Gaps in Analytics: Jon Kondo, CEO of Host Analytics (Part 5)

Sramana: Have you now made the conscious choice to cater to two different market segments?

Jon Kondo: What we are realizing is that we are catering to separate segments, but we are able to do so with the same philosophical approach. It only requires some tweaks in our delivery mechanism. If large customers are willing to spend more for the personal attention they require, we can optimize around them. We also have some large customers who have been very light touches.

It is not always about the size of the customer. Some customers want more personalization. As long as they are willing to pay for it, we will accommodate. Philosophically, we want to make sure our customers are successful with our solution. We are going to understand what they want to do and the best possible way to accomplish those goals.

Sramana: How much of your business is professional services?

Jon Kondo: About 25% of our business.

Sramana: How important is that in order for you to expand those accounts? Professional services leads to customer intimacy, which is key for product management and product marketing.

Jon Kondo: That is why we created our customer success team. It is very important, and you are right on target there.

Sramana: From a product marketing perspective, how do you translate customer feedback into new product offerings?

Jon Kondo: One of the things is that we mandate that our product management team spend time with our customers. I go out, and I make a conscious effort to see customers on a regular basis. I want to see customers when they are at various stages. I want to see them right after they have bought, right after they have implemented and after they have been using the product for a couple of years. We work very hard across all levels of the organization to never lose customer intimacy.

Product management and product marketing have focused user groups. Our product management team will run regular calls with our customers to have them view the product roadmap, view new features and talk about the way ahead. We have a user conference that usually brings in 150 customers or more. We have the genius lounge there, which allows us to bring in guys from our development team who talk about features that are not necessarily on the roadmap. That allows them to get feedback on potential features directly from the customer.

Sramana: What has been the financing strategy of the company? What happened after the $3 million of bootstrapping?

Jon Kondo: We are a traditional venture backed company. Our Series A was a $6 million round that was done in March of 2008. Our Series B was done in May of 2009, which was an interesting time for me as an entrepreneur as that was not an easy time to raise money. We closed our Series C in June of 2010.

This segment is part 5 in the series : Gaps in Analytics: Jon Kondo, CEO of Host Analytics
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