Enterprise CXOs about Entrepreneurship from the Spotlight talks [2/5]

We introduced a series of blogs where we ask our guests about entrepreneurship at the end of the talk for The Fabric Spotlight, a series of talks on everything cloud/infrastructure.

There will be four posts from different thinkers and builders from the space. In this post, we’ll share the perspective and thoughts on entrepreneurs from enterprise CXOs, what advice to give to entrepreneurs, and the ways entrepreneurs can work with them and their teams.

Here is what CXOs from Rockefeller Capital Management, H& M Group, ServiceNow, Dover Corporation, VMware, Broadcom, SAP Concur, TIBCO, Verizon, MapR shared:

Joe Ferlisi, Rockefeller Capital Management:
“Do not underestimate the problems that need to be solved in financial services, and try not to be everything for everybody. The best POC that I’ve done is when a startup is solving one narrow issue but seeing where it could go. ”

Alan Boehme, H&M Group:
“The team is important—the ability for a startup to listen to take direction.
You are not overstretching and overpromising because you get only one shot with a large corporation. Having the right advisors around you, you have a better chance of succeeding than those who try to go alone.”

Chris Bedi, CIO, ServiceNow:
“Every CIO on the planet has said that digital transformation is only accelerating. There are appetite and hunger for startups and innovations, but to meet that, you have to be on your right foot with clarity of the use case, clarity on the problem it solves, and the time to value.”

Girish Juneja, Dover Corp:
“Keep an eye on the ball; understand the problem statement clearly. Segment the customers you want to go after, not every customer is alike. Get feedback from the customers, and then fine-tune your value proposition, product-market fit before taking it to the broader audience.”

Andy Nallappan, Broadcom:
“You have to have clear use case differentiation. You have to enable me with transparency, credibility, and deliver the product. Show me how you can help me so I can help you.”

Bask Iyer, VMware:
“I recommend entrepreneurs to have a strong advisory body. It’s good to be stubborn as an entrepreneur because you have to fight through some odds.”

Nelson Petracek, TIBCO:
“Entrepreneurs should know about us and suggest where they can provide value. It has to be complimentary.”

Reza Nazeman, SAP Concur:
“Live demo is hard, but if entrepreneurs record a 5 min video which shows what product does, I can watch it during the weekend.”

Sanyogita Shamsunder, Verizon:
“Entrepreneurs have the flexibility to go and conquer the market.”

Tom Fisher, MapR:
“You have to keep your identity. You have to know what you are. Big companies will try to shift into markets that accommodate them, not necessarily your core capabilities. You have to be willing to step back.”

We will be updating this post whenever we have a chat with enterprise CXO in the near future.

In our next blog, we will cover how executives from larger infrastructure companies work with entrepreneurs.

You can watch all the episodes and get insights on the cloud, infrastructure, and entrepreneurship at www.thefabricnet.com/videos or The Fabric YouTube playlist – Spotlight Episodes.