Yearly Archives: 2005

Any software company out there knows the anticipation and subsequent excitement around a new version release. Today, Comcate rolled out Version 4 of its flagship software eFeedbackManager to its thousands of local government users.

Being the ASP/on-demand software provider we are, the servers were intentionally down the first part of the day as our technology team pushed live the new build. As our President and I traveled around (I logged on from four different Wi-fi hotspots today, nearly ubiquitous access anywhere we were – ah, what the Japanese experience every day) we calmly awaited the word from the tech guys about the status. We had a meeting where we needed to demo the software and the timing would be close. Still no word on the status, we walked into the building of our meeting with paper screenshots as a worst case backup. Walking down the hallway, my partner got a call that the site was up and everything went smoothly and he was given the username/passwords to use. Whew – that was close!

Release days are exciting as they affirm the beauty of the on-demand model and the fact that we are committed to keeping our product cutting edge. Thank God I was wearing my bow tie (I’m a bow tie kind of guy) to keep me sane during the close call!

Congratulations Dave, Olivier, Mark, Liem, Shana, and the rest of the Comcate team.

Branding and a strong, unified identity to present the market matters for big companies. It doesn’t matter for start-ups. Especially when there’s a lot of relationship based selling or in-person interactions with prospects, trying to craft a unique “brand” is silly. In the start up phase, the company is responding to customer needs and growing organically through additional modules or services. It is totally natural for a company to get in the door with X, the customer is pleased, so they say “Gee, can you do Y?” Typical entrepreneur response (me included!): “Oh man, is this going to fit with our tagline/mission statement/vision/brand/identity?” Who gives a shit? If they’ll pay for it, then you are continuing to build the lock-in effect, you are continuing to gartner good customer feedback, and you are continuing to grow a client base. There should be a business model in there somewhere, but that’s a distinct issue from vision/branding. Worry about that crap later.

(Hat tip: The Mobius VC Kool-Aid, first Mr. Feld, and last week Mr. Prow over lunch. I guess I have to hear it many times for it to sink in.)