[aclements18]

This is a solid venture backed company that has been generating quite a bit of revenue for some time now. This exit will provide its investors with a solid return. Odd how little attention a company like this gets from the tech community.

Bernie Brenner, the guy who heads up their business development, wrote The Sumo Advantage which one of the best books I've read on BD. He very clearly identifies the role of BD and how it is distinctly different than sales. I'd recommend it for any startup looking to partner with large established businesses to spur growth.

[ganeumann]

It's a good company with a good service (I used them last year when I was buying a car--walked in with their piece of paper and said 'if you give me this price I will buy this car now, in cash.' That was the end of the negotiation. Drove out of the dealer a couple of hours later (yes, it still took a couple of hours to get the transaction complete.)

But I don't think the tech community should be all excited about this company. It's not a 'tech' startup per se, it's just a normal marketing (lead-gen, specifically) company that happens to use the Internet--and using the Internet to do business has not been something to get excited about for at least ten years now. It's not like Oculus or WhatsApp or Airbnb or even Uber. There's no technical innovation at play here, there's no business model innovation at play here, there's no new market segment being addressed, it's not disruptive or even radical innovation. It's not innovation driven, it's just a good company delivering a good product. It's not a 'startup' the way we use startup in the tech community, it's just a plain old business.

[johnward]

The startup community cares more about potential imaginary metrics than actual metrics that show a business is profitable now.

[sixQuarks]

Thanks for the book suggestion. this looks very interesting.