Bootstrapping a Global Software Product Company Using Services From Denmark: Sitecore CEO Michael Seifert (Part 7)

Sramana: How well has the company grown?

Michael Seifert: We have roughly 10% of the global market share.

Sramana: How does the market share split up? Who is number 1?

Michael Seifert: There are many vendors in our market. I usually describe this as an oasis battlefield out there. The group at the top is Sitecore, Adobe, Oracle, IBM, and Salesforce. I have seen that group on top over the past two years.

Sramana: What percentage of that market do you think the other players have?

Michael Seifert: I wish I knew!

Sramana: Are those your main competitors when you are working to get a deal?

Michael Seifert: They are our main competitors. We definitely see other companies but they are definitely our main competition.

Sramana: What has it been like building this company from Denmark? What have been the pros and cons?

Michael Seifert: There is a clear obstacle when you start in Europe. In the US, you have a huge market. In Europe, you don’t really have the European Union or European market. What you really have is a lot of different countries. Going from Denmark to Sweden is just as hard as going from Denmark to the United States. From that perspective, you need a bit more luck and timing when you are looking to start a global business.

On the positive side, coming from a smaller country like Denmark makes you think globally very early. Today, Sitecore is a global organization. That of course adds complexity as well.

Sramana: What does the future look like for your market?

Michael Seifert: There have been a lot of acquisitions in the marketing technology over the past 5 years. I believe that everybody is charting a path towards building their own experience platform to allow marketers to re-own the experience and build lifetime customers.

In order to accomplish that goal, there are some essentials you need to have. You need to understand every customer. You need to have the ability to shape their experiences. When that happens, CMOs will not only hold the key to excel in marketing, they will also hold the key to business transformation.

When you understand every touch point between a business and its customers affect the customer lifetime value, then you have a bigger say in customer service, sales, and other business processes. I think that marketing will be taking on a completely new role in the next decade. The sheer size of the market opportunity is staggering. I can’t put a number to it. It is way bigger than CRM has ever been.

Sramana: How do you position yourself? What do you call yourself?

Michael Seifert: We recently re-launched our product as an experience platform. We have the ability to shape the customer experience on so many channels, and we know the customer across email, mobile, apps, and off line channels.

Sramana: There is so much business specific logic in so many different verticals that I still struggle with your story a little bit. I have never been able to see user experience as a horizontal solution. We talk to entrepreneurs who delve into experience, and they dive very deep into a specific vertical. They gain very deep domain knowledge and I don’t know that you can gain such a deep level of detail.

Michael Seifert: Our path is to hold that level of domain knowledge.

Sramana: Very interesting. Thank you for taking the time to share your story. Congratulations on your success to date and best of luck as you continue building your company.

This segment is part 7 in the series : Bootstrapping a Global Software Product Company Using Services From Denmark: Sitecore CEO Michael Seifert
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