1) Gigamon does not have a rock star CEO
2) Gigamon Founders are all engineers
3) Gigamon contradicted Gartner
What Denny thought he should have had (but didn't) to attract Series
A funding ended up being a kind of saving grace for the Gigamon
product. For the story behind the story of Gigamon's eventual, and
unlikely success, read Why Startups Fail and Why Gigamon Should’ve Too.
Continuing the theme of venture capital and startup funding, not
every new entrepreneur is savvy on what it means to get funded. Ben
Yoskovitz has the perfect primer for you, if that's the case, with a
clear and concise guide to the idea and terms related to securing
capital for your startup. "The best way to get a good deal is to be
informed." Ben intones, and with that in mind, take a few minutes away
from the mundane duties of the day and peruse An Introductory Guide to Startup Financing at Instigator Blog.
There are also a number of other relevant posts on a variety of startup
and entrepreneurial subjects worth checking out at Ben's blog.
In
a clear warning sign that something running amok in Web 2.0 business
deals, "eBay conceded it had grossly overpaid for Skype by about $1.43
billion," leading many in the tech industry financing world to start
rethinking their startup funding strategies. According to a recent
piece at NYTimes.com
"in the first dot-com gold rush, Internet companies did not have to
make money to acquire serious investments dollars. Now that once again
is true." What did eBay buy for its 3+ billion dollars? Access to
users, but not revenue. Irrational exuberance appears to be rearing its
ugly head, it would seem. Click here for more details on the return of the 'tech bubble' and also a few comments by Marc Andreessen.
Ilene Wasserman takes a shot at writing down The Unwritten Rules of Civility
and manages to achieve said lofty goal. Cultural relativity can
sometimes be a thorny briar patch to negotiate as evident in one of the
article's examples: "A Westerner walks into the office
of a Persian colleague and admires a painting on the wall. The Persian
responds, "If you like it you can have it." The Westerner thanks the
Persian colleague, who is taken aback." Why is the Persian caught off
guard? The cultural tradition of Persia requires that politeness
includes the offer by one party to give the object of desire to the
admirer, and for the admirer to decline gift. This miscommunication due
to cultural differences can play out in the office place just as easily
as it can in some far-off dusty souk. For help on how to avoid gaffes
and faux pas, be sure to read Wasserman's piece at Entrepreneur.com.
>BackTrack <
A burned-out startup founder in China asks the community at YCombinator.com for advice and solace in a recent question posed in the HackerNews
section. " Of the many insightful and well-intentioned responses given,
a common theme stands out: Stop doing so much, eat right, exercise,
unplug from the computer, and then refocus on a few small things that
can get you back on track. More tips on how to recover from too much of
a good thing in Ask YC: Experiences with founder burnout?
CEO and one of the six co-Founders of Gigamon Systems Denny K Miu writes about why his startup should have failed and how it managed not to at LoveMyTool.com.
After being unable to secure venture capital funding for his startup,
Denny did a lot of soul-searching and came to the following
conclusion(s):
