A lot has been said about the Credit Crunch and Integrated Workplace Management Systems. In recent articles I have touched this particular topic. In addition to these posts I also created a weekly poll, however poll answers tend to be very limited.
In our weekly debate I personally invite you to join me in discussing the Credit Crunch and IWMS
Thesis
Venture Capitalists are a threat for IWMS Vendors especially in these harsh financial times.
I’d love to hear from you to what extend you consider the thesis above to be true.
Yours Sincerely,
Steven Hanks
I don’t know that I’d call VC a threat. I’d say that companies that have overstated their ability to deliver business results to their investors are the real threat. VC’s are often much maligned in the software biz but my personal experience has been that they’re thoughtful business people that care about both their portfolio companies and their partners. Clearly, they realize the economy is in trouble but they’re also looking for real opportunity now.
However, if software companies set unrealistic expectations about the sales cycles or complexity of selling in this market, they’re also setting themselves up for trouble with their VC. Another area that can cause trouble is expectations about the potential synergies from M&A activity. Unless the M&A is thought through carefully from a customer, technical and market perspective, the synergies won’t be realized and a lot of cash gets burned.
At the end of the day, regardless of the source of funding, it’s the companies that can deliver real value to the customer in a reasonable timeframe that will succeed. If you can’t execute, you’ll find you won’t be getting cash from investors OR customers!
Marty,
your last phrase is definitively spot-on. To me it all depends on delivering real business value to a customer! It’s the ability to execute that ensures your feature funding! I’d love to hear what other readers think of this thesis.