Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing : Kleiner Perkins 7 rules for start-ups

Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing

Kleiner Perkins 7 rules for start-ups

Kleiner Perkins has 7 rules for start-ups they consider funding. I was on a "future of software" panel at TiECon East yesterday with Ajit Nazre, partner at Kleiner Perkins. Several interesting trends emerged from the panel discussion, but KP's 7 rules synthesized everything for me.

KP's 7 rules for start-ups

Instant Value to customers - solve a problem or create value with the first use
Viral adoption - Pull, not push. No direct sales force required
Minimum IT footprint, preferably none. Hosted SaaS is best.
Simple, intuitive user experience - no training required.
Personalized user experience - customizable
Easy configuration based on application or usage templates
Context aware - adjust to location, groups, preferences, devices, etc.

Most start-ups will not align with all 7 rules. But, if you don't follow at least 5 of them...rethink your plan and business model.

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Published Saturday, June 17, 2006 2:42 PM by Don Dodge

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Rehan’s blog » Blog Archive » 7 Rules for Software Start-ups said:

PingBack from http://rehan.zaidi.net/blog/?p=11

June 17, 2006 5:46 PM

Rick Martin said:

Don,

Absolutely, agree with the Perkins 7 rules for startup. I am the COO for Serden, which we are a startup and just established our US Headquarters located in Boston recently. We originally started in Europe (Paris) in 2002 with no capital investments other then from the 2 founders. Product has gone well and sales in Europe are going well and now we have reorganized company as a US based corporation ready to open US market. However, following the traditional enterprise license model I find reluctance on customer base and I recently recommended we move to a SaaS model in light of our relationship with Unisys, IBM GS and Telefonica all major outsourcing companies wanting to utilize our solution for their client base. However, the 3 outsourcing companies also push back on the traditioal licensing and once we accomodated them with what we call a rental agreement then things began to move in fast pace. Consequently, this got my wheels turning that we should consider a SaaS model moving forward. But since current revenues only allow us just to sustain ourselves we do not have the capital to really move to SaaS or escalate our US market and consequently in a position to seek outside funding even though founders are concerned about giving up control of company, which is a valid concern.

Are solution is based on Microsoft technologies and we recently integrated our solution to MOM, which I am speaking with Carl Coken's area per recommendations from Nicolas Kardas after we gave him presentation about our company and technology.

We definately are seeking investing assistance and any recommendations would be grateful.

Thank you,
Rick

July 14, 2006 1:54 PM

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About Don Dodge

I have been in the software business for more than 20 years. I started my software career with Digital Equipment Corp, aka DEC, in the database group. I worked with 5 software start-ups over the next 12 years. Forte Software was the first multiplatform object oriented development environment. AltaVista was the first search engine on the web. Napster was the first P2P file sharing network. Bowstreet was the first web services development environment. Groove Networks was the first secure P2P collaboration platform. Now I am at Microsoft...the biggest start-up in the world... working with VC's and start-ups in the greater Boston area. The goal is to help VC's and start-ups be successful with Microsoft, and together, provide great products for our customers.

Don Dodge

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