WHAT WE'RE READING
The Investing Edge
of Enterprise IT
Apr
2013
Six Pre-Requisites for the New Wave of Enterprise IT Security Solutions
Given that IT security is a $60 billion market, you might think that we have robust solutions for keeping enterprise networks and data protected. But you’d be wrong. In reality, better than 1 in 5 enterprises—and likely more—has been compromised. In the past few years, the number of cyber-breaches and the sophistication of the attacks have heightened dramatically. 250,000 new
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Mar
2013
Experts Tackle Enterprise Mobility at Latest B2B IT Forum
We had well over 100 folks at our most recent B2B IT Forum, where our expert panel provided a compelling and informative discussion on the shift to mobile within organizations of all sizes. Thanks to the panel, the audience left the event smarter about how they can navigate the challenges of developing mobile apps for the enterprise.
Feb
2013
Everything I Know About Pitching VCs I Learned From Monty Python (Part Two)
For part one of “Everything I Know About Pitching VCs I Learned From Monty Python,” click here. With help from The Pythons, Matt Fates and I collaborated on some ideas to help turn your exceptional slide deck into an exceptional fundraising pitch. 5) Then, you must cut down the mightiest tree in the forest… with… a herring! The other key to
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Jan
2013
Everything I Know About Pitching VCs I Learned From Monty Python (Part One)
Most VCs number the annual business plans they see in a year in the thousands, but the implication is the same: There has to be more to distinguish your fundraising pitch than ten or 15 slides in 30-point font. That’s where Monty Python comes in. John Cleese, Eric Idle and their associates were a VC’s dream, launching a comedy program
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Dec
2012
Five Winds of Change in Enterprise Sails (Sales)
If there was one theme that consistently arose during our enterprise sales strategy forum a few weeks ago, it was that selling to business now is a completely different ballgame than it was 10 years ago. Our panel, made up of sales and IT executives from companies like Staples, HubSpot, and American Tower, among others, provided significant insight into how
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Nov
2012
Winning the New Enterprise Sales Game: This Week’s B2B IT Forum
We are very pleased that our second B2B Enterprise IT Forum was so well received. Thank you for all of the positive feedback. We had a strong turnout, smart questions from our audience, and great advice from our panelists on how to successfully sell enterprise IT. If you weren’t able to attend, we’ve compiled some of the key takeaways from
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Sep
2012
Announcing the Second B2B IT Forum – “Cracking the Code in Enterprise Sales”
In June we hosted the inaugural B2B IT Forum, a new event series that focuses exclusively on rapidly emerging enterprise IT technologies. That event, which focused on cloud security, brought together some great local minds; we enjoyed hearing presentations from CloudLock, Copiun and Content Raven, and meeting people who share our interest in enterprise IT. The event was such a
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Sep
2012
What’s the Opposite of Innovation?
by Eric B. Schultz, former CEO Sensitech, Venture Partner at Ascent There’s no denying that we live in the Age of Innovation. If you’re an entrepreneur in the midst of building a company, chances are good you’re soaked in a constant downpour of advice on innovation, all of which ends with the bone-chilling admonition, roughly translated, “Innovate or die.” I
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Sep
2012
Ascent’s August: Big Data, SaaS Metrics, Entrepreneurial Advice and More
Our blog has been relatively quiet for the last month, but it’s not because we’ve stopped writing or taken a long vacation. We’ve been quite busy, actually, contributing articles to various publications throughout the month of August. Here’s a quick recap of what we’ve written recently, in case you missed them: GigaOM: The Problem with SaaS Metrics (August 4th) I
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Aug
2012
Finding Your Optimal Investor – Due Diligence for Entrepreneurs
I’ve seen the venture capital due diligence process from both sides of the table and I know how comprehensive and exhaustive it can be (sometimes to the chagrin of the entrepreneur). But it’s a critical part of the process, ensuring that the venture investor is fully bought into the team, product, market, etc. A typical venture capitalist makes only a
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