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Greg Cangialosi of Blue Sky Factory is a serial entrepreneur and pioneer in the podcasting space. He also writes the popular blog, The Trend Junkie.
I attended the Gnomedex conference with him last week and I thought it would be good to release this interview as I cover interesting companies and people at the conference this week.
The following is part three in a three part series.
What are the most important elements for a successful startup company?
A big part of success begins with the founders and the management team. You need to all be on the same page, working the same plan, following the same vision and the same goals. That’s absolutely critical for a startup. If you have that in place then it becomes all about execution. Not to sound cliché, but it really is about getting things done and moving forward. You can have a great plan, awesome, unique and cutting edge ideas, but they are nothing without execution. As you say Steve, “Vision without action is bull sh*t”
The other things are keeping your costs / burn rate as low as possible. Hire only when absolutely necessary, and hire slow but fire fast. If you have a bad apple, fix the problem as soon as possible. Especially in small teams, one bad apple can have such a negative impact on the team. I have been there and done that.
You are self-funded which is poses a different set of challenges versus those who get money from the likes of Sequoia and Novak Biddle. Can you give us a bit of detail on your approach to managing cash flow while trying to grow?
Cash flow is king. One of the things I always tell other entrepreneurs is do what you do best and hire the best people you can find to handle the key functional areas of your business. That said my approach was pretty simple, I am terrible with numbers, spreadsheets, etc, So I hired a rock star comptroller early on (she is still with us), and tasked her with generating weekly reports for me. In short, I am in the know, always. I know what it costs to run my business, where are sales are at any moment, who owes us, who we owe, etc. I can’t emphasize this type of function enough in business. The best CEO’s that I know, and the most successful entrepreneurs I know have their “dashboard” that gives them the financial insight they need to make important decisions and to spot red flags.
The other thing I did was form an advisory board our first year in business. One of the members has been a CFO of several companies, public and private, in various industries. He also looks at our financials one a quarter to help me become aware of anything I don’t see.
Is there room in the e-mail marketing space for more competitors? Have you seen any recently that seem interesting?
There seem to be more and more ESP’s popping up everyday. We keep up with them as best we can. At the same time the market is consolidating, so if I were going to start a new company tomorrow, it wouldn’t be an ESP, the market is too mature. There are a TON of businesses though who are still just now coming online with email marketing, so there is no shortage of clients.
A far as any that seem interesting, there are a few with a different approach to the market, but I haven’t seen anything that isn’t on our radar or in development.
What approach to marketing plays a significant role in promoting and attracting customers to Blue Sky Factory?
Our approach is, we are different. We are not your typical ESP, and you learn that fast. Outside of our search marketing, our ads are different and edgy. I also embrace social media, and I think that’s important as the CEO. As you know, social media brings a certain level of transparency to the company. People get to know me; they get to know the company. We are open, we blog, we are on the social networks, we are speaking at events, sponsoring unusual events, publishing articles, interviewing with the press, being thought leaders, etc. We get a lot of people referring us business simply because they know us. I think all of those things above play a significant role in our marketing and how we attract business.
If you want people to remember one thing when they think about Blue Sky Factory, what is it?
When people think about Blue Sky Factory, I want them to “What a great company, with great people and a great product.”
