Meshing short work cycles with medium-term goals

Working in short iterations and focusing on eliminating delays doesn’t mean that there is no longer term view. Take OpenView Venture Partners, a Boston-based venture capital fund that got started in September 2006.¹³ It invests in small to medium sized software development firms, and provides operational assistance to those firms.

Founding managing director Scott Maxwell combines the work cycles of self-organizing teams with a balanced scorecard approach. At the highest level, the firm’s mission, vision, values are translated into strategic themes and goals for a year. Inside that is a quarterly cycle. And within that, the goals are broken down into initiatives, which can be spelled out in specific user stories to be implemented by the teams in weekly iterations. Maxwell calls it “extraordinary execution” and is introducing it to OpenView’s portfolio companies.

Maxwell says the approach works well because it helps deal with the reality that you can’t predict what’s going to happen. Traditional management assumes perfect predictability in which the entire project can be laid out from beginning to end, with a beautiful product coming out at the end of it.

In reality the world next month, or next quarter, will look very different from today, because the firm has impacted the world and because the world will have changed of its own accord. So drawing up a detailed plan about how exactly we are going to get to where we want to be three years from now is a waste of effort.

“Instead,” Maxwell says, “we need to put a stake in the ground as to where we want to be in three years, and then break that down. If we want to be there in three years, where ideally would we need to be in a year? And then let’s break that down further. If we want to be there in a year, what would we have to do? And so on. That then flows into the user stories to be implemented by the teams in weekly iterations.”

So the rumor is that along with money, venture capitalists help founders build their companies.  In exchange for this valuable service, they seek to make an economic return.  Sounds like a fair bargain. If VCs are helping entrepreneurs build successful businesses, we wondered why are VC blogs generally so terrible?  Instead of offering useful guidance to entrepreneurs, we see a lot more VC blogs talking about:

• VC industry angst – What do micro-VCs mean for the VC industry..blah blah blah…
• Useless angel-VC drama (also see bullet point 1)
• Making audacious but poorly researched claims – Where ______ (fill in industry) is going or why _____ is dead or why the world needs ______
• A litany of posts about how to pitch VCs
• Shameless promotion of portfolio companies (btw, we think this is cool but in moderation)
• A mix of all the above and a healthy dose of narcissism about why they’re so great

While we are not going to publicly name the offenders (we might tell you over a beer), the good news is that not all VC blogs are page-view whoring, controversy courting and/or narcisstic.  And so we wanted to begin compiling a list of those really entrepreneur-friendly and more importantly entrepreneur-useful VC blogs.  So we’re starting with a handful that we like.  This is by no means exhaustive so we hope you’ll provide input in the comments about others we should add.

In terms of our decision criteria, it was simple.  Is the signal to noise ratio high on these blogs, i.e., would most of the content be helpful to entrepreneurs/companies?  To be clear, we don’t give a hoot about Twitter followers, blog traffic, Google reader subscribers or other measures of popularity.  If VCs are supposed to be helping to build businesses alongside founders, we think those that spend time actually helping provide insights about how to do this should be read.

So without further ado, here’s our simple list of venture capital blogs where we think the quality is high.  And again, suggest others in the comments.

David Skok at Matrix Partners

Blog name:  ForEntrepreneurs

David’s blog’s name is pretty appropriate.  It’s for entrepreneurs and has some killer content.  The posts are detailed, insightful and useful to entrepreneurs.  They’ll primarily be useful to software/internet companies, but some of the content on subject like Customer Acquisition Cost are probably universal in their applicability.  David’s a former entrepreneur so brings an “in the trenches” understanding of business building.

Openview Venture Partners

blog name:  The Openview Venture Partners team’ blog

This blog which appears to be a collaboration amongst the team at Openview talks about things that are useful to business owners. Whether it’s about social media and using it in your business or managing team dynamics, the blog is solid, useful and balanced. Openview Venture Partners is primarily a growth equity firm which means they’re primarily targeting companies which are a bit more mature in their lifecycle.  For this reason it seems they write content that is actually useful as the companies they’re trying to reach are too busy building real businesses to have time for the cr^p on most VC blogs.

Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz

blog name: Ben’s Blog

Ben Horowitz infuses hip-hop lyrics into his blog posts so we appreciate the flavor he is bringing to the VC industry, but even better, he writes about stuff that entrepreneurs probably should care about or might find helpful.  And he’s not afraid to mix it up and be controversial on occasion but not in an annoying attention-seeking way which seems to have become de rigeur these days.  He writes a lot about organization building and people management which he understands are important/vital as a former entrepreneur.  Two that our team particularly liked were about the right way to lay people off and should you sell your company?

Roger Ehrenberg of IA Ventures

blog name: Information Arbitrage

So Roger Ehrenberg is our first addition to the original list as this is one we definitely just missed.  Roger’s writing is lucid and his content is generally useful to entrepreneurs and helping them think through various issues they may be faced with as they’re building their companies.  He also doesn’t pull any punches and tells it like it is which earns him extra points.  We like his posts on what type of company is your company and on recruiting (sell the dream – not the job).  (hat tip to Bonnie at Startup One Stop for reminding us about Information Arbitrage)

Paul Graham at Y Combinator

blog name: Paul Graham’s Essays

Ok – so Y Combinator isn’t a venture capital firm.  It’s an incubator, accelerator, seed fund yadda yadda yadda.  Y Combinator gives money to entrepreneurs in exchange for equity – that’s close enough to VC for us to include him on this list of non-vomitacious venture capital bloggers.  So first thing is that Paul Graham doesn’t run what he or others seem to call a blog.  So instead of posts, he writes essays.  Semantics aside, his essays are good.  Some obviously tend to be about Y Combinator related things or early-stage companies but many have universal applicability.  Our favorite of all time is his post on being relentlessly resourceful (which we’ve adopted as a mantra here at Chubby world headquarters) .  Another good one is How to Disagree.

Alright, that’s our extensive list so far.  Trust us, we looked at a lot more VC blogs to come up with this list but most didn’t pass our criteria of being truly entrepreneur-useful.  Unfortunately, the amount of VC content vomit out there right now is alarmingly high.  If you disagree or have others to add, now is the time to chime in.  We look forward to your comments.

Monetate, the leading independent provider of testing, targeting, and personalization for websites, is proud to announce its sponsorship of IBM Coremetrics Marketing Showcase 2011, which is being held in Austin, Texas, March 15-17. The conference will focus on how online marketing experts in industries as diverse as retail, financial services, travel and hospitality, and media and publishing are using real-time insight into customer interactions to drive new revenue streams. More than 400 IBM Coremetrics clients and business partners are expected to attend the conference.

“Online channels and digital media continue to be one of the fastest growing segments in many industries,” said John Squire, chief strategy officer, IBM Coremetrics. “Coremetrics Marketing Showcase will convene the best-and-brightest minds in online marketing to provide hands-on examples of how to use advanced analytics to deliver deeper business insights, enhance every customer experience with targeted interactions and improve customer loyalty. We are proud to be working with a world-class company like Monetate on this event.”

At Marketing Showcase, Monetate will demonstrate the numerous ways in which IBM Coremetrics clients can leverage Monetate’s software and service offering in their marketing optimization efforts.

“We feel Monetate’s testing and targeting platform is the perfect complement to IBM Coremetrics products and are delighted to be a Platinum sponsor of this exciting event,” said David Brussin, founder and CEO of Monetate. “I look forward to meeting with IBM Coremetrics users and participating in the event as both a panelist and roundtable moderator.”

Brussin will be on the panel titled “Act on Your Analytics” moderated by Sam Decker, former CMO of Bazaarvoice and marketing pioneer at Dell.com. Joining Brussin will be John Lazarchic, VP of eCommerce with PETCO, and Matt Kritzer, Director of eCommerce with L’Occitane.

Brussin will also moderate a Birds of a Feather Roundtable titled “Creating a Culture of Testing: How Coremetrics users get from analyzing metrics to managing site changes.”

Marketing Showcase sponsors are limited to top companies serving the IBM Coremetrics client base, including email service providers, behavioral targeting companies, commerce platform vendors, and other related industries. Customers will have extensive time to meet with these companies in a one-stop venue to understand how their offerings complement and integrate with IBM Coremetrics solutions.

The IBM Coremetrics Marketing Showcase takes place Wednesday and Thursday, March 16 -17, at the Renaissance Austin Hotel, and is preceded by Coremetrics Classroom on Tuesday, March 15. Registration is now open.

Industry Leaders Discuss Usability, Scalability and Cost Factors at the Cloud Performance Summit

SANTA CLARA, CA–(Marketwire – March 7, 2011) –  Skytap, Inc., the leading provider of self-service cloud automation solutions, today announced Sundar Raghavan, chief product and marketing officer, will join two panels of industry leaders to speak on the performance issues of highly scalable cloud environments at the Cloud Performance Summit on March 7, 2011. The Cloud Performance Summit takes place from 1:15-4:30 p.m. PT at the Santa Clara Convention Center as part of the Cloud Connect conference.

Now that most IT professionals are embracing the cloud model, they want to know if cloud vendors can deliver on their performance needs. This summit of cloud providers and end-users will discuss how well current offerings meet performance expectations — including key concerns around usability, scalability, service quality, reliability and cost, and what can be done by vendors and IT to improve upon these critical factors. Panel sessions featuring Skytap include:

The State of Cloud SLAs
Cloud applications should be built for failure. At least, that’s what cloud architects suggest: don’t expect things to work, build your applications using sharding and resilient architectures, and you’ll have high availability without an SLA. At the same time, enterprises want a commitment from cloud providers that has real teeth. How do we break this logjam? In this panel, a variety of cloud providers will discuss the terms and conditions with which they’re comfortable, and explain why the best SLA may be one you write yourself.

Moderator: Nolan Goldberg, attorney, Proskauer LLP
Panel participants:

• Alex Polvi, director of product, Rackspace
• John Keagy, CEO, GoGrid
• Sundar Raghavan, chief product and marketing officer, Skytap
• Steve Riley, technical leader in the office of the CTO, Riverbed

What Users Want — What Vendors Have
Now that we’ve looked at the cloud performance problem from all angles, it’s time to decide what we need to do. How far apart are users and vendors? What commitments and regulations need to be in place? How trustworthy and reliable are on-demand offerings? In this closing discussion, we’ll try to decide what’s ready, what’s unnecessary and what’s missing.

Moderator: George Reese, CTO, enStratus
Panel Participants:

• Adrian Cockcroft, cloud architect, Netflix
• Alex Polvi, director of product, Rackspace
• Alexei Rodriguez, senior director of operations and IT, Proofpoint
• John deVadoss, managing director, The Ananya Group
• John Keagy, CEO, GoGrid
• Sundar Raghavan, chief product and marketing officer, Skytap

Cloud Connect is a four-day, industry renowned conference exploring the continuous transformation, current challenges and emerging trends shaping the cloud computing market. Since 2008, Cloud Connect has been known for its ability to bring vendors and end-users together to define and frame cloud computing discussions for IT professionals.

About Skytap, Inc.
Skytap is the leading provider of self-service cloud automation solutions for dynamic workloads. Skytap enables users to run enterprise applications unchanged in the cloud, collaborate securely with global teams, and gain unparalleled business productivity. Additionally, IT organizations can gain visibility and control over cloud projects, align capacity with demand, and reduce costs by 70% or more. Enterprises can securely connect Skytap to their data centers and create virtual private clouds. Skytap is ideal for any dynamic workload including application development, testing, virtual training, application migration and sales demonstration projects. To buy or learn more, visit www.skytap.com.

INDIANAPOLIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Global interactive marketing provider ExactTarget will unveil new findings on how consumers are using smartphones, Tablets and PCs to interact with brands on Facebook, Twitter and email during a live Webinar at 2 p.m. Eastern March 15.

“This new research provides marketers with key insights on how to better connect with – and ultimately motivate – consumers through Email, Facebook and Twitter.”

Entitled “The Audience Has Spoken”, the webinar will offer new insights on how consumers are interacting with brands online as well as providing recap of key findings from its acclaimed Subscribers, Fans and Followers series.

“Consumers are more connected than ever before,” said Jeff Rohrs, principal of ExactTarget’s Marketing Research and Education group. “This new research provides marketers with key insights on how to better connect with – and ultimately motivate – consumers through Email, Facebook and Twitter.”

Rohrs, along with co-author Morgan Stewart, chief executive officer and founder of Trendline Interactive, will present the new data live from Austin, Texas, site of the South by Southwest conference (SXSW).

“The job of a marketer has changed in the past 20 years. The limited number of channels allowed marketers to focus primarily on creative and messaging,” said Stewart. “In today’s social media world, marketers have to build an audience, nurture it, and optimize across every channel. The Subscribers, Fans and Followers research shows that consumers don’t live in channel silos, and gives voice to how they believe marketers should communicate with them effectively across these channels.”

Marketers may register for the Webinar free of charge, by clicking here.

The Webinar is the latest in ExactTarget’s and CoTweet’s Subscribers, Fans and Followers research series. Based on a series of primary focus groups, interviews and surveys, the research offers exclusive insight into how consumers interact with brands on email, Facebook and Twitter. For more information about the study or to download a complimentary copy of the most recent report, The Social Break-Up, and prior reports, visit www.ExactTarget.com/sff.

About ExactTarget

ExactTarget is a leading global provider of on-demand email marketing and interactive marketing solutions. The company’s Interactive Marketing Hub^TM technology provides organizations a single solution to connect with customers via email, integrated text messaging, landing pages and social media. Supported by collaborative global services teams, ExactTarget’s technology integrates with more sales and marketing information systems than any other in the industry, including Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Omniture and Webtrends among many others. ExactTarget powers permission-based multichannel communications for thousands of organizations around the world including Expedia.com, Best Buy, Aurora Fashions, Papa John’s, CareerBuilder.com, Gannett Co., Inc., The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, The Home Depot and Wellpoint, Inc. For more information, visit www.exacttarget.com or call 1-866-EMAILET.

Contacts

HOUSTON, TX — Eastland Memorial Hospital is planning to quickly meet the federal government’s electronic health record (EHR) meaningful use requirements by implementing Prognosis ChartAccess® Comprehensive EHR — and participating in a quickly-expanding Texas Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO).

“The end point is clear. We want to attain meaningful use in just six months. Coming up with a plan to get there, though, was a challenge. We had to find a system that would propel us forward quickly and effectively,” said Ted Matthews, CEO at Eastland (Texas) Memorial Hospital. “After exploring several options, we decided that Prognosis offered a product that clinicians would really use and that would make it possible for us to cost effectively tap into the benefits of an electronic records system.”

ChartAccess Comprehensive EHR is a shared web-native EHR solution, delivered via a “cloud computing” model, where the software applications are made available as a service over an encrypted health information network. The EHR provides clinicians with a complete view of patient data to support optimal and safe clinical care. Users can simply access the system by using a standard operating system and a secure browser.

Eastland will quickly leverage the system by taking advantage of Prognosis’ “rapid implementation” service.  The hospital plans to begin software installation and implementation on March 1, start the attestation period on May 31, and complete attestation to meaningful use requirements by September 1, 2011.

The 52-bed hospital is not just tapping into the powerful software but is optimizing the value of the solution as a member of a growing RHIO. Under this innovative connectivity model, all participating hospitals dial into one centralized solution remotely, making it much easier to get systems up and running. The EHR also is integrated with billing, laboratory, pharmacy, radiology and other ancillary systems at the various hospitals, which allows it to serve as a data repository for all clinical information.

As a result, the financial, personnel and cultural obstacles that so often block rural hospitals from achieving EHR success quickly dissipate. In addition, the system provides a seamless continuum of care for patients, not just as they receive services in one hospital but as they receive care across the entire region.

“The information exchange simply adds so much value to our investment. Frequently, patients will be seen by clinicians at our hospital and then again by clinicians at one of our neighboring facilities. The fact that we can all share clinical information just makes it so much easier to provide quality care to these patients,” Matthews said.

The RHIO initially was established with funding from the Texas Department of Rural Affairs (TDRA).

“Implementing electronic records is a huge challenge for any hospital. We realized, however, that rural hospitals are especially hard pressed when it comes to pulling all of the resources together to successfully move to electronic records. By supporting this innovative RHIO, we are truly helping to improve care for the rural population in Texas,” says Dave Darnell, Senior Program Administrator at TDRA.

One of the first two Complete EHRs to receive ONC-ATCB-2011-2012 certification, the system is designed to quickly lead providers toward EHR success. For example, an interface that mimics e-mail applications enables clinicians to quickly adopt the system. iPhone and iPad applications that make it possible to view patient rounding lists, process orders and access results at the point of care resonate strongly with clinicians who have been demanding mobile functionality for many years.

“We have made a commitment to truly support hospitals that are working to elevate the level of care that they provide to their communities. To do so, we provide the most powerful technology available and unending support as providers, such as Eastland, move toward their EHR goals,” said Ramsey Evans, CEO of Prognosis.

About Prognosis

Prognosis Health Information Systems, Inc., Houston, aims to improve the quality and safety of patient care through ChartAccess, a certified Comprehensive EHR. Designed to be fully operational in less than six months at a predictable, affordable cost, the solution enables hospitals to meet meaningful use and improve patient outcomes by leveraging built-in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) milestone and quality measure tracking functionality. PHIS uses 21st-Century technologies to offer small community hospitals a pure browser-based system that can run on-premise or in the cloud. For more information, go to www.prognosishis.com.

Intronis, a leading cloud backup and recovery solution for the IT channel, announces today its new Spring Release 2011, which greatly improves the ability for Intronis partners to efficiently run a cloud backup and recovery business. Using the Intronis platform, IT service providers can now configure backups and restore data for their clients from a centralized web portal, avoiding time-consuming remote sessions and costly travel for on-site visits.

The Spring Release expands upon existing functionality by offering customers an easy-to-use web interface for managing backup and recovery operations. Now, instead of establishing a remote session or going to a client’s location, MSPs and VARs can use the Intronis Partner Portal to:

•     Remotely create, edit or run local and remote backup sets for their customers
•     Remotely restore data directly back to a client’s computer
•     Quickly adjust archiving and retention rules
•     Effortlessly schedule backups via a new drag and drop scheduler

 

“The Intronis Spring Release 2011 saved me a huge amount of time, especially on scheduling. I no longer have to call up my customer to schedule a visit or get the OK to remote in. All I have to do is look at their account from the Intronis Partner Portal and take care of their issues, “ says Tom Bender, owner, Oneicon. “No need to go onsite anymore. This is a really great feature.”

“The Intronis Spring Release 2011 extends the feature set that we offer MSPs and allows them to provide backup and recovery services faster and more efficiently for their customers,” says Intronis CEO Kent Plunkett. “The Spring Release 2011 is an example of our commitment to provide the channel with the easiest to use, most reliable product in the industry,” he continued.

To facilitate a smooth transition to the new features and to provide training on the full Intronis solution to its partners, Intronis will be hosting a series of luncheons across the country starting in April. The list of planned venues includes Boston, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles, and New York City. Click here to register.

For more information about the Spring Release 2011, visit http://www.intronis.com/product/whats-new.php.

About Intronis

Intronis is a cloud provider of backup and disaster recovery services for the IT channel. Intronis utilizes 256-bit AES security and multiple data centers located on opposite coasts to ensure data protection and availability. Intronis offers IT service providers a secure data solution combined with a robust partner program, the efficiencies of full web-based account management, and an industry leading technical support team. http://www.intronis.com

VersionOne to Host Action in Agile in Seattle

What: Agile in Action is a community event presented by VersionOne, Electric Cloud, Klocwork, and Perforce Software. Designed to help practicing teams maximize their agile investments and new teams understand where to start, this half-day seminar will provide the practical information needed to effectively transition your people, processes and platforms to support agile initiatives.

Where: Agile in Action Seattle will be held at:

Sheraton Bellevue
100 112th Ave. Northeast
Bellevue, WA 98004

When: March 29, 2011, 8:30am – 2:30pm local time

Keynote: David Hussman, DevJam

David teaches and coaches agility as a delivery tool. He has spent the last 10 years teaching and learning better ways to produce products with companies of all sizes around the world. Sometimes he is pairing with developers and testers, while other times he is helping to plan and create product roadmaps. David often works with leadership groups learn to introduce and (pragmatically) use agile methods to foster innovation and competitive business advantage.

Along with teaching and coaching, David participates in conferences around the world and continuously publishes to a variety of sources. He has contributed to several books as well as helping to create agile curriculum for The University of Minnesota and Capella University.

For more details, check out the DevJam website: www.devjam.com

Other: For more information on Agile in Action, please visit: www.bit.ly/AIA201103WA

About VersionOne
VersionOne is recognized by agile practitioners as the leader in agile management tools. By simplifying the process of planning and tracking agile software projects, we help development teams consistently deliver software faster. Since 2002, companies such as Adobe, Dow Chemical, Lockheed Martin, Motorola, Novell, Sony and Symantec have turned to VersionOne to help provide greater value to their customers. Today more than 30,000 teams in over 170 countries use VersionOne’s agile project management tools to streamline and standardize their agile development efforts. Whether you’re a small, single agile team just getting started with agile development or a multi-team, global enterprise, with VersionOne you’ll get the best tools in the industry backed by pioneers in agile planning and management. Agile Made Easier @ VersionOne.com.