Dave Kellogg
Technology executive, angel investor, independent director, adviser, and blogger. Formerly CEO of Host Analytics and MarkLogic, CMO of Business Objects and Versant, and independent director of Aster Data, Granular. Currently independent director of Alation and Nuxeo
The Holy Grail of the Repeatable Sales Process: Is Repeatability Enough?
Most of us are familiar with Mark Leslie’s classic Sales Learning Curve and its implications for building the early salesforce at an enterprise startup. In short, it argues that too many startups put “the pedal to the metal” on sales hiring too early – before they have enough knowledge, process, and infrastructure in place – […]
The Key to Branding Success: Staying in Character
Decades ago I had the pleasure of watching a branding video, created by a San Francisco ad agency, narrated by an advertising executive with a familiar voice who’d narrated scores of commercials [1]. It was, I believe, entitled Staying in Character and while I’ve searched the internet for it many times over the years — […]
Marketing Targeting: It’s Not Just Where You Fish, It’s What You Put on the Hook
Back in the day I was taught that marketers do three things, memorized via the acronym STP: segment, target, position. Divide the audience into different segments. For example, dividing consumers by demographics or dividing businesses by size or industry. Select the segments that the company wishes to target for its marketing. For example, choosing small […]
On the Perils of Taking Advice from Successful Business People
One of the hardest things about running startups is you’re never sure who to listen to. Your board members own big stakes in the company, but that doesn’t automatically align them with you. Your late-stage investors want low multiples on big numbers. Your early-stage investors want big multiples on small numbers. And they have their […]
Marketing Exists to Make Sales Easier
Many moons ago when I was young product marketing manager, I heard a new VP of Marketing speak at a marketing all-hands meeting. He spoke with a kiwi accent and his name was Chris Greendale. What he said were six words that changed my career: Marketing exists to make sales easier While this has clearly […]
Does Enterprise SaaS Need a Same-Store Sales Metric?
Enterprise SaaS and retailers have more in common than you might think. Let’s think about retailers for a minute. Retailers drive growth in two ways: They open new stores They increase sales at existing stores Opening new stores is great, but it’s an expensive way to drive new sales and requires a lot of up-front […]
How Startup CEOs Should Think About the Coronavirus
I just reached out to the CEOs I work with with on this topic and figured I should also do a quick post to speak to the CEOs who follow Kellblog as well. The primary purpose of this post is to remind busy startup CEOs that an important part of your job is to be […]
Kellblog’s 10 Predictions for 2020
As I’ve been doing every year since 2014, I thought I’d take some time to write some predictions for 2020, but not without first doing a review of my predictions for 2019. Lest you take any of these too seriously, I suggest you look at my batting average and disclaimers. Kellblog 2019 Predictions Review 1. […]
Summary of the 4Q14 Fenwick & West VC Survey
Because I was reading it and had a minute, I thought I’d do a quick post summarizing the 4Q14 Fenwick & West Silicon Valley Venture Capital Survey (PDF). As the name indicates, this is an ongoing quarterly survey on the state of venture capital that pulls from many sources, integrating lots of data into a single […]
Managing the Fundamental Tension in Marketing
Say you’ve got a new product release. You’re super excited about your app’s new Feature X. It’s very innovative. Product marketing sees it as long-needed differentiator. Sales sees it as a silver bullet: “with Feature X, our competition is screwed.” Everyone’s excited. Then it happens. A regional sales VP says, “Hey, marketing, we’ve got a do […]
