As a small business consultant and investor, I get invited to a lot of entrepreneurship conferences, many more than I have time to attend.
But when I got the e-mail from Ken Shapiro, vice president/investments at the Livaccari Shapiro Wealth Management Group of UBS Financial Services in New York City, I couldn’t say no. On the panel were Kevin Ryan, former DoubleClick CEO and now chairman and CEO of AlleyCorp LLC; Glenn Laumeister, CEO and chairman of PartSearch Technologies; and David Kidder, an internet advertising pioneer and now CEO and founder of Clickable. All three panelists represent Silicon Alley’s elite–serial entrepreneurs who raised millions of dollars from VCs and staged successful exits as well.
The theme of the Media and Technology Leadership Roundtable Spring CEO Summit was “No Excuses: Driving Business Growth Despite Today’s Economic Environment,” and the panelists delivered, sharing advice and war stories with the roomful of entrepreneurs and investors.
Here’s a sampling of what they said:
Kevin Ryan: After leaving DoubleClick, Ryan went and out started half a dozen companies in order to diversify his risk. The company that he spends the most time on these days is Gilt Groupe, which runs a site that provides invitation-only access to designer brands at up to 70 percent off. “The key to success is hiring great people,” said Ryan, who recently recruited former Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia CEO Susan Lyne to build the 200-person company to a $1 billion business. “I interview people every day.”
Glenn Laumeister: Laumeister founded PartSearch with the vision of building a consumer electronics replacement parts e-tailer that could sell “any part to any buyer” over the internet. “In the beginning, it’s life or death,” he said. “You either raise money or you die.” Like Ryan, Laumeister believes it’s not enough to have the best technology to win the game. “Client relationships are the key,” he said. “You have to be easy to work with.” His favorite technique for gauging the flexibility of prospective salespeople: Asking them to sell him a No. 2 pencil. If they can’t do it, he won’t hire them–no matter how impressive their resume is.
David Kidder: Kidder believes that the key to building a successful business is targeting the customer’s pain point. “You want to be in the business of selling painkillers, not vitamins,” he said. It’s also important to focus on sales and fundraising and, as CEO, to lead by example. On the other hand, you need to manage growth and recognize that there will be setbacks along the way. Kidder’s strategy is to try to have his company do seven things right for every one failure, then learn from his mistakes and move on.
The bottom line: Be a solutions company, not a technology company. And make sure your team is a winner.
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