“If you have the right folks in the right position, you can overcome most any obstacle so long as your business plan is sound. Most of the big problems are the result of either having the wrong folks or having them in the wrong spot. My biggest mistakes were not letting the wrong folks go soon enough.” Gregg Freishtat, Serial Entrepreneur, Founder of four companies and Current CEO & Chairman of Vertical Acuity
The Rich Niche Group blog interviews and enables you to hear directly from successful entrepreneurs and product managers about the steps they took to grow their businesses/products and how they were able to create, penetrate, and/or dominate their niche. This week we interview Gregg Freishtat, the founder of four different start-ups and board member and advisor to several venture capitalist and venture-backed companies.
Why Selected: Gregg is a four-time entrepreneur and has successfully sold three software companies over the past 10 years – Telet Communications sold to PGI in 1996, VerticalOne sold to S1 in 1999 and Proficient Systems – sold to LPSN in 2006. Gregg serves on many private company and philanthropic boards including: SONE; MarketWorks; Relevant Knowledge; Outweb; Proficient Systems; VerticalOne; Telet Communications; JDRF; and the Jewish Federation.
I had the pleasure of working with Gregg back in the late 1990’s and have always been impressed with his ability to grasp the power of new technologies, the impact they can have on the business world, and his ability to build a business around that technology. Just as important, Gregg makes those around him better at what they do and always makes working together fun and enjoyable.
In the following interview, Gregg takes us through how he was able to build off the success of each of his start-ups and what he learned along the way. During the interview, Gregg points out what he believes other entrepreneurs can do to help position themselves and their companies for success. The key points you’ll take away include:
- Maintain the flexibility to adjust (morph) your business based on customer/prospect needs.
- When evangelizing your business remember, “Big vision for investors; Simple and safe for customers.
- One of the biggest keys to success and potential obstacle are: People, people, people!
- Establish your culture early and don’t do business with or for people you don’t like.
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“If bad things happen don’t waste time by blaming someone, or some earlier decision: Take control, focus, communicate and redeploy a new plan to solve the problem.“ Leo Pound, Turnaround Specialist, President of Pound Consulting
The Rich Niche Group blog interviews and enables you to hear directly from successful entrepreneurs and product managers about the steps they took to grow their businesses/products and how they were able to create, penetrate, and/or dominate their niche. This week we interview Leo Pound, the founder of Pound Consulting, a turnaround consulting firm often brought in by outside investors or the Board of Directors to fix ailing companies and get them back on the right path.
Interviewee: Leo Pound, Turnaround Specialist and Financial Expert.
Why Selected: Mr. Pound is the President of Pound Consulting Inc., with over 30 years experience in many industries. For over 18 years Mr. Pound has specialized in high growth and troubled situations, with a focus on increasing customer and shareholder value. Mr. Pound’s in-depth knowledge of operational and strategic planning, M&A, forecasting and budgeting, cash flow, cost containment and re-engineering is balanced with his understanding of the customer and market needs. He is a team leader who builds consensus while moving a company forward. Mr. Pound is a hands-on professional who is sensitive to the pressures and challenges facing a troubled company and their management team. He has been active in the CEO, CFO and COO roles in manufacturing and further processing, distribution and service industries. In addition, he has been responsible for managing banking relations, Big Four auditors, outside legal counsel, the financial community and investor relations. Mr. Pound has had direct accountability for Sales and Marketing, Manufacturing, the Controller function, Treasury, Human Resources, MIS, Risk Management, Contract Administration, Customer Service, Real Estate, Purchasing and Administration. Mr. Pound serves on many public and private company boards and consults with companies of all sizes.
Several years ago, Leo was brought into a firm I was working with and his insight and advice helped us get that company on the right track and eventually sold.
In the following interview, Leo discusses the issues he most often finds when brought in to help turn-around a company in trouble. The key points you’ll take away include:
1. The key to success is having a well rounded team that compliments each other and a focus on executing a well conceived plan.
2. An early warning sign your company may be in trouble is if your revenue cycle is out of synch with your payable cycle.
3. Keep your lenders fully informed when bad things happen and what you plan to do about them.
4. Don’t be afraid of change, it’s what growth is all about.
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Following up on last week’s blog – we received several questions about the “Understanding Financials” section of the blog and more so about how to put together workable financial projections for a start-up/small business - this week’s blog entry is by Thanasis Delistathis, Managing Partner of the early-stage information technology venture capital firm New Atlantic Ventures, and is reprinted with permission.
When pitching your business to venture investors, sharing a well designed financial model is very important! Why? Because how a financial model is designed helps investors learn some things about you and your business: it provides insights into how you think about your business, helps clarify what are the main assumptions that drive it and also implicitly sends messages about how you are approaching the business. Is this obvious? Not if you look at the inconsistent quality of financial models we see every day. For some entrepreneurs, it is almost like an afterthought. So I thought about creating a list of things that entrepreneurs and managers need to keep in mind as they design a model for their business. This advice applies to young startups as well as established or even public companies.
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“As a small business leader, what skills should I possess in order to better serve our clients, partners and employees?” – Karen Y., 1st-time entrepreneur
This week we are taking a break from the normal interview of an entrepreneur to answer a question we frequently get at The Rich Niche Group. While there are several ways to answer this question, we have boiled it down to 5 skills which we have seen lead to a more effective leader and company. The 5 skills are:
- A passion for providing an extraordinary customer experience and an understanding of your client’s and prospect’s problems.
- An unwavering focus on your core strengths and using those to solve your client’s and prospect’s problems.
- Being a source of innovation for your clients and partners and a leading innovator in your market.
- An understanding of finance and financial statements.
- Company culture plays a very important role in the success of your business.
Let’s examine each of these and look at some examples how possessing these skills have aided in a company’s growth.
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