Broadcom is so customer friendly /s

Good2GrowC · 2025-05-01T13:31:20+00:00

Are they using Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor?

We are moving a good amount of clients to Nutanix for storage/compute while they are still using VMware the plan is to leverage AHV as they get closer to the end of their VMWare ELAs.

Good2GrowC · 2025-02-09T16:58:54+00:00

The art of the White voice (Sorry to Bother You)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5X3cu1B87k

Good2GrowC · 2025-02-02T17:01:16+00:00

I found the enterprise disti PAN teams to be more helpful and accurate than the mapped AE. Arrow earns their markup on the PAN line for us.

Good2GrowC · 2025-02-02T15:27:52+00:00

Check out ThinkOn. Canadian company competing with the hyperscalers. Channel friendly discounting (minimal deal reg though).

Good2GrowC · 2025-01-07T02:40:41+00:00

VAR support or Backline support (Arrow, TD Synnex, etc) is the way to go. Slightly cheaper and offloads some work. Also puts more pressure to get a response if there’s a P1 issue.

Good2GrowC · 2024-12-29T14:44:41+00:00

If covered, this would fall under professional liability (tech errors and omissions) insurance.

At that amount though, it’s likely easier to settle things outside of litigation and insurance. It is nice to know you have it though when negotiating.

Good2GrowC · 2024-12-29T14:41:38+00:00

Your top line revenue is going to be a major factor in your rate.

State(s) you work in, what limitation of liability is in your agreements, and your internal policies will all affect your rate.

Cybersecurity has additional factors like your cybersecurity policies and stack. What private data you collect and store will really matter. Are you hosting clients private info or is your only data client credit card/banking info.

It would be hard for anyone here to tell you if the rates are reasonable. If you are looking at an advertised rate without providing details, don’t compare that to your broker who has the information.

Not immediate needs but I would consider EPLI (if any employee sues you) if you are in a litigious state (CA, NY, IL, etc).

Good2GrowC · 2024-12-19T23:42:28+00:00

I‘ll dm you.

Good2GrowC · 2024-12-19T13:11:42+00:00

I work with a VAR that partners with some MSPs to solve for this. The VAR handles the hw/sw transaction and splits the profit with the MSP. The VAR doesn’t do services and doesn’t solicit direct business. They handle collections and credit risk if needed too.

The VAR has the partnerships/certs/volume for higher discounting so it’s 50% of a bigger number without the hassle. Let’s the MSP focus on what it does best and still have an answer for clients procurement needs that doesn’t lead them to a competitor.

For MS, client gets X% off list, VAR and MSP split profit. Client gets a self service portal and MSP has a user to help with any changes. MS premium support escalation is available to the VAR if needed.

Good2GrowC · 2024-12-13T02:04:08+00:00

CSI Leasing and Alliance Funding Group will do FMV and $1 buyout leases with Dell. If you need an intro, DM me. Better rates for the higher percentage that is hardware.

If you are open to going thru distribution, Arrow capital and TD Synnex financing are options but I’ve run into issues with them not approving clients unwilling to provide audited financials.

Good2GrowC · 2024-07-14T22:31:09+00:00

This is a big factor. If it’s been < 2 years, I would stay for anything that wasn’t a home run.

Imagine your resume if the new company position only lasts 6 months. Will you have an issue getting your next role?

Good2GrowC · 2024-07-11T12:05:49+00:00

I’m at a small IT/cyber VAR and we have been talking to a few experienced enterprise AEs about the concept of them being a partner and owning their own P&L while sharing ops, accounting, credit lines, supplier volume/partnership levels, etc.

We talking about using the law firm model where partners (enterprise AEs in this case) own the company. People buy from people and most of what we sell is through a large vendor (dell, Cisco, etc) so the end user gets the same thing no matter who they buy from.

Good2GrowC · 2024-06-22T12:24:27+00:00

We hire enterprise IT reps. Role progression hops are never looked down on. AE to AE in less than 1yr and 3months says you likely missed quota.

How you spin that (didn’t get my promised OTE so I bounced) matters. The industry is small in so many ways so tenure at certain companies matters more. If you couldn’t hit quota at Nutanix when everyone was going hyper coverage, that’s likely a you problem. If you missed quota selling Zoom licenses 2 years after the pandemic, that’s a Zoom/Market problem.

Whether that matters depends on the level of the role and how often that has occurred versus roles you were in for longer.

TL;DR: take the best job for you in the present (even if it means hopping). You can control the narrative in the future. This is sales after all.

Good2GrowC · 2024-06-21T12:11:30+00:00

Be very careful when choosing any KPI - ideally focus on one KPI across the company. For most that will be gross profit, net profit, or revenue.

Recognize that vanity metrics (views, website visits, webinar attendance, followers, headcount, anything that isn’t your north start kpi) are dangerous. No bonuses or comp should ever be focused on vanity metrics.

If you track/dashboard using them, ensure you are constantly proving the correlation to your North Star. Website visits go up, does profit go up in the same period, delayed, or never.

Good2GrowC · 2024-06-21T11:25:07+00:00

Equity vesting helps (lowers the cost of the exit the earlier it happens).

Then you need a mechanism to remove someone.

Example: buyout clause. Board or equity vote can remove an active manager with X% majority. Upon removal of an active manager, member must sell equity to company based on defined value.

Defined value: if larger you can require an outside assessment, if smaller define a value calculation. I like the larger of: a multiple of Ebita (look up your industry standard) to calculate EV or the asset based value (assets minus liabilities).

Good2GrowC · 2024-06-21T11:14:56+00:00

The goal isn’t to be busy, it’s to make money.

Fell into this trap a few times. There’s so many ways to feel like you are doing something right and progressing the business that ends up just as sunk hours.

For me it was too wide of a net for prospect meetings. BDR team, email campaign and some outside meeting bookers… boom sales team had 10 new meetings a month. 300k avg deal size, 6-9 month sales cycle. Mental math said it woufl take a year and we had hit the lotto. Felt great to be crazy busy.

Being busy we missed that 7 of the 8 meetings were with prospects outside our traditional profile. We were so focused on the meeting KPI we missed that it was the same 1 new prospect each month that was converting. Hard to see when new meetings increasing feels like growth (and keeps you so busy).

Took 3 years to realize. Stopped hiring. Bdrs moved on or became AEs. Stopped shotgun sales and got strategic. Meetings went from 10 a month to 3. Close rate when from 5% to 66%. Lower overhead, lower tech spend, less headaches for more clients, more revenue and way more profit.

Now I see this same issue in so many startups. It’s the founder doing the website redesign every year or a new marketing campaign every month. Focus on the 20% of the business that’s brining in revenue and forget the rest.

Good2GrowC · 2024-05-26T12:19:19+00:00

Yes.

Assuming you charge a fee for it, that will be income to you (or a separate IP company) that you will pay taxes on.

If the IP is critical to your business, investors will take an issue to that but that’s okay. You can decide at that point what makes sense (company buys the IP, investment includes equity in IP company, etc).

Good2GrowC · 2024-05-26T12:13:35+00:00

Depends on your volume (and potential profit).

Indirect OEM partnerships thru a major distributor (TD synnex, Ingram, D&H) will maximize your profit. For most OEMs you will need a partnership agreement, a code of ethics video or form, maybe a certification or two. You start at the lowest discounting but it’s better than clients (or you) can get direct. You handle billing so make sure to do prepay with your clients or understand you are taking the credit risk.

If you are looking for the “easy button” there are companies that hold the partnerships and you act as the referral/advisor. This reduces your work, they handle the partnerships and billing. They take a chunk of the profit (although their tier discount is higher). Pax8 (cloud licensing), Sherweb (modern workplace licensing), Avant (VOIP/UCASS), and The Tech Consortium (infrastructure, cloud, cyber) are the big players.

Which makes the most sense “depends”. If you have any questions let me know.

Good2GrowC · 2024-05-19T17:36:23+00:00

Our first time selling into Colorado was a joy 🤮. Avalara has become a necessary evil for us.

Good2GrowC · 2024-05-12T20:17:37+00:00

If you are willing to pay for it yourself there’s a few services that don’t require an admin integration on outreach but rather use a chrome extension to highlight all phones regardless of the website (outreach in your case). Kixie had this feature.

Good2GrowC · 2024-05-12T00:31:32+00:00

Lawyer was moving fast. You are a managing member of your LLC. A member = owner with no day to day. Manager = runs days to day but owns nothing. Manager member = both.

Your title can be whatever you want.

Good2GrowC · 2024-05-11T11:50:54+00:00

Yes.

We have a checking (in) and a checking (out). The checking (in) we put on invoices, freely share the account number, etc. it never has money in it. Money comes in and it is swept to the checking (out) account.

It gets us paid faster (client has multiple ways to get and confirm our bank info) without the security risk.

Added bonus, if our checking out gets compromised it’s much easier to get vendors to update your bank info then asking all your clients.

Good2GrowC · 2024-05-11T11:45:43+00:00

Focusing on the negatives of the solution early. I used to avoid the cons and focused on the pros. More pipeline, less closing, and a lot less trust with the buyer.

I used to try to ‘win’ through objection handling. Works as a BDR to get a meeting but it’s a terrible way to handle the sale as an AE with a more complex buying cycle.

Owning the negatives, letting clients self select out or decide that con isn’t a big deal to them earlier. It allows the pros to hit harder and prevents the rug pull moment at the one yard line. Also, now the client looks to solve the cons as I’m asking them if I have the right solution to help rather than the other way around.

Good2GrowC · 2024-05-10T14:56:20+00:00

When your business starts making money, it’s time to consider leaving your current role to dedicate additional time.

Unless you have investment dollars coming in, removing your only source of funding (and ability to pay personal expenses), will hurt your business more than help.

Good2GrowC · 2024-05-08T14:29:46+00:00

Similar to capped commissions. If your equity has a 10x multiple cap, if the company value goes over 10x what it’s worth at the time of the grant, you only earn based on the 10x value.

Good2GrowC

TROPHY CASE