Once a Founder, Always a Founder

It’s true . . . I officially launched, hired, and financed my third software company, a B2B performance marketing platform named Channel99. This news probably does not come as a big surprise to people that know me. I’m now 25 years into this career called entrepreneurship, and I am truly most excited about this next journey. 

Today, Channel99 is also introducing our first product — a free mobile app for B2B marketers that brings transparency to channel and vendor performance and confidentially benchmarks results against industry averages and, soon, peer groups. That’s right, it’s free! And it’s just the beginning of a mission to provide B2B marketers and finance teams with a level playing field to measure the dollar efficiency and financial impact across all marketing channels ranging from search, social, and display to PR, email, and many others. Our success will be measured on reducing dollar inefficiencies, lowering customer acquisition cost, and more predictably exceeding sales pipeline numbers for our customers.

Why Now and Why Mobile First?

Why not!  Account-based marketing (ABM) has achieved scale across the B2B sector helping marketers to align with sales and focus on the quality of accounts targeted. It’s now time to bring a financial lens to #marketing and align with finance on a common language to better understand the dollar efficiencies and business outcomes of our choices. 

Introducing a mobile solution first is also strategically designed to upend traditional B2B go-to-market approaches and offer a more rewarding experience for customers to engage with our company versus filling out an online form only to receive 20 phone calls over the next three months. A free mobile experience that provides lasting value is also an easier, more memorable way to start a relationship with a customer, allowing us to first build trust and then align on a mutual vision of improving the financial impact of marketing investments. 

The Vision

Before any employee joined Channel99, I raised $5 million in venture capital (led by JSV and Norwest) on a simple vision — to be the unbiased source of truth for B2B marketers by offering a technology platform to measure dozens of channels and thousands of vendors on a level playing field. While there are 2,000+ vendors and tools out there for marketers to choose from, the reality is there are probably only a dozen that will truly make a difference in a company’s future. The challenge is that it is a different dozen for each company depending on its size, the industries it focuses on, or the size of businesses it may target. It should not be so hard to figure out what’s working, what isn’t, or what’s the best approach for a company in my industry of a similar scale.

While complex in execution, our goal at Channel99 is straightforward: make it easy for finance and marketing teams to use a common language to eliminate dollar inefficiencies and more predictably exceed sales pipeline goals. We are going to achieve this goal by innovating with the best talent, delivering an exceptional customer experience, creating a best-in-class culture, and earning the trust of our customers and partners —all at a velocity that exceeds expectations. The team at Channel99 has done it before, and we are going to do it again.   

And if you want to know why the name “Channel99,” you’ll have to call or message me directly!