Dealing with Goliath

Dealing with Goliath Andy McLoughlin

I am co-founder / strategy director at Huddle.net Huddle is a network of secure online workspaces for team collaboration Huddle was launched in April 2007 HQ in London, sales office in Chicago Growing fast (8 to 35 people in 12 months) A little bit about me...

Who wants to build a $10M+ company?

Who wants to build the next $100M+ company?

Going big, quickly
Viral growth (Twitter)
Acquisition (Writely)
Deep pockets (Zoho)
Partnerships

Partners = WIN (for Huddle.net)

A Very Civil Partnership
Huddle provides the application
Partner provides the network / leads / customers / sales force
Co-brand the application
Revenue share on Huddle subscriptions and advertising
Everyone gets rich and goes home early
Easy, right?

Not quite!

The early days
Use nice graphics from the website (or ask Keh)
Partnerships are bloody hard work!

Two very different partnerships

LinkedIn.com Huddle.net

How it came about

Facebook POC

LinkedIn mock ups

Count down!

Development: Moving from fragile to agile Building the thing

Internal Vs External Dev
Internal Development
Complete control
Known high quality
No OS expertise
Opportunity cost
External Development
Flexible resource
OpenSocial expertise
Variable quality
Additional cost
Lack of control

Existing API Architecture PHP Application on Linux Server C# ASP.net Application on Windows Server Huddle API Private SOAP API

Proposed Solution: “Quick Win!” PHP Application on Linux Server C# ASP.net Application on Windows Server Huddle API Private SOAP API Open REST API (http://my.huddle.net/api)

Issues No such thing as a quick job
New API calls
Application changes
Project management
Marketing preparation

Scaling

One of only six global partners on LinkedIn’s OpenSocial platform October 2008

Lessons Learnt (OpenSocial)
Never outsource build of a core product!
Technical debt = FAIL
Especially to a company on the other side of the world
Working across 4 time zones = EPIC FAIL
There is no such thing as a quick job
Be conservative on uptake stats and work out your CPA – is it worth it?
Don’t film in a basement!

Was it worth it? Absolutely YES!

OpenSocial - the Future’s bright
Re-use the Huddle Workspaces app across other networks
Ning OS launching in mid June 2009
3 rd OS launch in late June
OpenSocial portability is still an issue (~£8,000 to roll out a new network)

“ How do I get on the platform?”
Honest answer: be lucky
Have ‘an in’ to the platform team
Meet face-to-face
Have an application they need
Demonstrate ability to deliver and scale
No new applications for 3 to 6 months 

InterCall.com Huddle.net

About 15 months in the making!

Money, money, money

“ I have a cunning plan”
Co-brand the Huddle app for InterCall
Let InterCall bill them
Inclusion on all InterCall setup emails
Placement on InterCall homepage
Get their sales people to create Huddle accounts on initial call to new customers
Mass provision existing 1M+ accounts
Easy upsell to Huddle Enterprise for $$$
Manage it all from London

Making it work
Technical challenges
Legal challenges
Sales challenges
Marketing challenges
Cultural challenges

May 2009

Lessons Learnt (The Big Co)
Engaging the top level vision is easy
You need to engage ‘the army’
Bridge the gap - you’re one step removed. Need feedback of what is / isn’t working
Clear value proposition for their customers
Be ultra-conservative on revenue estimates
Be prepared for everything to take twice as long as you’d hope!

Was it worth it? Absolutely YES!

Partnerships – A Summary
Good partnerships can deliver everything you want but...
Be realistic
Pick your battles wisely
Be prepared to invest
Be prepared to wait
Be prepared to argue, argue, argue
Remember that David beat Goliath!

Thank you! Email: andy@huddle.net Twitter: @bandrew Promo code: 1MONTHFREE

Dealing with Goliath

by Andy McLoughlin on Jun 03, 2009

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Dealing with Goliath — Presentation Transcript