Launching a Series A Company, Brand and Product in the Early Days of SaaS for Auto-Provisioning Internet Applications
Series A start up company funded by aSequoia Capital, Crosslink Capital and Needham Capital Partners needing to be messaged, positioned, branded, and launched from scratch in six months.
Domains
- System Administration
- Application Provisioning
Objectives
- Create the marketing content and machine in 6 months and then turn operations over to junior internal resources
- Establish new product categories “centralized, automated Internet application provisioning”
- Develop all digital content to serve marketing program for years
- Launch the companies and products with press and analysts
Challenges
- No marketing infrastructure in place
- Minimal budget, requiring a lot of hands-on creation of DIY work product
- Early stage startup with few paying customers
- Innovative technology forging new product category
Process
- Interviewed founders and engineers to understand what they are building and for whom
- Interviewed early adopters to understand “what” they bought and “why”
- Interviewed sales to understand what they are currently “selling”
- Researched alternate legacy solutions for pertinent messages and differentiation
Findings
- Systems management and application provisioning legacy products existed so we needed to fit into that category
- CenterRun approach was unique and comprehensive so we needed to be clear in our differentiation
Solutions
- Created multi-level messaging platform to address all levels of company communications
- Developed 2 page messaging summary with elevator statements for sales and other customer-facing resources
- Wrote multiple pages of hierarchical boilerplate to repurpose on website, in collateral and in outbound marketing campaigns
Results
- Closed several key customers within a year
- Acquired by Sun for twice their original venture investments within a year
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