Dave Kellogg
CEO, HostAnalytics, a leader in cloud-based enterprise performance management (EPM).
Previously Dave was SVP/GM of Service Cloud at Salesforce , CEO at MarkLogic and CMO at Business Objects for nearly a decade as it grew from $30M to over $1B. See Dave's disclaimers at Kellblog.
The Two Archetypal Marketing Messages: “Bags Fly Free” and “Soup is Good Food.”
There are only two archetypal marketing messages, exemplified by: Bags Fly Free, a current advertising slogan used by Southwest airlines. Soup is Good Food, a 1970s campaign slogan used by Campbell’s soup [1]. Quick, what’s the difference between these two messages? Soup is Good Food answers the question “why buy one (at all)?” while Bags […]
The Domo S-1: Does the Emperor Have Clothes?
I preferred Silicon Valley [1] back in the day when companies raised modest amounts of capital (e.g., $30M) prior to an IPO that took 4-6 years from inception, where burn rates of $10M/year looked high, and where $100M raise was the IPO, not one or more rounds prior to it. When cap tables had 1x, […]
The Two Engines of SaaS: QCRs and DEVs
I remember one day, years ago, when I was a VP at $10M startup and Larry, the head of sales, came in one day handing out t-shirts that said: “Code, sell, or get out of the way.” Neither I, nor the rest of marketing team, took this particularly well because the shirt obviously devalued the […]
Talking Competition: Methinks Thou Doth Protest Too Much.
From time to time marketers and executives need to talk about the competition with those outside the company, including analysts, partners, and prospective investors. In this post, we’ll cover my 4 rules for this type of communication. Be Consistent. The biggest mistake people make is inconsistency, often because they’re trying to downplay a certain competitor. […]
“Always Scrubbing the Pipeline” Means “Never Scrubbing the Pipeline.”
Perhaps you’ve seen this movie: CEO: “Wow the quarterly pipeline dropped 20% this week. What’s going on sales VP?” Sales VP: “Well, that’s because we cleaned it up this week.” CEO: “That sounds great, but you said that last week.” VP of Sales: “Well, that’s because we scrubbed it then, too.” CEO: “So shouldn’t it […]
Bookings vs. Billings in a SaaS Company
Financial analysts speak a lot about “billings” in a public SaaS companies, but in private VC-backed SaaS companies, you rarely hear discussion of this metric. In this post, we’ll use a model of a private SaaS company (where we know all the internal metrics), to show how financial analysts use rules of thumb to estimate […]
Write Actionable Emails! (aka, If You’re Going to Make a Proposal, Make One!)
As CEO of a company, I can’t tell you the number of times, I get emails like this: Dave, I know our policy is that we don’t pay both the salesreps their high-rate commissions on low-profit, one-of items, but we ended up doing a $50K/year pass-along storage fee for Acme, because they are managing a […]
The Leaky Bucket, Net New ARR, and the SaaS Growth Efficiency Index
My ears always perk up when I hear someone say net new ARR — because I’m trying to figure out which, of typically two, ways they are using the term: To mean ARR from net new customers, in which case, I don’t know why they need the word “net” in there. I call this new business […]
My Appearance on DisrupTV Episode 100
Last week I sat down with interviewers Doug Henschen, Vala Afshar, and a bit of Ray Wang (live from a 777 taxiing en route to Tokyo) to participate in Episode 100 of DisrupTV along with fellow guests DataStax CEO Billy Bosworth and big data / science recruiter Virginia Backaitis. We covered a full gamut of topics, […]
The Question that CEOs Too Often Don’t Discuss with the Board
Startup boards are complex. While all board members own stock in the company their interests are not necessarily aligned. Founders may be motivated by a vision to change the world, to hit a certain net worth target, to see their name in an S-1, to make the Forbes 500, or — and I’ve seen crazier […]
