@ASmartBear

Seems like every third startup nowadays is using the “Freemium” business model: The lowest service tier is free, and the business is designed to get those users hooked and then upgrade to a paid plan.

It can work wonderfully of course, but usually it crushes and destroys companies, not only because it costs more than anticipated but because the founders didn’t realize the business model itself caused them to make incorrect decisions.

The first emotion I felt after selling Smart Bear was a profound sadness. Not depression — not hopeless or rudderless — but a pure sadness, when your lungs sink into your belly, the punch-in-the-stomach of discovering your dog was hit by a car or that your dad is terminally ill.

“What the fuck?” I thought, “Why am I feeling this? I’m supposed to be feel… happy? I guess? Something other than this.”

They told me I couldn’t sell to The Enterprise with a silly company name like Smart Bear.

They told me I couldn’t sell to The Enterprise without a human sales force using Salesforce.

They told me I couldn’t sell to The Enterprise over GoToMeeting, with a demo and no slides, from a geek with no webinar.

They told me I couldn’t sell to The Enterprise with amateur design and a small-company, human voice.

A compass tells you which way is north, not whether you should be heading north. So what *is* the map to startup success?

In an era where more people can devise their own lifestyle and career than at any other time in history, it’s interesting to ask how a startup can support and encourage its employees beyond a paycheck.

In an era where job-hopping is a badge of honor instead of a mark of disloyalty, it’s interesting to ask how a company can retain great employees over significant stretches of time.

In an era where “friend” means one of 852 on Facebook, it’s interesting to ask what a friend really is.

What does workforce re-entry mean for the modern mom? And startups in particular?