We had a big day yesterday. First, I delivered the keynote address at the 11th annual InterTradeIreland Venture Capital Conference in Belfast’s City Hall. From there we headed back to the office for a reception to welcome home Terry and Oorlagh George and those priceless gold statues. Somewhere along the way, it was pointed out to me that it was March 7th, four years to the day since we closed the Wombat deal and rang the opening bell at the NYSE.
Yesterday’s presentation at the VC Conference was the first time I had the opportunity to go back through the Wombat story and how we approached the world (see the full presentation below).
At the core of that approach was a love of business and running a software company, but also a holistic view of what it meant to run a software business. In other words doing all the key things very well; closing deals and beating the numbers, scaling costs behind revenue, building a balance sheet, religious focus on quality of people and building a team, creating a next generation product while driving revenues by selling the products already in production and perhaps the key skill in a high growth company – crisis management. We stayed close to the customers and tightly engaged with the lighthouse customers, focused on guerilla marketing, building a brand, pinching key staff from the competition, a little M & A, some key partnerships, investment from a strategic partner and running an auction. I could go on!
As you can tell I was immersed in all the joys of running a business. For me, it was all about love.
Of course if passion and love for your business is what your looking for, then look no further than Terry George, writer, producer and director of Oscar winning short ’The Shore’.
Terry, great job, and thank you!
– Danny