The real estate market for legal cannabis has always been a complicated world. Conditional use permits are subject to municipal zoning laws which, for a long time, had had little or no direction from the state governments. Even now as more and more states are voting for the adoption of medical and recreational legalization, the federal government and the unknown stance of President Elect Trump’s cabinet has thrown another layer of confusion into this already confounding situation. Continue reading
Category: Business
You probably heard the news Thursday morning about Microsoft getting European clearance to acquire LinkedIn and the acquisition deal closing. Salesforce.com has been kicking and screaming to press regulators not to allow the Microsoft LinkedIn acquisition to go through.
Digsy CEO, Andrew Bermudez, sits down with Nimble Founder & CEO, Jon Ferrara, who shares how he has grown both Nimble and former startup, Goldmine CRM without employing salespeople. This interview is packed with insight and great ideas. Watch the full video interview below.
Key Takeaways:
- Jon is a trained engineer, turned sales genius
- How he successfully bootstrapped his first startup, Goldmine CRM
- How Goldmine CRM was acquired by Frontrange Solutions
- How Nimble leverages social data and social signals to grow sales
It was a beautiful feeling.
We had just raised our first after-seed round of investment, bumping my salary as cofounder and CTO from a voluntary $24k a year to a healthy six figures, while simultaneously driving up the value of my stock equity. The rest of the team, my comrades in arms, were similarly bumped and positively impacted.
Flash back to around 2011 at my previous company.
We had a great team, a solid product, and even some paying users. We’d all been slaving away at sub-market wages for quite some time, putting in sweat equity to build something real. To reward ourselves for our wisdom and hard work, we went on a well-deserved shopping spree at the Apple store and bought ourselves the latest Macbook Pros, with bells and whistles.
I would have thought you insane if you suggested to me, back in that day, that we were at the top of a rollercoaster. And yet approximately two years later, we were at the bottom, broke, with no real shot at getting back up. What the hell happened?
You’re sitting at your computer, working on your daily tasks when all of a sudden you get excited. A new customer just converted on your website. Not just any customer, I’m talking about a whale. Someone who will generate tons of revenue for your company, be it a one-time deal or on a recurring basis. You immediately stop what you are doing and turn to your co-worker: “Holy crap, did you see the customer that just converted? This could make us a lot of money.” You decide to give this customer 5-star service. They ask a question that could take 30 minutes of your time to answer? Who cares, we could get paid a ton it’s worth the time. You do whatever it takes to keep them happy and close the deal. You need this whale to give you cash, at any cost.
Does this sound familiar? What about your small customers that come in? Do you give the same urgency, care and attention to the small fish in the pond?