In part 1 of a 3 part series on Product Strategy, Jim is joined by Cici to discuss the three levers of value creation - risk mitigation, revenue growth, and cost reduction, and how we think about the three in the portfolio. Jimmy joins as well to add the People dimension.

Talking with Anthony Onesto of the Konrad Group about "Digital Strategy". It means different things to different people and we make an attempt to define the basics. This is a big topic -- covering everything from websites, email, SEO/SCM to Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. This is part one of several episodes that we will dedicate to this broad-ranging topic -- comparing digital strategy to an orchestra. Plus the usual side trips into pop culture including the Michael Fassbender's Steve Jobs movie and Benjamin and Rosamund Zander's "The Art of Possibility".

The last of a four-part series.    Jim talks with Kamela Arya about the most common mistakes that companies make when implementing Salesforce.com.  

The third segment in our four-part series on Salesforce.com for the middle market.  In this episode Jim and Kamela talk about the implementation process.   Which department should be tackled first? Choosing your implementation partner and selecting your project team.  Implementing prototypes and incremental builds, mapping out business processes and migrating data into the new system.

Part two of our implementing Salesforce.com series. This time around we talk with Kamela Arya about which modules to license, how much they cost to license (on an annual basis), and what it costs to implement Salesforce.com in a mid-size organization, with 10 - 20 SFDC users. We even discuss the dreaded data migration problem.

Part one of a three-part series on Salesforce.com.   Jim talks with longtime SFDC collaborator and implementer, Kamela Arya about everything you need to know about customer relationship management software and implementing Salesforce.com in the middle market enterprise

Jim and Devin discuss the two types of companies that we see in the middle market.   You can either dominate a niche market (such as software targeted at specific verticals) or you can build a better mousetrap and try to capture the entire market.

Jim and Devin discuss the Innovator's Dilemma and Blue Ocean Strategy as it relates to middle market portfolio companies.

Jim talks to Joe Gorup about using eLearning in the middle market.

Devin and Jim talk discuss Geoffrey Moore's groundbreaking book "Crossing the Chasm" as it applies to the middle market.

Microsoft isn't going away soon as an enterprise server and platform vendor.  So there's little risk in building your server platform on Microsoft in the middle market.   It's important to build client interfaces that span browsers and mobile platforms, but the server layer is reliable and safe.   Nadella is a good choice to move Microsoft more aggressively into the cloud with Azure -- and they've got plenty of money to do it.   Congrats to the WhatsApp team and Sequoia on the sale to Facebook.  There are some lessons to be learned here in the middle market.

What are the big boys thinking about tech?  What are they worried about?  Should you even care?  We dive into the big ideas coming out of the recent CIO conference sponsored by the Wall Street Journal.

PEFunCast Guest Ryan Milligan discusses investment returns for middle market technology companies and investing in vertical software.  

The inaugural episode of the Private Equity FunCast.   Devin and Jim talk about our plans for the show, and the three types of IT projects: Costs, Revenue or Risk Management.