Fslootman@me.com

Ratcheting up customer focus assumes you are tuned in to a specific application or process.

I have seen startups managing for profitability prematurely—a huge mistake. They simply do not appreciate the dynamics of an early stage, high growth operation versus a large, steady-state company. Big company thinking: check it at the door.

Don't be a pleaser, and don't be an appeaser. Do what you think is right. Do anything less, and you only have yourself to blame.

The channel is a powerful, entrenched fixture in the industry, and one that demands respect. If you don't bring the channel in, they will bring in your competition.

The famed Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter is usually associated with this term, but the basic idea goes back all the way to the works of Karl Marx. The notion (which has experienced a recent resurgence via Clayton Christensen's writings on disruptive innovation) is that in order to create something, you have to destroy something else in the

Newly hired salespeople were stunned that they could pose a question online, and responses started piling up within minutes.

strong references (who voluntarily become your "promoters") are priceless marketing collateral.

Your power is in your own sales function and product—keep that in mind.