How Not To Finance Your Company: TalkPoint CEO Nick Balletta (Part 7)

Sramana: How did the business ramped up from 2005 through 2010?

Nick Balletta: We have quadrupled revenues during that amount of time. Our revenues are north of $20 million.

Sramana: What do you see as being the major growth points for your business going forward?

Nick Balletta: It will be international expansion as well as driving revenue streams off of a full self-service model. We think we have the better mousetrap at this point that will let us become a true cloud-based SaaS model business that scales. Business video will be driven by the consumer and it will require a complete mobile strategy. It is ubiquitous down to the user device. Keep it simple and make it scale.

Sramana: Are you building applications for smart phones?

Nick Balletta: We are not going down the road of developing apps because we are sticking to HTML 5. All of our platforms are viewable on IOS and Android devices today.

Sramana: What verticals give you the strongest use cases?

Nick Balletta: We are very strong in financial markets, life sciences, publishing, and the high-tech sector.

Sramana: What are the use cases for life sciences/pharmaceuticals?

Nick Balletta: We do a lot of online clinical development. If the company is spending a billion dollars on developing a compound, they want to have a very secure infrastructure for their online investor meetings. We also do a lot in continuing medical education.

Sramana: Is that pharmaceutical companies training the physician network?

Nick Balletta: Yes. People also get credits for that as well.

Sramana: What are you doing in publishing?

Nick Balletta: Primarily B2B-driven webinars. A sponsor will pay to work with a publisher or in many cases they do it pay-per-view. That is the same case for high tech as well although we do get a lot of channel partner communications there.

Sramana: What about horizontal use cases?

Nick Balletta: We do a tremendous amount of investor relation work. Most of that is done through third-party resellers and white label partners. We do a lot of that work with partners because it is a difficult business to manage directly. They have other value points they add. We also have HR applications and marketing organizations. Behind the scenes 95% of our technology is the same. Our partners add the remaining piece they need for their particular area.

Sramana: I really like the direction that business communication is heading. Business travel is becoming increasing unpleasant and video conferencing is becoming mainstream.

Nick Balletta: I absolutely agree with that. When there are tough economic times companies communicate more and travel less. We benefit from both of those trends.

Sramana: The 1M/1M program I run is 100% virtual based. We do it entirely via video conferencing.

Nick Balletta: That is a great example to cite.

Sramana: Any other advice you would like to impart?

Nick Balletta: It is all about the people. You have to empower them while holding them accountable. It is about levels of autonomy to grow and develop.

Sramana: You have been in this business for 12 years. What do you see as opportunities for entrepreneurs to start something new?

Nick Balletta: I would probably say that something tied to mobile applications. We are seeing more and more iPad distributions. Bristol Meyers just handed 2,300 to their sales force. If I were in a garage, I would be focusing on leveraging the apps. I would focus on video apps for the enterprise. Mobile consumption is going to increase over time.

Sramana: Thank you for taking the time to talk with me, and I look forward to following your company.

This segment is part 7 in the series : How Not To Finance Your Company: TalkPoint CEO Nick Balletta
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