This document discusses the benefits of running an enterprise SaaS company using a cloud-based model. Key advantages include minimizing real estate costs by allowing a distributed workforce, leveraging a global network of talent, and focusing resources on product development and customers rather than facilities. A cloud-based model promotes a results-driven organization with performance-based compensation and an emphasis on customer impact over headcount.

1. Property of Buzzient, Inc.
Running an Enterprise SaaS
Company in the Cloud
Tim Jones
CEO, Buzzient
tbj@buzzient.com

2. Property of Buzzient, Inc.
The Cloud IS Liberating
 Cloud is not just an environment to deploy your product
 Cloud can be used to deploy YOUR COMPANY
 You’d never imagine building an on premise product in 2013 …so…
 Why would you design a company as premise-bound?
 Don’t just push your product to the Cloud, push your Company there as
well!
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3. Property of Buzzient, Inc.
What is a Cloud Company?
 SaaS product
 Distributed development team w/external partners for scale
 Distributed sales/service team (“JetBlue Model”)
 On-demand back-office infrastructure
 Minimizes hard assets via the sharing economy
 Leverages a global network of talent
 Enables an organically funded company to scale and compete
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4. Property of Buzzient, Inc.
Why move your Company to the Cloud
 Real Estate is a luxury, not a necessity
 A big expense, but is only utilized ~50% of the time at most
 Why can’t ALL hard assets be like AWS, with ability to spin up/down capacity
and where you need it?
 Ability to tap into a larger talent pool
 Breaks the “Tyranny of high cost locations” in high tech
 Especially for Enterprise companies, puts your resources near your
customers
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5. Property of Buzzient, Inc.
Product Strategy
 Key element in product development is TRUST; team members have to trust
that everyone will do their part regardless of location
 Developing your product with a distributed team isn’t easy , but…
 Once the product is GA, you don’t need the team in the same place
 Git has moved the scrum meeting to the cloud; AWS, the server room
 So, why not let everyone work from home/the mountains/the beach once
your product is deployed?
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6. Property of Buzzient, Inc.
Talent in the Cloud: We are all 1099’s
 Everyone a contractor, even senior management
 Performance based compensation; no base/or small base salaries
 Large upside potential from profit sharing, options and shadow stock
 P/L rolls up from each individual person
 “Profitability begins with YOU”
 Aligns investor/customer goals with the company
 Allows for parallel “gigs”
 If you’re meeting your objectives, why not play in a band on the side?
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7. Property of Buzzient, Inc.
Development Talent in The Cloud: Destroy
“Tyranny of Location”
Who to Hire
 20-something who deployed to Iraq
 Ran combat team as a squad
leader
 Came back to US, enrolled in top
5 engineering program with 3.8
GPA in MS program
 NOT in a major city, so “off the
radar”
Who Not to Hire
 20-something who’d never left his
home state
 Complains about office chairs and
type of cola in the fridge
 3.0 GPA from a top 50 Engineering
program
 In a major city, so automatically a
highly sought after development
“ninja”
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8. Property of Buzzient, Inc.
Customer Service in the Cloud
 “The JetBlue Model”
 Provide the best service, regardless of location and personal profile
 Tap into a larger potential workforce
 Service doesn’t need to be centralized
 Rural, Global, Regional talent enables low cost service and follow-the-sun
 The Cloud puts EVERYONE in the service team, there’s no contact center in
another building
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9. Property of Buzzient, Inc.
Enterprise Sales in the Cloud
 Enterprise selling requires customer intimacy and knowledge
 Only so much can be done over the phone; sub-$100K deals yes, but not $100K+
 Customer demand is global; your HQ is probably not near your customers
 Result: High T/E cost to visit key accounts
 Enterprise Sales offices are more dead real estate => “Glengarry Glen Ross”?
 Other than a place to keep the coffee machine…???
 Conclusion: Selling should be done over the phone/web/on customer
premises
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10. Property of Buzzient, Inc.
Enterprise Marketing in the Cloud
 Inbound Marketing, while not yet proven for $100K deals, gets you in the
door.
 The best digital marketers are…well…digital
 Not sitting in a CMO’s office, but in a small agency or studio building
 Marketing talent is highly fragmented – no one person knows it all
 Conclusion: A network of on-demand marketing professionals brings more
to the table than a single dedicated team
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11. Property of Buzzient, Inc.
What do you give up?
 Managing real estate, facilities, all the “stuff” which doesn’t add value to
customers
 Interrupts driven by service providers and other “payroll expanders”
 “Geography = Destiny” behavior
 “We must be good ‘cause we’re in Palo Alto!!!”
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12. Property of Buzzient, Inc.
What do you gain from a Cloud Company?
 Clear, constant focus on 2 things: Product and Customers
 Results-driven organization
 Everything is performance based
 Agility and Flexibility
 “You can sleep in your car but you can’t drive your house”
 Emphasis shifts from “Payroll Footprint” to “Customer Imprint”
 The ultimate dent you make in the Universe is not the size of your payroll but the
positive impact you have on your customers
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13. Property of Buzzient, Inc.
Running an Enterprise SaaS
Company in the Cloud
Tim Jones
CEO, Buzzient
tbj@buzzient.com