How to scale?

Kris @ ERPLYFounder, CEO & CFYO

Follow kristjanh@twitter and I will explain what CFYO is

ERPLY

Rockstar investors Satish, Saul, Reshma, Dave, Aydin, Marten, Zack, Kris

Seedcamp 2009, Winner

Series A - $2M USD

Top engineers & designers

A great product, new version in alpha…

Paying customers & revenue

Team = 23 full time

What is your aim?

To rule the world

A better tomorrow

You are excited

To write code

MONEY

What is your ultimate goal?

BIG BUSINESS

or

FAMILY BUSINESS

Do you really want to scale?

How big?

Are you ready to scale?

High availability & speed

24/7 helpdesk

Extra capital, no free time

No life…

Homework

Don’t go for the whole US, go for Boston or NY or SF – or LND – take over a city at a time

Be ready for very high expenses

Before that - get your pricing right

VC money

Don’t raise too early

Founder should be CEO (@SatishD)

Raise seed money, Series A is not easyDon’t raise too muchHave focus before raising moneyKeep in mind the costsTry to raise from many investors, you need their connections

Promote your team first then hire outsiders, build the culture

If you hire the CEO from outside, be sure you are ready for that (team, structure, product, processes, etc.)

The top gun costs 10% equity and 150-200k+ EUR/year

Two ways to fail – no customers or too many customers

Have a working BO – helpdesk, service, payments, etc.

Track your costs (AWS might be too expensive)

Local? Yes

Localization is not translation + time zone

Local rules (law)

Traditions and practices

Business processes

Marketing (very expensive)

Protect your IP - key asset

Source code (use svn, access rights)

Make correct IP transfer agreements

Register your TM in the EU or USA

Have IP investment costs specified

Focus

Learn to say NO

Not all deals are good

Remove function per day

Be prepared for troubles..

Prioritize

Work or go home!

Team

Subcontract, use part-time guys, SET

QUOTAS!

Don’t hire too many people at once

Keep your team small

Start new groups with separate managers

Set clear targets

Not sold = not worked

Motivate

Competition?

•Should you worry?

•Use smart tools (Ubervu, Alexa, Google alerts & trends)

•Don’t obsess over them – you lose your own ideas

Are you a winner?

Winners have:A processOrganizationFocusAbility to handle failures=transformMarkets are different

Don’t give up, try again.

ABC

Funnel

Lead generation (Marketing SLA)SEM, SEO, AD’s

Lead qualification

Follow up team

Closing ratio

Customer acquisition

Choose only the best guys

who deliver fast

Don’t waste leads

Understand your growth

Conclusions

Sales (customer acquisition) driven product development

Build Your KPI’s – metrics

Focus on SALES

Iterate (fire fast)

Thanks

Next actions?

Follow kristjanh@twitter

Follow erply@twitter

Register online: www.erply.com (ref: howtoweb)

Send your CV + code sample or sales pitch to cv@erply.com