The document discusses building a "solar-powered unicorn" company in the natural resources cloud industry. It outlines five hallmarks of industry cloud unicorns: having a talent trifecta of business, technical, and domain expertise; utilizing deep data; generating referral revenues; employing a layer cake product strategy of multiple products; and achieving massive market share. It concludes by asking what the best natural resources cloud opportunities are.
26. What are the best natural resources
cloud opportunities?
26
jsaper@emcap.com
@jakesaper
Editor's Notes
Path to enterprise software VC had a number of chapters, most energy themed
Major value creation in energy, water and ag over next ten years won’t be via hardware but software
Trends:
Relative overinvestment in hardware
Deployment of cheap sensors
Worsening resources strain
Quick spin through enterprise software over last 10 years
Tell you why now is a great time to build a natural resources cloud company
Tell you a bit about how to go about it
The first 10 years of business cloud applications was about horizontal markets.
A mile wide and a foot deep.
Salesforce is the poster child for horizontal applications focused on customer relationship management across every industry.
Intacct is a leader in cloud based accounting software.
And you probably know Workday, the leading cloud solution for human capital management across all industries.
These three companies represent the first 10 years of cloud software.
By now, most of the horizontal opportunities have been covered.
The next decade will be about depth. It will be about industry solutions.
Today you will hear from the leaders of the next generation of cloud applications.
They are the Larry Ellison’s and Marc Benioff’s of this next era. They see a mountain ahead that is massive and yes, insane.
They are focused on solving a broad range of issues for a focused customer set.
They are creating companies that will be as big, and more profitable, than many of the horizontal cloud companies that have come before them.
Companies such as Veeva are changing how life sciences companies think about software.
66% more sales efficient than using the horizontal solution
And Guidewire in the insurance industry.
And Opower in Energy.
A defining element of an industry cloud company is the leader with domain expertise.
A second hallmark relates to how industry cloud companies can use data.
Big data often means finding insights in an ocean.
Industry cloud companies have the benefits of deep data.
With tightly defined schemas, nomenclatures and problem statements
The promise of truly being a strategic partner to you customer lies HERE
The third hallmark relates to how cloud companies sell.
Horizontal cloud companies rely on hundreds of sales people to make sure they achieve a “land grab”
Industry cloud companies are built on referrals. It’s a much less expensive way to build a business. If you build great software, your customers will talk about it with their peers at other companies.
It’s not a LAND GRAB, it’s a RELATIONSHIP.
The fourth hallmark relates to product strategy. Industry cloud companies don’t need kludgy spaghetti code.
With a tight focus on a vertical’s requirements, Industry cloud companies can offer integrated product layers, built to work together.
And finally, the fifth hallmark is about market share. Leading Horizontal companies are lucky to have 5 or 10% of the market. They need to find customers, scattered across many industries.
Industry cloud companies have the opportunity to create massive market share, often over 50%, maybe even 70%.