兔子越来越少,猎人们的收成也一天不如一天。而那些服务时间长的老猎狗们老得不能捉兔子,但仍然在无忧无虑地享受着那些他们自以为是应得的大份食物。终于有一天猎人再也不能忍受,把它们扫地出门,因为猎人需要更身强力壮的猎狗……
      被扫地出门的老猎狗们得到了一笔不菲的赔偿金,于是他们成立了MicroBone公司。他们采用连锁加盟的方式招募野狗,向野狗们传授猎兔的技巧,自己从猎得的兔子中抽取一部分作为管理费。当赔偿金几乎全部用于广告后,他们终于有了足够多的野狗加盟。公司开始赢利。
      一年后,他们收购了猎人的家当。 
          MicroBone公司许诺给加盟的野狗能得到公司n%的股份。这实在是太有诱惑力了。这些自认为是怀才不遇的野狗们都以为找到了知音:终于做公司的主人了,不用再忍受猎人们呼来唤去的不快,不用再为捉到足够多的兔子而累死累活,也不用眼巴巴地乞求猎人多给两跟骨头而扮得楚楚可怜。这一切对这些野狗来说,这比多吃两根骨头更加受用。于是野狗们拖家带口地加入了MicroBone,一些在猎人门下的年轻猎口也开始蠢蠢欲动,甚至很多自以为聪明实际愚蠢的猎人也想加入。好多同类型的公司象雨后春笋般地成立了,BoneEase, Bone.com, ChinaBone....一时间,森林里热闹起来。
      
    F4 的诞生
      
    猎人凭借出售公司的钱走上了老猎狗走过的路,最后千辛万苦要与MicroBone公司谈判的时候,老猎狗出人意料的顺利答应了猎人,把MicroBone公司卖给了猎人。老猎狗们从此不再经营公司,转而开始写自转《老猎狗的一生》,又写:《如何成为出色的猎狗》,《如何从一只普通猎狗成为一只管理层的猎狗》《猎狗成功秘诀》《成功猎狗500条》《穷猎狗,富猎狗》,并且将老猎狗的故事搬上屏幕,取名《猎狗花园》,四只老猎狗成为了家喻户晓的明星F4. 收版权费,没有风险,利润更高。

    经济学家奈特有一个很著名的观点:“决定一个人富有的三个条件,一是出身,二是运气,三是努力,而这三者之中,努力是最微不足道的。”

     经济学家奈特有一个很著名的观点:“决定一个人富有的三个条件,一是出身,二是运气,三是努力,而这三者之中,努力是最微不足道的。”叔本华说:“在这世上存在三种力:明智、力量和运气。我相信运气至为重要。我们的一生可比之于一条船的航程。运气——顺运或者逆运——扮演着风的角色,它可以迅速推进我们的航程,也可以把我们推回老远的距离,此时我们的努力和奋斗都是徒劳无功的。我们的努力和挣扎只是发挥着桨橹的作用。我们竭尽全力挥舞桨橹数小时,终于向前走了一程,这时,突如其来的一阵强风一下子就能使我们倒退同样的距离。一句西班牙谚语就很美妙地表达了命运的强大力量:”祝愿你儿子好运,然后把他抛进大海吧!‘“