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Sample NewsletterSample Email NewslettersocalTECH.com TechNews - Friday, February 27, 2004 Copyright (c) 2004 by socalTECH.com ISSN: 1524-6736 http://www.socaltech.com/News ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sponsored by: PricewaterhouseCoopers' Vision To Reality Program for Emerging Tech Companies (http://www.socaltech.com/pwctechnology) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --Interview: Dan Herchenroether, Author of Selling Air --VeriSign Sues ICANN --Ixia Adds SONET Testing Tools --Kofax Announces Document Capture Solution CLASSIFIEDS --Access Your PC from Anywhere - Try GoToMyPC FREE --Wanted: Early stage entrepreneurs --Your Ad Here ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Find a venture capitalist to fund your business: http://www.socaltech.com/vc.php ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Interview: Dan Herchenroether, Author of Selling Air ---- I'm diverging today from my usual interviews of CEOs, venture capitalist, and others in the local high tech industry to interview Dan Herchenroether, author of Selling Air (www.sellingair.com). Dan contacted me and sent over a copy of his book, a fictional account of selling enterprise software. I'm usually just a nonfiction person (business and technical books), but I was impressed enough by the book to read it all the way through a few weekends ago. BK: What's your background, and why did you decide to write the book? DH: My 20 year career in software was pretty evenly split between corporate systems (mostly financial services) and pre-sales systems engineering. In IT, I worked on projects such as bond and mortgage security modeling and risk management. In sales, I worked for NeXT, Active Software and Altoweb. I was the first SE hired at Active and helped build the sales team. I've always been an avid reader and dabbled in some writing. After deciding that I had had enough of the rigors of working for startups and constant travel, I decided to get serious about getting a writing career off the ground. Following the advice to "write about what you know" I decided to use my experience in software sales as the basis for a novel about the tech bubble period. I'm finding that there's almost a nostalgia - certainly in the sales fraternity - about the insanity of the 90s as the realization sinks in that we probably won't see a market quite like that ever again. BK: In your book one of your characters is a sales person who "bends the rules" to win deals. Did you base that one on actual experience? DH: I assume you're speaking of Tom Gatto. Just about everything that happens in Selling Air is derived from personal experience or relayed from reliable sources. The characters are mostly composites (have to protect the guilty, afterall) but are drawn from people I worked with or sold to. Gatto, however, is fairly close to one individual I worked with, particularly the womanizing. The guy truly would sell his grandmother if it meant making an extra bonus. BK: I thought the book was great, and worthy of a big publisher--why did you decide to self-publish instead of going through a major publisher? DH: I spent about six months trying to go the traditional publishing route of chasing agents but there was zero interest. What limited feedback I received can be summed up by saying they "just don't get it". They don't seem to appreciate just how the software industry is, and that people in software - and more broadly, high tech - like to read about themselves. I decided that I'd just have to prove to them that my story is viable. I chose to publish via print-on-demand because it was low risk, low cost to startup and they handle the retail transactions. It's worked out pretty well so far but I will probably switch to become my own publisher because the margins in POD aren't that great. BK: What do you think readers are most drawn to in your book? DH: The answer is twofold. First, people in the industry see themselves in the book regardless of whether they lived through the tech bubble in sales, IT or are newbies to the software game. I've recognized for some time that people in the software - or more broadly the high-tech - industry likes to read about themselves. With respect to more recent arrivals to the business, more than one reader has said it should be used as a training manual. Second, and this is the most heartening development, readers from outside the industry are fascinated by the strategy and tactics depicted in the book. I was afraid that there might be too much technical detail in the book. Anyway, these are people who watched from the sidelines as the dot-com rage turned to dot-bomb and wondered what was going on. BK: Do you think it's much like the reason people read Dilbert--seeing a bit of their own lives in your characters? DH: Yes, but I didn't have to be as satirical as Scott Adams. The truth was a self-parody. BK: You've included lots of "tricks of the trade" of sales. I've been reading lots of sales and marketing books lately and none have actually covered what you end up doing to win a deal as well as your book. Have you ever thought of putting those together as a nonfiction volume? DH: I don't think I could keep a straight face writing something like that. It's hard for me to take this stuff too seriously. The reps and sales managers who tried to adhere to some "system" usually tossed it out the window by the final month of the quarter. I have to say, though, that more than one agent said I was stupid for doing a fiction piece. Further evidence that mainstream publishing "doesn't get it" BK: What's next for you--are you working on another book? DH: Selling Air is the first installment in a trilogy. It tracks our companies during late startup mode. The next book, tentatively titled Paper Millions, explores the experience of going public and the temptations of inflated stock prices. The third will track our heroes and villains through the tech crash. My original idea was to put all that into Selling Air but it would have been a thousand pages so I figured I'd get three books out of the material. BK: Thanks! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Find yourself some outsourced software development resources: http://www.socaltech.com/services/Consulting/Technical/Software_Development/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- VeriSign Sues ICANN ---- Internet domain registrar VeriSign is again going up against the Internet's key nonprofit oversight organization, Marina del Rey-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), claming that the body is slow and inconsistent. VeriSign has sued in Los Angeles requesting damages and injunctive relief against ICANN. VeriSign has consistently clashed with ICANN and others over what many have seen as aggressive tactics to claim Internet territory. Last fall, VeriSign launched SiteFinder, a bid to redirect mistyped URLs to its own sites, but retreated after broad complaints and uproar in the Internet community. Ixia Adds SONET Testing Tools ---- Calabasas-based Ixia (www.ixiacom.com) has shipped a new network card driver for its IxANVL protocol conformance testing software. The software supports testing of OC-48 and OC-192 Packet over Sonet (POS) networks, and the new driver extends testing capability to new high speed network interfaces, including 10 Gig Ethernet, ATM, T1/E1, and much more. Kofax Announces Document Capture Solution ---- Irvine-based Kofax (www.kofax.com) has introduced a new document capture solution for the desktop. The company's new Capio product helps users automatically scan, store, and retrieve paper documents, helping to reduce desktop clutter and paper. -------------------------------ADVERTISEMENT--------------------------- Access Your PC from Anywhere - Try GoToMyPC FREE GoToMyPC is the revolutionary remote-access software product that lets you access your PC from another Internet-connected computer or PDA device. With GoToMyPC you can quickly and securely - Access your company network - Access your work email - Transfer files and - Use your office applications. Try this remarkable tool free for 30 days and see why CNET says, "You'd be nuts not to sign up". Click here to begin your free trial! https://www.gotomypc.com/tr/soca/Q1_2004/10lntext/g22lp?Target=mm/g22lp.tmpl -------------------------------ADVERTISEMENT--------------------------- Wanted: Early stage entrepreneurs for The New Venture Networks Study -- a UCLA Ph.D. research project that explores how entrepreneurs build the personal networks essential for business success. Are you the CEO and founder of a California company with less than $250,000 in outside investment to date? Is your start-up less than 2 years old? If you answered "yes" to both questions, please consider participating in this study. Contact elissa@ucla.edu or visit www.networkmapper.com to learn more. -------------------------------ADVERTISEMENT--------------------------- Your advertisement here! Reach a highly targeted Southern California technology community. See http://www.socaltech.com/postad.html -------------------------------ADVERTISEMENT--------------------------- Upcoming Events This Month http://www.socaltech.com/Calendar Benjamin F. Kuo's Calendar of Southern California Technology Events Submit your events at least two weeks in advance to: http://www.socaltech.com/submitevent.html February 27, -- Where is Nano Going? San Fernando Valley Engineers' Council; IEEE, SME, and AIAA. In this symposium the current state of nanotechnology in the United States, and specifically in the Sann Fernando Valley will be discussed. See http://www.engineerscouncil.org/ February 27, Los Angeles -- Seventh Annual Corporate Governance and Equity Offerings Conference. UCLA Anderson School of Management in cooperation with the Nasdaq and the National Venture Capital Association. This event will feature top-level speakers addressing various board-level issues focusing on the best practices and emerging trends in corporate governance and the issuance of equity. This event opens with the Directors? Networking Dinner on February 26th and continues on February 27th with a one-day conference and the Sixth Annual NVCA Los Angeles Networking Luncheon. See http://www.directors.org. February 28, West Los Angeles -- Growth Capital Conference. See http://www.gcc2000.org March 3, Newport Beach -- "Women's Advancement Network Innovation Workshop" An exciting workshop designed to get your brain sparking with new ideas as well as marketing strategies for your innovations. Lynda Lawrence, graduate of Harvard's Executive Program in Innovations and Organizational Change will be conducting this hands-on workshop. The event is part of WAN's first anniversary celebration and includes an evening of networking, entertainment and dinner. See http://www.womensadvannet.org March 4, Inland Empire -- ATI Achievement in Technical Ingenuity Awards luncheon. IETechSource. Contact Brian Underhill at bunderhill@ietechsource.org March 6, Santa Barbara -- "Entrepreneurship 101 Conference" UCSB Center for Entrepreneurship and Engineering Management (CEEM). See http://ceem.engr.ucsb.edu March 10-11, Newport Beach -- MediaMorphosis, a brainshare and thinkfest on the future of media. The American Press Institute is bringing together leading executives, innovators and researchers to share insights, promote cross-industry relationships and facilitate strategic thinking on consumer media emerging from enabling technologies. See http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/mediacenter/mediamorphosis March 10, Irvine -- "Beckman Laser Institute Tour" Optical Society of Southern California, LEOS-LA. Bruce Tromberg, UCI Beckman Laser Institute. See http://www.ossc.org March 10, San Diego -- "Essential Business IP and Regulatory Issues for Emerging Life Sciences Companies" San Diego RTA. In order to succeed, an emerging life sciences company team must craft and implement a comprehensive business plan, protect its valuable intellectual property, and navigate through the complex regulatory waters posed by the FDA approval process. They must plan a strategy for assuring that Medicare and other government programs will pay for its product. See http://www.sdrta.org/upcoming.php?action=lifesciences04&menu=0 March 11-12, Simi Valley -- "Prep Course for CSTE" SCQAA-San Fernando Valley. Certified Software Test Engineer (CSTE) Prep Course. See http://www.scqaa.us NEW March 11, Los Angeles -- "Preparing the Financial Model Forecast" This workshop will show you how to build a financial forecast model. Using Excel, you will learn how to build your forecast from the bottom up, taking the primary elements of your business (sales, cost of goods sold, staffing and overhead) and translating them into a forecasted Income Statement, Cash Flow Statement and Balance Sheet in a format that potential investors will find attractive. See http://www.larta.org March 15, Los Angeles -- Asia/Pacific Business Outlook 2004 conference. USC. Gain insights on the entire Asian market in just two Days. See http://www.apbo-conference.com March 16, San Diego -- "Preparing for and Negotiating the Sale of Your Private Company" San Diego RTA. Your private company is far more likely to be acquired than to go public in an IPO, particularly under current market conditions. Therefore, it is critical that you understand early on the steps that you should take to prepare your company for an acquisition. It also is extremely valuable to have an understanding of the key deal terms and contractual provisions on which you should focus. See http://www.sdrta.org/upcoming.php?action=mergers_2004&menu=0 March 16, Los Angeles -- Asia/Pacific Business Outlook 2004 conference. USC. Gain insights on the entire Asian market in just two Days. See http://www.apbo-conference.com NEW March 16, Costa Mesa -- Orange Coast Venture Group Monthly Breakfast Program. Companies seeking growth capital need to better understand what it REALLY means when they accept an investment from an institutional venture capital firm. All-star? panel of prominent SoCal VC?s and experienced, venture-backed entrepreneur CEOs: Lee Bailey, Partner, Rustic Canyon Partners; Tom Gephart, Ventana Capital Management; Michael Kleine, President and CEO of Micro Vention; Inc.; Gene Wang, Chairman and CEO of Bitfone Corporation; moderator John Whates, Partner, Deloitte. See http://www.ocvg.com March 17, Irvine -- "Tech Business Planning for Growth" TBCF. Business Planning for growing tech companies. See http://www.tbcf.com/meeting.html March 17, Camarillo -- IEEE Buenaventura Microwave Theory and Techniques Society. Dr. Chanh Nyugen, Global Communication Semiconductor. Email kc.wang@ieee.org March 17, Irvine -- "Larta University Entrepreneur Series # 9: Attracting Capital: Financing Strategies for the New Venture" You will learn what is required to approach each financing source, federal funding, bank lending, and angel financing, and when not to waste your time. Emerging companies need strong knowledge of what are the most realistic options available for financing in the current marketplace. Also learn internal financing such as partnering with customers, bootstrapping, and leveraging. See: http://www.lartauniversity.org/Courses/CourseInfo.asp?CourseId=18 March 17, Irvine -- "Rapid Product Development" PDMA SoCal. Are you wondering how to squeeze more time out of your product development schedules? Attendees from the greater Southern California area will hear from industry experts and practitioners on what works, and doesn?t work, for speeding time-to-market, reducing total costs, and improving quality. Featured speakers will include a consulting company focused on managing for project success, an expert in breakthrough approaches to software engineering, and a pioneer of project management for quality rapid product development. Following the presentations the event will culminate in a panel discussion that will include the speakers and executive-level practitioners. See http://www.pdmasocal.org/index.htm March 18, Santa Monica -- "Larta University Entrepreneur Series # 9: Attracting Capital: Financing Strategies for the New Venture" You will learn what is required to approach each financing source, federal funding, bank lending, and angel financing, and when not to waste your time. Emerging companies need strong knowledge of what are the most realistic options available for financing in the current marketplace. Also learn internal financing such as partnering with customers, bootstrapping, and leveraging. See: http://www.lartauniversity.org/Courses/CourseInfo.asp?CourseId=18 March 18, Pacific Palisades -- "PIPEs (private placement for public equity)" Los Angeles Venture Association. PIPEs are the hottest financing vehicles in today's capital markets. More private companies are "going public" through reverse mergers and other non-IPO strategies to take advantage of PIPE financings and other benefits available to publicly-traded companies. With the closing of the IPO market for the small to medium size public offering, the reverse merger/PIPE strategy is replacing the IPO as a financing strategy and a liquidity event. See http://ica-lava.org March 18, Irvine -- "Building Successful Web Services" Join TBCF for an exciting evening with an expert panel to discuss both the technology and the business issues behind successful Web Services. How do competing standards affect the choices you need to make? How can Web Services and XML technologies significantly improve your data agility and return on investment. If you're planning your business around Web Services, what are the pitfalls to watch for? Think you know the answers? You might be surprised. Come and see how your projects compare to successful Web Services. And see how the direction of the industry today will impact your decisions tomorrow. See http://www.tbcf.com March 19, Thousand Oaks -- Ventura Highway Thunderous Thursdays. Cathy Severson, a professional career counselor and coach will speak. Cathy has developed successful programs and tools to assist individuals in attaining their career goals and life?s purpose. Cathy has authored numerous career/job search books and articles. See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VenturaHighwayGroup/ NEW March 20, Los Angeles -- "Preparing the Financial Model Forecast" See http://www.larta.org NEW March 22, Los Angeles -- "Preparing the Financial Model Forecast" See http://www.larta.org March 23, Sheraton Four Points Hotel, Monrovia -- "Editing" Society for Technical Communications, San Gabriel Valley. Add this important skill to your resume. See http://www.stcsgv.org/ NEW March 23, Santa Ana -- Corporate Investment and Strategic Alliance Conference. Meet 25+ Corporations Making Investments And Doing Strategic Alliances With Companies Like Yours. The CISA Conference is dedicated exclusively to companies seeking corporate funding and/or strategic alliances from Fortune 1000, Nasdaq 100, International 200 and other large public and private companies. Attendees are companies seeking a corporate investment or strategic alliance. Panelists are major public and private corporations investing and doing alliances with emerging and growing companies. See http://www.cisaconferences.com NEW March 24, Irvine -- "Venture Financing vs. Bootstrapping" Hisanic-Net. This event will showcase two successful and dynamic Hispanic entrepreneurs who will share with attendees their insights on funding early stage companies. John Garcia, a private investor, venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur will share his thoughts on how to successfully seek and receive venture capital. Reynaldo Gil, President of Hispanic Net and founder of Commendo Software will share his wisdom on starting and building a company utilizing the "Bootstrapping method". This program will be followed by an opportunity to network with some of Southern California's well-known Hispanic business people, who are committed to bringing the success achieved in Silicon Valley to the Southern California region. See http://www.hnsc.org NEW March 24, San Diego -- "The Venture Capital Process" San Diego RTA. Raising money in today's market is no easy task, but it can be done if you focus on the right things and avoid common deal-killers. This workshop will provide you with information, expertise, and knowledge to prepare you for raising capital from venture capital funds. See http://www.sdrta.org/upcoming.php?action=vcprocess_2004&menu=0 NEW March 24, Costa Mesa -- "Guerrilla Strategy: Evaluating Strategic Alternatives" OC Chapter. If you seek a different strategic course to rapidly grow and expand the business into new areas, this session can help you learn how to evaluate strategic alternatives and avoid sinking the enterprise. See http://www.scsc.org/events/occhapter/february2404.html NEW March 24, Culver City -- "Cyber Crime, Privacy, Crisis Response" AITP LA. Dr. Joel Rakow, who leads the eCrimes Practice of Tatum Partners, will describe the unique characteristics of e-crimes, the impact on corporations of recent legislation such as CA SB 1386, GLB, HIPAA, and Sarbanes-Oxley acts, and will present a comprehensive approach to enterprise risk management. See http://aitp-la.org NEW March 24, Los Angeles -- Optical Fiber Conference. Fiber Optic Component Companies using and selling optical components, such as lasers, receivers, tunable filters, tunable lasers, DWDM components. Email Tim Gase (tgase@focusoptix.com) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sponsored by: PricewaterhouseCoopers' Vision To Reality Program for Emerging Tech Companies (http://www.socaltech.com/pwctechnology) Email ben@socaltech.com for more information about sponsoring this newsletter. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sign up for the socalTECH.com by visiting http://www.socaltech.com/News Email customerservice@socaltech.com to if you do not want to receive this newsletter. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Legal Notices ---- While Benjamin Kuo and socalTECH.com used their best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein, socalTECH.com does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident or other causes. socalTECH.com - Dedicated to High Tech in Southern California http://www.socaltech.com/ |